Meeting at the Crossroads

        In 1936 I was walking along an old country road in Mississippi. I finally made it to my destination - I was there for a meeting at the crossroads. At the time I was very pretty but I appeared as poor as a church mouse - it would seem to an outsider that the great depression was hitting me hard. I stood in my house dress and tattered hat in front of the tree at the crossroads.

        The afternoon was soon turning to dusk and I was wondering if "he" was going to come. I knew he would because the proposition was far to enticing to pass up. The next thing I know I see a man walking along one of the roads. He had on a dusty fedora and it appeared that he had been on the road for a while. Under his fedora he had hair as black as coal, it was curly like lambs wool and his skin was as dark as black coffee.

        He finally made it to the crossroads but he had a very puzzled expression on his face. He said to me; I am here to meet somebody mam have you seen anybody else here at this crossroads? I said no it's just me. I then introduced myself and said hello my name is Luci. Even though I knew his name I asked him anyway; and your name sir? Robert he replied, Robert Johnson. He was standing there with his guitar strapped to his back, he was facing me and had his back to the road he came in on.

        I said to Robert, I do believe you are here to see me and then I said that looks like a nice guitar you have there. Robert, said to me well thank you mam and then he says... I was expecting you to look a little bit different, I let out a small chuckle and said yes, I know most people think I am going to be a little red man with horns, tail and a pitch fork but that is all just a bunch of misleading hype. I then said to him ohhhh look at that sky behind you and I firmly put my hand on his shoulder (at the time I had long blood red pointy nails, it was kind of my trademark really. I had always worn them that way since the beginning of time). I spun him around to look at the sky, it was quite a sight. It was getting very dark out and the sky was turning blood red kind of like my finger nails.

        I reminded him of our "special" deal that we had discussed previously and I had a small blanket roll under my arm and I whipped it out and we sat down on it and we discussed our deal, I asked to see the guitar and I tuned it, then I proceeded to play a few tunes and then I returned the guitar to Robert giving him mastery of the instrument however I only needed one last thing, then I brought out an official document that I drew up on papyrus paper. I asked him are you ready for this and he said yes, so I took one of my blood red claws and punctured the end of his finger tip until there was several drops of bright red blood and I pulled out my fountain pen and dipped the tip into his blood and handed the pen over to him and told him to sign on the dotted line and so he did. Just before parting I pulled out my handkerchief and wrapped it around Robert's finger and he looked down for a moment at what he had done.

        In the blink of a eye I was no longer sitting on the blanket - he says, Luci? He looks around and hears a cawing noise and sees a giant raven up in the tree with the document in it's beak (Luci was a little bit of a shape shifter along with having many other talents) ...A couple of weeks later "Luci" is sitting in her penthouse suite in New York City listening to the radio. The radio announcer says this next song is a landmark recording from the great Delta Blues musician Robert Johnson.

        Within minutes there is a knock on Luci's office door and Luci says enter. We don't actually see Luci because she is sitting in her chair and her back is to the office door however we do see a pair of horns peeping up over the top of her chair and her blood red high heels up on her desk and we see her blood red nails lighting a cigar. She tosses us a couple of cigars and says let's celebrate boys, we have acquired yet another soul...Muahahaha!