Mariana alzamora/

Victoria took me to see don Marcelo the 'soplador', because my mother said i was out of sorts She took me without her knowing as my mother didn't believe in sourcerers, but i loved Victoria so we went to the countryside past the cattle fields to a 'caserio' we took the road with a broken down car and under a tree Don Marcelo stopped sawing wood and looked at us with blackhard eyes but he was wearing a small striped brown and purple sweater that was a woman’s. We followed him into a low ceiling cement barn, warm from the breath of the cows and the smell of dung At the other end was a weak light bulb over a dark wood table with a skull, a round stone an equilateral and equilongitud cross, a glass bowl and a ball of clay. He placed on the table the candles, cigarettes, rosewater, aguardiente and the wild flowers he asked us to bring and emptied the rosewater into the glass bowl and put in the flowers the candles he stood in pieces of soft clay and lit them then he asked me to undress and i said no so he said i could keep my slip on and gave me his back and prayed to his strange altar while i undressed and then i stood in front of him with hair that didn't want to lay flat and black eyes looking somewhere past me. He began reciting words in quechua in a lulling way and took the flowers from the bowl and touched me on the head, my face my hair my neck my body in front and in back he made me lift my foot and passed the flowers underneath one foot then the other reciting all the time his litany he then took a cigarette from the table and lit it with the candle; he inhaled and exhaled a cloud of smoke in my face and between words he inhaled and exhaled the smoke to the back oand over my head, my body in front and my body in back all the way down the front of me inhaling and blowing out he made me lift my foot one then the other inhaling and exhaling reciting his litany and then he paused looked nowhere past me and then again he began reciting in a lower pitch as he took the stone and passed it over my head and my face my ears my neck my back my front underneath one foot and then the other he paused and the silence was very loud inside me with him looking at me but nowhere then he went to the table and took the bowl with the rose water and dipped the flowers and sprinkled me all around the front and the back of my body and over my head and under each foot and his sing song was softer then he paused and went to the table and got the bottle of aguardiente and took a sip and blew it out pulverizing it holding the candle in front so that it would light an inmense flame on me this he did standing back and with a louder chant again and again all around me and over me and undeneath my feet and i was wondering if this dramatic moment was to scare me rather than what was troubling me and then the silence and then he took my hands and sucked from the palms and blowed out what he had sucked then turned to the table took the flowers and he showered me with them at that point i felt something dark leave me and i began to laugh then he said it was finished
Victoria gave him some money and three cans of bonito We were silent walking down the lane and i was surprised it was still daylight she asked me what i felt and i said nothing, that i felt nothing she said he had prayed to the elements and to beauty so that they be in harmony within me Who knows maybe he was responsible for the change that came over me once i could see i should leave Huacraruco