Five Silver Coins — Bernard King

Five Silver Coins is about a middle-class African-American family headed by John Bradley, his wife, Victoria Bradley, their teenage daughter, Marge, and their minister, Reverend Baker. The Bradley family, due to the insistence of their daughter, plans a tour of the Holy Land to see the “sights and smells” depicted in the Bible. Even before the little family leave home they are threatened by terrorists, due to Mr. Bradley's involvement in the importing and exporting business. Their trip is planned in the 1940s during the Palestinian and Israeli six-day war. They purchase from a nondescript curio shop five silver coins attributed to Judas Iscariot. When they leave the shop strange things began to happen--noises, swirling smoke, disconnected voices and strange deaths, all after the purchase of the coins. What would you do if you found silver coins? Would you throw them away?