“Well, that takes care of you for today,” said Rosaria. Few words could have been more disappointing to Will. He felt ready to be wrapped up like a mummy, so long as it was Elvira doing the wrapping. “Tomorrow, you’ll take an herbal bath in this tub you see here. I will speak with Babaluaye and we’ll see if the power of his herbs works on those who don’t believe in them.”

“Rosaria, qué es Babaluaye?” asked Will.

“Es orisha—una anima. Entiende Usted?”

“No.”

“The spirit of sickness and healing. The same as San Lazaro.” She twitched her small, round head at the miniature house. “His ashe is in there. Entiende?”

“No. Ashe. Orisha. These are words I’ve never heard. Nor the words that you and Elvira were singing.”

“Lucumi.” Leaning forward on the stool, knees spread beneath her dress and her hands folded in the furrowed cloth between them, she cast a slightly mischievous look at Will and Eliot. “The language of the old people, the ones the Spanish brought here in chains from Africa. It’s their words. It’s their religion.”

“I thought you people were Catholics,” said Will, with a puzzled frown.

“Somos Católicos, seguramente. Pero, somos orisha también. Hijos de santos.”

“Disculpe. No entiendo.”

“We follow the way of the saints. It’s a more beautiful religion than the Catholic. But it’s too complicated to explain.” She motioned him to come closer. He cocked his head toward her, and she whispered, “What did my husband say to you?”

Will related the conversation. The old woman snorted and tilted her chin haughtily.

“It’s like him to ask money for doing nothing. Let me tell you what he’ll do next. He’ll tell you that he has not been able to find his fisherman and ask for another dollar to go find another fisherman. Don’t give it to him. Take my advice and now listen to me. I’ve got a cousin here, Luis Figueroa. He trades in coconuts up and down the coast between here and Havana. He’s got a big boat. I’ll talk to him and see if he can take you, and I won’t ask a peso of you. Neither will he. I am santera, I’ve made Olokun and seek Olokun’s blessings for each of Luis’s voyages, so he’ll do it for free if I tell him to.” She lowered her lips to Will’s ear. “But I will ask you to do something for me in return,” she whispered, so softly only he could hear. “I think it will be something you will want to do, but before I tell you what it is, I must speak first to Luis. All right?”

Will hesitated, uncertain about what he would be committing himself to—and his shipmates as well.

“Believe me, you will not find it an unpleasant task,” she said, sensing his reluctance. She drew back and sat up straight. “I have been waiting a long time for someone like you to come. I have been expecting you, I think. I want to say that finding you on the beach today was luck, but there is no such thing as luck. Nothing happens by accident. Do you believe that?”