“Maria, wake up. We need to go!”

“Go where, Zita?”

“You will see…”

We went downstairs and everything had changed. I could see the witches who take care of Lúcia and Amada, and I could hear them too. They could see Zita and hear her as well.

We spoke, made jokes. The best part of it was that I felt at home. I felt seen and accepted. I felt myself, almost like in Sacred Grounds, or maybe even better, because in Sacred Grounds I could feel the deities, but I couldn’t see or hear them.

“Did you like the party yesterday, Maria?” Lúcia asked me, smiling.

“Yes, I did, but why did we have to leave before everybody else?”

“Because yes, we are all witches, and that party, or better, celebration, is for all of us. But as you saw, there were no children or young people, so at some point young ladies like yourselves needed to leave.”

“But what happens that we cannot see?”

“You will see when the time comes. Till then, you both will participate in celebrations but will leave before it all starts for real.”

“What starts for real?” asked Amada.

“You will see when the time comes… Now, young ladies and witches, go get prepared. We must go.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going down the mountain.”

“Are we going back to Rio de Janeiro?”

“Almost, Maria. You will see.”

I didn’t like to travel in cars. It reminded me of the day Mother came to take me away from Sacred Grounds, and I didn’t want to leave the house in Petrópolis. I was sad and I couldn’t hide it.

“What’s wrong, Maria?” Lúcia asked, and Amada held my hand.

“I don’t want to leave this house, and cars bring me sadness.”

“Sadness is not something we believe in, Maria.”

“How so?”

“Smart people don’t feel sad, Maria.”

“That makes no sense. Sadness is a feeling. What does it have to do with being smart or not?”

“People like us don’t see sadness as everybody else…”

“People like us?”

“Yes, Maria. People like us. We are different.”

“How?”

“You’ll see. You’ll understand. Now get in the car, please.”

Maria got in the car.

“But please tell me, how do people like us see sadness?”

“We understand sadness. We recognise it, but we don’t avoid it, nor are we afraid of it. We know that it is part of something that must leave, that must pass, that we must let go. It’s something that we must go through to arrive at the destination we must arrive at. But to arrive where we need to arrive, we must move the sadness. So when we feel sad, we recognise it as a lack of movement and we create movement… We don’t focus on why we feel sad, but we focus on the movement we must create so that feeling of sadness moves away… You’ve seen it.”

“I’ve seen it?”

“Yes. When your mother took you away from Sacred Grounds, Zita didn’t lie in bed with you crying. She instead created movement in order to shift the sadness and leave space for the new life you created for yourself, with your grandmother and your mother…”

“I never saw it like that. It’s true…”

“People like us create movement. Witches manipulate their surroundings to build the life they want, the life they need, and to better the lives of their people.”

Maria looked out the window at the beautiful Atlantic Forest. The air came in through the windows, carrying the perfume of the forest, a perfume that made her travel down memory lane to when she lived in Sacred Grounds.

The car stopped. Maria didn’t realise that for the last half hour her eyes had been closed, building her reality inside herself exactly as Lúcia had said, using the power of the air.

“Maria, that is exactly how a witch creates her reality. This time, though, you didn’t have to build it because it was already planned.”

I got out of the car. The place wasn’t new, but I didn’t recognise it either. Behind me stood Lúcia, Amada and their witches. Next to me, Zita.

“Go ahead, Maria. We will follow.”

“Go where, Lúcia?”

“Walk, Maria. Follow that little road.”

Maria walked…

“Father!!!!”

“Maria!!!!”

They hugged each other and both cried.

“Father, I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too, my little Maria. You grew so much. You’re a young woman now.”

“Father, I’m sorry I had to go.”

“I know, minha filha, just as I knew that today you were coming back.”

I turned around to introduce Lúcia and Amada to my father. Both of them and their witches were on their knees.

“Baba, we humbly ask permission to enter Sacred Grounds,” Lúcia said with her head down.

Father went over to them, put his hands on their heads and granted them permission to enter.

“Permission granted, minhas filhas. You can all come, including your witches. And welcome back, Zita, now finally with my daughter.”

Father hugged Zita.

“Father, you can see Zita?”

“I’ve always seen her, minha filha. I recognise this power. It’s different from the power of Sacred Grounds, different from the power of the Orixás, but they all come from the same place. You belong to that power, and you all can enter Sacred Grounds.”