Saint Carmella's Grotto Author:Judith LaManna Rivette With the touch of the Witch Woman, Rosa's mother stirred on her bed. Her eyelids fluttered and she began to speak, "I went...to put flowers in the Grotto only. This man...from nowhere...he...I fought him...he hit me...uno prete...A priest..." — The woman had been raped. Dona Crestina, the Witch Woman of Dyne, knew at once this was of the malocchi... more »o--the Evil Eye--that had plagued the village for years, that neither she nor her mother had been able to cure.
"Calma. Piano, piano," she soothed. Reaching into her bag, Crestina selected some herbs folded into a small paper and gave it to Rosa. "Fix some hot water and make tea using this. Bring it as soon as it is ready."
As she waited, Crestina nodded. Something in the woman's words had told her, at last, what had been done to the boys of the Village of Dyne and about what really happened in the Grotto of Saint Carmella's Church.« less