Wednesday Night
August 19, 1964
- The cotton harvest comes around, bringing with it social gatherings. Abby likes this time because there are so many kids her age to hang out with.
- Harvesting cotton is hard work, but it's eased slightly by singing spirituals and telling stories. At night, the old ladies tell scary stories on their porches, creeping out pretty much everyone who listens.
- One evening, people start asking Mother Barker to tell stories, but instead of obliging, she calls on Abyssinia to take a turn. Just like Abby has an amazing singing voice (even if she isn't currently using it on account of being super upset with God), she's also quite the storyteller.
- On this particular night, Abby tells the story of a girl named Lubelle, who lived in filth and kept a snake in her closet until one day her mom had enough and scrubbed everything down and killed the snake. And then Lubelle died.
- Yeah, the story's an allegory. And yeah, you can read all about it over in the "Symbols" section.