|
COCKA-DADDY-DOO
Now this here story aint near as old as Greatgrandaddy Jonah, but he told it to me just the same. See, it was bout time for the Freedme Festival again and all the peoplefolks were getting ready. They were frying up catfish, baking acorn bread and making pecan pies…though they never could match the flavor of them ones Mr. Squirrel made when I was just a child. Oh, they tried though. Put in a lil of this and a lil of that, trying to please Greatgrandaddy Jonah’s tastebuds. But nothing they did could make them pies and loaves near as good as the ones Mr. Squirrel made for them Freedom folks so many years ago. Figure it wasn’t right how Greatgrandaddy Jonah did that squirrel, but who am I to say anything? I got the hat.
Anyway, this one particular year Miz Lizzy, one of Greatgrandaddy Jonah’s favorite womenfolk, accidentally add one of her prized hen’s eggs to her batter and come out with the best loaf of acorn bread tasted since Mr. Squirrel’s demise. Greatgrandaddy usually break down in tears when he taste them non-Mr. Squirrel loaves but this time he only get the sniffles. Wasn’t exactly like his…but good enough. Miz Lizzy swear to only use them eggs from now on, but this story aint bout her. Aint bout the bread. Aint even bout Greatgrandaddy Jonah and nearly all his stories are bout himself.
This story here’s bout Hattie Hen. I know you done had enough of old loudmouth Hattie, but she got a story too...or aint you learn that from the last one? Anyway, Hattie was Miz Lizzy’s prized hen. Rarely lay an egg, but when she do, they big and beautiful with bright yellow yolks taste like sugar and whites so white they likely to blind you if you aint prepared. It aint really much bother Hattie at first that her eggs kept disappearing, but round time this Freedme Festival come around, business down at the shop had done slowed down to just Greed getting his fur washed and fluffed and Sista Skunk getting her stripe repainted.
Hattie wanted some kids like Mama Duck, but Miz Lizzy done swore to only use her eggs in Greatgrandaddy Jonah’s acorn bread. Lord knows what she do if she find out how they make her pecan pie taste. Anyway, round the time of this particular festival, Hattie Hen get ready to lay another egg. Soon as she feel it getting ready to drop, she creep off to the back of her shop and decide to stay there ‘til the Freedme Festival was over. Can’t say exactly how long that was, since Black folks at a Freedme Festival aint liable to let one end too soon. Three…four months, maybe…
Anyway, she only leave long enough to gather up the sweet corn Miz Lizzy been feeding her and take it back to her hiding spot. Now, she thought she was all alone, but in all her hiding and such, she aint know Wally Rooster was back. Wally Rooster? You mean to tell me I aint told you nothing bout Wally Rooster?! I didn’t? Well, why you aint say so? Wally Rooster was a star! He was something else. That bird could crow with the best of ‘em. Didn’t just crow like any old rooster, making you mad early in the morning. Naw, honey! Wally Rooster break out his guitar and sing to ya early in the morning. Voice was so beautiful and his songs so lively, animalfolks and peoplefolks alike wake up happy, dancing and singing and carrying on. Left Freedomtown by accident when one of them Freedomfolks left in the middle of the night and took old Wally Rooster with him. Aint gon say it was Cletus, cuz I was too young to know all the particulars and them grown folks weren’t telling.
Anyway, Cletus come back with I and Myself but Wally Rooster wasn’t nowhere to be found. When he did come back, couldn’t none of the animalfolks make him say where he’d been. Wally. Not Cletus. Aint nobody but Greatgrandaddy Jonah was interested in Cletus. Don’t know what happened before then, but Wally met up with Rev’m Peacock on the way back to Freedom, so the two’d walked down together, see? Rev’m Peacock talking bout how wonderful his service was gonna be, what with Wally Rooster leading the choir. Aint matter that he hadn’t actually asked Wally to sing. Rev’m figured like most folks figured. He the Rev’m and if he say Wally was singing, Wally was singing. Didn’t nobody ask him. They just went on with their arrangements and added him to the program. Didn’t matter that they aint know what he was singing. I’m telling ya that rooster was something else, coulda sang the abc’s and folks woulda lost they minds. Thing is, he’d stopped singing, but couldn’t just tell ‘em that and hurt folks’ feelings.
What he do? He let them folks make all them plans and speak him up and when it got to be his time to shine, someone hand him his old guitar and tell him to get to singing. That po bird tried to sing something pretty, but he just couldn’t do it. It was the strings. Every time he see one of them strings, he get to thinking bout all the rope he seen down in Mississippi where he’d been traded for a two-headed cow. He get to remembering all them ropes and trees and the strange fruit hanging from them trees that he never did see in Freedom. Probably since folks aint know Freedom existed, but that aint change how he feel bout them strings. By now, all them pictures floating through his mind start to make him shake. Finger took to twitching on them strings and his foot took to stomping out his frustrations. Voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, but them thoughts had to come out.
