My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

On his way to his next location, the narrator stops to sleep in a tree, but he wakes up to a ghost knocking on the tree. The ghost appears to be as “corpulent as a pregnant woman” almost ready to give birth (52), and he has an eye in the middle of his forehead as well as legs twisted like a rope with feet pointing “sharply” left or right. The boy refuses to get out of the tree until the ghost shows him a group of ghosts surrounding the tree. They shake the tree until the boy falls out, and they carry him to “the 9th town of ghosts” (54). When the ghosts breathe, he hears different animal sounds, like pigs, frogs, and dogs. When they arrive at their town, they place the narrator in a dark, doorless room underground filled with snakes, as many ghost towns are.

The room transforms into a pitcher, and the boy changes form to fit inside the pitcher. His neck grows longer and wider, as does his head. The ghosts beat the boy’s head with a stick, and he begins to feel hungry. He sees the same kinds of food his mother would make him in front of him, but he is unable to move his head and neck to get this food.