Helga was a witch
certainly gambled and caroused- the face of that terrible woman
- in the pastor’s opinion
- monstrous Stalinist-vintage building
- dotted with bright red poppies
- seven-fingered human hand
Helga was a witch, in the pastor’s opinion.
His suspicions could have derived from her propensity for filthy hair and cackling laughter, or the evidence that she more than occasionally butchered stray cats. It could have owed something to her sordid past, when she had certainly gambled and caroused, or the fact that she dwelled in seclusion in a monstrous Stalinist-vintage building situated incongruously amid waving grasses dotted with bright red poppies. But no.
It was all because of the simple fact that any time pastor saw the face of that terrible woman his mind filled with the ghostly image of a seven-fingered human hand.