could not be seen on certain days of every month. During those days many
foods were forbidden her.

Thus the power worked, and thus she lived.

The woman would bring money for her, Marya knew. So she sat in the back
of the shop and waited, and sighed, until the front door sighed open and
Marie Wladek called: "Old woman, old woman!"

"Do you call me?" Marya said in her proud baritone.

"I call you, I call the gypsy woman."

Marya stood up and smoothed her old dress over the big-boned frame all
of her husbands had admired. "Then come to me," she called.

Marie Wladek crept into the room, her eyes saucers of awe. To speak of
witches was all very well, and a fresh-faced girl could give one fright;
but here was the authority and power of witchcraft, in this woman with
the fuzz of hair on her lip and the great trumpeting voice.

"I come for help," Mrs. Wladek said.

"I know why you have come," Marya Proderenska said. "You have a great
trouble."

Mrs. Wladek nodded. "I am bewitched. A witch has placed a hex upon me,
and I come to you to remove it."

There was a little silence. Then Marya Proderenska said: "The powers
will not do work without payment."

Mrs. Wladek dug into her ancient beaded purse and found a crumpled
dollar bill. She handed it over and the gypsy woman smiled and ducked
her head.

"It is enough," she said.

Mrs. Wladek said: "Then you will help me?"

"I will help you," the gypsy woman said. "Tell me of this curse upon
you."

"There is a voice in my mind," Mrs. Wladek said. "The voice tells
me--even now it continues--to go to an employment agency, to accept
work ... and the voice is not of my making."

"Whose voice is this?" the gypsy woman said.

"It is my own voice," Mrs. Wladek said. "The voice is my own, but I did
not tell it to speak. Inside my own head, I can hear my own voice as if
someone else put it there."

"Ah," the gypsy woman said. "And who is the witch who has put this curse
upon you?"

Mrs. Wladek sighed. "At the office of the social workers, there is one,
a young woman. She has done this to me."

Marya Proderenska nodded. Her eyes closed.

Mrs. Wladek stared at the still figure without moving for a minute. Time
stretched endlessly. The room was very quiet; Mrs. Wladek heard the
continuing voice in her mind and felt fear.

Another minute ticked by.

At last the gypsy woman opened her eyes. "It is a strong curse," she
said in a distant voice. "But I have erased it f