On the night of the new moon evil witches liked to dance against the treetops; that was what her great-grandmother used to say. They’d slip out of their human skins and grow wings, turn into balls of light, and cavort in the sky. The teyolloquani, the most fearsome of all, drank the blood of their victims and ate their hearts. Nana Alba talked frequently about that type of witch in the last months of her life; she kept repeating the story about her own brother’s vanishing. That’s what their name means, “heart eater,” Nana Alba had said. Listen, this story, you should hear it and learn how to
...more
