The Secrets of Silk

by Allison Hobbs

  “You be careful now, young lady,” the woman warned when Silk arrived at her destination on the highway. “I’ve heard Devil’s Swamp is populated with a lot of unsavory characters.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Silk said with a wave of her hand. She waited until the Cutlass was out of sight before darting into the familiar woods that she’d used as her personal playground during her youth and as a killing ground when at the age of fourteen she murdered Mr. Perry, the ice man. As she matured and became much more sexually active, these woods had served as a love nest for her and her many paramours.

  Silk treaded lightly, in case someone was lurking about. With the stealth of a big-game hunter, she was careful not to disturb the forest creatures and cautious about stepping on twigs and crunching dried leaves. She yearned to see the old shack one last time. It would be nice to pay her respects by putting some flowers on Big Mama’s grave.

  Big Mama had always said she wanted to be buried right there in her garden, and the folks of Devil’s Swamp would have been too afraid of an after-death hex to put her anywhere else. After all the dreadful misfortune that Silk had experienced up North, she was living proof that Big Mama’s after-death hex was indeed powerful.

  As badly as she wanted to, Silk couldn’t risk going near the shack. The place was most likely occupied by new residents who’d surely recognize her, and run off to tattle to Sheriff Thompson.

  When she passed the old hickory tree, she realized she was about ten minutes away from Big Mama’s stash. A shovel would have come in handy, but she’d have to make do and dig up the money with a tree branch or a stick.

  Silk’s head was hot beneath the scarf, and perspiration poured down the sides of her face, but she was too excited to care about an inundation of sweat. Within eyesight, she could see the big gray rock that Big Mama used to sit on when she went fishing in the lake.

  Without any doubt in her mind, she knew that Big Mama’s savings were buried under that rock!

  Silk recalled being a little girl, no more than three or four years old, playing in the water while Big Mama unearthed a box that was filled with paper money and silver dollars. After adding more greenbacks to her stash, Big Mama put the box back in the ground and buried it. Huffing and puffing, she pushed the rock back into place, ensuring that it covered the secret spot.

  Grunting, Silk pushed against the rock with both hands, but it didn’t budge. She tried pushing it with the sole of her tennis shoe, but still couldn’t move it. “Shit,” she muttered, taking a seat on the rock as she caught her breath and wiped sweat from her face. I knew Big Mama was strong, but damn! How in the hell am I gonna move this big ol’ stubborn thing?

  While contemplating her dilemma, she heard the rustle of leaves. Danger alarms immediately went off inside her head. But before her body could respond to what her brain already knew, Silk felt a powerful blow to the back of her head, and the lights suddenly went out.

  She awoke to a throbbing pain in the back of her head, and when she attempted to touch it, she realized that her hands were bound. Something was covering her eyes, preventing her from seeing her captor. She tried to cry out but discovered the sounds were muffled by duct tape that sealed her mouth. Silk shuddered as she became aware of the unmistakable sounds of a shovel digging into the earth and the thud of the excavated dirt as it hit the ground. The sunshine beaming on her face informed her that she was outdoors, lying on a bed of grass that tickled her back. Feeling the sun on her breasts, Silk realized she’d been stripped of her clothes and was lying outside, butt naked.

  She wondered if there was a reward on her head, which had prompted one of the locals to knock her unconscious and hold her as a naked hostage until Sheriff Thompson came to collect her. Though terrified of learning the truth, she wanted answers, and began moaning and wiggling around.

  “Well, looky who decided to wake up from her nap.”

  Silk’s body stiffened in fear and utter shock. Beneath the blindfold, her eyes widened and practically bulged out of her head. She gasped so sharply, she began to choke and gag. That voice! She’d recognize it anywhere. Oh, my God, Big Mama has returned from the dead!

  Chills of terror ran up Silk’s spine as she heard Big Mama’s footsteps coming toward her. “Welcome home, Silk. I always knew you’d come running back when times got too rough for you out there. Plus, I put a come-back-home hex on you that would force you to return to me no matter how far you ran.”

  A come-back-home hex! So, that’s the spell Big Mama put on me. Instead of chasing behind Tate, I should have been searching for a voodoo woman to take her goddamn curse off of me.

