In my dreams, on the night after mama’s passing, I had the persistent, uncomfortable sensation that someone was trying to get inside me. An old woman in black with the face of an angel and broken teeth smiled at me while I was sleeping. She wanted to absorb my body. I wanted to remain untainted. She pulled herself closer and her long, damp silvered hair fell like sorrow, like rain. She told me I should stop confusing my body with hers.