Oh, I seem ordinary, rationale, why, nearly scientific. I base my decisions on facts, just the facts, only the facts. But perhaps that is just a cover. Because, you see, underneath it all lies a pocket filled with talismans and a heart filled with magic. {Did I mention a past replete with visits to witch doctors, attendance at African exorcisms, the reading of palms and auras, and true encounters with genies and the evil eye? }
I confess my fascination, my rapacious curiosity for all that is unexplained and inexplicable. And my attraction to mysteries seemingly solved only by magic -- whether white {yes, please} or black {oh no!}.
Oh you, yes, you, believer of men who walk on water and virgin births, or wafers and wine that turn {just like that} into body and blood.... And you, yes, you, believer in horoscopes and wishes on stars, with worries of black cats or broken mirrors...... And you, yes, you, believer in none of that but plagued by keys that disapppear and then are found, why..... just there -- where you are quite sure, you just looked. Yes, I'm talking about you.....I beg you, don't judge me too harshly. I make no claim to higher elected office or positions requiring congressional clearance, and so I can explain my visit {if you must know} to the purveyor of goods for witchdoctors and mystical healers in Bamako, Mali.
It is there that you'll find the odd, the strange, the horrid, and the frankly just shocking .....The skins and bones, the teeth and claws. And gasp, yes, the heads. {You see, the spells and incantations of magic and sorcery are hungry, so hungry for that and much more.}
Yes, there's more, much more......Because tomorrow a tale of the Malian witchdoctor's assistant and what is actually done with these magical goods. Want to make him fall in love......? Want to earn more money? Or simply want to stop your headache? I have the magical solutions to those issues and more.
Tomorrow, yes......tomorrow. Come prepared with a paper and pen {and please, tell no one.....}
{And just like that, in a puff of smoke or a cloud of words.....she was gone}