The Witch's Dream: Part 5 - Chapter 20.

The Witch's Dream. ©1985 By Florinda Donner-Grau.

Part 5 - Chapter 20.

It was Sunday morning, and I was sitting with dona Mercedes in the plaza, waiting for Candelaria to come out of church. Only an hour earlier, I had had my last meeting with Efrain Sandoval.

On a nearby bench was a well-dressed, dignified old man, reading out loud from a Caracas newspaper.

He read in a grave voice, absorbed in what seemed important to him. He never noticed the smiles of the people around him.

Across the street, a disheveled old man came out of a bar that was already open.

He put on his hat, and clutching a bottle in a plastic sack tightly under his arm, he walked down the street, coughing and wheezing.

With an inexplicable feeling of sadness I glanced at dona Mercedes.

She was wearing sunglasses, and I could not see the expression in her eyes as she looked straight ahead of her. She folded her arms across her chest and hugged herself as if touched by a sudden cold wind.

She listened attentively as I tried to tell her how I had understood so far all the stories I had heard.

"You are showing me the different ways to manipulate the force that Florinda calls 'intent'" I said.

"To make it move is not the same as to manipulate it," she corrected me, still hugging herself.

"And I am trying much more than that. As I said, I am putting you temporarily under the shadow of those people so that you can feel the wheel of chance moving.

"Without that feeling, everything you are doing will be empty. You must follow the ups and downs of the person who is telling you his tale. For an instant you must be under his shadow."

"How about Efrain Sandoval? He certainly had nothing to do with what happened to him. Why should I be placed under his shadow?" I asked.

"Because the wheel moved for him. He did not move it himself, yet it is his life that changed. I wanted you to feel that change, to feel that movement of the wheel.

"As I have already mentioned to you, a ghost, the spirit of Hans Herzog, moved it for him.

"Just as Victor Julio, at the moment of dying, moved the wheel of chance and ruined the life of Octavio Cantu, Hans Herzog moved that wheel after he was dead and enriched the life of Efrain Sandoval."

Dona Mercedes took off her glasses and looked straight into my face.

She opened her mouth to add something, but instead she smiled and rose from the bench. "Mass will be over any moment now," she said. "Let us wait for Candelaria at the church door."