The Snail Woman's Revenge

Mama brought home a legless woman from the manure field, with a snail's shell growing where her lower body should be.

Out of kindness, Mama washed the Snail Woman clean and let her stay in our house. But that very night, the woman crawled into my daddy's bed.

Once Daddy got a taste of how sweet she was, he couldn't wait to share the Snail Woman with every man in the hollow.

The men in the hollow all said this snail meat tasted even better than they'd imagined.

But all I could smell was a fishy stench that kept getting stronger… Chapter 1 Mama dug a woman out of the manure field.

Her skirt was soaked through with stinking manure slurry, and no matter how Mama pulled at her, she wouldn't stand up. Whatever anyone asked her, she didn't say a word.

She only stared blankly around her, her eyes completely empty. Folks in the hollow held their noses in disgust. "Where'd this stinking woman come from?

Filthy." "Just let her die in the manure field. At least she'd rot down into good fertilizer for the crops." But Mama couldn't bring herself to be that hard.

She was used to farm work, and she was strong. She dragged the woman all the way home by sheer force.

Folks in the hollow sneered that she'd lost her mind. "Can't even put enough food on her own table, and now she's brought home a mute woman." Mama didn't care about any of that.

She waved me over. "Hurry, go heat a bucket of water so we can wash her." The whole house reeked of manure. Good thing Daddy wasn't home, or he'd have started cussing again.

I hurried over with a bucket of hot water and helped wash the woman. Only after I'd wiped her clean with a cloth did I see how strikingly beautiful her face was.

She had a beauty mark between her brows, and she was far prettier than Widow Sexton, the woman who turned the most heads in the hollow.

But when I helped her undo her dress, Mama and I froze where we stood, scared stiff. No wonder she wouldn't stand up. Under that long skirt, there were no legs.

Just a huge, brightly patterned snail shell. Her waist looked like it had grown right up out of the shell. Inside the hard shell, I thought I could see snail flesh faintly moving.

Mama cried out, "Could it be… I've brought home a Snail Woman?" I asked her, curious, "What's a Snail Woman?

Is it a woman like this, with no legs, just a shell?" When she heard that, she clapped a hand over my mouth. "Don't ask.

Let's get her washed first." When Daddy came home that night, he was cussing from the moment he walked in the door. "Heard you dragged home some filthy woman?" "I'm damn near out of money for liquor, and you go bringing home another mouth to feed." With that, he raised his arm to slap Mama across the face.

But when he turned and saw the Snail Woman's gorgeous face, a lecherous grin spread across his own.

He hitched up his pants, his eyes gleaming. "A woman this pretty, you can bring home a few more." The Snail Woman didn't seem to understand what Daddy meant.

She just went on sitting at the table, looking at the food. Daddy was about to sidle up next to her when Mama blocked him. "That's a Snail Woman.

Have you forgotten the Founders' Book?" When he heard that, Daddy didn't dare take another step after all.

He angrily shook off Mama's hand. "A woman this goodlooking and I can't even touch her. Damn bad luck." "I'm sleeping in the back room tonight.

Looking at your old face makes me sick." Mama sighed and looked at the Snail Woman.

She murmured to herself, "I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse." I didn't know what Mama meant by the Founders' Book, but it looked like Daddy wouldn't be getting any ideas now.

But I never expected that the very same night, the Snail Woman would crawl into Daddy's bed on her own.

When Mama caught the Snail Woman sleeping with Daddy, she was so furious she shook all over.

Chapter 2 Mama screamed and went at Daddy with her fists, and only stopped, crying, after he'd slapped her a few times.

Daddy said, not caring one bit, "You're the one who brought her home to me.

What the hell are you mad about now?" He kneaded the soft swell of the Snail Woman's breasts and wouldn't let go. I looked at the woman in the bed.

Her cheeks were flushed and rosy, like she'd been fed till she glowed. Her lower half was curled up under the blanket, and the arms showing outside it were slender and pale.

She looked at Daddy with sultry, heavylidded eyes, without a trace of yesterday's dazed blankness. She didn't even have legs. How had she gotten all the way to Daddy's bed?

Mama ran crying to the settlement elder's house to demand justice, but all she got back was mockery. "Oh, come on.

You're jealous of a woman out of the manure field?" "Besides, you're the one who insisted on bringing her home.

Can't blame your own man for wanting her." Daddy stood at the back with a cigarette between his teeth, looking full and satisfied. "Y'all have never had a taste of that Snail Woman." "She sucks and pulls, sucks and pulls.

Real nimble!" "Any man's gotta get his hands on her at least once, or can he even call himself a man?" When folks heard the words "Snail Woman," every face changed. "A Snail Woman—ain't that the one in the old stories…" "Hard to say.

The Founders' Book is so many years old now, maybe it's all made up." In the end, the men couldn't help pulling Daddy aside and pressing him about what the Snail Woman really tasted like.

Seeing the lust in their eyes, I broke out in a cold sweat down my back. The Snail Woman didn't even have legs. How could she do that with men?

Daddy went at it with the Snail Woman night after night, and he had a lot more pep in him. He bragged to everyone he met about the heavenly life he was living every night.

