To be honest, I didn’t care whether they slept or not: to each his own. I felt so protected that nothing stopped me from sleeping. Nothing and no one troubled me in the depths of night—the time that children fear most—and in all likelihood, it was thanks to Simonopio, who took the time to teach me the words of the extremely effective blessing Nana Pola had taught him years before. Although, as someone who slept deeply, falling into deep sleep easily and with little in the way of a buildup, I never even finished a Lord’s Prayer before dropping off—by the final s of “God bless,” I was asleep.
