Jamal sings on the levee at night because he has to. Maybe he’s grieving, maybe he’s cursed, maybe the song just won’t leave him alone. But his voice calls things up from the black water: drowned memories, river spirits, Mami Wata, things without names. The fog makes mouths. The cypress trees grow skulls.
Annie stands guard. She doesn’t sing. She doesn’t pray. She dares. Rope in hand, feet planted, she’s the reason the river hasn’t taken him yet. She knows every time he sings, he gets thinner. More light, less boy. She’s buying him time — or fighting off whatever he owes.
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Attributions:
Title: harmonica2.wav
Athor: UncleSigmund
Souurce: https://freesound.org/s/31468/
License: Attribution 4.0
Title: ST slide guitar blues riff 4.wav
Author: juskiddink
Source: https://freesound.org/s/77268/
License: Attribution 4.0
Annie stands guard. She doesn’t sing. She doesn’t pray. She dares. Rope in hand, feet planted, she’s the reason the river hasn’t taken him yet. She knows every time he sings, he gets thinner. More light, less boy. She’s buying him time — or fighting off whatever he owes.
#LikeAndSubscribe #SleepStories #PeculiarTales #Storyelling #creepystories
Attributions:
Title: harmonica2.wav
Athor: UncleSigmund
Souurce: https://freesound.org/s/31468/
License: Attribution 4.0
Title: ST slide guitar blues riff 4.wav
Author: juskiddink
Source: https://freesound.org/s/77268/
License: Attribution 4.0
Category
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MusicTranscript
00:00Disclaimer. This story is a reimagined work inspired by themes, motifs, and storytelling traditions found in African-American folklore. It
00:11is an original interpretation and not a direct retelling of any specific folktale.
00:17I do not own the rights to traditional African-American folklore, which belongs to the cultural heritage of its communities.
00:26All characters and events depicted are fictionalized for creative purposes.
00:44Jamal and Annie Christmas
00:46An adventure tale in seven parts
00:49The night Jamal, mockingbird rivers, sang the gambler's honest
00:56The golden pelican didn't serve whiskey
01:00It served whatever was in the barrels after the last flood
01:05Brown, thick
01:07Sometimes, with teeth floating in it
01:11The men who drank, there weren't alive
01:14In the way that mattered
01:16They'd sold something to stay at the table
01:19A name, a finger
01:22A baby's first breath
01:25Jamal walked in, and the cards stopped
01:29Not the men, the cards
01:31Mid-shuffle
01:33The aces turned over by themselves
01:36Queen of hearts
01:38Wept blood under the felt
01:40He sang
01:42Because the owner put a knife to his ribs
01:45Not for money
01:47For quiet
01:48Big Elias, bare-browsered
01:52Was chewing on his tongue
01:54Was chewing on his own tongue again
01:55Happened when he lost
01:57He'd swallowed his left ear last Tuesday
02:01Jamal's voice hit the air
02:03And the room went wet
02:05Not humid
02:07Wet like the inside of a mouth
02:10The lanterns dimmed
02:13Because the flames were listening
02:15Bear stopped chewing
02:17Looked at his cards
02:20Looked at his hands
02:22They weren't his hands anymore
02:25They were smaller
02:27His hands
02:28From when he was eight
02:30Before he drowned his brother
02:32He started sobbing
02:34Not from guilt
02:36From remembering
02:37Every man at the table remembered
02:41The planter saw the slave girl
02:44He'd bricked into the cellar
02:46She was still in there
02:48Scratching
02:49The bartender felt his dead wife's hands
02:53Around his throat
02:54Not mad
02:56Just lonely
02:58No one folded
03:00They left
03:01Walked out into the Mississippi
03:04And kept walking
03:06The river took them
03:08Without a ripple
03:10It was hungry that night
03:12The owner tried to pay Jamal
03:15Jamal shook his head
03:18You don't owe me
03:19He whispered
03:20You owe it
03:22He pointed at the floorboards
03:25They were breathing
03:27The golden pelican
03:29Is still there
03:30Boarded up
03:32If you put your ear to the door
03:34You can hear cards shuffling
03:37And sometimes
03:39A child's voice
03:41Singing men into the water
03:43The day Annie Christmas
03:46Met the mockingbird
03:48Annie wasn't seven feet tall
03:51She unfolded
03:53To seven feet tall
03:54Most days
03:56She walked around at 5'10
04:00Hunched
04:00Pretending
04:01But when she got mad
04:03Her spine made noises
04:06Like trees in a storm
04:07And her shadow got teeth
04:10She found Jamal
04:12Gutting fish on the dock
04:14He was 23
04:16But looked 11
04:18The fish were still flopping
04:21They didn't stop
04:23Even after he cut their heads off
04:26You the one that sings
04:28Annie asked
04:30Her voice made the dead fish go still
04:35Finally
04:36Jamal didn't look up
04:38You the one that eats men
04:40Her 12 sons laughed
04:43They shouldn't have
04:45Annie grabbed Jamal by the shirt
04:49Lifted him
04:50He weighed nothing
04:52Less than nothing
04:54Like holding a hole
04:56In the world
04:57Sing for me
04:59She said
04:59Or I'll see
05:01If you skip like a stone
05:03He sang
05:05Motherless child
05:07Annie dropped him
05:09Not because she wanted to
05:11Because her arms forgot how
05:14Her pearl necklace
05:16Real pearls
05:18Real teeth
05:19Went cold
05:20Each one was a man she'd killed
05:23And they were all screaming at once
05:27She clapped her hands
05:29Over her ears
05:30Stop
05:33Jamal stopped
05:34Tilted his head
05:36You hear them too, huh?
