No matter who this little guy is, it's clear, he's a taker, not a giver. The hunchback's willingness to have such care taken of his bent little body seems to show a kind of vulnerability Miss Amelia seems happy to attend to. (If you're not a dyed-in-the-wool Southerner, you'd be excused for not knowing what pot liquor, or potlikker, is!) It's one theory that he's just a young man with several physical infirmities, who finds sweet love and care in the mannish bosom of Miss Amelia, who warms his whiskey and each night rubs his possibly tubercular chest "with pot liquor to give him strength" (Ballad.77). If anyone needs tender loving care, it's Lymon. There are a lot of uncertainties about Lymon Willis's origins… and even more about his role in Ballad's tragic love triangle. (Imagine an alternative conspiracy theory where Cousin Lymon and Marvin Macy have been in cahoots the whole time!) We'll never be absolutely sure whether this hunchback is "twelve years old, still a child," (Ballad.207) or "well past forty." We'll also never know if he's actually related to Miss Amelia, or if he heard her name somewhere and saw a meal ticket.
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