This was a short story based on a woman named Delia. She lived in Florida and she was the main character who was married to a man named Sykes. She was a washerwoman as well as a Christian. One spring night as Delia normally sorted clothes at her house, because she usually works late Sunday night to prepare for the week after her church service. While singing and getting things set up she wondered a bit why her husband was not at home because he had her horse and her working equipment. As she contemplates her husband’s location suddenly, she felt something like a snake fell around her shoulders which she screamed only to realize it was her husband with a bull whip he uses to ride the horses. Although she scolded him he didn’t seem worried about her feelings. He yelled at her because she had white people clothes in the house and as a result of this he kicks the neat pile of clothes all over the floor. She was livid and screamed letting him know how hard she been working but his motive was basically to provoke her. Eventually, he left his wife to wonder about her unhappy marriage and life. He started getting involved with a woman called Bertha, in which he spends her hard earned money and buying her used gifts. He was such a troubled maker he would go back in around dawn and confiscated the sheets before a new scene begins. Many spoke about Delia how beautiful she was and now she lost her looks because she has been beaten on a regular basis all her good looks disappeared. By the way, many spoke about her husband you can tell he was not a favorite in his town because all they had was negative feedback about him.

Sykes didn’t care much about his wife feelings, although he knew she was afraid he still brought a giant rattlesnake home and refuses to get rid of it. when he brought the snake home he had been feed a large meal but days passed and it got hungry again. Delia came home one night and to her surprise, the snake was missing from the kitchen where it was originally kept. Luckily, she got out of the house to wait for her husband and when he arrived and entered the kitchen he got bitten by the snake and instead of Delia helping her husband she left him there to die.