A Gypsy Song (The Eye of the Crystal Ball - The Wolfboy Chronicles) (6 page)

“Yes. Don’t ever cave in to that urge. You can’t trust it. Don’t ever open the book again.”

“I promise, Mom.”

Even though Sara promised never to open
The Book of Foresight
again, her mother grew more and more worried as the days passed by. She was worried for the battle of her daughter’s heart that had begun. She knew it was going to be a tough fight for Sara to stay goodhearted with all the temptations that she would meet in the world. Therefore, she asked her grandmother, Sara’s hunchbacked great grandmother, to look into Sara’s heart. She was the only one that Settela knew could read people’s hands.

One day they sat down in Settela’s tent and Sara’s great grandmother took her hand. Since she was so hunchbacked Sara couldn’t see her eyes, as the old woman felt her hand both on top and in the palm. After a couple of seconds she stopped. Then she spoke to her in Romani.

“You have great powers,” her mother translated. “Greater than any Romani who has ever lived.”

Then her great grandmother felt her hand again and spoke some more in Romani. It sounded beautiful in Sara’s ears, and a little scary, as well.

“You have a very strong heart, too. That is good. But you must keep it protected against the evil,” her mother translated.

“What does that mean?” Sara asked.

The great grandmother spoke again.

“You can’t let it be poisoned by evil. A heart can’t guard itself, you have to do it. You have to protect it from these deceitful feelings.”

Then she stopped and all of a sudden Sara’s great grandmother lifted her head and stared right into her eyes.

“Your heart has already been poisoned, I see. Once, when you took revenge on that girl who was alone in the street.”

 “Gertrud?” Sara said and thought of the day she had let her books threaten her until she cried.

”But I didn’t even harm her.”

The great grandmother stared at Sara and it felt like she saw straight into her heart.

“But you let the evil into the purest place you have. Your heart. You have to protect your heart from the world. Your heart is your guidance, it will lead you to do right. If you let evil into it, how can it guide you in the right direction? How can it help you to tell right from wrong?” she said while gesticulating wildly with her old wrinkled hands.

Sara looked into the almost black eyes of her great grandmother one last time before the old woman’s head bowed down to her throat again, and there was nothing but the top of her gray hair left to look at.

“Now it is time for you to rest, granny,” Settela said as she helped her out of the tent and back into the caravan where Sara’s great grandmother spent most of the day sleeping and talking to the spirits.

Sara was glad she had the advice even though she didn’t really understand everything that the great grandmother had just told her.

Little did she know that she would soon come to realize just how important it was what the old woman had said.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

It wasn’t until
the month of June, shortly after Sara’s thirteen birthday, that her world started to fall apart. They had traveled up the Mediterranean coast of Spain where they camped outside a small coastal town called Carboneras. It was located beautifully on the sea and the beaches were long and white beneath the mighty cliffs.

Sara was having a great day helping her dad practice for a new act of fire breathing that he was about to introduce on stage the following week. Dragon’s Breath was the title of the new show.

By watching her dad practice, Sara got a picture of just how dangerous his job really was. It wasn’t just all about taking a mouthful of fuel and spitting it out into a flame. It was much more complex, he explained to her.

“The angle from your chest, for instance, is crucial,” he said. “If it’s too low, you will burn your clothes. If it too high, you will have burning gas in your face. The trick is getting it just right to produce a steady, quick flame that shoots away from your body and not on it.”

And then he did it just to show her how it is done. A gigantic flame reached into the air with a roaring sound.

Sara clapped, impressed, while Moeselman bowed with a wide smile.

“Encore. Encore. One more time,” Sara yelled. She knew her father loved when the crowd said that.

And then it happened.

The first thing she noticed was the woman running past them and towards their caravan. Sara didn’t think much of it until a minute or so later when another woman came running in the exact same direction with that exact same expression on her face.

This was highly unusual, Sara thought to herself, and kept staring at her family caravan where the two women had gone in.

And when a third woman came, Sara got up from the ground and looked at her dad. He shook his head and told her he didn’t know what was happening.

“Sometimes women are very hard to understand,” he said and prepared another torch.

Sara wasn’t so sure that was enough of an answer for her. She was a curious little girl and had that feeling in her stomach that kids sometimes get when they know that something is happening but they just don’t know if it is good or bad.

So she went straight to the caravan. She opened the door and looked inside. One of the tribe’s women stood in the doorway and was blocking her view. There was much talking among the women inside. They all had busy looks on their faces, that look that grown-ups get when something is very wrong and they have to take immediate action.

The woman nearest Sara turned and looked at her.

“You can’t come in right now,” she said and tried to close the door in front of Sara’s face.

Sara stopped her by putting a hand on the door.

“Where is my mom?” she asked and felt a lump in her throat. What if something had happened to her?

“Sorry, sweetie, you can’t see her now.” The woman tried once more to close the door but Sara slammed it wide open.

“Why? What is wrong with her?”

The woman shook her head.

“She is not feeling well at the moment, please go and be with your dad for a little while.”

“But what happened to her?”

“She just fainted. She will be fine. Just let us help her and she will be out soon, okay?”

Sara stepped down and away from the door as the woman hurried up and closed it in front of her.

Her dad now seemed to have sensed the gravity of the situation and stood at her side.

“What did they say?”

She looked up and saw his big face.

“Mom fainted. They are trying to take care of her.”

He nodded slowly trying to pretend like he had the situation under control, but Sara knew he was as scared as she was.

“Then I guess there is nothing more we can do right now,” Moeselman said and put his arm around Sara. “We will just have to wait.”

She looked at him again. His eyes were worried, she could tell. It made her uncomfortable and the feeling in her stomach that something bad was coming grew stronger.

