How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I don't know how long it was after this that Ma Chess appeared. I heard my mother and father wonder to each other how she came to us, for she appeared on a day when the steamer was not due, and she they didn't go to meet her at the jetty. (7.22)
Ma Chess is shrouded in mystery. As the ultimate obeah woman, she is the epitome of the power of the supernatural in this text.
Quote #8
When Ma Chess leaned over me, she smelled of many different things, all of them even more abominable than the black sachet Ma Jolie had pinned to my nightie. Whatever Ma Jolie knew, my grandmother knew at least ten times more. How she regretted that my mother didn't show more of an interest in obeah things. (7.22)
Although Annie's mother calls on obeah women in times of crisis, she didn't learn to practice it herself. This is troubling to Annie's grandmother, who may be concerned with preservation of culture.
Quote #9
Sometimes at night, when I would feel that I was all locked up in the warm falling soot and could not find my way out, Ma Chess would come into my bed with me and stay until I was myself—whatever that had come to be by then—again. I would lie on my side, curled up like a little comma, and Ma Chess would lie next to me, curled up like a bigger comma, into which I fit. (7.24)
There is nothing like grandmother's presence. Here, Ma Chess uses her obeah to know exactly when her granddaughter is suffering. She has a connection with her granddaughter that is stronger than words.