Great
Aunt Coralee Lewis was well known in the Dismal Swamps of North Carolina. The
swampers all jest called her Mama Cora. She was a JuJu Woman and could make up
potions to cure most ails. She could talk the warts off anyone and she could
make you a mojo that would protect you from another JuJu Woman. Love potions
and casting spells kept her right busy.
She lived in a cypress clapboard cabin
that had turned grayish silver from age. It sat on pilings at the edge of the
swamps and was a little rickety with age, but suited her jest fine. You hardly
ever caught her without her corncob pipe or a 'dip' of snuff She was tanned to about
the color of old leather and for as long as I can remember, she would have some
young feller staying in the cabin with her. They would jest show up and stay
for 6 months or so and then disappear. I don't remember ever seeing one of them
again after they left, but directly here would come another one for a while.
Her back porch hung over the edge of the swamps and the gators that hung out
there were unusually fat from all the garbage she would feed them. She sure
loved those gators and even had pet names for some of them.
When I was about 20
years old, I stopped by Aunt Coralees to visit for a spell and asked her to
give me a potion that would make me rich. She kinda chuckled and told me to
wait there. I could hear her rummaging around in her cabin and shortly she
pushed open the screen door and said "Here, Boy. You drink this" She
handed me a dipper that was filled with a bilious green liquid that kinda
glowed in the twilight. I steeled myself and drank it right down. It tasted
pretty good. I kinda got just a little floaty; something like after a couple of
good shots of moonshine, but it didn't last very long.
Soon after I left the
Dismals and started working for a living. During the years I have made a decent
living, married a really fine lady and we had a passel of children. The
children all grew up in fine health and married well themselves. The wife and I
do love to have our children and grandchildren come visit, but I never did get
rich.
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