On the advice of an old woman from her church, Miel’s mother had gone out into the pumpkin fields and hollowed out the biggest pumpkin she could find. A cream white one as big as the space under a chair. She had left the stem attached to the vine, the carved top clinging to it so that when she put it back on, the pumpkin would still be tied to the earth. When the shell was cleared of its seeds and string, the inside scraped so clean it was damp instead of wet, she forced Miel inside.
Miel's mother sealed her inside a pumpkin overnight to try to get rid of the roses coming out of her wrists
