Browse:If You Had Come jes' a Week Befo' (Volume 1, entries 873)
If You Had Come jes' a Week Befo'
Volume 1, entries 873. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → Consultation Technique. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 873
Ah kin [tell] yo' whut dey say about dat 'cause mah husband - he was then with a woman. Ah kin tell you whole lot 'bout dat, because he tole me this on his deathbed over there in de hospital - me an' him had been separated fo' about ten years, an' so - (Tell me the whole story - how that began.) Befo' he began to git down lak he was, he came to me to mah home. He said - asked me for some alcohol. Ah say, "Well, ah haven't got de alcohol, but ah have a dime - go out chere to doc an' ask him to credit me for a nickel an' ah'll give you a bottle of alcohol." So ah went out there and got de alcohol and brought it back in to him and give tuh him an' ah said, "Now when yo' go home" - he was tellin' me whut part of him Was daid. He says, "Mah toe is daid right up to where it joins tuh mah foot." Ah said, "Well, what caused it to be?" He said, "Ah have high blood pressure." Ah said, "No, ah have high blood pressure fo' de last ten years - yo' know that." He said, "Well, hit's a stroke." Ah said, "A stroke don't come like that, it comes right now - it don't come by degree an' by degrees." So he'd taken dat alcohol and he went home and he rubbed hisself with it once or twice - begin to do good. So fin'lly he rubbed again and it begin to git worse. When he came back tuh me agin he said, "Mah laig is daid down tuh mah knee." Ah said, "Deah me, whut on earth is de matter?" Ah say, "Why don't chew go to someone know mo' than yo' do and mo' than ah do?" He says, "Ah don't know where tuh go." Ah says, "Go 'cross de creek down heah tuh Madam Kay," like dat. He says, "Well, ah don't know." He says, "Ah can't git mah mind to do that." Ah said, "Well, all right, yo' jes' keep on an' fin'lly yo' may be dead you can't trust such things." People have sense - people have sense like that. So, when he came back again - he was goin' down to de shipyard tuh work and he come on back agin, he had fell down dere. His cousin said fo' me tuh come there, that he had fell. Ah went on ovah there. Ah says, "What's de matter now?" He says, "Ah'm jes' done got to de place where mah limbs is no good tuh me - ah can't use 'em. Ah said, "Well, ah can't see what on earth is de matter wit chew." He say, "Ah don't either - ah don't know whut's de matter with me." Ah said, "Do you think somebody's got anything dat belong tuh yo'?" He said, "No - haven't anybody got anything belong tuh me." He said, "Why don't chew bring a doctor fo' me?" Ah called Dr. Edmund. Dr. Edmund come an' he examine everywhere - all - down there and everywhere. He said tuh me, "Ah can't see what's de matter with him - without his blood's wrong." Ah said, "Well, Doctor, yo' say his heart's good, his kidney and everything - mah mind tell me if his heart is good and his kidney's, his blood cannot be wrong." Then ah said, "Cause de blood that penetrates through de heart - look like it ought to 'fect the heart, don't it tuh yo'?" He said, "That is the truth." Well, de week befo' he died - on a Sunday - he sent fo' me to come out there. Ah went on out there, he said tuh me, he say, "Yo' was a good wife to me but ah didn't have sense enough to know it - ah couldn't help mahself." He said, "Ah found those bottles in mah bed tick, ah found that piece that ah was laying on," he say, "an' Willie" - de woman was named Willie - "she had some- thing around her waist. She tole me it was to keep yo' from hurtin' her." Ah said, "Well, dat's somethin' ah don't believe in. He said, "An' that have killed me." He says, "Dey have got tuh de place now," he says, "ah'm no mo' good." He'd lost his use - he couldn't move his hands and he couldn't move his feet, he couldn't do nothin' but jest do that [demonstrates a slight movement]. When he told me that, ah went to a man, a spiritual man - called to be a spiritualZy man. An' ah didn't have any money an' ah sit there and ah begin tuh cry. He looked at me and he said, "Yo' is in trouble?" Ah didn't say anything because ah was scared to. He says, "Yore husband's funeral was arranged at de start." I said, "Mah husband." He says, "Yes, but yore not with him." Ah said, "Whut's de matter with him?" He says, "A wuman - two of 'em - a dark-brown-skinned 'un and a light-brown- skin man have got de toe of his sock - his left-foot sock and de seat of his drawers." He said, "Now it's too late. Ah said, "Can yo' do anything?" He said, "Can't do nuthin - if you had come jes' a week befo' yo' put him in de hospitai." Ah said, "I didn't put him there." He said, "His cousin did," he say, "ah could have cured him." Ah say, "Well, if I go there and ask the Sisters can yo come in an' rub him, would yogo?" He say, "Can't do any good." Ah said, "Well, whut did they take." He says, "Nuthin but de seat of his drawers and de left toe of his sock," he says, "though they got somepin on de inside with whiskey." (Well, what did they do with that piece of sock? What did they do with it - did he tell you what they did with that?) No sir, he didn't never tell me what did he do with it. Yes, yes he did - one that ah went to, tole me to go inside de graveyard gate jes' about fo' steps.
(Who told you that?)
It's another [man] called to be a hoodoo man.
(Did you go to another man, then?)
Yes sir. So ah left that man and went to dis one. And both told me de same thing, but dis man tole me where to go find it. He said go right inside de Magnolia Cemetery into the white side and jes' as yo' go in de gate, he say on the left-hand side.
(You said something about taking four steps, didn't you?)
"Jes' 'bout fo' steps inside de gate," he said, "an' yo' dig down there and you'll git a cloth wrapped tight with needles and pins," he said, "but if you git it up thare he will die right now." Ah said, "Well, if ah git it up but [or] don' git it up, he's goin' die." He says, "Yes, nuthin can be done, now." Ah says, "Well, ah jes' as well leave it there, '' ah said, ''because ah don't want him to die if he will stay here a while longer. An' ah went on ovah to de hospital an' like tomorrow was Saturday, he died the next day.
(Did anything ever happen to these people that put that spell on him?)
Not yet, there hasn't.