05:39Your necklace
05:40It's not jewelry
05:42It's a chorus
05:44They want out
05:46He reached for her throat
05:48Annie broke his wrist
05:51He didn't scream
05:53Just smiled with blood
05:55On his teeth
05:56You'll come back
05:58He said
05:59They always come back
06:01The river don't like quiet
06:04She ran
06:06First time in 20 years
06:09Her sons found her three days later
06:12Chewing on a rail spike
06:14Whispering
06:15Make it stop
06:17Make it stop
06:19She went back to the dog
06:22Jamal was still there
06:24Waiting
06:26Hire me
06:27He said
06:28You kill them
06:29I'll keep them quiet
06:32She did
06:33The ballad
06:35Of the songless river
06:36Captain Iron Lung
06:39Vance didn't ban singing
06:41Because he hated noise
06:43He banned it
06:45Because the commerce
06:47Was full of holes
06:48Not in the hull
06:50In the crew
06:52Half his boiler men were dead
06:55Had been for months
06:57They just didn't know it yet
06:59They stoked coal
07:02They bled from the eyes
07:04They answered to their names
07:06Vance paid a doctor
07:09In Baton Rouge
07:09To stitch their souls in wrong
07:12Keep them working
07:14Singing unstitched them
07:17Annie and Jamal
07:19Came aboard anyway
07:21Jamal took one breath
07:23And hummed
07:25The first boiler man
07:27Dropped his shovel
07:29Looked at his hands
07:30I'm cold
07:32He said
07:33His skin was grey
07:35Had been for weeks
07:37He touched his chest
07:40No heartbeat
07:42Oh, he said
07:44Oh no
07:45He walked off the side of the boat
07:48Didn't splash
07:50The second one
07:52Started screaming
07:53Kept screaming
07:55As he unraveled
07:57Skin first
07:57Then muscle
07:59Then the doctor's bad stitches
08:02Then nothing
08:03Vance pulled a pistol
08:06Stop him
08:08Annie caught the bullet
08:10In her teeth
08:11Chewed
08:12Spat out lead
08:14And a molar
08:16That wasn't hers
08:17You got dead men
08:19Working your boat
08:21Captain
08:21That's my river's business
08:24Jamal kept humming
08:27Commerce emptied itself
08:29Men walked into the water
08:32Lay down on the deck
08:34Simply seized
08:36By the time he finished
08:38Vance was alone
08:40Sing again
08:42Annie told Jamal
08:44He shook his head
08:46No more left
08:48Just him
08:49Vance was crying
08:51Please
08:53I'll allow singing
08:55I'll
08:57Jamal sang one note
09:00Vance's chest
09:02Opened like a cabinet
09:04Inside wasn't organs
09:06It was paddles
09:08And tickets
09:10And a thousand screaming passengers
09:13From the wreck
09:15He'd covered up
09:17In 82
09:17Annie pushed the whole boat
09:20Into the current
09:22Rivers got a new captain
09:24She said
09:25Commerce still
09:27Runs the route
09:29No crew
09:30No passengers
09:32Just a calliope
09:35That plays by itself
09:36Real sad
09:38Real slow
09:39If you board it
09:41You'll work the boilers
09:43You won't mind
09:45You won't be alive enough to
09:48How the mockingbird
09:50And the giant
09:51Unfenced the Mississippi
09:53Colonel Beauregard
09:55Didn't fence the river
09:57He feigned it
09:59Drove iron posts
10:01Into the mud
10:02Yes
10:03But the barbed wire
10:06Was soaked
10:07In his blood
10:08Deal with something
10:10Down there
10:10He said
10:11Something
10:12That honors contracts
10:14The Pinkertons
10:16Weren't men
10:17They wore men
10:19You could see
10:21The seams
10:21At the neck
10:22The extra joints
10:24In the fingers
10:25They didn't shoot
10:27Trespassers
10:28They unmade them
10:30One touch
10:32And a keelboat pilot
10:34Would forget his name
10:35His wife
10:37His lungs
10:38Just sit down
10:40And stop
10:40Annie came to the fence
10:43Touched it
10:45Her pearls screamed
10:47And three turned to ash
10:50God's teeth
10:51She said
10:51That was the first time
10:54She'd prayed in thirty years
10:57Jamal didn't sing
10:59He listened
11:01Pressed his ear
11:02To the wire
11:03It's not a fence
11:05He said
11:06It's a vein
11:08He's feeding something
