I told Baby, āDonāt go back there āhind them woods where that creature live.ā I told Baby not to go but she went over yonder one strangely cold summer day, āround June, after Iād made her self a lunch of buttermilk biscuits and collard greensā Baby never liked meat too much. Said it tasted like sin to her. Said if God ate sin, itād taste like meat with all the seasonings and cooked to perfection. Make you feel heavy afterward. Fill you up. Itād nourish you, but at what cost? Baby said, āLady Mama, that olā meat a little too heavy for my soul. Donāt matter if it tastes good if I got to ask forgiveness later.ā
Anyway, Iām just a-yippinā and a-yappinā like folk got time to hear a olā woman talkinā bout fanciful things like a thoughtful child.
Imagination they called it. Tuhā imagination. If they knew the things I know I done seen theyād say I āmagined it. But I told Baby what I saw. Warned her ācordin to just what I know I seen with my own eyes: that creature live āhind them woods. Out there by a little bog that aināt got no life. Not even a fly piss in those waters. Thatās how you know there aināt no life. Flies, nasty things, they follow dead and decaying things. The nasty part of living is dying. Or so we think.
That creature creepinā in the brush lives by a place that aināt got no life. He thinks he knows what we donāt, us folk who follow life. Naw, the creature think life is just a part of death. He think from the moment weāre conceived weāre settinā ourselves up to die. But what a creature that donāt live know ābout life? Youād think not a damn thing. But Baby told me different.
Baby went in them woods. Shoā did. Almost didnāt come back when her body did. I āspected something when she absentmindedly spooned some scrambled eggs in her plate one morning. She wouldāve eaten āem too if I hadnāt shouted. Aināt nothing in the world could make my Baby forget her strict diet.
You could tell sheād seen something wretched. Something thatād make you sing Amazing Grace or the Lordās Prayer. Or put the needle on a Patti Labelle record, especially if you seekinā deliverance from that thing you saw that your mind wonāt let you unsee. But your heart know it.
Your heart got more eyes than vessels and ventricles. It sees things out our souls which are hidden when looking out our bodies. And Babyās heart never found its way inside her little chest while she formed in the womb. At least, thatās what I told her when she asked what made her so special. She never asked again when she came back from āhind them woods.
Her heart sees with everything its got, thatās why she took a moment to return to her body. Her little heart sees with ears and lips and hands and nostrils and thoughts. Lawd, that creature put a number on my Baby! If only she was a little more heart-blind, she might not have suffered so. But thatās just it, isnāt it? The heart sees with everything you got. Whether you want it to or not. And Baby saw, bless her heart, she saw that creature and almost didnāt come back.
When she finally did return to herself, she told me something that almost made me drop like a fly right where I stood.
āLady Mama,ā she always called me, āI shouldnāt have gone down there. I shouldāve listened to you.ā
āItās alright Baby. Iām just glad you finally came back.ā I held her tighter to my bosom then.
āLady Mama?ā she inquired softly.
āYes, Baby?ā I replied as I skwez her real tight.
āThat creatureā¦it donāt mean nobody no harm. And itās a wretched creature to look at, if your heart stays hidden away. But when it doesnāt, when your heart finds its way outside you, that creature looks just like God.ā
-Rahk