ScaryPlace Original Fiction

SUPERSTITION
BY Deon C. Sanders

An excerpt from his horror novel titled "Miss Mary Weather: A Southern Nightmare"
Copyright 2003 All rights reserved

This story ventures forth in the early fifties in the Southern South. Where old superstitions, myths, and facts occurred and This Happened To Be Fact. In the time when the South was inhabited by three races of people. The white's, the negroes's, and the Negroe's fears. In the time of hanging color folks in the backwoods and beating them because of the color of their skin.

Yet, we would triumph over that but not over the terror that terrified us in this small black community. Some people of those days speculate that being black was our affliction, they were mistaken. There was a deep fear, that only attacked our kind. The privilege of education, the birthright to vote, the prerogative to go where we wanted to go,and the right to drink or eat in any establishment was the slightest of our worries.

History books may acknowledged legends of witchcraft, incantations, or even goblins. Still, what it does not divulge, because no one would ever talk about it, because they were too frightened for it may be released to wonder out of this small Negro town. The fear that this story in tells, is not of man, strong and tall. But as Eve's power and trickery tricked Adam with the pure evil to take a bite of the apple from the forbidden tree.

Enters the most terrifying female creature ever unleashed in this world, sent to feed on the nightmares of your dreams till one day being released on our reality. Her name is MISS MARY WEATHER. Miss Mary Weather, as I was told by the old folks-was a beautiful, exquisite brown skinned women that turned a lot of men heads.

Miss Mary Weather lived up the hill and down a ways from my grandmother's house where my grandmother and mother were raised. At the age of twenty-seven I believe, yes that's when it was. Miss Mary Weather married a gentlemen named Adam Miles from down in Bessemer, Alabama. He was a handsome man about six feet to a ladder tall. After him and Miss Mary Weather were married he moved into the house with her.

In the South, at that time it was unlikely for a twenty-seven year old women to have her own house without having a husband, but she did. Grandma told my mother that one day while sitting on the front stoop, that she saw the girl's mother once, as she walked her daughter to school, she never saw her since.

The father had worked at the steel mill for at least twenty-seven years, until he collapsed one day, in their living room while eating dinner. They said he was poisoned, but I don't know how true that is-no one actually does. My grandmother told my mother that she would never forget the day they were married. Indian Summer, that's what it was. This is when it rains on one side of the road and the other side stays dry as the Sahara Desert. But in this case it only rained on their house.

The preacher who married the couple was drunk by nature and had slept with every quote "Christian" women in town. They said he slept with Miss Mary Weather at one time or another. You see Miss Mary Weather was not the name that her husband gave her, and it was not the name of her parents. No one knows where this name actually originated from. My granny said that the name Mary evolves from the bible, Jesus's mother as some kind of insult and the word Weather means seasons change but I will always be here. Grandmamma said that Miss Mary Weather and her husband tried for years to have a child.

Now, Miss Mary Weather was always an evil women and they believed it was hereditary. Miss Mary Weather finally conceived a child.

However, the night the child was born my grandmother said the sky turned as black as an onyx, the wind howled like nothing they've ever heard before, and the screams that emanated from the house sounded like someone or something was dying.

The baby was born hideously deformed and it died a few hours later. This drove Miss Mary Weather insane to the point of her husband leaving her. My grandma told my mother that Miss Mary Weather killed herself a few months after. She had took a razor blade, sat out on the front porch at midnight under the full moon, slashed her wrist, and bleed to death holding the dead remains of her child.

After the funeral, Rev. Cration went back to the house, trying to find an address or telephone number of her husband to let him know she committed suicide and was buried at the Crest Wood Creek Cemetery. Whatever happened to the preacher after he went in that house, know one knows. They said, maybe the husband found out that the preacher used to muddle around with her and was waiting in the house to kill him or maybe Miss Mary Weather killed him. No one knows,, not even the police that investigated the murder.

If in deed there was a murder. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you must find a body before someone can be consider murdered.

My Grandmamma said a couple of months after the funeral and the disappearance of the preacher, the preacher's son came to town from Tuscaloosa to visit him and could not find him.

Do you really want to hear something strange? My grandmamma said that once the son had settled his father's affairs-not actually much to do, his father being some what of a sidewalk preacher. My mother was going to the bottom of the hill store, but actually the real name of the store was "MR. PAPA'S STORE." It was a thirty feet by thirty feet enclosure renovated into a store with a chimney made from brick and mud. There was a Coca-Cola freezer on the outside porch and a door made from wood and barbed wire. It was not a really sturdy store. My mother actually thought that if a strong wind blew from the North-it would collapse. Also there was a tree a little ways from the road that never grew a leaf.

At the bottom of the tree where roots trying to reach the sky, there was a bible torn and beat up. While my mother was on her way to the store, she saw the bible and walked over to it, and bent down on one knee to open the book of God. When she opened it, on the inside front cover was the name Rev. C.R. Cration in blood. As she looked further down there was a message.

