Page 156 of The Moon Sister
‘No, Tiggy, he’s your ex-employer!’ I told myself firmly.
You want to speak to him, don’t you? Because you care about him . . .
‘No, I don’t,’ I said out loud.
You do, Tiggy . . .
Then I sighed. One of the side effects of my recent tuition from Angelina, was that myintuition, aka my inner voice, had sprung to life like a female version of Jiminy Cricket. In fact, these days, it barely shut up, forcing me to face any lie I tried to tell myself.
Okay, I answered the voice internally as I paid for the calls and walked out of the shop. Marcella had gone on into the city and I made my way back alone. ‘I did . . . I mean I do still care for him,’ I said out loud, ‘but he’s married with a daughter, has a huge and possibly bankrupt estate to manage, and his life’s a total mess! So whateveryoumight say, on this one I’m ignoring you!’
I looked up to see two passing women casting me very strange looks.
‘I have an invisible friend!’ I said loudly in English, before giving them a wave and continuing back up the hill towards Sacromonte.
*
That evening, Angelina proclaimed me ready to move on to ‘university’, as she put it. When I arrived, Pepe was just departing to organise my ‘fiesta’ – planned for a couple of days’ time.
‘Everyone will be there,’ he said to me as he left, and I could sense his excitement. ‘It will be like the old days!’
Angelina and I sat together as she began to share some of her most potent magic, involving talismans, charms and protective coins. In the dark cave, lit only by a single guttering candle – she preferred it to the harsh light of a bulb – she showed me sacred objects that had belonged to my ancestors, and as I held them in my tingling hands, she instructed me on how to reach the ‘Otherworld’ – a world where spirits wandered and whispered in my ear, which was apparently how I ‘knew’ things.
When it came to curses, at first I said no.
‘I thought we were healers – medicine women,’ I said. ‘Why would we want to hurt anyone?’
Angelina regarded me sombrely. ‘Erizo, the world is full of light and dark. And in my lifetime I have seen a lot of darkness.’ She closed her eyes, and I knew she was thinking of the past that still haunted her and this beautiful country. ‘In times of darkness, you do what you can to survive, to protect those you love and yourself. So, now we go into the forest and I teach you the words of the most powerful curse.’
Fifteen minutes later, she stood me in the middle of the clearing and made me memorise the words she whispered in Spanish, with a talisman round my neck to protect me. Perhaps it was a good thing that I couldn’t understand what they were. I was never to say them out loud, let alone write them down, only go over them in my mind until they were indelibly inked onto my psyche.
‘How many times have you used the curse?’ I asked as we walked back home.
‘Only twice,’ she said. ‘Once for me, once for someone else who needed my help.’
‘What happened to the people you cursed?’
‘They died,’ she said with a shrug.
‘Right,’ I breathed, both overwhelmed and appalled by this woman’s powers and only hoping the same was not within me, for this was one skill I did not wish to possess.
*
‘So, you have done well, Erizo,’ Angelina said two days later. ‘And Pepe and I have a surprise for you. Go and see Marcella now.’ She shooed me off so she could take her siesta and I walked up to the hotel to find Marcella, who was smiling at me knowingly.
‘Come with me, Tiggy,’ she said, drawing me into the parts of the cave that were her private rooms. They were decorated with traditional fabrics and blankets, a huge old-fashioned television in one corner.
‘There,’ she said, pointing to the sofa.
Laid upon it was a beautiful flamenco dress, white with rich purple ruffles trailing down its skirt.
‘Try it on,’ Marcella said. ‘It is my old one from when I was a child, but it should fit you. We shall make you into a realbailaora –a flamenco dancer – for the fiesta tonight.’
‘I’m to wear this?’ I said in surprise.
‘Of course, it is a fiesta!’
She handed me the pile of soft fabric and ushered me into the small shower room, where I took off my dress, and slid the garment over my body. Going out to Marcella so she could do up the many buttons, I smoothed down the skirt and adjusted the deep V-neckline.
