We met in a supermarket. My cart contained nothing but two bottles of vodka and a six-pack of beer. She was the one to notice me and called my name in a tone which suggested she was happy to see me, as if I were a good old friend, a link to a carefree period of the past. When she called my name I trembled as if she had struck me, and I felt ashamed for not recalling hers. I smiled at her as best I could to camouflage my embarrassment. The girl had become a mother; her daughter was standing by the basket with her head down and a plush toy in her hands – Vili. My throat went dry when I saw Vili; of course I knew it was not my Vili, just another, similar plush toy.

I saw a tiny lesion on the toy’s neck. The girl, who was now a mother, smiled at me. It’s like yours was, she said and leaned closer to me so she could whisper in my ear. Sadly, she whispered, and I could smell chamomile on her breath, sadly, she got infected with some kind of disease. This plush toy is dying, and my daughter has to accept it.

I dropped the basket, the bottles of vodka smashed against each other, pouring their contents all over the floor, and I felt the urge to throw myself to the ground and lick it all up. I know why yours came back, I figured it out, she continued and I wanted to run but my body didn’t obey. I listened carefully to what she had to say, and we agreed to have coffee or tea some time, but we didn’t exchange numbers, then I vomited in the restroom for hours until the security guards kicked the door in.

I should have used garlic, whereas my mother used onions, which didn’t possess any spiritual or symbolic power. Onions are unfit for keeping the dead on the other side, apparently.

I was not aware of this as a child. I was weary and exhausted after finding the disturbed grave. I felt sick, and for a while I had a serious wish to die and have the whole thing over with.

It only struck me that night that Vili might not return in the shape I remembered him. That he might resemble Nyinyi – and I started to be scared. For he swore to come back for me, didn’t he? Didn’t he plan to take revenge on the one who gave him life and death? I was certain then that he would return for me to drag me with him into the hole I had dug for him in the back yard with my bare hands.

I was not wrong.

The house went dark at midnight – the lights went out on the street as well. Power outage. Darkness surrounded me like thick cotton wool. I was paralyzed. My mother was asleep, my father on a business trip. I started to whimper, but I didn’t feel ashamed even back then, for this was the whimper of an animal in the mouth of a predator.