The Serpent King

Dill has recorded five of his songs on his new laptop, and he asks Lydia to post them on YouTube. When she listens to the songs, she finds them “mesmerizing. Haunting. Soaring”; in the videos, Dill possesses “a dark charisma” like his father’s (188). She asks her mother if Mrs. Blankenship ever developed romantic feelings for a friend, and her mother reveals that Lydia’s dad was a friend who became something more. 

Lydia persuades Dill to enter the Forrestville High School talent competition by showing him that his videos, under the handle “Dearly,” have almost 10,000 views on YouTube already. 

Dill finds focus in practicing for the show. As he stands before the audience, he briefly fantasizes being 13 and in front of the church with the guitar. This time, his father passes him the snake, smiling, and he accepts it. In the show, he performs “like the Holy Spirit had descended on him with a cleansing fire” (196). The students barely react, but the judges pronounce him the winner. He wins $50. A popular girl approaches him to congratulate him, and the guidance counselor tells him he has a future in music. 

The following week, he drives with Lydia’s dad to Nashville to visit his father.