Cultural
Background
Storyteller's Cabin
Zebedee's wife was afraid of a beating, so she left the baby and went off to the fields, being sure not to go off too far so she could hear her Young'un crying. She had worked most on the day when it started to rain. Not just a sprinkle, mind you, but a downpour! It was rainin' so hard the critters started pairing up and heading for the nearest mountain.
At first, Zebedee's wife was enjoying the coolness of the rain. But then she remembered her Young'un. She ran back toward the trough, but the ol' Taskmaster blocked the way. She pleaded with him, "Please let me get my Young'un! He'll catch his death in this rain!" Ol' Taskmaster just cracked his whip and said "Get back to work! That li'l thing is alright. Can't you hear him bawlin'?"
But just then, the crying stopped! Zebedee's wife cried out, "My baby! Oh lawd, my baby done drowned in that trough!"
When Zebedee and the others heard this, they all stopped what they were doing and started toward the Taskmaster. Before they could reach him, he pulled out his pistol and shot two times into the air, and said, "If y'all don't get back into that field, I'll fill ya' with lead!"
As soon as he got them words out, he heard something behind him. BOOM! It sounded like a tree falling. BOOM! It happened again! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! This time, Zebedee's wife backed up in fear. Ol' Taskmaster swung around to look, and what he saw struck fear to his heart - Click-bok was walking toward him!!! The tree was actually pulling its roots out of the ground and walking, like a man walking in deep mud. And every time she pulled her roots up, she left no trace of ever having being planted there.
Ol' Taskmaster swung around with his pistol and fired a round smack dab into the heart of that tree. Click-bok swung her limbs in the air like she was in a wind storm. Then - BOOM! BOOM! - she took two more steps. He fired twice more, and this time Click-bok stumbled backwards and let out a mighty cry - a painful cry that sounded like a man dying and wood splitting, all mixed up. She took another step, BOOM! This time coming close enough to for the ol' Taskmaster to touch. The Taskmaster knew that was a might too close, so he swung around and aimed at Zebedee's wife and said to Click-bok, "Make one mo' step and I'm gonna shoot!"
Click-bok stopped and stood very still, just like a tree should. Then the Taskmaster looked at Zebedee and said, "It's yo' pappy's fault for planting this Devil tree. Yo' wife is dead." And with that, he pulled the trigger and the shot rang out.
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