“Many folk beliefs involve methods for keeping ghosts, or duppies, from returning to haunt living people.”

“I was scared stiff of deads and duppies and ghosts and the departed and I couldn't sleep at nights for fear of not waking up in the morning.”

“What matters was that duppies were, as far as the customs and beliefs of my world then, a reality, and she gave me the tools, if needed, to neutralize them and my fear.”