[A Yellow Watermelon 04] • Salvation of Miss Lucretia

In Ted Dunagan's The Salvation of Miss Lucretia, young friends Ted and Poudlum continue their friendship despite the racial divide in the rural segregated South of the 1940s. On a trip to the forest where they plan to train their dogs, they stumble upon Miss Lucretia, the last of the voodoo queens. The boys fear, but later befriend Miss Lucretia, who teaches them secrets such as how to walk on fire. She also reveals that she was the granddaughter of the last slave born in Africa and brought to the United States illegally. Ted and Poudlum decide to bring Miss Lucretia out of the forest, until the arrival of Miss Lucretia's nephew, Cudjo Lewis III, who has his own selfish reasons for keeping his aunt hidden. Through a series of adventures, Ted and Poudlum resolve to follow their own unique moral compasses and do what's right despite the pressures of the time in which they live.