But it wasn’t until later that afternoon that Sara got an answer to what was going on. Her dad finally got to go in the caravan while all the women went outside. They stood in a flock and talked in low voices. Sara was sitting on the ground next to them petting one of her dad’s big dogs —a German Shepherd—but couldn’t hear what they were saying. All she heard was small bits like:

“…Unusual for a woman at her age …”

And:

“… Too old …”

Then there was a lot of shaking heads and mumbling among them and then more words like:

“… Very risky …”

“… not sure to survive…”

“ … Can’t go through with it …”

Sara hid her head in the palms of her hands and tried to block the world out. She couldn’t bear to lose her mother now. She had just gotten to know her.

“Sara?”

The voice was right next to her. It was that of her mother. Sara looked up. Settela was kneeling right beside her. Sara got up and hugged her.

“I love you, mom, don’t ever leave me,” she said.

Settela laughed and so did Moeselman who stood right next to her. And that was when Sara realized something. Settela wasn’t going to die right now, actually she looked happier than ever and so did Moeselman.

What was going on?

“Sara, we have great news,” her mother said while gently removing Sara’s bangs from her eyes.

“What news?”

Settela looked at Moeselman and they both smiled.

“Your mother is expecting,” he said.

Sara was confused.

“Expecting what?”

Settela laughed a light laughter and smiled with warmth. Then she kissed Sara on the forehead and looked her in the eyes. Sara felt so loved when she did that.

“A baby. I am expecting a baby.”

Sara felt lightheaded. It seemed like everything was spinning around her. The caravans, the smiling and laughing women, her mom and dad, the whole camp was turning around her.

Oh no! Not again?

“How many?” Sara asked from experience. Last time anyone gave her that message three babies came out and destroyed everything.

“Only the one,” her mother said reassuringly. “It is going to be wonderful. Our small family is expanding.”

Sara didn’t even try to smile. She was the only one who had gone through this before. They did not know what they were getting themselves in to.

“But why did all these women say all that stuff.”

Her mother looked at her curiously.

“What stuff is that?”

Sara had a small tear escape from her eye. Her mother saw it and wiped it away with her finger.

“They talked like you were going to die or something.”

Settela hugged Sara and squeezed her tight.

“Oh, sweetie, you must have thought the most horrible things. Don’t listen to them. They were just talking.”

“But why would they say that?”

Settela sighed and sat down on the ground next to Sara.

“Listen to me,” she said. “They talk like that because they think I am too old to have a child.”

“Are you?”

“I am getting older, and it is very unusual for a woman my age to have more children. We tried for years to have a child and had almost given up when you came along. You were our miracle. But because of all the years of trying to get pregnant I had you late and therefore we were certain that you would be our only child, but now this happened. It is another miracle and it must be a very special child. Just like you.”

Sara sniffled.

“But …”

Settela smiled and interrupted her.

“No buts here, little missy,” she said and pressed her forefinger on Sara’s nose with her bright smile. “This child is a gift from the spirits and everything will be just fine. I will be fine and so will the baby.”

Then Settela squeezed Sara, and Moeselman took them both in his arms and held them tight.

Sara felt better after talking to her mother, but something inside of her wasn’t quite convinced that everything was going to be fine. A feeling, a nagging unrest in her, told her that she was the one with the experience in this field, and it was not a good one.

That fall they performed in the cities of the Mediterranean coast of Spain and as the winter came they stayed outside the city of Barcelona.

Sara’s mother had gotten big and it became more and more difficult for her to travel. She was tired all the time and needed her rest, and traveling on bumpy roads is not pleasant when you have a baby in your stomach. So they did an unusual thing. They decided not to travel anymore until the baby was born and they stayed for three months in the same place.

When the time came and Settela was about the have the baby, spring was in the air.

It happened early in the morning. Sara woke up when she heard her mother scream.

“What is wrong with mom?” she asked as she entered her parent’s bedroom.

Settela’s face was taut with strain, she was making a low noise like a tree creaking. The effort was costing her dearly, using up her last reserves of strength, and she seemed to drift off in a doze for a second. Then she became alert again and another scream filled the caravan.

Three of the tribe’s women were already there and Sara’s great grandmother sat in a chair in the corner and was chanting and praying.

Moeselman stood at Settela’s bed and held her hand. When he saw Sara he let go of the hand and walked outside with her.

 “Is this it? Why is she screaming so much? Is something wrong?” Sara asked when they got outside where a crowd had gathered. They were all cheerful and looking at her like she should be too.

“It is perfectly normal,” Moeselman said. “It is messy and noisy and a little bit scary right now but in a short time you will become a big sister.”

Someone handed Sara some bread and water but she was not hungry that particular morning. She was anxious and nervous and scared. Was she the only one that thought this wasn’t such a great idea?

Then her mom screamed again. It went right through Sara’s bones. Hands were on both hers and Moeselman’s shoulders, smiles were on everybody’s faces as the screaming got worse and worse. It was very unreal to Sara, as if the more her mother was in pain the more the crowd cheered.

All of a sudden it was over. The silence that followed seemed endless. Everybody waited for that sound, a noise, any small sign that whatever came out of her mother was alive.

And then Sara heard it. They all did. The small cry that meant the baby was alive. A relief spread through the crowd and after that the cheering continued. People were congratulating her and her father. Moeselman was crying and hugging her and lifting her into the air. Even the dogs barked as if they wanted to take part of the jubilation.

And then finally the door to the caravan was opened and the woman that had been the midwife stuck her face out. She was glowing as if she herself had gone through the pain of giving birth.

In her hands she had something wrapped in a blanket. She lifted it high in the air and everyone broke into cheers of joy. It was the baby. All red and wrinkled. It was crying like it wanted her to stop.