The Body Snatcher

by Patricia Melo

  Did you see the palms I planted? Sulamita asked, showing me the seedlings. A green meadow stretched into the distance, with small copses the previous owner had planted.

  The sun was setting and a pleasant breeze was blowing in our direction.

  I sat down beside them to savor the landscape. There’s no place prettier than the Pantanal, I said.

  Those palms are really lovely, said my mother-in-law, offering me a cold lemonade.

  Frjshsg, Regina grunted.

  Did you hear? She said “palm,” Sulamita said. That’s right, darling. Palms, she repeated. The palms are beautiful.

  Acknowledgments

  I thank Jane Pacheco Bellucci and Roberta Astolfi for invaluable collaboration in the research. I also thank my editor, Paulo Rocco, and Marianna Teixeira Soares for their support and enthusiasm. As always, special thanks to my eternal friend Rubem Fonseca for his attentive reading, and to my husband John for being ever at my side.

  The Body Snatcher is a work of fiction, with names of characters and places freely created by the author, with no relation to reality.