The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

got to go home 'cause Ida May so happy to see him she been doing him special all day. I say, "Well, she done me special too," and he say that okay, her being sad and me being his best friend. That boy was greased to the Blues, and they just wouldn't stick to him.
    So I borrowed a Model T Ford, drove over to Smiley's, and done run over his dog, who was fled up in the yard.
    "That dog was old anyways," hesay. "I had him since I was a boy. Time I get Ida May a puppy anyways."
    "You ain't sad?" I say.
    "Naw," hesay. "That ol' dog had his time."
    "You hopeless, Smiley.I gots to do some ponderin."
    So Iponders.Takin me two days to come up with a way to put the Blues on ol' Smiley. But you know, even when that boy standing there over the smokin ashes of his house, Ida May in one arm and his guitar in the other, he don't do nothin but thank God they had time to get out without gettin burnt up.
    Preacher once told me that theyis people who rises to tragedy. He says colored folk gots to rise to tragedy like ol' Job in the Bible, iffin they gonna get they propers. So Ifigures that Smiley is one of them who rises to tragedy, get stronger when bad things come on him.But they more than one way to get the Blues on you. Ain't just bad things happening, sometime it good things not happenin – disappointment, iffin you know what I mean?
    So I hears that down Biloxi way, round 'bout one of them salt marshes on the Gulf, they is a catfish big as a rowboat but nobody can catch him. Even a white man down there will give five hundred dollars to the man bring that big ol' catfish in. Now you know people be trying to catch him, but they don't have no luck. So I tells Smiley I got me a secret recipe, and we gonna go get that catfish, get that money, and go up toChicago and make us a record.
    Now I knows they ain't no catfish big as a rowboat and iffin there was, he'd be caught by now, but Smiley need him a disappointment iffin the Blues gonna jump on him. So Ispends the whole ride down there buildin up that boy's hopes.Cadillacs and big ol' houses ridin on the back of that catfish.We ridin in that ol' dog-killin Model T Ford, two hundred feet a rope and some shark hooks in the back with my secret catfish recipe. I figure we get us some bait on the way, and sho' nuff, I accidentally run me over two chickens got too close to the road.
    'For dark we down on the bayou where that ol' cat spose to live.Them days 'bout half the counties in Mississippi got signs say: NIGGER, DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU IN THIS COUNTY, so we always plan to get where we goin' 'for dark.
    My secret recipe a gallon jar of chicken guts I keep buried in the backyard for a year. Itakes that jar and punches some holes in the lid and toss her out in the water. "A catfish smell them rotten guts, they be there lickety-split," I tells Smiley. Then we hooks up one them chickens and throw it out there and we sits back and has us a drink or two, me all the time talkin trash 'bout that five hundred dollar and Smiley grinnin like he does.
    'For long Smiley doze off on the bank.Ilets him sleep, thinkin he be more disappointed if he wake up
    and we ain't caught that catfish. Just to be sure, Istarts to pull in the rope, and 'for I got it pulled in ten feet somethin grab on.That ol' rope start burning through my hand like they's a scared horse on t'other end. I musta yelled,cause Smiley woke up and goes running off the other way. "Watch you doin?" Iyells, and that old rope burnin through my hands like a snake on fire.
    Well, that it, I think, and I lets go of the rope. (A Bluesman got to take care of his hands.) But when the rope come to the end, it tighten up like an E string and make a twang – throw moss and mud up into my face – and I looks round and see Smiley crankin up that Model T Ford. He done fled the rope on the bumper and now he drivin it back out the bayou, pullin whatever out there in the water as he go. And it ain't comin easy, that ol' Ford screamin and slidin and sound like it like to blow up, but up on the bank come the biggest catfish I ever seen, and that fish ain't happy.He floppin and thrashin and just bout buryin me in mud.
    Smiley set the brake and lookback at what we catch, when that ol' catfish make a noise I don't know can come out a fish. Sound like woman screaming. Which scares me, but not as much as thenoise that come back out the bayou, which sound like the devil done come home.
    "You done it now, Smiley," Isays.
    "Get in," hesay.
    Don't take more