Witches

I didn’t sleep very well last night. I haven’t been sleeping well since I got here, but usually it’s a few hours of solid sack time followed by an hour of being wide awake, then another hour of dozing before the alarm goes off. Last night though I was tossing and turning and the only reason I know I got any sleep at all is because I remember dreaming about witches. I usually don’t remember my dreams, and I can’t remember exactly what happened with these witches, but I remember dreaming about them.

I’m reading The Heretic’s Daughter, a historical fiction novel about the Salem witch trials. Certainly if were living back in that time, my dreams would signify that the witches have bewitched me or I’m a witch myself. Either way, it wouldn’t be good for me.

Another image that kept popping into my head last night is something that happened to Mike and me a couple weeks ago. We were driving down our road one afternoon and when we paused to turn, the driver of a car turning onto our road flashed his fingers at us. The first thing we both said was, “Did he just cast a spell on us?” That’s not out of the realm of possibility here, as sorcery (or belief in it anyway) is common upcountry, outside of the city. But then I realized that he had also flashed his headlights at us. He was letting us know our headlights were on! That’s a big deal around here, driving with your lights on during the day. Everyone warns you because headlamps and batteries are expensive to replace. But we are having trouble with the car battery. Maybe he did cast a spell on us! Or at least on our car.