  “Last night I had a vision that today was the day you’d come on home, and damn if I wasn’t right,” Big Mama said delightedly. “Good thing I started digging this here hole as soon as the sun started to shine, otherwise I’d be digging ’til midnight, and I have other things to do with my time besides putting you in the ground.”

  “Oaahhh. Mmmmf!” Silk made a variety of unintelligible sounds as she attempted to ask Big Mama why she wanted to put her in the ground. Did she plan on killing her and then burying her in the plot of land that Big Mama had picked out as her own final resting place?

  Big Mama untied the blindfold and Silk blinked back the brightness of the sun, wishing desperately that she could shield her eyes with a hand. Big Mama hovered over Silk’s face, tapping on the thick scar on her neck that Silk had inflicted with her switchblade.

  “I sewed it up myself with cat gut, and covered the wound with maggots and mud. I used the same remedy on that stab wound you put on my belly, and the healing took hold swiftly. Although these scars you left on me tend to itch like the devil, I’m still here, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.” Big Mama’s face was so close to Silk’s, Silk could smell the tobacco on her breath.

  Silk struggled to form the words, I’m sorry, but the sounds that emerged from her taped-up mouth sounded like gibberish.

  “Did you hear about your old beau, Duke Durnell? He was accused of the crime you committed. That poor boy never made it inside a courtroom. The lynch mob got to him. Beat him something terrible and then strung him up. Left him hanging from that ol’ hickory tree in the woods ’til his stinking body separated from his rotting neck.” Big Mama’s mouth turned down in dismay. “I made a strong potion for Duke’s mama, to help her sleep at night. But she took it upon herself to mix my potion with moonshine, and now she’s crazy as a bedbug.”

  Silk tried to muster some sympathy for Duke Durnell and his mama, but it was hard to feel sorry for others while she was in such a precarious position.

  Big Mama gazed in Silk’s direction, staring at her as if she could actually see out of her opaque-colored eyes. “I heard about that exterminator-fella that was found with his throat slashed in his car. White folks called it a random, unsolved murder, but I knew right away that you was the one responsible for that devilment.”

  Big Mama gazed up at the sky. “Welp, it’s time to get you in the ground.”

  No, no. Please, Big Mama. I’m sorry for what I did to everyone I hurt. And I’m real sorry for what I did to you. I’m begging you, Big Mama, please don’t bury me alive, Silk shouted in her head.

  Big Mama ignored Silk’s grunting sounds and her pleading eyes. She grabbed Silk by the ankles and pulled her several feet and then dumped her in a deep hole. Silk was curled lopsided, so Big Mama eased down in the hole and straightened her out, positioning her body and legs to sit in the hole, Indian-style.

  Then Big Mama clawed her way out of the hole and began tirelessly dumping shovelfuls of dirt onto Silk’s body. She didn’t stop packing dirt around Silk, until she was covered up to her neck.

  Using her hands to see, Big Mama’s fingers roamed over Silk’s face and head. Pleased with her handiwork, she showed off her brown-stained teeth by offering a big smile. “Look at you, I bet you look just like a pumpkin with your head sticking out the ground.” Big Mama went into a bout of choking laughter while tears streamed from
Silk’s eyes.

  How could Big Mama put her in such a humiliating and vulnerable position? She was supposed to love and forgive Silk no matter what. Forgiveness was a big part of a mother’s love, wasn’t it?

  Big Mama walked away, leaving Silk with the hot sun burning down on her face. After a few moments, Big Mama returned and revealed that she was carrying Silk’s switchblade. “I found this tucked down in your bosom when I undressed you. It was dull, but I sharpened it up real good.”

  God help me, what is Big Mama gonna do with my knife?

  As if reading Silk’s mind, Big Mama responded by dropping down to her knees while wielding the knife. Silk tried to lean away, she tried to jerk her head back and forth, but the dirt that was packed around her body only allowed her to turn her head slowly to the left and right.

