Gypsy: Chapter 2

A week had passed before I built up the courage to visit the traveling show that held the celebrated Dessert Rose in her iron cage, but in this week not a moment passed where I didn’t see her image in my mind’s eye. Her beauty shown throughout the days and her movements made me yearn for her.

It has been a long while since I’ve been home, and I believe that it is fate that has brought me here now, with her. I visited old friends who seemed glad to see me but I could tell that inside they were indifferent; after all, I left in the greatest time of need. I left my friends to fend for themselves in this village like a coward, and although I was accepted back with kindness I could never give back the shame that I have earned.

I stood at the gates, watching the men push passed me to get a glimpse of what I had seen. There were posters of her surrounded by the other acts on the trees left in the clearing and on the sides of the trailers, I felt myself slowly walking forward, drawn in by her invisible grasp like she was calling to me. The Rat faced man was smiling at the men as he showed them inside a colorful tent in the middle of the clearing, his eyes gleaming with greed. My stomach began to churn and the guilt bubbled up into my chest, I could not be here with these men who wished to use her for their own satisfactions, to watch her abuse the dance of her people and yet, I wanted to join and it sickened me. I had to save her from her fate, to take her away from this place, that man. It had to be destiny, it had to be why I was here, there could be no other reason that I would accept. I looked around, the clearing almost empty of people and creatures alike, all of them piled into the luminescent tent that sang wildly with voices. Now was my chance to find the Rose and save her from this so she can save me.

I saw her outside the yellow trailer, her chains locked securely around her ankles. She looked sad as she was tying the coined scarf around her waist. I watched her as I stood in the middle of the clearing, just staring at this Rose as she put her costume on. The vibrant colors surrounded her like an aura, a halo. Her beauty was beyond compare and my heart cried out for her. I couldn’t understand why or how, but I felt like I had known her before. I reached deep into my mind for a hint of her beautiful image but nothing was recalled.

Her hair was long and golden like the finest copper. Bright beads and tightly woven yearn decorated those copper waves as they fell over her delicate shoulders. Her head lifted and met my gaze and my heart began to race. I stumbled toward her a thousand words rushing threw my head but never seeming to find my mouth, the simplest and weakest ‘hello’ slipped from my lips as she just stared. As I moved closer to her the warming scent of chai and nutmeg filled my nostrils and dizzied me into a memory of when I was a child. It lasted but a second but I remembered a bustling village, filled with dancing people and the singing wheels of fruit carts as they were pushed past. I blinked and found her just staring at me like I had done something wrong, like I had frightened her and she could not understand.

“I’m sorry, Miss Rose, but…I don’t think you should go in there.” My plea sounded pathetic and fake, but inside I was begging. Something was going to happen even though nothing was making sense. My head was spinning from the herbs and incsceants and her eyes just remained wide and afraid, I tried to continue.

“I’m sorry if I am intruding but I mean you no harm, I’m not like the other men you dance for…no disrespect to you of course…shit. I’m sorry, it’s just…” everything sounded like an echo in a cave as my ears began to ring a tuneless lullaby and I felt my consciousness slowly slipping away.

She took hold of my shoulders and pulled me in what seemed all directions at once; she was calling my name and speaking in a foreign tongue. Everything seemed hollow and unreal. Where am I…? Darkness quickly surrounded me and I felt like I was slowly drifting threw a sea of freshly churned cream, everything was smooth and gentle and I felt like I was wrapped in a warm blanket of satin. The spices of earlier drowned me in their potent scents and I felt sick. I opened my mouth to speak but again the words could not find my lips, and slowly the calm drifting turned into a violent dizzying spell that I couldn’t be woken from. Confusion engulfed me as the sounds of the world seeped slowly back into my consciousness, calls of men, the screeching of birds, the crackle of the dry pine needles, and a woman’s voice.