The Lucky Stone (3 page)

“My Mama was just a young girl then but she sang the lead right off. They had something like a stage built out in the field under the trees, you know. They would gather there and have singin and preachin and a good time. The Reverend Matthew James Jones was the circuit preacher and they tell me he was a mighty man of God.

“Now you remember ’bout Miss Mandy and her daughter, Vashti? Well, Vashti was just a girl then herself, not yet so long-nailed and folks weren’t so scared of her as they were of her Mama, Miss Mandy.

“Anyhow, this time I’m talking about, a meetin was to be held on Sunday afternoon. Everybody was eager to be there. It was a strange threatenin day like we have sometime in late summer. Thunder soundin from somewhere off and lightnin seem like it’s just about to come.

“I tell you, Sweet Tee, ain’t nothin quite as heavy on you as a storm that seem to be headin your way. Everybody decided to attend the meeting though, because Reverend Jones didn’t get around but every so often.

“I just know it seemed beautiful under the trees, everybody sittin on the grass around the stage wearin their pretty meetin shawls and smilin and howdyin each and all.

“Under those trees I ’magine the sky didn’t seem so heavy. They tell me that the Greater Glory Baptist Church Choir gathered there on the stage and sang three or four numbers endin up with my own mother singin the lead on ‘Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.’ There was shoutin and happiness and people grown and small rushin forward to testify.

“They tell me a man named Kenford Gamble run up and confessed every one of his sins, and it took him a good forty minutes with the thunder threatenin and the saints all full of amen.

“It was a time, a time!

“Then they tell me some young people walked upon that stage one by one and stood there alone.

“Vashti was the last. She just stood there movin back and forth and back and forth, and all of a sudden she reached her arms out and flung ’em wide and started singin ‘Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.’ She was wearin a string ’round her neck, and on the string was a pouch. Don’t you know while she was singin the string broke and the pouch fell off her, and it bounce one time and then bounce again off the stage.

“Vashti stopped right in the middle of singin. She put her arms down and stood still for a minute. The people all got still. Even the skies seemed to stop their threatenin and be still. Vashti stood there on the stage by herself.

“Then she said all of a sudden, ’My stone!’ and she jumped right down to the ground from the stage and reached for the pouch. And bless Jesus, just as she jumped down the storm broke! A great arm of God’s lightnin shot out of the sky and struck that stage right where Vashti had been standin!

“Oh, everybody jumped up and started scramblin and runnin for home, but not ’fore they saw the stage catch fire and crumble to the ground.

“Vashti picked up her pouch, they say, and poured out this stone, shiny and black as night, and just held it in her hand.”

They sat for a while in the twilight.

“That stone was sure lucky for her, Grandmama,” Tee whispered after a while.

“That’s ’cause it’s a lucky stone.” Her Great-grandmother smiled.

“Was it ever lucky for you, Grandmama?”

Mrs. Pickens chuckled.

“Well, I just might tell you about that some day, Baby.”

And they went into the house.

Mrs. Elzie F. Pickens was rocking slowly on the porch one afternoon when her Great-granddaughter brought her a big bunch of dogwood blooms, and that was the beginning of that story.

“Ahhh, now that dogwood reminds me of the day I met your Great-granddaddy, Mr. Pickens, Sweet Tee.

“It was just this time, spring of the year, and me and my best friend Ovella Wilson, who is now gone, was goin to join the Silas Greene. Usta be a kinda show went all through the South, called it the Silas Greene show. Somethin like the circus. Me and Ovella wanted to join that thing and see the world. Nothin wrong at home or nothin, we just wanted to travel and see new things and have high times. Didn’t say nothin to nobody but one another. Just up and decided to do it.

“Well, this day we plaited our hair and put a dress and some things in a crokasack and started out to the show. Spring day like this.

“We got there after a good little walk and it was the world, Baby, such music and wonders as we never had seen! They had everything there, or seemed like it.

“Me and Ovella thought we’d walk around for a while and see the show before goin to the office to sign up and join.

“While we was viewin it all we come up on this dancin dog. Cutest one thing in the world next to you, Sweet Tee, dippin and movin and head bowin to that music. Had a little ruffly skirt on itself and up on two back legs twistin and movin to the music. Dancin dancin dancin till people started throwin pennies out of they pockets.