It was hot. Dreadfully hot. The sun shone down with such force that even Dorku, the shepherd dog didn't want to leave the shade and rally the sheeps into a clean circle, although the sheeps didn't stray from their field because it was so hot.
Such hot days in the caravan were drastically boring.
Life in the caravan was considerably boring on other days, my only two sources of amusement being the random visitors of squirrels and birds and my adventures into the fields and mountains with Dorku as my chaperone, guide and race partner.
Today, it was too hot for either of such things and at such, it was drastically boring.
"Aria!!" My name was called from the other participant in the caravan.
I rushed into her room, knocked and then entered.
My benefactor, guardian, and in more ways than I could count my mother laid propped up on pillows in her room.
The light from the candle's was about to go out with multiple candles already off.
The stream of incense was flowing continuously from the sticks and a slight chilly draft blew in through the windows.
"Yes babsk?" I answered timidly.
She made no notice of me as I stood through her open doorway.
It wasn't the first time I saw her communicating with spirits, her Romani abilities were well known across the land. Almost every week people had sought us out for prophecies, healings and otherworldly businesses.
Yet, this was the first time I saw her going in without telling me, nor without a paying customer.
"He comes.... Soon it'll be your turn." She says in a ghastly voice and then falls unconscious.
It had been two days since my babsk had her episode, she hadn't come to.
I looked at her worriedly, her skin looked clammy and it was cold but still she sweated.
I doused the towel in hot water again and wiped the sweat off her brow.
Her white glossy hair was still damp from the earlier washing.
Normally, I wouldn't be allowed into her room without permission, but this wasn't a normal situation. Plus she called me in and didn't necessarily dismiss me.
I counted, revised and recited my excuses as I opened up her window to let in some sunlight.
Taking note of the assorted things laid on and around her room.
Different drawings, bones and some unknown plants, the collection of items was so odd, scary and intriguing all at once.
Lost in my exploration, I didn't notice anyone till the barking of Dorku and the sounds of a man in pain called my attention.
"How dare you take a bite out of your own master you stupid mutt." The man shouted as he held his bleeding hand.
Dorku did nothing but growl even more aggressively at him.
"Aright aright, I hear you. I won't approach the carriage. Just call out babbi now would ya?" He said, raising his hands in surrender.
"Babbi?" I asked him, wondering who he was.
"And who would you be?" He asked in shock.
"I'd like to be asking you that question myself."
"Listen here Miss, I asked you a -" He stopped as he noticed he had stepped through the boundary Dorku had set for him. The dog growled once more and eyed him wearingly.
"Who are you and where is my grandmother?"
"She's here and don't want nothing to do with you!" My babsk said from behind me in the doorway.
She leaned on her walking stick and had her other hand on the wall.
Her hand on the walking stick trembled and her chest moved weakly but her face was as stoic and resolute as ever.
"Babbi!"
"Don't call me that. You've thrown away that right. The same way you threw away your tribe, your upbringing and your home."
She turned away to limp back in.
"Dorku come!" He responded immediately to his owner's call and followed her back into the carriage.
I watched the strange man as he looked lost staring at the carriage. He made no move to follow, as though scared of breaking the silence and held the weight of babsk words.
I went into the carriage and brought out some bandages for his hands. Dropping them at his feet.
He sat down and looked at them...
"Thank You..."
"Aria." I responded and ran back into the carriage, closing the doors.
We stayed in that valley for three more days as my Babsk recovered. After her unusual return from consciousness, she slept for another day and then began eating. Her color was returning slowly but she still looked even more old and sickly.
Every trip to the otherworldly side came at a price, and this one seemed to have been costly.
She slowly sipped her porridge while I watched the dishes.
The strange man of that day, whose name I later learnt was Tommy, sat outside as usual.
Since that day, he hadn't left nor come in.
He stayed outside, his hand bandaged and dirtied, living off berries and the game he occasionally manages to catch.
He was roasting one now. A squirrel sat spinning over the fire pit.
I had tried giving him food once but he declined, saying his Babbi wouldn't approve.
"He's still there?" She asked from her chair in the sitting room.
"Yes." I answered promptly, a lot of questions in my mind but no courage to voice them out.
"Speak child." She said promptly.
"About?" I asked, unsure of what she wanted to hear.
"You wonder at why I treat him so, why not let him in if he is my grandson?"
I stared incredulous at the accuracy with which she plucked the question from my heart. I nodded my head.
"It's because he is my grandson, or rather he was. Now he's a lost soul, a leaf in the wind, trying to find way to his roots, not knowing he willingly let go of the trees and its branches in the first place."
"Why then don't you let him in? Why not allow him back into the fold?"
"Once a leaf has been cut off, it can't join back. It has to find a way to form its own tree, its own fold."
A knock sounded on the door and I went to open it, Tommy stood looking small at the doorway.
I peered behind him and saw Dorku tied up glaring daggers at his back.
"Had to wait till the storming thing was asleep before I could get it."
"You sure have some balls to come knocking at my doorstep, I guess that's one thing from your gypsy tribe you couldn't throw away."
"Ma please, I need your help." Tommy began kneeling.
"Of course you do, everyone needs my help, but it's not everyone I'm willing to help, especially not a Didakai"
He looked up sharply at that.
"Mami please..."
"You left Tommy. You went and settled down with your little British doll and told us you don't want nothing to do with us, same way we now don't want nothing to do with you."
His head was on the ground now as he begged..
"Please, there's a reason I came back."
"I don't care about it, I don't care about you. Your babes death is the price you'll pay and there's nothing I'm willing to do to stop it."
He began to cry at this point.
"So you did know." He said amidst sobs.
Babsk's expression softened at this point and her voice was less threatening and sounded like she had pity.