Before long, a few of the bolder men in the hollow snuck over to our house. "Hey, brother, something that good, you gotta let your buddies have a taste too." With that, they stuffed a few packs of cigarettes into Daddy's pocket.

When Mama heard that, she turned her head away in fury. Folks in the hollow all laughed at her for shooting herself in the foot.

But no matter how she raged and threw fits, Daddy treated the Snail Woman like the apple of his eye. Daddy took the cigarettes, waved a generous hand, and let the men into the room.

The next morning, they slung their arms around Daddy's shoulders and sang her praises. "That Snail Woman really does taste something else." "Never seen a woman that hungry." "Last night she latched onto my pride and joy and wouldn't let go!" Listening to the men's dirty talk, Mama said under her breath, full of hate, "Wicked, every last one of them." "Laying hands on a Snail Woman!

They've forgotten every word the Founders wrote!" I couldn't help asking, "Mama, what is the Snail Woman, really?" Mama glared at the men with poison in her eyes. "The Founders' Book says when a Snail Woman comes, you have to keep her well." "Otherwise, I'm afraid there'll be calamity." Daddy heard her, took a hard drag on his cigarette, and said, "What do you mean, we ain't keeping her?" "We're keeping her up all night, working hard at it, ain't we?" At that, the men roared with laughter.

Just then, I thought I heard soft laughter coming from the Snail Woman's room. Once Daddy had gotten something out of it, he got to scheming.

Every night he squatted outside the Snail Woman's door and held out his hand to the men for money. "My old lady's the best after all.

She brings home a woman, and the woman makes money." "From now on I'll drink as much as I damn well please." The men in the hollow were like addicts, crowding into our house all night long.

Chapter 3 "Y'all smell that?" "That soft flesh of the Snail Woman's has a sweet smell to it." "Sure does.

Soon as I get a whiff of it, I feel strong all over." The strange thing was, the Snail Woman never fought back. She let the men handle her however they pleased.

But every day when I brought her food, I couldn't smell anything sweet. It was plainly a fishy stench. And that wasn't all.

I also saw the shell under her getting brighter and brighter. At the lightest touch, it started to wobble. I was so scared I froze where I stood and didn't dare move.

When I looked up, the Snail Woman was smiling at me. I snatched up the empty bowl and ran out of her room.

The more I thought about it, the more wrong it seemed, so I told Mama about it in secret.

She put down what she was holding at once. "Don't tell me the Snail Woman's about to shed her shell." When the news spread through the hollow, the men were tickled to death. "I've been sick of that hard thing for a while now." "Once she sheds that shell, it's gonna feel a whole lot better for us." But the women in the hollow had long since had it in for our Snail Woman.

They didn't dare take it out on the men, so they all blamed Mama instead.

They said snidely to her face, "Ain't you the only goodhearted soul in the whole hollow." "You didn't just bring home a homewrecker for your own man.

Now she's gone and lured ours off too." Widow Sexton swayed her slim waist and chimed in, "That's exactly right." "A dog'll always go back to eating shit.

Never learns, no matter how many beatings it takes." The rest of them snickered, watching Mama's face. There was a deep dent in the bone of Mama's brow.

When I was little, I'd heard folks in the hollow say Daddy beat her like that because she'd brought trouble on the hollow. Every time I asked, Mama wouldn't say much.

When she heard Widow Sexton, she was so mad she trembled.

She shot Widow Sexton a vicious look and spat on the ground. "If you hadn't run your lying mouth back then, would things ever have blown up like that?" At that, Widow Sexton's eyebrows shot up, and filth started pouring out of her mouth.

I hurried to pull Mama toward home. "Mama, why don't we send the Snail Woman away?" "With her staying in our house like this, I just don't feel easy." But Mama shook her head. "It ain't that simple." "Never mind every man in the hollow having his eye on her.

There's nothing in the Founders' Book about anybody ever sending a Snail Woman away." Once she got onto that, Mama looked even worse.

I hurried to help her calm down, but in my heart I had other plans. That night, I snuck out of the house. This Snail Woman was just too strange.

I was going to the Founders' Hall to see what was really behind it. In our hollow, you could only see the Founders' Book on the day you came of age.

The rest of the time it was kept in a cabinet. Luckily, the windows all around had long been falling apart. One gentle push, and I climbed in.

There were only a few weak candle flames in the Hall. By their light, I found my way to the cabinet. I opened it and carefully took out the Founders' Book. The cover had yellowed.

There was no telling how many generations it had been handed down. I searched carefully for anything about the Snail Woman.

I didn't stop until I came to a familiar picture of a Snail Woman. The Founders' Book said a Snail Woman was a blessing made flesh, and when she appeared, she had to be kept well.

Otherwise, a great calamity would fall on the hollow. No wonder. Our hollow had always lived off raising snails. Maybe this Snail Woman really was a blessing in the flesh.

Chapter 4 But the longer I looked at the picture, the more something seemed off. The blessingbringing Snail Woman in the Founders' Book had a shell of pure white.

But the Snail Woman lying in the bed at our house had a shell full of colors! For