"No child will I bare, so to whom that bares a child, that child will be consumed by me."

"There was so much fear in my mother," my grandmother explained. She froze in position with tears pouring out of her eyes like a broken faucet, until the place where her knee lay was as wet as a spring rain. She was able to move after awhile from that position. As she elevated her head to look to the sky in which grandma said comes your help. There he was the long lost soul, Rev. Cration stretched out among the branches "DEAD" as the prophets of old. It is all so strange that no one ever saw the Rev-in that tree with no leaves all this time.

"Or has evil come ah calling, my mother thought." As she stared at the Rev. On his forehead there was the sign of the devil "666", and on his chest read: "SATAN HAS COME BACK TO FINISH WHAT HE HAD STARTED IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN. NO APPLES THIS TIME."

My mother screamed so loud that the neighborhood came a-running. Mr. Papa from Mr. Papa's store was the first to answer the scream. The money mama had that grandma gave her to buy some flour and milk, was stuck in the palm of her hand. She never got to the store that day. "What's wrong my child?" Mr. Papa asked bending down to her.

Mr. Papa was an old man just as old as my grandma who walked with a cane and talked to himself ever chance he got. Mr. Papa was one of the few black men that actually survived the Klu Klux Klan after they beat him, down in bessemer for just looking in the eyes of a white store owner. So everyone knew why Mr. Papa behaved that way, so they paid him no attention. My grandmother said all my mom could do is look-up and point to where Rev. Cration was hanging. Mr. Papa maneuvered slow so it took him a while to look up at the top of the tree.

By that time Mrs. Wreck, an old women who dwelled across the ways a bit from the house cam ah running. "Mr. Papa are you scaring little children again with those creepy eyes of yours," Mrs. Wreck said. Big Wreck, that's what Mr. Papa and other who didn't like her, called her. She was as fat as a truck just in an accident. The other kids and I would talk about her in private, due to the respect you granted the old folks. In those days you were born to respect all of your elders even if they were not a family member.

"Mrs. Wreck, Little Ruth said she saw Rev. Cration hanging up in this tree. I don't see any thing," Mr. Papa said.

"Do not well child me," talking to Mrs. Wreck the first time in her life rudely.

"Yes it is," Mrs. Wreck said. Mrs. Wreck actually saw Rev. Cration in that tree, but did not divulge it for some reason or another. As she said neither do I, Mrs. Wreck skin scrawled up her arms like rain drops on the roof of a house.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," Mrs. Wreck mumbled, saying "I felt the wind blowing a few months ago and in it, it spoke saying - Death is coming and it will take a long time to pass."

"What's going on here Mr. Papa asked?" See look in the book Mr. Papa in the inside cover.

"See what, I don't see anything, anything but Bessemer hospital written in it. Who's ever bible this is or was must have stolen it." The other folks arrived soon after. It was Ms. Steward, the lady with the okra patch, Mr. Crow and his oldest son Bishop who raised pigs, Mr. Pete, the Southern gossiper, Tim, Ralph, and Boe my mother's classmates and my grandmother who they called Ma dear.

The sky became dark as tar that builders use to do the roofs of the 3-day houses up the hill and over a ways.

As the sky darkened, everyone stood in amazement. My grandmother told mamma, come on child, this day we will never forget. It started to rain and the crowd quickly dispersed running back to their homes like a bat out of hell, because hell was chasing. My mom and grandmother made it to the house soaked to the bone. My grandmother locked all the doors and closed all the window shades.

Suddenly, a light peaked through the cracked shades, the rain had stopped just as quickly as it started. Grandmamma sat my mother on her lap and they talked about what had happened. Grandma explained to her all that had occurred and she believed her. Wait right here child, said granny as she walked back to her bedroom. She pulled out a trunk from under her bed that was old and dusty with a sanctimonious cross surrounding the side of it and brought it into the living room to my mother.

As she slowly opened the trunk she pulled out a little box about the size of a building block. Inside the box was a charm, an old Indian talisman with rubies fixated around a pearly white stone an inside the stone were the words quiche which means GOD ALMIGHTY. You see my grandmother was half Cherokee Indian and Ethiopian. She explained the power the charm held and placed it around my mother's neck. This will protect you child, said grand mamma. Grand mamma said to my mother in a soft voice, in the days to come, hell has been released an its name is MISS MARY WEATHER AND SHE WILL COME FOR YOU, YOUR CHILDREN, AND YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN IN THEIR DREAMS AND IF SHE ESCAPES....THEIR REALITY.

After the dawning of the charm around my mother's neck they sat and ate dinner. The sun had thickened to it's nightly color, an it was time to prepare for bed. As my mother was saying her prayers at the end of her bed she heard rocking coming from the front porch. So she got up to explore, peeping out through the screen door.

