Now, I know y’all think the Devil is a little red man with horns growing out of his head with a red tail and a pitchfork. Well, the folks down in south Alabama say that just ain’t so. They say the Devil is nothin’ but an ol’ trixster, just like Brer Rabbit. And you all know how Brer Rabbit’s always going around trickin’ folks, especially Brer Fox and Brer Bear.
Well, that ol’ Devil was travelin’ back and forth all over Alabama trickin’ folks.What he liked to do most of all was to get loving couples to start fightin’ with one another. He had husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends fightin’ all over the place. Once the Devil came a-callin’, it wasn’t long before somebody said the wrong thing to their mate, or somebody forgot an anniversary, or one person cheated on the other. Pretty soon, the loving couple would fight and split up, and the Devil would strut down the road toward the next house, laughin’ all the way!
Well, the Devil was doing a pretty good job until he came across a couple of newlyweds down in the valley. They were so lovey-dovey that the Devil couldn’t get them to part, no matter how hard he tried. After several days, the Devil got real frustrated and just gave up on those two lovebirds. The Devil was walkin’ down the road all discouraged when he ran across a strange woman who was as barefoot as an ol’ possum. The Barefoot Woman looked at the Devil and said, “What’s wrong with you, Mister Devil? You sick or somethin’?”
“Nah,” said the Devil, “I’ve just been tryin’ to break up that couple down in the valley. But they’re so lovey-dovey, I can’t get ’em to part.”
“Shoot, is that all?” said the Barefoot Woman. “Listen, I’ll make you a deal. I ain’t ever had a new pair of shoes before. If you’ll get me a brand new pair of fancy red shoes, I’ll part that couple for you.”
“If you can get ’em to part, I’ll get you the most expensive shoes in town,” said the Devil. “But you don’t get ’em ’til after you do the job.”
“No problem,” said the Barefoot Woman. “You just meet me down at the crossroads tomorrow evenin’ with my shoes.”
The next morning, the Barefoot Woman baked a mouth-watering apple pie and went up to the newlyweds’ home in the valley. The Husband was in the field chopping cotton, his shirt soaked with sweat. The Barefoot Woman asked if she could visit with his Wife, for she had just moved into the valley, and she wanted to get to know her new neighbors. The Husband smiled and pointed the Barefoot Woman toward
the house The Wife invited the Barefoot Woman in and they began to chatter away. The Barefoot Woman took a seat and began to praise everything in the house as the “prettiest thing she ever saw” – the kitchen, the dishes, the furniture, even the ol’ rooster outside! The Wife thanked her for all her kind words and gave her a bucket of freshly-picked blackberries. “Yessir, everything in this house is pretty,” said the Barefoot Woman. “But you know what the prettiest thing of all is? You are.”
The Wife blushed and said, “Oh, no, I’m not the prettiest. My husband is prettier than I am.”
“Yeah, yeah, he’s pretty alright,” said the Barefoot Woman. “But he’d be even prettier if he didn’t have that big ol’ flesh-mole on his neck with those ugly black hairs stickin’ out.”
The smile briefly faded on the Wife’s face, and she said, “Yeah, I know. He’s pretty embarrassed ’bout it. But I’m used to it by now.”
“You don’t have to get used to it,” said the Barefoot Woman. “Why don’t you just cut it off?”
The Wife’s jaw dropped. “I couldn’t do that!” she exclaimed. “He’d bleed to death!”
“Naw, he wouldn’t,” said the Barefoot Woman. “Here’s what you do: take a razor with you to bed tonight. When he’s fast asleep, reach over and whack that thing off real fast. Then dab his neck with some spider webs to stop the bleeding. He won’t even know you did it ’til the next morning. And I’m sure he’ll thank you for it!”
The Wife finally agreed to do it, thanking the Barefoot Woman over and over again. After telling the Wife good-bye, the Barefoot Woman went outside and visited with the Husband, who was still working in the field. “Boy, you sure is a hard worker,” said the Barefoot Woman.
“Yes, ma’am,” said the Husband. “But I don’t mind it at all, ’cause the harder I work, the more I can give to my beautiful wife. She means the world to me.”
The Barefoot Woman chuckled and said, “Yeah, I’m sure she does. But from what I hear, she means the world to somebody else, too.”
The Husband stopped working and glared at her. “What you mean by that?” he asked.
“Well, from what I hear, she’s seein’ another man in town. And one of these nights, if you’re not careful, she’s gonna do away with you.”
The Husband clenched his fists in rage. “Get offa my property, you lyin’ ol’ hag! Nobody talks ’bout my wife like that!”
The Barefoot Woman shrugged her shoulders and turned away. “Alls I’m sayin’ is watch out,” she said over her shoulder as she walked back down the road.