11:11Every boat it stops
11:13Every man it touches
11:15Goes down
11:16He looked at Annie
11:18We can cut it
11:20But it'll bleed
11:22And what's on the other end
11:24We'll know we're here
11:26Annie smiled
11:28First real one in years
11:31Good
11:32She tore the post out
11:35Blood not water
11:37Came up
11:38Black and hot
11:39The wire screamed
11:41The Pinkertons turned
11:44All at once
11:45And their faces opened
11:47Not mouths
11:50Opened like doors
11:52Jamal sang
11:54Not a hymn
11:56A seal
11:57The sound old priests
12:00Used to shut tombs
12:02The blood went back down
12:04The wire went slack
12:06The Pinkertons fell over
12:09Empty
12:10Just clothes
12:12And a bad smell
12:14Beauregard ran
12:15Made it two steps
12:17The river didn't chase him
12:20The bank did
12:22Mud rose up like a hand
12:25And pulled him into the ankle
12:27The knee
12:29The waist
12:30He's still there
12:32You can see his white suit
12:34On dry days
12:36Still screaming
12:38Still sinking
12:40Inch by inch
12:42Annie keeps one link
12:44Of the wire
12:45Wears it
12:47On her necklace
12:48It's warm
12:49It pulses
12:52Jamal told her
12:53It's not dead
12:55It's waiting
12:56She said
12:58So am I
12:59How the river gave Jamal
13:01His voice
13:03Mama Nag's head
13:05Wasn't a woman
13:06She was a shape
13:08The river wore
13:09When it wanted to talk
13:11She didn't give
13:13Eleven-year-old
13:14Jamal
13:15A voice
13:15She hollowed him
13:17Open
13:19She said
13:20He did
13:21She reached in
13:23Past teeth
13:24Past tongue
13:25Past the little trapdoor
13:28In his chest
13:29Where soul's live
13:30And took something out
13:33Didn't hurt
13:34That was the worst part
13:37She held it
13:39A little bird
13:40Made of light
13:41And fever
13:42Beating once
13:44This is yours
13:46She said
13:47I'm just holding it
13:49For you
13:49She put it back
13:51But not all the way
13:54Left the door open
13:56Now you're a pipe
13:58She told him
13:59River goes in
14:01Song comes out
14:03You don't get to choose which
14:06He went home
14:08His mama
14:09And daddy
14:10Were at the table
14:12Had been dead
14:13For days
14:14Didn't know it yet
14:16He sang them to bed
14:18Tucked them in
14:20They stopped breathing
14:22After the last verse
14:24He understood
14:26His voice
14:28Wasn't a gift
14:29It was a funnel
14:31Everything the river
14:33Had swallowed
14:34Drowned babies
14:35Bad confessions
14:37The last words of men
14:39It all came up
14:41Through him
14:42That's why
14:44He weighed nothing
14:45He was empty
14:47The river
14:48Was just borrowing
14:49The space
14:50He tried to stop singing
14:53Sewed his mouth
14:55Shut once
14:56The song
14:57Came out his eyes
14:59Burned
15:00So he sings
15:02And the river
15:03Stays fed
15:04And he stays hollow
15:06How Annie got her first pearl
15:10No blink
15:11La Mer didn't cheat at cards
15:13He cheated at people
15:16He could look at you
15:18And see what you loved most
15:20Then he'd bet it
15:22And win it
15:24Didn't matter
15:25If it was on the table
15:27He won Henry's boat
15:30By winning Annie
15:31Not her body
15:33Her name
15:34Said it out loud
15:36And it belonged to him
15:39Henry came out
15:41And couldn't say his daughter's name
15:44Couldn't remember
15:45He had one
15:46Just kept patting his chest
15:49Like he'd lost a watch
15:52Sixteen-year-old Annie
15:54Felt it happen
15:55Felt herself
15:57Get smaller
15:58Like someone
15:59Took a bite
16:01Out of the world
16:02And she was the missing piece
16:04She found no blink
16:06In the alley
16:07He smiled
16:09Had her name
16:11In his teeth
16:12Literally
16:13It was carved there
16:15In the enamel
16:16A-N-N-I-E
16:18Give it back
16:20She said
16:21Make me
16:23He said
16:23You're nobody now
16:26You don't even
16:27She didn't punch him
16:29She opened him
16:31Didn't know she could
16:34Until she did
16:35Her hands went in
16:37Past skin
