PETRIFIED MAN: Eudora Welty

“Ever’body in New Orleans believes ever’thing spooky.”

A hairdressing salon, and interactions of womanly chat, and a little boy under the sink eating stale peanuts, and the connections between, who lives with whom, and what they are destined to become or give birth to…

“Mrs. Pike!” Mrs. Fletcher could only sputter and let curling fluid roll into her ear. “How could Mrs. Pike possibly know I was pregnant or otherwise, when she doesn’t even know me? The nerve of some people!”

The unique message I got from this miracle-working of words, is that none of us are safe. Best to immerse yourself in this skein of connections. Know thy enemy…

From stone to flesh, to freak show fortune tellers, and the eponymous Mr Petrie gradually turning to stone who may be a previous rapist on the run, a panoply as growths of gossip, perfumed cigarettes and getting a set and perm on the point of maternal delivery! Words set in stone, as a stay to death’s loosening hair? 

“Well, honey, they got these two twins in a bottle, see? Born joined plumb together – “

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Context as That Glimpse of Truth: https://nemonymousnight.wordpress.com/986-2/