"Little Stories about You and Me"
Nolensville Dispatch

A Family Dinner

A breeze was blowing; even so, it was warm for March. The large extended family had gathered for their annual Easter dinner. The Smith’s two-bedroom clapboard house was not large enough to hold everyone comfortably, but it was their turn and besides they liked the homey atmosphere brought on by the crowd. The women were busy in the kitchen, chatting, laughing and loving being together as they prepared the enormous feast. The men seemed to be in the way in the house so they meandered to the front porch, spinning tales as the children played ghost in the grave yard, running and squealing alongside the house. They planned to have an egg hunt after dinner.

The mid-day meal was something to behold. Sally had baked one of Jim’s finest hams. He raised the best hogs in the country, if she did say so herself. However, best she could remember, not everybody liked ham, so she had also baked a turkey and fried up a couple of chickens. With all the fixings, they would have plenty. There was always enough left over to feed an army.

The men sat in the white rocking chairs and along the edge of the shaded porch talking.

“That ole Yorkshire sow had her pigs yesterday,” Jim said.

“How many did she have?” asked Jim’s nephew, Mike.

“She had twelve, but she ate two of them.”

“What makes a hog do that?” Mike asked.

“She’s just a darn fool, I guess. They sure are pretty, so white and clean, cute little fellows.”

“Let’s go see them,” Mike said, stepping to the corner of the porch and sticking his head around the corner. “Hey, kids want to go out to the barn to see some baby pigs?”

Mike’s boys came running. Clay was four years old and Tommy was two. Since they lived in the city, they had never seen a baby pig. Mike put out his cigarette and took Clay’s hand and swung Tommy on his hip as they walked across the grassy lot to the shed where the pigs were kept. Wide-eyed, the boys peered into the shadowy pen.

“Look daddy, the babies are snuggled up close to their mommy,” Clay said.

“They’re sucking, getting their dinner,” Mike said.

Tommy squirmed. “Let me hold him.”

“I don’t think the mother pig would take too kindly to that. A sow can get mighty testy when somebody’s fooling with her young,” Jim said.

The boys were excited as they ran ahead of the men back to the house. Dinner would be ready soon. Everyone was getting hungry. The men settled back on the porch and the children went back to playing in the side yard, or so they thought. Jim was in the middle of telling about how his bull had jumped the fence and gotten into a fight with his neighbor’s bull when they heard Clay screaming. “The sow’s got Tommy.”

The talking stopped. Mike was on his feet and running toward the barn. Jim was right behind him. Then they saw him; Tommy was running toward them. His clothes were torn. He was covered in mud and blood. His eyes were set, solid white.

The women swarmed out the door to see what the ruckus was about. Tommy’s mother grabbed Tommy and jumped in their car. Mike drove with the lights on and the horn blowing causing vehicles to pull to the side of the road to let them pass. The hospital emergency room was full, but they took Tommy ahead of the others. After examining Tommy the doctor assured his parents a few stitches and a good bath would make Tommy almost as good as new.

When the sow had seen Tommy standing in the doorway, she ran over him getting back to her piglets causing him to hit his head on a nail on the side of the shed. She stepped on his back leaving a gash while burying his face in the mud.

Sows can weigh as much as 600 pounds and are dangerous, especially when they have babies. Tommy was a fortunate little boy. Had he been inside the pen, there may have been a different story to tell.

Dinner was on the table, cold, and untouched. No one seemed to be hungry.

Southern Fiction
Daddy Alb

Synopsis of Daddy Alb

The Suttons are forced to sell part of their plantation and move to 500 acres closer to the Appalachian Mountains. Somewhat isolated, two boys—one white and one black— forge a friendship with lasting consequences.

Daddy Alb is a 73,000-word novel set in eastern Kentucky just after the turn of the twentieth century. Although the Josephs are no longer slaves they have chosen to stay with the Suttons. Both families reap benefits from their merger.

As adults, Alb Sutton and Nuley Joseph continue their friendship and promise to take care of each other’s families. When Nuley is killed by a mule, Alb looks after Nuley’s wife, Sadie as best he can. Even though Nuley and Sadie tried, they never had children. On the other hand, Alb and his wife, Lessa, produced eight boys. Sadie mourns the loss of Nuley and the loss of motherhood as she lives alone in the cabin in the Hale Holler.

Alb’s reckless brother, Joe—who is in trouble with just about everyone, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Tobacco Association, jealous husbands, his wife and his own family—rapes Sadie. Out of shame Sadie keeps her secret until she is pregnant. Joe tries to force Sadie to have an abortion, but she will not. When Sadie finally tells Alb, he devises a plan to conceal the identity of the baby’s father.

On a Sunday night at dusk Joe is standing at the edge of his front porch smoking his pipe when he is shot and killed. Alb believes Lessa’s, brother, Jimmy, has murdered his brother, Joe, so he tells the sheriff what he knows. Jimmy is arrested and brought to trial. However, after talking to Sadie, Alb changes his story and lies to get Jimmy off. Jimmy is ultimately found innocent.

Annie, Joe’s widow who is a midwife, delivers Sadie’s son. Annie doesn’t know she is delivering her dead husband’s child. Sadie names him Nuley Mac Joseph after her husband, Nuley, and after Daddy Alb whose middle name is Mac. Mac means ‘son of.’ The Suttons call him ‘Kongo Joe.’ He has a happy childhood until his mother goes blackberry picking in the Curr Holler and is bitten by a rattlesnake and dies. Daddy Alb convinces his wife, Lessa, to take Joe in by telling her she will have a ‘house boy.’ When Joe came to live with the Suttons, Avery, Alb and Lessa’s fifth son has undulant fever and is unable to walk. Joe helps Avery and Avery helps Joe. They become friends and support each other throughout their childhood until Avery marries. Avery’s wife, Lucy, is unaccustomed to black people and is afraid of Joe. So when Avery asks Joe to avoid coming to his house when Lucy is alone, Joe is so upset he leaves the Suttons and goes to live in Boonetown.

Daddy Alb dies of an apparent heart attack. At Daddy Alb’s funeral wake, Avery learns Joe is his first cousin and both Avery and Joe learn that their mothers killed their fathers. They share secret truths they will keep for the rest of their lives.