One can easily become lost in the many tidal inlets, creeks, rivers and swamps around Edisto Island. Edisto is located in the Low Country of South Carolina and designated as one of the Sea Islands. Paved roads came rather late to Edisto, but one road in particular stands out among the Islanders - High Ball Pike, which winds through the salt marshes of the Little Edisto River. The road was so named because of the automobiles that "high-balled" their way down to the beach.
Well, along this road and back among the thick and deadly snake-infested palmetto, and far off in the dense woods, where huge rattlesnakes grow as many as thirteen rattles, an unlucky number for an unlucky victim, and where any man once lost, is lost forever, is a small community of African Americans-- descendants of some of the original slaves brought to Carolina from the Gold Coast of Africa.
Now one of the women, Lucy Reese by name, had married when only sixteen to ol' Sammy Gaddy, who was not old at all, but only numbered to seventeen years and one-half. He was considered the luckiest boy in those parts to get Lucy.
Lucy, it was said, could cook up the best crab stew in Carolina, and had become the envy of all of the local women of any age. No other cabin around was kept cleaner or boasted to her number of hand-made quilts. Lucy was also thrifty. If she baked a pie, she made sugar and cinnamon "cookies" out of the leftover pastry. She and Gaddy worked side by side in the cotton fields and it was a guarded secret that she had saved a considerable amount of coins in a jar, which she kept buried under a stump.
Lucy bore several children, but her first born, named Rufe, was her pride and joy. When Gaddy died, Rufe inherited head of the household, and became a good provider just as his father had been.
Rufe was an enterprising young man. He caught rain water in a barrel, to which he had added oak ashes. When the lye had been leached from the ashes, the liquid was strained and poured over corn, which, in twenty-four hours, produced hominy grits. He also farmed rice, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, turnip greens and okra. He kept wild pigs, and was adept at hunting rabbit, deer, and squirrles for meat. His seafood traps were the envy of all of his friends and relatives. But he did not have a wife!
Lucy looked near and far for a companion that would favor her son. One day, while Lucy was bartering her okra preserves for cloth scraps, she found Kathy. Kathy was busy baking pies in the home of her sister whom she was visiting. Kathy and Lucy became friends immediately--and Kathy found herself with an invitation for supper that night.
Lucy was very happy when Rufe married, Kathy. Kathy brought much happiness and two new children into the home, but she sadly died at the birth of her second child.
In time, Rufe married again. His new wife, Ellie, was NOT Kathy. Much unhappiness came into the home. Ellie was quick with her unkind retorts to Lucy, and was fond of calling her "ole woman." She would do no work around the house, and soon Lucy became tired and worn. How she missed Kathy and longed for her sweet company!
Rufe, too, suffered a change. He lost interest in his farming. The rain barrel dried up, and weeds overtook what had previously been charming areas. Rufe was unaware of the way Ellie treated Lucy, as he was gone most of the day.
Now, one unfortunate time Lucy became ill with a swamp fever, and was forced to bed. During her periods of delirium, Ellie enjoyed being cruel to her. She purposely broke Lucy's favorite dishes and ripped her beloved quilts to shreds. The evil daughter-in-law often went into fits of rage, followed by hysterical laughing, during which time she beat Lucy with her fists, and stuck pins into her flesh, drawing blood. When lucid, Lucy called for water and soup, but Ellie refused to satisfy her meager needs.
The cooking was left to Rufe, as his wife refused to stand over the heat of the stove. But Rufe loved to cook and the heat did not bother him. To Rufe, the Lord doth send the cold and likewise the heat, so why should anyone complain of His workings.
Now one day as Lucy was well on the mend, she asked Rufe for some fish stew. So the next morning Rufe left early to catch the best of the morning nibbles in the creek behind the road, but his concentration was interrupted by strange unearthly noises coming from the woods. "Dat's uh mighty strange sound," Rufe said aloud. "Dat sparit sure do mak a bucket ob noise dis hear maunin."
The sun rose higher and higher and at its zenith it blazed down giving him an anxious feeling that heretofore was not present. He felt a sudden urge to return home immediately. As he approached his cabin he saw a crowd of people gathered in the yard. Shrieks, cries and wailings came from inside. He entered and saw Lucy on the bed, a pool of blood beside her face. But Lucy was not aware of any of this, for she was dead. A blood-covered knife was on the floor, and Ellie had vanished into the swamp.
Rufe returned to the spot by the creek where he had heard the moans from the swamp. He crawled into a small swamp craft and plied through the dark lethal waters, slowly and carefully, for death lurked at every turn--crocodiles, alligators, water moccasins, quick sand, malarial mosquitoes, and yellow fever-carrying insects.
And there, standing on a stump was Ellie. Wild-eyed, hair standing on end, staring at him, and speaking not. Rufe brought the craft to a stop. Just then Ellie lunged for him, but having misjudged the distance fell instead into a quick-sand bog. Just before she was swallowed by the mire, a puff of white smoke encircled her head, then with a pop she vanished!
"I'se sure glad e got rid ob 'er," Rufe said to no one in particular.
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