"Course I did. You did a foolish thing. You had all but married her, yet you went and laid with that British cat. She had every right to curse you."
"But why not me!! Why my boy?!" He shouted and cried.
"The token of your love to the lass, the binding thing holding you and her together, you and her, she cursed you both. It's dark magic. It held on to me as you approached the house, luckily I managed to battle it.
Still, it lingers inside you, I can't face it again, another person would have to do it, if your boy was to live."
I looked on in silence, my head swimming with the new information I was hearing. I didn't even notice that at the end of her last words, my babsk was pointing at me.
"She's a Gorja, someone you had picked up from the field!!" Tommy said in defiance.
"She's more gypsy than you." She said in return.
"Plus, she does actually have gypsy blood. Just not ours. An outsider is the best for this kind of magic."
"Babsk?" I was scared.
The idea that I could do magic was shocking to me. Although I knew the odds of her being wrong were low. My babsk doesn't lie nor does she make a habit of being wrong.
"It's alright child. I'll walk you through it."
I slowly nodded. Showcasing my willingness to try it.
"Are you sure about this? She doesn't look like she's even up to her fifteenth moon?"
"She has already agreed to try this Tommy, are you going to allow the curse run its course or do you want to grow up already?" My babsk asked him angrily.
He grumbled but accepted.
Later in the night we gathered on the fields illuminated by the dying campfire.
Tommy laid down on the space my babsk had pointed out to him.
She blew incense at him and quickly he fell asleep.
She scooped up some ash from the fire pit and drew a circle on the field, afterwards some strange signs.
The field was dead silent, all animals and insects seemed to have taken cover, running away from the evil about to be broken.
She put on a different plant on the embers of the burning log and the smoke changed to a bright purple.
She took a stem and brought it close to me.
"Okay child. Just as we practiced, just as you know. Magic isn't learnt, it's felt, it's in you, in your surroundings, in your blood, from the crown of your head to the tip of your toes, just let it flow."
I was scared but I tried anyway, she put her trust in me to do this and I put her trust in her to protect me.
I felt a tug, a tug towards the sky and to the ground, a tug to the trees and nature, a tug to numerous places, yet a repulsion from just one.
I opened my eyes and saw Tommy, in a place of all white he was outlined in darkness. It was oozing off him, slowly encroaching his whole body.
I walked towards him, fighting against forces pushing me back, forces warning me that this isn't meant to be touched. That he was gone.
Still I pushed towards him, still I fought against the forces, still I dragged myself and finally I reached him.
I felt tired, weak, and could hardly see.
He laid there undisturbed, he seemed dead, the blackness almost had him he was covered everywhere except from his toes.
I didn't know what to do, I had finally reached him, I had seen the curse but I didn't know how to break it.
I heard a voice...
It was faint but clear...
Let it flow...
Slowly I raised my hand and placed it on his head, the only place the darkness hadn't taken completely, and I exhaled.
I saw the whiteness flow out of me, battling the darkness, fighting and winning it.
He was healed and cursed, the blackness had gone out of his body...
But it hadn't disappeared.
It stood stagnant, a black ball floating in the air.
It seemed wrong, it seemed alive, it seemed violent.
Tommy's body disappeared and I was left alone with it.
Then it attacked, a whip of blackness coming at me. I managed to dodge it but it's recoil caught me, wrapped around my neck, it drew me close.
"What's the meaning of this?" It screamed.
An inhuman voice, I felt scared, I was choked. It formed a knife to stab me, I closed my eyes in fright.
I opened my eyes to a starry sky.
"Aria.. Aria!... Aria!!"
I jumped up, nearly hitting my babsk on her head.
I looked around in confusion, then felt my neck and my stomach, the place where the knife was about to hit.
"You're okay." My babsk said, smiling in a flushed way.
"I'm sorry it took so long, I've grown weaker." She said solemnly.
"I'm fine mama." I replied to her weakly..
Just a bit tired... My vision faded to black.
I woke up again on my bed, the first thing I noticed when I got up was the white line that was on my hair.
"A sign of your crossing." My babsk said.
She sat in the corner looking at me.
"Every time you cross to the spirit realm, you pay a price here.. Some, more costly than others."
"The more powerful you are, the less of a cost you'll pay."
"You wrestled with a dark magic curse, at fifteen years of age, and you only had to pay for the color of your hair."
"You truly are special, the Gypsy blood is thick with you." She said with a smile
"What about Tommy?" I asked her.
"Ran off to go check on his lad and wife. Offered his thanks but I had Dorku chase him off. The dog was diligent about it too. Wanting to get revenge for his bondage, I reckon."
I laughed at that.
"You'd have to continue training though." My babsk continued.
"It's not every time I'd get to see one who's this talented. We'd have to see and learn about what else you can do." She stood up to leave.
"Awake in only half a day too. So special, the magic is so potent."
"I'd have to teach you all that I know and even more, it's a new age for the gypsies, that it is."
I stayed in bed and stared at her leaving.
I didn't understand what was happening, but I realized what I had just done, the sheer craziness of what I had seen and just how dangerous it had been.
I felt my hand shaking, but it wasn't of fear, it was excitement. Ever since, I'd seen my babsk heal, conjure and prophecy, I'd always been in awe of it.
I don't know why Tommy left the fold, but I'm so proud to be let in.
I'm proud to be a gypsy.
This is my entry into The Inkwell Weekly Prompt: Gypsy.
This prompt really intrigued me so I went and did a study on them, the reader may notice some odd sentences and mismatched words in the conversation that may be taken as typographical error but it isn't, this is how or rather my understanding of how the traditional gypsy/Romani people speak and I tried if possibly crudely to replicate their wordings, tones and accents in the dialogue.
I really do hope you enjoy it.😃✨
Images used have their source embed in in them.
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