The Tower of Il Serrohe Read Online Free PDF Page A

strange people appeared in them; although, it was as if our young curandera was not visible as they would go about their lives without acknowledging her presence. She could see much detail in everything. It was all so foreign to her and yet it was a complete world that followed its own rules independent of her experience and imagination.
    “ Time and time again, as Teresa awoke, she would question these dreams. They didn’t seem like the vaguely recalled wanderings of the sleeping mind, but precise memories of an experience. Each night as she prepared for sleep, she would resolve to control the events of her dreams just as she had as a child for dreamtime entertainment. But this world would not respond to her conscious manipulation.
    “ Finally, after about a month of this, she—that is, her point of conscious observation which had no physical ‘body’ in that plane—wandered up to the west cliffs where there was a cluster of two dozen or more tan ‘steeples’ resembling tent rocks, formed from volcanic tuff in the Jemez Mountains to the north. Among the steeples, a stream threaded its rugged way from a vast spring and waterfall below the edge of the plains above. Its rapids roared and echoed, slowly eating at the steeples as it finally reached the valley.
    “ Fascinated by this stream, Teresa moved, ghostlike, upstream. The spring was beneath a low cliff of solid dark red sandstone that formed a half arc around a large pond with a village of rock huts along its north shore. As she approached the village by skimming over the pond’s surface, she saw a group of five women pounding their wash on the smooth rocks of the shore and filling wooden pails with water.
    “ Two of the women, who were obviously twins, looked right up at her. One of them said, ‘Look, a sister curandera coming over the water!’
    “ But the other three women could not see her. The two who could looked at her and shrugged, but the one who had spoken winked and said, ‘Any young ladies who came floating over the water, would know enough to follow my sister and me home to talk privately since these other young women are not so perceptive.’
    “ Curious by this odd remark, Teresa followed as they carried their heavy pails of water. Once in their hut, she was momentarily distracted by a gentle wave of warmth and the aroma of thousands of herbs, dried flowers, and fruits that hung from the ceiling or were spread over every available surface including several cedar shelves.
    “‘ Curanderas!’ she cried in delight. ‘You two are curanderas like me. I am Teresa Ramos from the village of Peralta in the valley. Uh, not quite this valley, but one like it.’ She became flustered.
    “ The sister who had done all the talking previously, spoke, ‘No need to explain, we know. My sister is called Pia, and I am Pita. We have had dreams of your valley though we never saw you. It’s like here in Valle Abajo only somehow it feels bigger, and with many more people and villages. This place is also called Piralltah, but its location is different. You do not have the Piralltah Steeples as we do.’
    “‘ How do you know I am in a dream?’
    “‘ Because the other women did not see you. And, it is most unladylike for a curandera to publicly float about. We guessed immediately you were in a dream since we, too, have been dreaming of your place in such detail we knew it had to somehow be real.’
    “‘ Then this is truly another world.’
    “‘ More than that, it is another plane maybe in the same place as your own world but a different reality. We have seen that your place thinks of magic as superstition, so how can you serve as a curandera?’
    “‘ I heal the sick with herbs and home medicines as you must, but I can only pray to God, I cannot publicly call on spiritual powers that I know I have within. I cannot share my visions. Certainly not this dream—this visitation I am having now. But you are allowed to do more here?’
    “‘ We are