Ring Shout

Maryse, Chef, and Sadie visit Frenchy’s, a juke joint owned by Maryse’s lover, Michael “Frenchy” George. Later that night, Maryse falls asleep and has three visions. In the first vision, Maryse sees a much younger Maryse hiding under the floorboards of her family’s house while the Ku Kluxes hang her family in their barn. This was when the leaf-shaped sword first appeared to her. The girl in the vision is still hiding even after the Klan leaves. The small girl warns that an evil force is watching and tells Maryse, “They like the places where we hurt. They use it against us” (65).

The second vision confirms this warning. Maryse sees a monstrous figure, Butcher Clyde, singing blues lyrics and other songs while chopping monster flesh to bits with a cleaver. His hair is blood red; he is the man from Nana Jean’s vision. He tells Maryse that he has been watching her and promises that they will meet again. In the final vision, Maryse encounters three entities she calls “aunties,” beings who take on the human appearance of kindly aunts to make her comfortable. They wear blood-red gowns, and their skin is pieced-together brown skin.