The Deceiver

A long time ago, on the Old Locust Plantation located in southern Mississippi lived a man named Johnny Walker. Johnny was known on the plantation as the deceiver. Telling lies for him was like breathing in air for regular people. Wherever Johnny went turmoil followed. He loved eavesdropping and telling people's deepest, dark secrets. Back then in the 1940s, many black people worked for white people cleaning their houses, babysitting their children, cooking their meals, and planting crops in their fields. Mr. Adams had one of the largest watermelon patches in Mississippi and Johnny was one of his workers. Johnny's job was to watch Mr. Adams watermelon patch and the salt house where the fresh meat was kept to make sure nobody was going inside.

The early winter months were extremely busy for farmers because it was pig slaughtering season. Farmers would gather their pigs by the dozens into loading trailers for slaughter. Mr. Adams had a salt house where he would keep large quantities of butchered meat. One night someone broke in cutting the lock to the salt house and stole all the meat. Johnny didn't hesitate to tell Mr. Adams that young Richard Tanner was the one who went into the salt house and stole all the fresh meat. Mr. Adams and his boys went to young Richard's house and took him out and gave him the whipping of his life for stealing. The day after he was whipped, his mother Martha went to Johnny's house to confront him.

"Why did you tell that damn lie!" asked Martha. "My boy never stole nothing in his life!"

"I didn't tell no lie!" exclaimed Johnny. "I saw the boy steal with my own eyes!"

"You'll pay for that lie Johnny Walker!" shouted Martha "You'll reap what you sow!"

Martha turned around and slammed the old raggedy door of Johnny's house almost knocking it down completely off its hinges. Johnny just shrugged his shoulders his humped over shoulders and laughed loudly. When the men on the plantation heard about the white men beating young Richard they became angry at what Johnny had done. The young man was going to be laid up for weeks on end because the left side of his was beaten so badly.

One night the men had a meeting about how they were going to make Johnny pay for telling his lies. It had gotten so bad that no one could even talk about nothing to nobody for fear of Johnny lurking around eavesdropping. They decided to throw a party for the old troublemaker. Back in those days when someone said they were going to throw somebody a party everyone knew that they weren't talking about a celebration. This meant an ill-fate for the person the party was being thrown. Either they were going to get a beating or something much worse. The men feared no one in the town would be safe if Johnny was allowed to keep spreading his lies.

It was an icy December eve when the men loaded up in the two trucks to go and get Johnny. Mississippi rarely got snow this time of year but that night snow began to fall. There was a full moon and the light from the moon was so bright that it radiated all over the small town like a spotlight. The men picked Johnny up from his house and took him to an old abandoned shack on a secluded dirt road near Moody's swamp. The snow began to fall hard and the men driving the trucks could barley see where they were going. It was pitch dark on that road and no houses could be seen for miles. The only lights that could be seen was the headlights from both trucks. The men had brought gallons of muscadine wine homebrew on the back of one of the trucks. They got poor old Johnny liquored up good. He was laughing and talking loudly with the men unaware of what they had in store for him. The men killed Johnny by beating him and cutting his throat. They laid him down on a tarp and threw his battered body on the back of one of the old trucks. His body was weighted down with cedar blocks, then thrown into the Black River Lake.

Two weeks later, a couple of men hunting near the lake with their hunting dogs found Johnny's body floating in the water and called the sheriff department. The police began to ask people questions about what had happened to Johnny but no one claim they knew anything about what had happened. The case about who killed Johnny Walker was never solved. Everyone on the plantation knew who the men were that killed Johnny. They never told the police or even spoke about the incident ever again.

A month later some ladies in the community went over to clean the house where Johnny lived. There was another family that was moving in soon. Plantation houses were never vacant because workers were needed daily so they stayed occupied. When the two ladies Jean and Mable went into clean the house, a rancid odor met them as they opened the door. The smell was so strong that Jean put both her hands over her nose and her mouth. Mable removed her headscarf from her head and tied it around her face. They walked slowly towards a room near the kitchen. They opened the closed door and found out the source of the smell. There were boxes on top of boxes of old rotten meat. Johnny was the person that stole the meat from his boss Mr. Adams. He lied and blamed young Richard to cover his hide. The people that lived on the plantation were relieved because they could openly talk about their bosses and anyone else they wanted. They no longer had to worry about anyone eavesdropping and spreading lies. Young Richard's mother Martha was right when she said Johnny would reap what he sow for spreading lies getting her son beaten for stealing because he was innocent. Johnny paid for his lies and thievery that snowy December night inside the abandoned shack on the dirt road near the swamp.