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338 pages, Paperback
First published February 17, 1997
“We had known it would be hard to leave this island of women where on our skin the warm rain fell like pomegranate seeds, where we woke to birdcall and slept to the First Mother’s singing, where we swam naked without shame in lakes of blue lotus. To exchange it for the human world whose harshness we remembered. But this?”
“Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.”
But that silk cloud pulls my words out of me. And into him.
“For a moment I hold their glance, and the air around us grows still and heavy. A few chilies drop to the floor, scattering like hard green rain. The child twists in her mother’s tightened grip, whimpering. Their glance skittery with fear with wanting. Witchwoman, say the eyes. Under their lowered lids they remember the stories whispered around night fires in their home villages. ‘That’s all for today,’ one woman tells me, wiping her hands on nubby polyester thighs, sliding a package of chilies at me. ‘Shhh baby little rani,’ croons the other, busies herself with the child’s tangled curls until I have rung up her purchases. They keep their cautious faces turned away as they leave. But they will come back later. After darkness. They will knock on the shut door of the store that smells of their desires and ask. I will take them into the inner room, the one with no windows, where I keep the purest spices, the ones I gathered on the island for times of special need. I will light the candle I keep ready and search the soot-streaked dimness for lotus root and powdered methi, paste of fennel and sun-roasted asafetida. I will chant. I will administer. I will pray to remove sadness and suffering as the Old One taught, I will deliver warning. This is why I left the island where each day still is melted sugar and cinnamon, and birds with diamond throats sing, and silence when it falls is light as mountain mist. Left it for this store, where I have brought together everything you need in order to be happy.”