Mama Jeanne had looked at me for a long time, her eyes shining in the dim light of her little kerosene lamp.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u00a0My daughter\u2026 sleep here tonight. My home is protected. You are too \u201copen\u201d these days. Even a simple dream can reach you.<\/em><\/p>\n But I couldn\u2019t bring myself to sleep anywhere other than my own home.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0No, Mama Jeanne. I just want something that can help me sleep. I don\u2019t want to stay here. I\u2019m tired\u2026 too tired.<\/em><\/p>\n She nodded slowly, then stood up and disappeared for a moment behind her curtain.<\/p>\n When she returned, she was holding a small leaf. Shiny, green, and strange. Its smell almost made me dizzy.<\/p>\n She rubbed it between her palms, closed her eyes, recited a few words in a language I didn\u2019t understand, then handed me the liquid that had formed.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Put this on your temples and your stomach. It\u2019s not very strong, but it should calm you a little. I won\u2019t give you more, because your body is still weak.<\/em><\/p>\n I thanked her, heavy-hearted, and went back home.<\/p>\n Once inside the house, the silence felt too heavy.<\/p>\n I applied the liquid as she had told me, then lay down without even changing my clothes.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how long it took before I fell asleep, but one thing is certain: it wasn\u2019t a restful sleep.<\/p>\n It was him\u2026 the dream, or rather the nightmare.<\/p>\n I found myself completely naked, standing on the red, cracked earth of a place I knew well \u2014 the curve behind the primary school, where that stagnant puddle lies, the one that never dries, even in the dry season.<\/p>\n It was night, but the moon lit the scene with an almost white light. I couldn\u2019t see their faces, but I could feel their eyes on me. They formed a silent circle.<\/p>\n Then came a deep, raspy, multiple voice:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Wash yourself. Enter and purify yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n I looked down. The puddle had grown larger. It glimmered and seemed to be calling me.<\/p>\n But an immense fear paralyzed me. I was cold. I was dirty. I felt ashamed to be naked, exposed like this. And the more I resisted, the more their voices grew insistent, commanding, hypnotic:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Wash yourself. Wash yourself. You cannot continue like this. Wash yourself.<\/em><\/p>\n I took one step\u2026 then another. My feet sank into the mud. It grabbed my ankle and I screamed. I screamed with all the strength I had.<\/p>\n I woke up with a start, my heart pounding as if it would burst, my throat dry, my body drenched in sweat.<\/p>\n It was 3 a.m. I was alone. But the terror was still there, clinging to me like a living shadow.<\/p>\n I got up and went to the kitchen. I drank some water, trembling. When I woke up that morning, I felt strangely light. As if the night had wiped everything away. No fear, no memory\u2026 Even the uneasiness that had followed me for days seemed to have vanished.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t remember the dream. Not at all.<\/p>\n It was as if it had never existed. The hand, the puddle, the voices\u2026 everything had been erased from my memory. Customers came in, like before. Some smiled at me, others gave me sad looks and whispered condolences. But I felt\u2026 fine.<\/p>\n At least, that\u2019s what I thought.<\/p>\n Around noon, as the sun beat down hard, I felt something strange rise inside me. A heat.<\/p>\n But not the normal heat from the weather or the sun. An inner heat, like a burn.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t understand. My hands were damp, my throat dry, my head heavy. I tried drinking water first. But the more I drank, the hotter I felt.<\/p>\n A customer was talking to me, but his voice sounded like a distant echo. Then another voice. Then several.<\/p>\n And suddenly I said out loud:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0I\u2019m hot\u2026 I want to wash myself\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n They looked at me, surprised.<\/p>\n But I couldn\u2019t take it anymore. I was suffocating.<\/p>\n So I started taking off my pagne, right there, in front of everyone. First my headscarf, then my chest\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Ingride! Ingride! What are you doing?!<\/em> a neighbor shouted.<\/p>\n But I didn\u2019t hear her anymore. I didn\u2019t hear anyone.<\/p>\n I saw only one place in front of me. The puddle.<\/p>\n The puddle in the neighborhood, the one that never dries.<\/p>\n In my mind, it wasn\u2019t a puddle anymore. It was a lake,\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0lake, my bath, my purification.<\/p>\n I walked naked, slowly, my eyes fixed on the murky water. Toward what I thought I had forgotten. I don\u2019t remember exactly how I got there.<\/p>\n I only remember the murky water. Cold. Dirty. Yet soft on my skin, like a calling.<\/p>\n I was already half-naked inside that puddle everyone avoids. The one that never dries, even under the blazing sun. The one children point at but never dare approach \u2014 but I was inside it, washing myself slowly, as if each movement freed me. As if I was shedding an invisible weight, an enchantment, a spell.<\/p>\n Then suddenly, screams.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Oh Lord!<\/em> I heard them, but their voices seemed so far away.<\/p>\n A woman ran to fetch a cloth and tried to cover me. She begged me, even shook me a little, but I was absent.<\/p>\n Then Mama Jeanne arrived, panicked.<\/p>\n She pushed through the crowd:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Let her be, let her be!