What did I do? I’m askin’ why…ya
string me on ya trees and cut me with ya knives ya
drag me through the streets I aint allowed to use
I know ya think I’m lower than the dirt under your shoe…
Aint gotta tell ya, them animalfolks were shocked. Here it was Freedme Festival time. Time for laughing and shouting and carrying on like Black folks are bound to do at a Freedme Festival, and old Wally Rooster up there singing bout things they aint seen happen since before Greatgrandaddy Jonah walked off that plantation toward his freedom. “Hush up that mess!” they yelled. “We aint trying to hear bout all that! We trying to be happy and you just messing things up. Why don’t you just go back where you was?”
Well, they aint know no more than I did where he was, but Wally knew wasn’t nothing good about the land outside Freedom. “Sing something nice or hush!” Yes they did. Wally Rooster knew wasn’t nothing good outside Freedom, but still, he tried to sing something pretty for them Freedomfolks. Again he let his fingers stroke them strings, but them strings kept reminding him of ropes. His foot got to stomping and his wing took to slapping along with his beat. He tried to fight ‘em but them pictures and thoughts and memories had to come out.
I can’t even walk a man in this world
say only real men wear them hoods
trying to hide yo face from me, aint even try to hide yo deeds
dragged my brother through the town…
had all his chirren gather round
s’posed to watch they daddy die, ya told them babies not to cry
they aint but dirt under ya shoe
told them babies ‘ya cry next time it’s you’…
Them Freedomfolks aint know what to do bout them words, so they did what most folks do when they don’t like something. They got mad at Wally for saying ‘em. Not that he coulda kept them words inside much longer. Still, they booed and threw rocks and yelled at po Wally, but he just couldn’t keep them words inside.
took my sista late at night, ya beat her and ya made her cry
ya held her so she couldn’t fight…
I heard her wishing she would die
oh but when I tried to set her free…
ya hung me from the nearest tree
it’s a miracle that I’m alive
don’t matter though, my sista died…
Well, while he sang his song, Wally Rooster act like he aint even feel them rocks and mean words. Couldn’t nothing beat the pain he already felt, so he aint say another word, just step down off Rev’m Peacock’s stage and walk off into the woods, dragging that guitar behind him. Wasn’t too long before he find Hattie Hen’s shop. Looked like wasn’t nobody around, so he picked up that guitar with the strings that reminded him of ropes and crawled under the leaves ‘til he got all the way in the back where none of Hattie’s customers were allowed to go.
It was dark back there, which suited old Wally Rooster just fine. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep to the sound of Rev’m Peacock and the other Freedomfolks singing bout rain, but them memories just wouldn’t stop floating in and out of his mind. They had to come out. So way back in the furthest corner of Hattie’s shop, Wally sat with his old guitar and strummed out the sadness he’d finally been able to walk away from.
I come home after all this time,
trying to make a place that’s mine
been trying to fight the memories, but can’t escape my misery
can’t sing like I used to do…not sure I’ll be able to
unless I find somebody who can love me like I used to too…
Only then could he sleep. Now I know I said this here was Hattie’s story, and it is. See, Hattie was sitting all alone in another corner a lil closer to the front where Miz Lizzy threw the sweet corn she been feeding Hattie for so long. See, she was still trying to hide the egg she’d laid a few days earlier. Thought she was alone, and didn’t know Wally Rooster was back, just that it got awful lonely back there where no one could see her, so she’d moved up a lil closer so she could see a lil more. She a gossip, remember? Gossip gotta have something to gossip bout, so she move up where she can still see them Freedomfolks and have something to talk about. Well, this here particular night, Hattie was a lil stir crazy and she’d decided to take a lil vacation. She aint go far, just to the back of her shop. She was getting ready to turn around and go back when she heard old Wally Rooster singing a new kind of song. She stood there a lil while, just listening. Didn’t even know the rooster was back, just that he’d disappeared round the time I and Myself showed up. Now, here he was in the back of her shop. She had to tell somebody.
Now, she knew in her heart she was wrong for leaving, but that’s just what she did. She wrapped up that big beautiful egg in an old quilt she kept for Mama Duck’s ducklings and took it way back to the furthest corner of her shop where Wally Rooster still slept. Now, she aint just abandon the egg. She left a note saying she’d be back and telling Wally where to find the food she’d set aside for herself. Couldn’t help it no more than Wally could help singing his songs, I guess. Hattie Hen had to tell somebody that Wally Rooster was hiding out and only she knew where. I know. I never said Hattie’s was a nice story, just that she had one. Let’s stop talking bout her and move on to Wally.
