"i wonder what's going on here?" the Mysterious Lurker wondered as she began lurking in a new story.
she wiped the sweat from her brow as she walked along a country road on an early june mississippi day, then stopped to watch a teenage girl with a ponytail chopping cotton. in an adjacent field, a shirtless young man with sun-bronzed skin was bailing hay.
the Lurker hastened for the shade under a live oak tree near a farmhouse. after a few minutes, a woman opened up the back door and called her laboring children in for dinner. the Lurker watched as they rushed into the house, not stopping to wipe their dirty feet.
"that's not right," the Lurker murmured to herself as she made an adjustment to the dialogue. when she walked in herself, she found them passing black-eyed peas and biscuits around the dinner table. she inhaled appreciatively, only half listening to the conversation until she realized they were talking about a suicide.
"nice use of local color," she nodded approvingly as the backstory unfolded. the brother's recollection of a prank that he and his friend had pulled on his sister made her frown, though. "ice down the back of a shirt isn't very memorable," she thought. "a frog! now that would be memorable!"
she made a couple of other minor revisions, then listened with interest as the mother related a story about the daughter and the victim. "holy shit!" her eyes went wide at the latest revelation. "i can't believe they'd throw something like that off a bridge!"
as she listened to the finale, she slumped in her seat, emotionally drained. "it's too much. i just...it's too much."
she went back to the couple on the bridge.
"i can't leave that in there," she decided. "what if...what if they were spotted throwing 'something' off that bridge, but nobody knows what it was?" she mused. "yes, much better. instead of being left emotionally devastated by the song, people will be left forever wondering about the mystery of what was thrown off the tallahatchie bridge!"
the Lurker gave a maniacal laugh, made the change, and danced away in search of another target.
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5 comments:
Yep, definitely had to google it, but I'm glad I did. Interesting story! :)
poor billie joe...
YAY !! I didn't have to google it !!! Love that Lurker....
:o)
It is a disturbing song though...
true. everything about suicide is disturbing. but i've always loved how well crafted this song is (and her other great song "Fancy," which i think is her best). i can almost taste the black-eyed peas and see the screen door and the dirt-streaked necks of the singer and her brother coming in from the fields...great writing. best of all is the mystery of what the hell they were throwing off that bridge!
Yep, that's the kind of mystery I like... you sing it instead of reading it !! :o)
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