<\/em><\/p>\n She leaned toward me and called gently:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Ingride\u2026 Ingride, my daughter, come\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n With the help of two men from the neighborhood, they lifted me out of the water. I didn\u2019t speak, didn\u2019t cry. I stared into emptiness.<\/p>\n At her house, Mama Jeanne placed a bucket of warm water beside me, rubbed me down, talked softly while taking care of me. Then she had an idea.<\/p>\n She grabbed my phone. No lock. Thank God.<\/p>\n She searched, found \u201cMom,\u201d and dialed.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Hello, Ingride\u2019s mother?\u2026 It\u2019s urgent. Come. Quickly. Your daughter\u2026 she\u2019s not well at all.<\/em><\/p>\n Mama Jeanne\u2019s voice trembled.<\/p>\n Around 5 p.m., Ingride\u2019s mother finally arrived, terrified, her heart racing. She rushed in and, upon seeing me, broke down in tears.<\/p>\n She knelt beside me, held me in her arms, but I still didn\u2019t react. Around us, the neighborhood was buzzing with rumors. But for my mother, I was just her daughter. Everything had changed. That evening, in Mama Jeanne\u2019s house, my mother said nothing. Mama Jeanne watched her for a long time, her hands resting on her knees.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Mama, you must trust me. If you love her, help me save your daughter.<\/em><\/p>\n Silence settled.<\/p>\n My mother\u2019s breathing was heavy. Her eyes moved from me to Mama Jeanne, then to the window.<\/p>\n She sighed deeply before saying:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0If it\u2019s to save her\u2026 fine.<\/em><\/p>\n A little after midnight, we took the road toward Ntoum.<\/p>\n A remote place, deep in the bush. We reached an old wooden fence, worn by time. A creaking gate, and behind it, a small wooden house. All around, upside-down bottles hung on strings, and dry leaves were tied to the walls.<\/p>\n A young woman came out.<\/p>\n She wore a red pagne and a black top, her hair tied atop her head.<\/p>\n When she saw Mama Jeanne, she burst with joy:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Mama Jeanne!! Oh Lord! Mama Jeanne is at my home!<\/em><\/p>\n They embraced like mother and daughter, then her gaze drifted toward me.<\/p>\n I stared into nothingness, murmuring unintelligible words.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Is it her?<\/em>\u00a0she asked, pointing at my body sitting on a mat by the door.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Yes, my daughter. It is her\u2026<\/em>\u00a0Mama Jeanne answered gravely.<\/p>\n My mother tried to speak, but Colette raised a hand:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Don\u2019t explain anything. Not now. I saw it the moment you stepped into my yard. I saw everything.<\/em><\/p>\n She signaled to two boys standing behind the house. They came immediately.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Tie her. Not harshly. Gently, but firmly enough so she can\u2019t move.<\/em><\/p>\n My mother jumped to her feet.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0Tie my daughter?! Why?!<\/em><\/p>\n Colette looked her straight in the eyes.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0If we don\u2019t tie her now, she could hurt herself or worse\u2026 hurt someone else. We\u2019re not restraining your daughter, Mama \u2014 we\u2019re restraining what is in her.<\/em><\/p>\n The boys approached. One held a rope braided with dry leaves, the other a white cloth they wrapped around my arms and legs.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t resist. My mother began to cry softly while Mama Jeanne held her hand.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0We will save her. Trust me.<\/em><\/p>\n Colette went inside the house, lit a large black candle, and placed a calabash full of leaves in a corner. Then she came back to me, leaned down, and whispered:<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0It\u2019s you or them, Ingride. Tonight, we choose.<\/em><\/p>\n The night was only beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mama Jeanne had looked at me for a long time, her eyes shining in the dim light of her little…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19452,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19450\/revisions\/19452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tastyrecipes.milaf.ma\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Around me, silhouettes.<\/p>\n
The water began to bubble, dark, as if boiling beneath the surface, and suddenly a hand emerged from the water.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t close my eyes again until morning. And that image\u2026 that hand in the puddle\u2026 remained carved in my mind like a warning.<\/p>\n
I got up, cleaned the house a bit, opened the shop as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n
The children stared at me in shock. The adults shouted my name. But my steps didn\u2019t stop.
I walked toward what had been calling me for a long time without my knowing it.<\/p>\n
Toward the lake.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u00a0Ingride! She\u2019s washing herself in the puddle!<\/em>
\u2014\u00a0Someone cover her!<\/em>
\u2014\u00a0She\u2019s naked ohh! She\u2019s possessed!<\/em><\/p>\n
Mama Jeanne covered me and took me to her home.<\/p>\n
But nothing reached me.<\/p>\n
I was there\u2026 without being there.<\/p>\n
Some said I had fallen. Others said I was possessed, that Malaba had taken me.<\/p>\n
Her daughter she had to save. And she would do anything for that.<\/p>\n
After that day, I was no longer quite myself. I saw without seeing. I heard without understanding. I was like an empty shell. It wasn\u2019t Ingride living in Malaba anymore, but something else. A presence, perhaps.<\/p>\n
She looked at me, looked at us, confused\u2026 wary.<\/p>\n
The air was cooler there, almost too calm. The kind of calm that unsettles you.<\/p>\n
I even smiled \u2014 a strange smile.<\/p>\n