The Bewitching

The narrative returns to 1998. Noah greets Minerva at the door. They chat briefly, and then Minerva gets to work. She’s struck by the motifs in Tremblay’s life and writing: disappearances, unexplained deaths. She finds echoes of these phenomena in her own family’s lore, too. She mulls over the idea of collective unconscious and the way that stories travel: French immigrants brought tales of werewolves to Canada, which then became part of Canadian folklore. Carolyn has allotted her two hours of work that day, and Minerva, working while listening to her discman, quickly finds that her time is up. Noah returns and informs her that Carolyn would like to have tea with them. Carolyn and Noah do not get along. Noah’s parents are both dead, and he lives alone with his grandmother. She disapproves of his wild ways, and he finds her old-fashioned.

Carolyn asks if Minerva has any questions, but admits that she doesn’t enjoy “the macabre” and has never really read Tremblay’s work. Minerva asks about Santiago: Is it true that Carolyn got him a job at her father’s factory? Carolyn doesn’t quite remember: She knows she tried to, but workers were “flighty” in those days, and the factory is now a ruin. There are no records. She hopes to turn the site into something “high-tech.” She ends the conversation abruptly: Her arthritis is flaring up. She suggests that Noah drive Minerva back to her dorm.

Noah offers to take Minerva to the abandoned factory, and along the way, the two talk. He explains that his grandfather always thought that something supernatural had occurred the night of the dance—something connected to Ginny’s disappearance. Much of the campus, especially Briar’s Commons, has always been rumored to be haunted, and although Carolyn never put much stock in those stories, other people did. He tells her that if she wants better information about Tremblay, she should speak to Benjamin Hoffman, who was often Tremblay’s date to events during college and her roommate later in life, but their relationship was never romantic. At the factory, Minerva accidentally cuts her hand on some wire, and Noah gives her a handkerchief to stanch the bleeding. He drives her home, and the two have a cup of coffee and talk. Minerva learns that Noah is nearly engaged to a woman whom his grandmother handpicked for him and that he’s been kicked out of many colleges.

The narrative returns to Alba’s family farm in 1908. More animals on the farm die. Arturo is sure that wild animals are responsible, but Alba is unconvinced. She runs into Valentín, who argues that Tadeo has been the victim of a bewitching, most likely by the heart eaters, the teyolloquani. Alba doesn’t want to believe in this kind of witchcraft, but she cannot help but worry. Valentín convinces her to take his necklace, a locket with a picture of the Holy Virgin inside, for protection. Shyly, she thanks him and kisses him on the cheek.

Through Tremblay’s manuscript, the narrative flashes back to 1934. Ginny, who did not believe that ghosts were malevolent, organized a séance three days after the dance. She, Tremblay, Carolyn, and a fourth girl named Mary Ann attempted to contact the spirit world. Carolyn and Mary Ann were giggly at first, but when Ginny “summoned” the spirits, the girls heard a loud knocking that sounded like it was coming from within the walls. Then, in a strange voice, Ginny said, “You are in deadly peril, Virginia” (141). The girls jumped up, frightened, and the spell was broken. Ginny had no memory of speaking and appeared pale and drained.

Later, Ginny seemed entirely normal. She was unsure what had happened during the séance, but she brushed the oddity of it aside. She was excited to marry Edgar, and her thoughts seemed more focused on the living than the spirit world. Tremblay recalls seeing her talk to Santiago not long before she disappeared, and Ginny had explained that she was going to try to get him a job at Carolyn’s father’s factory. Tremblay cannot recall any evidence that the two were engaged in a secret affair. That piece of gossip had come from Mary Ann. She’d seen a girl who wore a coat similar to Ginny’s hugging Santiago. The detail that troubles Tremblay is that the girl had been wearing a hat. Ginny never wore hats.