To her surprise there was grandmother sitting in the old rocking chair my grandfather made for her years before they were married. Such a token of one's love for another person is marvelous. My grandfather passed away a few years before, a great man, good husband, and long jet black hair from the day he was born-strong-a good provider-and he loved him some Ma Dear. He perished in the coal mines, when a cave he was working in gave way and trapped him in.

My grandfather (PawDew) was no fool, he knew that working in the mine was very dangerous and he yearned for my grandmother and mother to be taken care of when he was gone. So he saved an abundance of money as the first black supervisor of the black coal miners, so his house was paid for and we would be all right.

There was also a can PawDew (Grandpapa) kept under the floor board in his bedroom saturated to the brim with silver dollars. There was other money scattered all through the house and grandmamma was the only one that knew where it was.

"Its time for bed child," grandmamma said, she never called my mamma by her name Ruth. This was probably because Wilson (Paw dew) my grandfather called her child. My mother thought that was her name till the age of nine. So off to bed she went, "But mamma I just want to say I love you," mom shouted.

"I love you too, child", grandmamma replied. So she went on to bed caressing her charm tightly in her hand, leaving the charm print there. The time grandmamma stayed on the front porch in that rocking chair was unaware to my mother.

The following morning, grand mamma was still on the front porch in that rocking chair. Her bible was in her hand, not Rev. Crations bible. This was the family bible passed down to her from her mother, laying perfectly in her lap covered partially by her hands. "Morning child, it's time for you to start getting ready for school you know that Tim boy will be here any minute hollering your name at the top of his lungs, waking every animal up from two miles away," grandmamma said.

"Yes mamma," replied my mother. Tim always walked my mom to school. He was a nice boy, his parents raised him right, coming from a good stock. That's what they said down in those parts.

" She'll be out in a minute or so." My mother heard Tim's voice as she was getting ready, putting on her last shoe.

My mother grabbed her satchel, checked her neck to make sure her charm was still there and out the door she went. "Hey, little Timmy Jackson."

Up the rod they went. I meant to ask you. Are you all right seeing what happened yesterday. Sure, I am all right. Ruth isn't that Miss Mary Weather's house over yonder.

"Yes it is, but let's not go over there. Let's just go to school." The house was eerie and the sun never shined on it. "All right let's go," Tim said.

My mother said she never met Miss Mary Weather or even seen her because she was to young. And that she was told that Miss Mary Weather before she died had never came out of that house in the day time and you could only see her on some occasions at night standing on her porch. My mother and T.J. hurried off to school.

My mother's classroom teacher's name was Mr. Steward he was across the hall from Ms. Smith, T.J's classroom teacher. It was very hot that day, all the windows and doors were opened. From where my mother was sitting she could see T.J. From her seat. He sat in the back of the room, he always reclined back in his chair and chewed bubble gum.

His grades were never fantastic and he wasn't to intelligent but he was still her best friend. All day they practiced for their graduation examination. After school she met up with T.J. For the walk home. But T.J. Said he was staying awhile at the playground with his other friends which of course were boys. "Will you be all right Ruth?" T.J asked.

Suddenly, the wind started blowing really hard, as if God had sneezed. As my mother looked around at the trees for a minute she started to complete her walk through the path. Suddenly out of no where a figure appeared, coming up the hill. It had a hood over its head, a cane in its left hand, and it was very spooky.

My mother was scared and could not move she was paralyzed. As the figure got near-at-hand to her. It didn't speak a word, it just walked pass my mother. As my mother turned around to see where it had gone. It stopped and out of its mouth it spoke and said, "Child you will be my portal out of the south." My mother didn't pause to see if it had something else to say. She ran and when she looked back it was gone. The white shoes my mother had on were black as tar when she got to the front steps of her house.

"Yes mamma" crying with her face pale as if she had seen a ghost. "I seen her mamma."

As the story goes on little Tim finished playing with his friends at the playground and decide to go through the path also. Tim a pretty tall kid and a little over weight made his way through the path. As he got mid-way through, there was a figure sitting on a log directly to his right about twenty feet from him. As he passed the figure he spoke, "'evening."

Surprised, that this figure even knew who he was. Tim started to turn around but the figure was gone. As he turned back to continue his journey suddenly right in front of him stood Miss Mary Weather. She grabbed him by his arms and slashed his wrist with her cane, sitting him down on a log to bleed to death. As the blood hit the ground, branch like hands grew out of the ground engulfing Tim to the point that he looked like a mountain of weeds.

The next day which was Thursday my mother anticipated Tim's arrival at her house for school but he never showed. As my mother stood on the porch the police and Tim's parents drove up.

"The last time I seen Tim was after school yesterday at the playground playing with his friends" answered my mother.

"We spoke to Tim's other friends and they said that he walked through the path on the way home yesterday" the officer stated.

" Well, if any of you see Tim please tell him to go home his parents are worried."