The Evil Carolina Sow

      My next notable memory was the summer after kindergarten. I was now six and a half years old. Once again we traveled by car to visit my mother’s relatives in North Carolina for a few weeks. My Uncle and Aunt had moved to a larger house with more acreage. One morning we went out to watch my uncle work in the pack house. He was in the upper floor of the pack house and he was pulling bundles of tobacco up with a rope guided through a pulley. The large field in front of the barn was hot wired to keep their pigs that he raised imprisoned.

      The pigs were conditioned to keep their distance from the hot wire, which was only two feet off the ground. I was allowed to lean over to pet the pigs, which for me was a real kick.

      My aunt warned me not to lean on or touch the hot wire, because as my aunt said,  “If you aren’t careful sug, (Short for sugar), it will shock the bejesus out of you.”

      My aunt and my mother went to the pack house to help my uncle. Before heading off my mother warned me that if I felt like wandering around to go looking for snakes, lizards, bugs, and other critters, then I had better stay near the farm.

      The pigs fascinated me. For some odd reason I felt compelled to locked eyes with a mid size sow. For reasons that I cannot explain, she especially mesmerized me. She stood motionless just one foot from the wire and gave an occasional grunt. I couldn’t take my eyes off hers. Even at that age I knew that it was not a good idea to lock eyes with any animal.

      I remember being told by someone that if you locked eyes with animals they could get mean. Soon it seemed as if I was transfixed and time stood still and the only thing in the universe was that damn evil sow and me.

God knows how many minutes I spent locking eyes with the critter.

      For some inexplicable reason, I felt this over powering compulsion to grab the hot wire in front of me. Not a tentative touch, oh no, not me!! I committed fully to a sudden grab of the wire with both hands. The electrical current went into my body and because I had my fingers wrapped around tightly, I could not seem to let go.

      My entire body was convulsing and I was screaming the entire time that damn pig just stood her ground and quietly watched while the other pigs ran away in terror.  My Uncle VD bolted out of the pack house and made a mad sprint towards me, with my aunt and mother following a good distance behind.

      He quickly grabbed my ankles and pulled fast and hard. His hard tug dislodged me from the wire. I was dazed, scared and most of all very embarrassed.

By this time my mother and aunt reach the spot I was still laying prone.

      My uncle said in his thick southern drawl, “Lord have mercy boy, what in hell got into your head?”

      That damn pig was still standing there and now she was shaking her head vigorously with her snout pointed up and she was squealing like a…well like a pig. Her squealing sounded suspiciously like evil laughter. To this day I sometimes feel as though the evil sow had exerted a spell on me. My memory fades….