The narrative returns to 1998 at Stoneridge College. Minerva tries to work on her thesis. She begins thinking about Thomas’s disappearance, however, and pulls some of his belongings out of their boxes. She’s startled to find a trove of drawings that bear an uncanny resemblance to Ginny’s. Minerva believes there must be a connection between two people with similar artistic styles, so many years apart, both of whom disappeared. Minerva suddenly feels as though she’s being watched. Outside, she sees Conrad, who invites her to go play pool. She thinks about the time they had kissed months ago, but a few weeks later, she saw him kissing a junior, both of them smoking marijuana. She wrote him up, and things cooled between them. She declines his offer: Conrad is “an opportunist,” and she thinks it likely that he’s just trying to get back in her good graces.

The narrative returns to Alba in 1908, where she and Valentín visit Los Pinos to see Jovinta, one of the hamlet’s famed witches. Jovinta’s home is full of supplies for creating herbal remedies, and although Alba is still unsure if this woman has supernatural abilities, it is evident that she is a practiced healer. Jovinta cracks an egg into a container and, after examining its yolk, explains to Alba that a teyolloquani has bewitched her family and likely killed Tadeo. She tells Alba that she will need to keep a charm in her room to repel the creature. She can make one, but the price will be the ring Alba wears. Alba feels foolish, believing this woman is not a witch, but a charlatan, and gets up in a huff, but Jovinta tells her that she knows Alba has portents—feelings about the future that later come true. Alba has shared this fact with no one who would have spoken to Jovinta, so she agrees to exchange her ring for a charm. Jovinta hands her a dead dove stuffed with pins and tells her to place it under her bed. On their way out of Los Pinos, they see the woman with whom Tadeo had been arguing. Alba wants to stop, but Valentín assures her that this woman, Perpetua, is harmless and would not have done anything to Tadeo. Before he drops her off, Valentín passionately kisses Alba. She surprises herself by kissing him back.

Through Tremblay’s manuscript, the narrative flashes back to 1934. Ginny’s mood grew noticeably darker as winter approached. She was sure that someone was following her, she saw strange lights in the trees, and she found footsteps in the snow outside their windows. She was troubled by the lurking presence of an unidentified man in blue overalls, but none of the other girls had seen him. She found a dead rat in her bed and various dead insects on her windowsills. Ginny concluded that there was an evil presence lurking on campus and that someone was using witchcraft to try and harm her. Her father and Edgar, however, were equally sure that there were no supernatural forces at work. They insisted Ginny’s nerves were causing emotional instability.

Tremblay swore to Ginny that she believed her, but after Ginny disappeared, Tremblay came to believe that she failed her by not taking her seriously enough. Tremblay overheard a discussion between Carolyn and her father that corroborated the rumors about their family’s financial woes. Tremblay was even more surprised, given this information, to learn from Santiago that he’d been given a job working at Carolyn’s family’s factory. She wondered why they would hire a new worker if they couldn’t afford to pay their current staff.

The narrative returns to 1998 at Stoneridge College. Minerva cannot get Thomas out of her mind. Among his belongings, she finds several books on witchcraft that Ginny was reading shortly before her disappearance. She wonders if the two disappearances might be linked, and she calls Thomas’s sister to question her. She’s shocked to learn that Thomas was tutoring Noah for a course on religion in Puritan England. Mulling this over, she searches for more of the books on witchcraft that Ginny was reading and finds that they are only available in the Boston Public Library. Hideo drives her into Boston, and she examines the books. She learns about apotropaic marks, often known as “witches’ marks.” They bear an eerie resemblance to Ginny’s drawings. Puzzling over this, Minerva calls Noah and asks him if she can examine Ginny’s things again. While she works, she asks him about Thomas. Noah explains that the two weren’t really friends. He claims his grandmother had invited Thomas to Thanksgiving out of pity, but other than that, they hadn’t socialized. He offers to take Minerva inside the family factory the next day, and she agrees. She isn’t sure how the tour might help her, but she does want to question Noah further. She also decides to email Christina Everett, the teacher of the course for which Thomas tutored Noah. Perhaps she might be able to shed light on Thomas’s work and his interest in local supernatural folklore. When she returns to her dorm, she finds a dead rat on her bed.