When the gypsy met the gorga

Chapter 16: Stefan

"...I am guilty

for i took pleasure in it,

crave it still.

I won't let go

not yet.

Maybe not ever."

I couldn't find my note book anywhere so I wrote this on a paper. It was bound to be  somewhere in the caravan.

Anyways, true to my word we didn't have a second go but I still ached for it. It was harder to cotrol than earlier. I thought I needed professional help. I told Iaan at work about it who was just gob smacked. I don't even know why because he's done stuff too. God alone knows if he has unknown kids.

"I never thought you'd do it before marriage."

"Yeah nor did I"

"Damn it!"

"What?"

"I thought she'd be boring. I should have got to her before you." I glared at him. "I was joking brov."

"You'd better be." We drove back home earlier because I had to go to dinner over at Millie's.

I think Frank knew. He'd been silent for a while but that was because he'd been concentrating on  chess. Maybe I should tell him, Frank I slept with Millie. I'm sorry. Of course I was not sorry! I felt like going to the other room  where she was studying.

"Go on Stefan.."I jumped. "Your turn." I didn't look at his move and just moved my knight then Frank moved his queen. "Check". After a couple more moves.."Check mate."

"Well done, you've won," I said.

"Stefan", called Gran. "I've found an album of Millie. If you'd like to see", she said sitting on the couch. I went through the photos with her. Millie was a cute kid in a very nutty way. There were photos of her doing all kinds of daft things; cartwheels in frocks showing her cotton underwear at 8 and one with ice cream over her grinning face. I stopped at a photo of her crying after being smothered in cake. "That's when she was 9. All her friends came. Ben ..Do you know Ben?, asked Gran."

 I remembered. "Oh..shri..Um yeah he's not too bright."

"Exactly. Well he fell over the bench leg and his head went whap on the cake so the others got into action with a food fight. Millie's uncle couldn't control it. I was laughing behind with Frank who took a photo but it was a task cleaning them all up afterwards. Millie didn't talk to Ben for a week. He made it up giving her a big rainbow lolly pop." I chuckled.

Frank started mumbling. We looked up to see a sharp looking man in a suit on tv. The anchor introduced Mr Mantle, Terrence's Dad. He  looked like a cleaner and thinner version of Terrence. The news was something about tearing down Phantom meadows to turn into a resort. I stared. Millie had taken me there. It was so pretty. Why would anyone think of tearing it down? "Ruddy rich people..think they can mess the earth up", mumbled Frank. I turned to Gran in question. "Frank's very upset about what's happening to the meadows.." The rest of Frank's mumbles were about people who were in positions to help people yet they exploited those positions.

He saw me off at the door. "You know something, Stefan. I'm glad that Millie's with you. That Mantle's son was giving her a bit of a hard time when his hormones kicked in. You look out for her and..."

"Frank, I slept with her a month ago." He froze. "I'm sorry..It just happened. I feel bad and..." His face turned red. I closed an eye thinking he was going to hit me.

"YOU...I TRUSTED YOU!!"

"I know..it just.."

"I'M SO BLOODY MAD. I COULD STICK A KNIFE THROUGH YOU!!!" He slammed the door in my face. Millie got the rest of the bunt and she got angry at me for telling him saying that wasn't how she wanted to break the news. We talked over the phone for a week because Frank didn't let her see me then Frank invited me for dinner again after a week. We tried to act like nothing happened. Gran was good at acting but I could tell she minded.

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I think Frank might have really stuck a knife up me if he got a chance to because believe it or not he's mobilising forces around the village to protect the meadows. I'd been helping too. They all stayed in tents at the meadows during the night and signed petitions and handed out flyers during the day. Gran and Frank didn't camp out because of Gran's arthritis but she made good food to hand round. The flyers had ended up in our camp too. Millie came up with this whole 'Hug a tree' movement for when the woodcutters came along. It was inspired from an Indian movement that took place in the 70s to protect a patch forest in the Himalayas. She tried explaining how it was led only by women and how they stood guard outside taking shifts every day after they saved it. She hit me on the head when I yawned. So, it was what we would do; hug  trees forming human rings around them.

A couple villagers came into our site. I almost choked on my glass of water when I saw Frank coming to camp thinking Millie had got pregnant and they came to turn me in. Our own men gathered wondering what was going on. Nana stood at the steps of her trailer as did the other women. We boys had to join the men in the 'shield'.

"What is it?", my Dad asked a bit harshly to Frank who blinked at the tone.

"No worries, we're not here to complain or anything. I'm Frank and I'm a lawyer who works at  the children's associates in Clapton and I suppose you've heard about the proposal to bring down Phantom meadows to build a resort." None of our men responded. We were primed like grenades waiting for a gorga to step forward into the no man zone in between the two groups so we could fight. "Well, a month from today, we're staging a protest there when the wood cutters come in. It involves hugging trees forming chains around the trees." There was a moment of silence.

"Do you mean using us.. gypsies as bait for when the police come?", asked Dad. He never used the the term gypsy. He found it derrogative. This was not going well.

"What? No, no. Anyone who wishes to volunteer. We've even got muslims from Pakistaan helping and the sudanis and loads of other people..just a request. If you want to help, just sign your name at the community centre. " They were about to go but shrimp boy turned and waved at me.

"Stefan, your posters for the fair were wicked!!!" Oh shit! Every one turned to me. "Oh..", said Ben realising his wrong move and scurried off to join the other villagers. There was no point in running into the caravan because my Dad would smash the door down anyway.

"You've been going around gorgas?",asked an appalled Nana.

"For a good cause", I mumbled.

"To get yourself killed!",snarled Dad. It wasn't that he cared about me dieing. It was more, the shame of his own son running around with gorgas.

"Dad, it won't come to that. I'll go to jail for a day at the most. That's not new with us."

"What is wrong with you boy?", he asked. He turned to the other 5. "Did you know?" Thay didn't say a thing.

"They've been volunteering too", I said. They glared at me. Iaan was genuinely interested. He's nature boy. Remember? Onas just wanted a reason to 'legally' hit Terrence even though I told him it wouldn't happen..the legal reason. Ferka just tagged along but helped a lot. Marko had taken an interest in Millie's friend Lauren. Tas was just plain jobless. But, they did help.

"All of you come into my trailer for a session of tarrot to see what's wrong with you",said Nana." Your dji is on the line."

"Now wait a minute!", I yelled. "All of us interract with gorgas. We talk to them when they come to us to repair their things or when you sell something and you talked to them now when they came into the camp. We had to talk to the police at times and.... I don't think our dji will decrease. Do you know why?"

WHY? COME ON STEFAN!! I didn't really pay much attention to Nana's spiritual lectures. "Because our karma will increase." Oooh! Nailed it. "YES! it will because we've done our part to help mother earth." We gypsys descended from Indians so we share some common beliefs like the one in which we have 7 births and how our good deeds  pass through each birth aka karma. "And you can't stop us  because it'd be against your karma and your dji would have reduced from touching the supermarket's gorga shop keeper when he hands you change." HA!! That shut them up. They were all stumped. The other 5 looked impressed. I'd never spoken up like that. There was another meeting but they all finally let us go for it and some other guys decided to volunteer. Even Dad asked about the protest.