Disharmony

‘You don’t want that one,’ said Samantha. ‘It’s brand new, but empty.’

‘Uh ha,’ said Mirela, her smile igniting her ebony eyes.

‘I just wondered if one of you dropped this?’ said Birthday. ‘It was on the ground just here. But it’s cool, man. I can go. I don’t want any trouble.’

Samantha could almost see the man’s sun and beer-addled brain shifting gears. Clunk. Clunk. His friends at the table watched him.

‘Oh. My wallet!’ he said, taking it from Birthday. ‘Thank you, my friend! You must drink with us. Come on, sit. Sit.’

The big man put his arm around Birthday’s shoulders. For just a moment, Birthday turned his face in their direction and gave them a man-he-stinks grimace. Mirela laughed.

‘I can’t, I can’t,’ said Birthday, wrangling his body out from under the big blond bear. ‘I’m meeting friends. They’re waiting for me. Thanks though, man.’

He left the group toasting him and sauntered back to join them. He slipped Mirela a handful of cash.

‘Buy us some chicken,’ he said, smiling. ‘I’ll meet you girls over by the fruit stand.’

***

Samantha stretched her tanned legs out on the grass in the park adjacent to the markets. She rested her hands on her belly.

‘Oh man,’ she said. ‘I’m gonna die.’

She leaned back onto her elbows and squinted up through the branches above her. She’d never seen leaves on a tree so still. She searched, but could not spot a single leaf so much as swaying. The sky above the tree was a uniform powder blue, a single, flat stretch of colour that could have been a painted ceiling. No birds ruined the effect, and not a breath of wind blew. For a moment, everything felt unreal. What if she was in a room and the grass underneath her was carpet? She dug her fingers into the dry soil to check.

‘Well, you ate more than even I did, superstar,’ said Birthday. ‘No wonder your stomach hurts.’

‘Why do you keep calling me that?’ she said, flicking dirt from under her fingernails.

Birthday rolled over onto his side. He propped his chin in his hand and watched her. His trucker cap lay in the grass next to him, and his curls seemed alive, as though they grew like vines and might at any time reclaim his amber eyes.

‘Well, you’re the Gaje Princess, aren’t you?’ he said. ‘Favourite of the king?’

‘How do you know about that?’ Mirela lazily stirred a raspberry ice with a thick straw, watching it melt.

Samantha sat up. Why would Birthday know about yesterday? The whole thing felt like a dream to her, and it had all ended so abruptly. She’d been completely exhausted when their visitors had left straight after the reading. She’d gone into the caravan to pack away her cards, intending to find Lala and quiz her about what she’d felt in there, but it had been so hot, and so still. The next thing she’d woken with a stiff neck and the camp was sleeping. She hadn’t even heard the men arrive home from the horse fair. And when she’d tried to find Lala before they left this morning, she’d seemed always to just miss her.

‘Everyone knows the king went out to visit you,’ said Birthday. ‘You know how word gets around out here.’

‘Yeah,’ said Mirela. ‘From your crew.’

‘For real,’ said Birthday Jones. ‘But not everyone knows everything. There’s a little bit more to tell.’

‘Spill,’ said Samantha.

‘You first,’ he said.

So Samantha told her friend about yesterday’s events. Mirela interjected periodically until Samantha reached the moment they’d entered the caravan, and then Mirela and Birthday listened silently as she took them through her reading for the gypsy king.

‘You are a freak, Sam,’ said Mirela when she stopped speaking. ‘Just so you know.’

‘A super-freak,’ said Birthday Jones. ‘Give me a sip of that drink, Mimi.’

‘Whatever,’ said Samantha. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

‘Okay, get this,’ said Birthday. ‘You know how my Aunt Crina has a job in the palace?’ He took a big noisy slurp from Mirela’s cup.

‘Yeah,’ said Mirela, snatching back her drink.

Samantha said nothing. Technically, Birthday Jones didn’t know any of his real relatives, but he’d adopted his own family of sorts, just as she had.

‘Well, Crina was working in the kitchen when the king got home from your little enchanted picnic,’ said Birthday. ‘And he was not a happy fatty.’

Samantha bit her lip. Why couldn’t she just have done the reading the way Lala had taught her? What was going to happen now?

‘Is he mad at me?’ she asked.

‘Mad at you? Ah, no. The king loves you, superstar. He was mad at everyone else, though. Came in screaming about how he had to have you, and how Boldo the bodyguard had better get on it and make it happen. The kitchens got a call that he was on his way home and hungry, so they had a spread laid on, but Crina reckons he took the first dish she brought him and threw it – smash – straight into the wall.’

‘What do you mean, he wants me?’ said Samantha.

Birthday twisted his lips. ‘Um, you’re a big girl now, Sam,’ he said. ‘I think you can figure that out.’

‘Oh my God, Sam!’ Mirela sat bolt upright in the grass. ‘First of all – yuuuck – and second, what are we gonna do? Lala will send you away before she’ll let that pig take you.’

Samantha shook her head. Memories of the tarot reading snaked through her mind like the incense smoke in the darkened van.

‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said. ‘He wasn’t there for that reason.’

‘Tamas thought he was,’ said Mirela with a half smile. ‘He was pretty jealous.’

‘He was?’ said Samantha. ‘What did he say?’ She pushed herself up from the grass. ‘You tell me right now, Mimi.’

Birthday sat up too. ‘Um, it’s been real,’ he said. ‘But if you’re gonna sit here and girl-talk about Tamas, I’m out.’

‘No, wait,’ said Samantha. ‘Sorry, Birthday. We have to talk this out a bit more. Tamas said this guy used to be a criminal, and his driver came along with a gun. I don’t want to bring trouble to the camp. I want to figure out what he wants with me.’

Birthday gave her that look again.

‘Listen,’ she said. ‘I seriously did not get that feeling from him. You know how I’m good at kind of knowing how people feel? If anything, I think maybe he might have felt that way about his driver.’

‘Well, I have heard that,’ said Birthday.

‘You see?’ said Samantha. ‘No, when he was with me he was much more excited about the cards. But there was also something more than that.’

She chewed a thumbnail, pensive.

‘What?’ said Mirela.

‘Just say it,’ said Birthday.

Samantha looked away. ‘Well, it felt like there was more than just me, him and Lala in the trailer,’ she said.

‘What, like someone was spying?’ said Mirela.

‘Yeah,’ said Samantha. ‘From inside his mind.’

‘You think that someone was spying on you from inside the gypsy king’s head?’ said Birthday.

She just looked at him.

‘You know, Sam,’ he said. ‘I was hoping you weren’t gonna go down this way. You know the gypsy fortune-telling bullcrap is all just a show for the Gaje.’

‘It’s not bullcrap,’ said Mirela. ‘And you’re Gaje, in case you’d forgotten.’

‘I’m not Gaje,’ he said.

‘Well, you’re not Roma,’ said Mirela loudly.