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Nothing could be worse than what would happen to me at home.
    “Then he’s a characterless weakling. A man who can only handle a woman with violence is a weakling. A Sinti knows how to handle his women without force.” Santino asserted angrily.
    “Yes, the way you handle Mama,” Sergio interrupted, laughing, and received a witheringly look.
    “Silence!” roared Santino. “Your mother is a devil woman! She would arrogantly give orders to her own hangman!”
    Santino was ranting but he could not hide a slight grin and his eyes were sparkling with amusement.
    I had become curious. What sort of a woman must Sergio’s mother be if she gave orders to a man like Santino? – A devil woman! I had never met such a woman. My mother had been calm and demure, always obedient towards her husband – yes, I had never experienced a woman who was a match for her spouse, who contradicted him openly.
    “Well, you can stay with us for a while, but you must not leave the camp alone. Sleep a little now. