Mark Phillips' Pages: Workbook: 10/30/08: The family story is that Mother saw a demon one day, walking down the hall.

William H. Johnson, "Folk Family" (c.1944) — William H. Johnson, *Folk Family* (c.1944)

October 30, 2008:

The family story is that Mother saw a demon one day, walking down the hall.

Unable to enter the mother's room. The ground there is too holy, if she says so herself. Too sanctified.

Instead it passed through a closed door into her daughter's room, the sick one, whose illness, in this version of events, is spiritual, not physical.

"Ugliest thing I ever saw," says Mother.

There's a twisted truth here, although the family, in their cowed and superstitious awe, are unable to fathom it.

She saw her own reflection in the mirror, clear-eyed, without the mist of self-congratulation, and found herself, for the briefest moment of a moment, taken aback.

But only for a moment.