Angels and Dragons

Madame Rimbaud lives close by.  But you have to go down a narrow lane, sometimes ignoring the little scurrying noises in the messier corners.  She has a cure for everything.  She is very old - refuses to divulge her age to anyone.  Makes the health care workers, social services people, etc. who drop in guess her age.  'Put down what you like,' she cackles, witch-like.  'Why do you need it anyway?'  She's bent almost double with long grey hair almost touching the grimy floor, and followed at every step by a herd of stray cats.  People with strange, unnamed illnesses go to her for unnamed remedies.  Bad knees, flat feet, depression, hair loss, hair gain, short-sightedness and allergies galore.  She has something for them all.  What she doesn't have, she once confided to me, after beckoning me to a dark corner of her one-roomed apartment, is the special root that can change a dragon into an angel.  And, if I were ever to come across it, would I please let her know.