Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Ten-year-old María knows the widow arrives on Wednesday, because Wednesday is the day she washes her hair. María’s mother makes her sleep with clay in her hair to dull its vibrant red hue, which her mother thinks is a bad omen. María hears the tolls of the church bells, and she runs to the top of Ines’s stable to watch the caravan arrive. Her older brother Felipe tells her to get down, but she doesn’t listen. Her oldest brother Rafa demands Felipe and María climb down.

María and her family live in Santo Domingo, a town that sits on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrims’ road that people take to cleanse themselves of their sins. As María watches the pilgrims pass, she sees a widow dressed all in gray and follows her through the town. She gets close and feels the widow’s gaze upon her through her gray veil.

Rumors spread throughout the town that the widow is a witch. María’s mother seems off after the widow’s arrival, but she continues with her seamstress work. María takes her mother’s deliveries throughout the town. Running through a copse of trees on her way home, she finds the widow collecting herbs for a tonic.