16:38Past ribs
16:39And pulled
16:40She pulled out a pearl
16:43Wet
16:44Warm
16:46Screaming
16:47It was his word
16:49The thing that let him
16:51Steal names
16:52She swallowed it
16:54Her name came back
16:56So did three inches of height
16:59So did the memory
17:01Of her mother's face
17:03No blink fell down
17:05Empty
17:07He's still in that alley
17:09He blinks now
17:11All the time
17:13Can't stop
17:15Can't say anything
17:17Annie cut the pearl
17:19Out of her own stomach
17:21That night
17:22It had roots
17:24She wore it anyway
17:26Every pearl
17:28After was the same
17:29She didn't kill men
17:32She emptied them
17:34Took the word
17:35That made them them
17:36And kept it
17:38That's why
17:40The necklace got heavy
17:41She wasn't
17:43Wearing trophies
17:44She was wearing people
17:46Twenty-eight souls
17:48Chewing on each other
17:50No wonder
17:52She went to Jamal
17:53His voice
17:55Was the only thing
17:56That shut them up
17:58The last song
18:00What the river
18:01Really wanted
18:02Mama Nag's head
18:04Came back
18:05Because the deal
18:07Was due
18:07River gave you strength
18:10Annie
18:10Gave you a voice
18:12Jamal
18:13Payments late
18:15Take the pearls
18:17Annie said
18:18She was sixty
18:20Shrunk to six-five
18:22Cancer in her bones
18:25Take him
18:26Just let me
18:28Not the pearls
18:30Mama Nag's head said
18:32Not the boy
18:34You
18:35Both of you
18:37Together
18:38That was the price
18:41You didn't read
18:43The bottom
18:43Of the contract
18:44It was written
18:46In mud
18:47The river
18:48Didn't want to rest
18:50It wanted
18:51To wear them
18:52Annie looked
18:54At Jamal
18:55Forty-four
18:56Eighty pounds
18:57Coughing black
18:59You knew
19:00He nodded
19:02Since the first song
19:05She's not a river
19:06She's a thing
19:08And wear the clothes
19:10She likes best
19:11He didn't fight
19:13He was tired
19:15He climbed
19:17Into Lorraine's hull
19:18Curled up
19:20Annie didn't fight
19:22Either
19:22She laid down
19:24On the deck
19:25Spread her arms
19:27The water came up
19:29Not like a flood
19:31Like a skin
19:33It covered Jamal first
19:36He didn't drown
19:38He dissolved
19:40His voice
19:41Went into the water
19:43And the water
19:45Got a throat
19:45Then it covered
19:47Annie
19:48Sank into her pores
19:50Her eyes
19:51Her teeth
19:52Her bones
19:54Got heavy
19:54Her skin
19:56Got river cold
19:57She stood up
19:59Seven feet tall
20:01Again
20:02Permanently
20:03She opened
20:05Her mouth
20:06Jamal's voice
20:07Came out
20:08Mama Nagshead
20:10Nodded
20:11There
20:12That's better
20:14Now she matches
20:16Her name
20:16Lorraine still runs
20:19Annie pulls it
20:21She looks like a woman
20:24Moves like a woman
20:25But if you fall in near her
20:28The water doesn't pull you down
20:30She does
20:32From the inside
20:34And at night
20:35She sings
20:36All the drowned songs
20:39All the stolen names
20:41All the pearls
20:43If you hear it
20:45You'll walk into the river
20:47You won't want to
20:49Your legs will want to
20:51Because the Mississippis
20:53Got a voice now
20:55And a body
20:56And it's still hungry
20:59And it's still hungry
21:00Final rule
21:00Don't look for a bluff
21:02Don't look for a grave
21:05The epitaph is you
21:07If you listen too long
21:09The river kept them
21:11Now it's keeping count
21:14Then we'll let the water settle
21:16The stories are in there now
21:19Under the current
21:21With the teeth
21:23And the pearls
21:24And the boy
21:25Who never got his breath back
21:27If you hear
21:29Humming near the river
21:30After midnight
21:32Don't answer it
21:33If you see a tall shadow
21:36Pulling a boat
21:37With no lanterns
21:39Don't wave
21:40And if something in the dark
21:43Knows your name
21:44Before you give it
21:46You're already
21:47In the next story
21:49Sleep light
21:51The Mississippi doesn't
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