  In one quick motion, Big Mama grabbed Silk’s hair and wrapped it firmly around her hand. She snatched Silk’s head back to expose her young, unblemished neck. “Be still, gal. If you keep moving all about, Big Mama might do more damage than I intend to. I can’t see for shit so I gotta do this by feel. You best heed what I say unless you wanna end up dead.” As Big Mama drew the knife toward Silk’s neck, Silk became wild-eyed and frantic. She tried to scream but only managed more muffled sounds.

  With the expertise of a surgeon, Big Mama sliced through a few layers of flesh, soft tissue, and tendons. Silk shrieked from the pain, but of course the tape around her mouth muted the sound. Big Mama cut deeper until she had successfully severed Silk’s larynx. “There you go,” she said with a proud twist to her lips. Admiration of her surgical skill was evident in her tone.

  Big Mama ripped the tape from Silk’s lips, and when Silk opened her mouth to emit a loud scream, no sound emerged from her throat; there was only the soft hiss of air. “I can’t have you screaming out here and having folks wondering what I’m up to,” Big Mama explained.

  Realizing that her vocal cord had been cut, Silk began pleading with her eyes.

  “Ain’t no point in begging because it won’t do you any good. Besides, I’m not finished working on you, gal—I’m only jest getting started.”

  It was unbelievable that her own mama had turned her permanently mute, and she couldn’t imagine what else Big Mama had in store for her.

  “Get on away from here,” Big Mama fussed as she shooed away the big horse flies that had begun to buzz around the bloody incision in the front of Silk’s neck. She didn’t want flies laying eggs on the cut. Not yet anyway. But if the wound became infected, then she’d let the flies have at it.

  “I bet you couldn’t give two shits that my remedy business went completely downhill after you cut out on me. My balms and tonics and what have you ain’t have the same kick without the special ingredients I got from you.” Big Mama paused and added, “I supposed you didn’t realize that you was my most valuable secret ingredient, which is why I was gonna give you a generous amount of money when you came of age. But all that changed when you stabbed me and left me for dead.”

  Big Mama grabbed a hank of Silk’s hair and crudely sawed it off with the switchblade. “I’m back in business now,” she said, cackling with glee. “I need to soak this silky hair of yours in some frog’s blood and coon piss to make up a batch of my quick hair-growing potion that the colored folks around here swear by. They be spending real good money for it, too.” She went silent for a few moments and concentrated on cutting off Silk’s hair.

  “By the way, according to my calculations, your menstrual cycle should be starting in a day or so, shouldn’t it? From the day I pulled your infant body out the ground, I been using your urine and feces to make my remedies more potent. Guess it had something to do with you coming back from the dead after you was born. But after you started your menses at age twelve, I added your menstrual blood to my passion potions and they started selling like nobody’s business. Your selfish ass probably don’t give a goddamn, but ever since you took off the way you did, my customers been complaining about the quality of my products. I bet they’ll shut their traps now that I got my cash cow back. Ain’t gon’ be no more collecting and lugging fertilizer for my garden. Nosiree. Not with you shitting and pissing right into the ground. Yes, gawd, I’m gon’ be bringing in plenty of money from now on.”

  Big Mama was talking up a blue streak and unconcerned that she was slicing chunks of Silk’s scalp as she hacked off her hair. Silk flinched and expelled another burst of air when she tried to yell after the knife penetrated her flesh. After hacking off most of Silk’s once luxurious hair, Big Mama reached in her shirt pocket and brought out the hand clippers to cut off the rest.

  It was bad enough that the sun was beating down on Silk’s ravaged head, but she also had to endure Big Mama sewing up the gash she’d made in her neck with cat gut and a dull, old sewing needle.

  After Big Mama finished collecting Silk’s hair, she covered Silk’s head with a burlap sack and made her way toward the shack. Whistling a tune, Big Mama was happy as a lark and anxious to start prepping for her new and improved batch of potions.

  At dusk Big Mama returned, and yanked the sack off Silk’s head and began spoon-feeding her applesauce that she’d handmade by pulverizing an apple with a jagged stone.

  “Welp, I guess it’s time to say goodnight. Wish you could sleep in the iron bed with me like old times,” Big Mama teased. “But since I can’t trust you as far as I can throw you, you’ll have to try and get comfortable right where you are.” Once again, she covered Silk’s head with the burlap sack and then placed a wooden, apple barrel over her head for extra protection.

