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Cultural Background |
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Storyteller's Cabin |
Melviny was only a young girl living in the slave quarters when Thomas lost his bride. She had held onto the memory of the young bride's beauty and kindness throughout the dark and ugly years of war.
Melviny had held onto the other memories, too. The memories always began with laughter - happiness seemed to come out of the windows and doors of that house, seemed to be part of the very walls and floors. It was the happiness of Thomas and his bride that made the plantation a good place to be: happiness breeds kindness and gentleness, they say.
The story starts - and ends - in the flower garden of the big house. Every fine day, the young bride found time to come and sit in her garden, to smell the fragrant blossoms and cut the prettiest ones to decorate the house. Every day, Melviny worked in that garden, pulling the weeds and picking off the dead blossoms.
"Melviny," the young bride would call, "just come and smell this rose! Isn't it the prettiest thing you ever did smell?"
And Melviny would run to the rosebush and inhale deeply. "Oh, yes, ma'am, you're right! It is the prettiest smell in all the world!"
Or, "Melviny, you take some of these dahlias to your mamma. She likes pretty colors and these are the brightest I've ever seen. Run, now!" And Melviny would run with the handful of brilliant flowers, grinning to her mama, who would put them in a jar of water on the mantelpiece.
But one evening, when the moon shone full and bright, a screech-owl began to make a terrible noise outside the cabin where Melviny and her mama lived. Melviny ran to her mama in alarm at the screeching, unearthly sound, and her mama held her close.
"Never mind, child," she soothed. "Just an ol' screech-owl calling to his kin."
"But, Mama, I've heard the others say that when you hear a screech owl keep hollerin' and carryin' on like that, someone's gonna die!"
"No, child, they're just trying to scare you. Now you settle down and eat your supper. Nothin' to worry yourself over."
But Melviny wasn't comforted. She watched everyone she loved, fearful of the screech-owl's curse.
