#144 Strong Horse Tea- Alice Walker
“Rannie Toomer’s little baby boy Snooks was dying from
double pneumonia and whooping cough.”
The baby will die without care. Rannie wants proper care, a
real doctor, no folk medicine or local useless remedies:
“I don’t believe in none of that swamp magic. And the old
home remedies I took when I was a child come just short of killing me.”
She doesn’t know how to get help, she’s never called on a
real doctor, doesn’t know how to call a real doctor and can't leave the house.
So, the natural thing to do is ask an official public servant that she sees
everyday, the mailman. But he only recommends folk-medicine and is put off that
she asks him for help:
“Why did colored folks always want you to do something for
them?”
The doctor doesn’t come, and she is left with no other
choice than to go out and get herself some Strong Horse Tea. A mother will do
anything she can to heal her child, but is it enough?
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