Well, I aint gotta tell you that rooster was surprised when he wake up to find that egg laying next to him getting cold. Aint gonna tell you neither…cuz he wasn’t surprised. While he was wherever he was, Wally Rooster’d learned to sleep light so he’d know who and what was going on around him. He heard Hattie Hen long before she even knew he was there and he knew she couldn’t be no less a gossip now than she was before he was snatched. She’d found him in her shop and had to tell somebody, so he lay real still like he was asleep and wait ‘til Hattie run off to cluck out her story. Soon as she left, Wally picked up that egg and settled it against his body humming a song bout them strange fruit he seen in Mississippi. Then he went to sleep for real.
Now, Wally aint mind being in the dark cuz that way he aint have to talk to all them folks who aint wanna hear what all he had to say. So next day he fold up that quilt like a bandana and wrap it round his waist, stuck that big beautiful egg in one of them folds, and went on up front to collect Hattie’s food. After he ate a lil bit, he pick up that old guitar and sing out his sadness. Same thing every day. After while, he notice lil movements inside the folds of that quilt. Naw, the egg aint hatched. Just that lil chick was stomping and strumming his own lil guitar along with Wally. Together, they stomped and strummed and hummed and sang out old Wally Rooster’s sadness. Them two sang and hummed ‘til one day that egg finally did hatch. Course, being the mama, old loudmouth Hattie knew her baby’d been born. Here she come. Strolled in like she aint done nothing wrong and aint come alone neither. No sir. Here come Percy Possum and Missy Crow and Tipsy Squirrel and even the Rev’m Peacock who’d stuck around to see bout Wally Rooster’s soul.
“Gimme my baby, ya old no-singing bird,” Hattie say. Yeah she did. Act like it was Wally’s idea to raise her youngun when she the one who ran off in the first place, but neither Wally nor that chick paid her no ‘ttention. Well, Hattie aint like being ignored and besides, she’d told them folks Wally’d come in her shop all upset and forced her to leave so he could be alone. Said he was too good to mess with them other animalfolks and kicked her out her own shop. That’s what she said, “said he was too good to mess with us animalfolks and kicked me out my own shop.” Aint matter it wasn’t true. That’s what she said.
“I say gimme my baby,” she say. Well, Wally aint care.
“This aint yo baby,” he say and go right back to paying them folks no ‘ttention.
“Yes he is,” she say. “You stole him!” Wally aint even look up, but that lil chick did. He looked up at his daddy and looked back on over to Hattie and remembered. Remembered when Hattie took her vacation and left him in the cold. Remembered her wrapping him up in that quilt and leaving him with Wally Rooster so she could go tell her stories. Oh, he try to hold all them memories inside but pretty soon his lil finger got to twitching on them strings and his lil foot took to stomping and his lil voice wasn’t nothing but a whisper but them words had to come out.
oh my mama left me…she left me all alone
got up and left me…sitting in the cold
wrapped me up in this same quilt and left me in the dark
since Daddy Rooster scooped me up we aint yet been apart
now ya claim ya is my mama
why ya treat me so bad?
Daddy Rooster the only mama this chick has ever had…
Aint gotta tell you Hattie wasn’t expecting that. Not only had her own chick told her business, but he told it in front of other folks with so much emotion wasn’t any way to deny its truth. Still she couldn’t help herself. “Don’t you sass me,” she say. “How he yo mama, when I’m the one who laid ya?” Well, lil chick couldn’t deny that, but Hattie couldn’t deny leaving neither. Pretty soon, his lil wing got to slapping on that guitar and his foot took to stomping again. Them memories had to come out.
oh, my mama left me once she’d laid the egg
if she was any kinda mama she’d have stuck around instead
oh my mama left me…back here in the dark
Daddy Rooster saved me…now she saying it’s his fault
what kinda world has this chick been born into?
where ya can’t love ya mama cuz ya mama don’t love you…
Well, them other animalfolks aint need to hear no more. They opened their arms and scooped up both Wally Rooster and the lil chick he called Clyde, took ‘em both out for the rest of them Freedomfolks to see, and let them two tell everyone the real story of what happened. Pretty soon, everyone was stomping and wailing and singing and dancing like they used to do when Wally sang. Lil Clyde just a stomping and strumming along with his daddy. Folks aint care much for Hattie, so she stayed in her shop. Next time she lay an egg, she let Miz Lizzy mix it in with her batter.
No way she was taking a chance on another chick telling her business.
| 
When Justice come A-Callin' preview
