The Witch's Market Read Online Free PDF

couldn’t have sex, so finally the man left her and went back to his wife, Mrs. Song.”
    â€œYou really think this is what happened?”
    â€œOh, I know these things.” She paused and went on. “Then this ghost baby also killed your grandmother.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œThat was when Laolao tried to talk to him. Somehow the baby ghost mistook your grandmother for his father’s mistress and scared poor Laolao to death.”
    Even though this sounded like complete nonsense, it was still very scary. So, despite Laolao’s wish, I decided not to carry on her lineage as a shamaness but instead to study it safely as a scholar.

    One time before her death, when I asked if the dead really spoke through her, Laolao’s answer was, “Just because a person is dead doesn’t mean he or she turns mute!”
    â€œBut do they really speak through you?”
    â€œThat’s not for me to decide. I’m only doing my job as a medium.” She cast me a chiding glance. “It’s impossible to find out, so don’t even try.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause the answer lies beyond this world.”
    Dissatisfied with my grandmother’s evasions, I decided to find out for myself, by becoming a scholar and researching shamanism and witchcraft.
    Laolao did not approve of my choice of profession. “Why be a professor lecturing to bored students? Why not be a shamaness like me? Besides, I make more than a professor.”
    â€œI like to teach—” I began.
    â€œCan you teach about the dead?” She rolled her eyes. “Dead means dead, period!”
    â€œThen how come you talk to them?”
    â€œI don’t. They come to me. I just lend them my body.”
    â€œSo, is what you do real or not?”
    â€œEverything in this world and the other is real.” She knocked hard on the table, then my head. “See? Things and people exist. The dead are the same people; the only difference is that we talk about them in the past tense.”
    I didn’t understand her logic, so the argument ended. She never gave me a straight answer and so this woman with whom I spent much of my early life remained a puzzle to me.

PART TWO

4
    Journey to the West
    T imothy Lee and the dean granted my request of a one-year leave and found some grant funds to modestly support me. Hearing the good news, I immediately called Ivan to discuss my tentative plans to travel to places I’d never even known existed until a few weeks ago.
    He paused for a moment before asking, “Eileen, you really want to go to this non-place—why not Paris, or at least Madrid?”
    I couldn’t tell him that it was because of what a tree had told me in a dream.
    â€œI need to do fieldwork so I can write a book. Otherwise, no tenure and no job.”
    â€œThen marry me and I’ll support you.”
    I raised my voice. “I’m not joking, Ivan!”
    â€œNeither am I. But what exactly are you going to do there? When will you be back?”
    â€œMaybe in a year. I need to find witches, interview them, learn what they do, collect some of their juju stuff. Then I can write my book on comparative witchcraft. Maybe I’ll learn how to put a spell on you too.”
    â€œYou know I’d wait forever for you. But a whole year? Geezzzz!”
    â€œIvan, I don’t expect you to wait.” But I stopped short of telling him he would be free to pursue any woman he wanted—or that I might find a new man.
    I figured all women were as selfish as I. Even though he’s your ex, you still want him to think about you, be ready to dash to your side if you need help, and ideally, remain single the rest of his life nursing his broken heart, because he will never find your equal. Or secretly hope you’ll change your mind someday and return to him.
    I could not suppress a giggle.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?”
    â€œNothing, Ivan, it’s not about you.