Women of Sand and Myrrh Read Online Free PDF

she sat down, fiddling with the things that lay round about her and pretending to ignore us. In the end we withdrew silently.
    This time, once we were sitting on Sita’s cushions and she was sitting facing us, I relaxed because she hadn’t recognized me and had welcomed us effusively and asked us, ‘Tea or coffee?’ But Suzanne’s repeated urgings made me tell Sita straightaway the reason why we’d come. Sita seemed not to mind, for she rose up before I’d finished talking and lifted a curtain that hung down from one side of the table and took out a basket. Then she sat down again with the basket in her lap, turning over the little bottles in it and examining them, then giving me one uncertainly. I took it, trying to read the label. ‘Coconut with jasmine’. Taking it back from me andpeering at it she said, ‘No, daughter. The writing’s not important. They’re bottles I get from the women’s market and fill myself.’
    Suzanne didn’t know what was going on between me and Sita but she put her hand in the basket and saw the Indian women’s faces, and asked me sarcastically if Sita was going to change her into one of them. I was busy reading the labels while Sita was still rummaging around among the bottles, occasionally picking one out to look at it more closely, then putting it back. In the end she selected a bottle, put the basket down and sat holding one of her toes.
    ‘Perfumed Castor Oil for the Hair.’ ‘Oil containing forty-two herbs; an ancient remedy invented by the doctor at the Emperor Shah Alam’s palace for falling hair.’ ‘Oil to make the hair grow longer, containing almond oil, lettuce and sandalwood.’
    Sita was waiting for me to put the bottles back so that she could move the basket away. She smoothed down her dress and the shawl covering her hair, and looked at the bottle she’d picked out, then rested her hand on mine, saying, ‘Here, daughter. Three drops. Only in tea, and best in scented tea. If you can, let him take it on an empty stomach and see what happens.’ Then she laughed with gusto, leaning backwards from the force of it: ‘See what happens. He’ll come after you like a madman on his hands and knees, sniffing you out like a young pup.’
    I tried to explain what she’d said to Suzanne and she asked me how she was supposed to give him three drops of the stuff when he’d stopped coming to visit her. I turned back to Sita: ‘We might not see him. Perhaps an amulet would be better?’ She placed her hand on my shoulder: ‘Daughter, didn’t you say he was your husband?’ and she didn’t wait for me to reply as she knew there was nothing I could say. I tried to translate what had happened to Suzanne but Sita didn’t like delay and argument. She was a practical person, and she seemed to be sure of what she was doing. She stood up, cut leather, got thefire going, assembled various preparations. Reciting prayers, she passed a piece of paper back and forth over the fire and took hold of my hand. With an involuntary movement I grasped Suzanne’s hand and put it in Sita’s, which made me think that I must believe in what Sita was doing.
    Sita opened her eyes and wrote something on the piece of paper and laid it on the leather she’d cut. She opened a jar and dipped her finger in it then smeared it around the edges of the piece of leather, stuck them together, and handed it to me. ‘The amulet has to be in the room that he’s in. That’s vital.’ And I didn’t say to her, ‘How can it be when she doesn’t see him?’ She stood up smacking one palm against the other and saying, ‘You’re very welcome. Let’s hope you don’t need me again. Tea or coffee?’ Then taking my hand and smiling she added, ‘You’re doing fine this time. You’ve made me feel that I can trust you, and you’ve asked for my advice. Last year you came to cheat me and steal my secrets.’ I was amused and said, ‘I thought you’d forgotten me.’ She struck her chest: ‘Forgotten