‘Sure, I need it. I need it to say – name, José? Stop, José! Sit down, get up, put your hands behind your back, José. I speak good enough for a mulo, but Mrs Coleman, don’t you go giving anybody lifts round here, okay?’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Two men, from the prison, they escaped a few weeks back and nobody caught them yet.’

‘What were they in prison for, running a red light?’

‘Ha ha, Mrs Coleman,’ he wheezes.

‘Alice,’ I say automatically.

‘There have been murders on the border so you got to be careful. Don’t go picking up any strangers, you know what I’m saying, ma’am?’

‘Have you seen The Blair Witch Project?’ Jack interrupts.

Winfred looks to me for help.

‘It’s a film.’

‘Have you?’ Jack presses.

‘Nuh-uh.’ Winfred shakes his head.

‘What about The Exorcist?’

‘Jack,’ I say warningly.

Jack, of course, has seen neither of these child-friendly films but nevertheless has a masochistic desire to be terrified. If I ever cave in to pressure and allow him to watch an even faintly scary movie, it’s a disaster. He invariably storms my room in the middle of the night and refuses to go back to sleep until I have promised never to be so irresponsible again.

‘I don’t know nuthin’ about movies,’ Winfred says.

‘They’re about the devil,’ Jack says.

‘I’ve seen the devil,’ Emmy says.

‘You certainly have not.’ Jack turns to Winfred. ‘Have you seen the devil?’

‘The dude with red eyes?’

‘And horns,’ Emmy corrects.

‘Naa, I’ve seen skinwalkers, though.’

‘What are they?’

‘Spirits of dead Indians.’ He lowers his voice. ‘They’re bad things. Everybody sees them, they’re everywhere. They smell like rotting flesh. They run fast, really fast, they cover a lot of ground. They leave dust behind them and when you get close to them,’ he snaps his fingers, ‘they disappear.’

‘Do they shoot people?’ Jack asks.

‘Yuh, man, all the time.’

Jack’s eyes widen. ‘Did they shoot you?’

‘Sure, they shot me once.’

Emmy gasps. ‘Did you die?’

‘Of course he didn’t die, stupidhead. Did they shoot you with a gun?’

‘Naa, they shot me with a bead.’

‘A bead?’ Jack looks bitterly disappointed.

‘In here,’ Winfred touches the back of his shoulder with a hand. ‘I had to get the witchdoctor to suck it out.’

‘A witchdoctor?’

‘It was an iddy-biddy bead with shells on it. Witch-doctor sucked it right of my shoulder blade.’

The children wriggle with pleasure.

‘What else, what else?’ they shriek.

‘You know those coyotes you hear at night?’ Winfred leans forward over the table. ‘They’re just skinwalkers. They can turn themselves back and forwards whenever they want. If you see a coyote track, don’t step on it. It’s dangerous.’

‘Why?’

‘You can get coyote sickness. Also you should never look into the eyes of a coyote. It’s a bad omen.’

‘What’s an omen?’ Emmy asks.