From the diamond-shaped head and the clay-and-dirt banding, I was pretty sure it was a copperhead. Its forked tongue flickered out, pointing toward the sound of a whimper. Knox stood pressed against the barn wall, only a few feet away.

I’d warned the kids so many times about playing around the farm equipment, about the possibility of getting on a snake. It was not unusual to find them curled up in corners of the barns or underneath feed sacks. I’d made sure to instill a fearful respect for snakes, repeating a good bit about them being poisonous and how much they could hurt you. Sure, not all snakes are poisonous, but I didn’t tell the kids that. I didn’t want to chance them messing with any type of snake, period.

“Oh, Knox . . .” Fat tears rolled down his cheeks as his little body shook so severely that his brown hair had movement. “I’m gonna get you out, buddy. Don’t move.”

“What’s all the fuss?” Peg complained, coming up behind us.

“Stay back,” I warned as Raleigh whispered, “Snake.” With my mind reeling, I hurried over to the tool rack, selected a flat-head shovel, and retraced my steps. “Peg, go tell Pa.”

“Fat lot of good that’s gonna do,” Peg grumbled but hurried off anyway.

I eased over to the tractor, only to realize my arm span wouldn’t allow me enough reach to behead the dang thing. Pa would be able to reach it, no problem. I glanced over my shoulder to where Peg was screaming in his face. There was no sign of Pa snapping out of his stupor any time soon.

Turning back to Knox, the idea of snatching him up by the straps of his overalls crossed my mind but fizzled as fast as it formed, considering that would give the aggressive snake a moving target to strike. Raleigh began crying behind me while Knox’s whimpers grew louder in response.

“Shh . . . It’s going to be okay. Just stay still.”

The snake hissed again and started uncoiling its thick body in Knox’s direction, jolting me into action. Wielding the shovel like a trident, I scaled the top of the tractor and blindly stabbed it into the ground with all my force. In a blink, I had Knox by the armpits. “Catch him, Raleigh!” I yelled just before hurling Knox over the tractor.

Clenching my teeth to prevent the litany of screams and ugly talk from spewing out of my mouth, I uprooted the shovel, gripped it with both hands to plunge it through the slithering creature near my foot. Leaving the shovel stuck in the earth with a piece of convulsing coil on each side of it, I clambered to the other side of the tractor.

Raleigh had Knox in his arms, actually comforting the little guy. “He’s okay,” he told me assuredly.