Nobody Able to Die, I

I grew up listening to recordings of Jackie Torrence, and my kids listen to those same stories now.  For some weeks my son’s favorite was “Soldier Jack,” an Appalachian story with elements from European folklore.  Jack runs away from home, joins the army, leaves the army, wins for himself a house and a bride and, seemingly, immortality—for he won his bride by saving her life when he tied the Death Angel up in a sack.  Here is the conclusion (from memory, as best I can recall).

“And Jack and the king’s daughter got married, and they lived, and they lived—Jack lived to be six hundred years old.  On Jack’s six hundredth birthday he was going down the road, going to a birthday party they was having for him.  He met an old man who was bent half double and his nose was dragging on the ground.  Jack’s always been polite; he spoke to the old man: ‘How yah doing, old man?’

The old man said, ‘Howdy, sonny.’

“Jack said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’

“The old man said, ‘I’m old, can’t you see?’

“Jack said [in an embarrassed voice], ‘I, Iknow that you’re old, but how old are you?’

“‘Last count, I’s nine hundred years old.’

“‘Nine hundred?!  How’d you get to be nine huindred?’

“The old man said, ‘I lived to be nine hundred.’

“Jack said, ‘I know that you lived, but why didn’t you die before you got to be nine hundred?’

“The old man said, ‘Son, ain’t you heard?  Ain’t nobody ever told you?  Years and years ago, some dumbbell took the death angel and tied him up in a sack, and ain’t nobody been able to die.’

“Jack said, ‘Do you reckon that was me?’

“Well Jack took a shotgun,  and he went into the woods, and he found the tree where he had hung the sack.  And he shot three times.  And one of the shots hit the string on that sack.

“And I guess you know, that Jack was one of the first ones to go.  But he had lived a long and happy life.”

I’ve thought a fair bit about that ending since the corona virus crisis started.  I don’t intend to present the tale as an argument for recklessness, either with one’s own life or another’s.  But I do find it an interesting counterpoint to the way some in the modern world tend to approach life, even outside of pandemics.

Ain’t nobody been able to die.

That’s a problem too, isn’t it?  And not just because you happen to be bent half double with your nose dragging on the ground.