Sin in a Sundown Town

A voicemail from an unnamed resident.

Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash

Content warning: Hatred, violence.

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Sin in a Sundown Town

🔈 A voicemail from an unnamed resident. Play voicemail above. Transcript below:

“There’s a spirit in the cracks. She’s the reason your eyes wander into those corners. Old Aunty liked to point her out in the town square. A shadow that perches in the crooks of the hanging tree. Rocking her legs. Rock-a-bye. The same slow rhythm a neck used to swing. That’s what Old Aunty used to say. The rhythm a neck used to swing.

People here don’t hold on to unpleasant things. Spring gardens. Summer parades. Fall gun shows. Winter bake sales. Repeat. Move on. Black and white photos of fondly remembered ancestors. Granny liked to ride horse and sleigh down Main Street, did you know? Her husband got into the butter business. The other stuff? I forget. Now hold her head, and rock that baby softer.

The spirit in the cracks doesn’t like forgetting. Old Tom denied he stood for photos under a dead man’s feet. Couldn’t be him. He was a stand-up guy. And even if that was him, he was just there to see the racket. Didn’t even touch the rope. Unlucky Old Tom. Lost his balance and his head under the hanging tree one fall gun show.

Rock. Rock. Rock-a-bye baby. In the tree top.”

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Context: American sundown towns practiced discrimination and often violence against minorities. “The late sociologist and historian James W. Loewen [who is] considered the foremost expert on the subject, estimated that the number of sundown towns in his home state of Illinois alone was 507—‘two-thirds of all the towns in the state.’ Across the country, from 1890 until around 1968, sundown towns numbered in the thousands.” For more information, click here.

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This story was submitted to “Hallowtide Files: The Gheeldyn” as part of a collaborative scheme to uncover the lore of a local Hallowtide being who holds many traits, one of which is justice:

Hallowtide Files: The Gheeldyn

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