  “This here barrel will have to do until I can get my hands on something sturdier that’ll keep the night creatures from getting at you.”

  Tears ran down Silk’s face as she silently pleaded, Please, Big Mama. Don’t leave me out here.

  In the pitch-dark, Silk itched from head to toe. Being planted like a crop in the earth with biting ants and wiggling worms was driving her to the brink of madness. Her predicament was certainly bad enough, but now she had to worry about bigger creatures such as opossums, raccoons, and alligators coming around to forage for a bite to eat. Terrified by the thought, Silk squeezed her eyes shut.

  She imagined a hungry pack of dogs or wolves chewing off her face, and then digging around her, desperately trying to get at the rest of her body that was planted in the ground. She dreaded being ripped to shreds by ravenous animals, but a bite to her jugular vein would quickly end her suffering. If she was lucky, she wouldn’t last through the night. With the torturous life that Big Mama had planned for her, a quick death was the only thing Silk had to look forward to.

  EPILOGUE

  Silk lost track of time. Day turned into night—over and over again. The movement of the sun was her only way of judging the passing of time. Her mornings always started with Big Mama plopping down and scooting up to Silk’s face and nearly smothering her by wrapping her stout legs around Silk’s neck while demanding the special treatment from her favorite gal.

  Nights ended the same way, with Big Mama getting pleasured before she slapped the sack and barrel on top of Silk’s head and calling it a night.

  Sick of catering to Big Mama’s desires, Silk began stubbornly refusing to give Big Mama the special treatment. She clenched her teeth and defiantly squeezed her eyes closed. But when Big Mama had finally had enough of Silk’s willful behavior, she smashed her in the mouth with a ball-peen hammer, busting her lips, and knocking out her front teeth. She threatened to cut out Silk’s tongue if she didn’t take care of her needs and treat her right.

  Silk had always been told that she was born bad, but with so many thoughts running through her mind, she came to realize that no child was born that way. Her wicked ways had been taught to her by Big Mama and shown by example. Big Mama had to be the most deranged woman in Louisiana, and it was unfortunate that Silk had been raised from infancy by such a vengeful madwoman.

  It was ironic that those greenbacks that Silk had yearned fo
r so badly now had no meaning whatsoever. The one thing she wanted more than anything in life, stubbornly eluded her.

  When I dream, I dream about the people I killed. Mostly I dream about the innocent ones that didn’t deserve to die. Although Sonny Boy’s not dead as far as I know, I dream about him, too. They’re all up in heaven, waving and smiling down at me, and saying that they forgive me. Well, if that was true, why don’t they send one of God’s angels down here to rescue me from this hole in the ground and take me up to heaven with them?

  Having nothing but time on her hands, Silk’s mind chatter never turned off. She’d done some awful things in her life; there was no denying that. The way she methodically destroyed the entire Dixon family was the most vicious and despicable of all her sinful actions. Because of her, sweet little Dallas was orphaned and left in the hands of that wicked Arvetta. Silk deeply regretted having abused Dallas in the same manner that Big Mama had abused her. Though she doubted it, she held on to the hope that Arvetta had a shred of decency and would provide Dallas with a good home life.

  Despite all her wrongdoing, Silk found it hard to accept that her misdeeds warranted existing in the hell-on-earth conditions that Big Mama had assigned her to.

  A lone tear of regret trickled out of Silk’s eye, weaving a trail through the filth on her face. Nearby she heard Big Mama pulverizing a piece of fruit with a rock, making it soft enough to pass through Silk’s mutilated throat.

  Big Mama was determined to do everything in her power to keep Silk nourished and alive. But Silk was determined, also. Yearning for release from this mortal coil, she sent up fervent prayers for death—the one thing she truly desired.

  The harsh sound of Big Mama pounding and pulverizing her meal gradually became a distant, muffled sound. Though Big Mama was close by, it was as if they were separated by many miles. Much more clearly, Silk could hear the voices of a celestial choir, and she suddenly felt herself surrounded by a bright, glorious light that emanated the purest love she’d ever known.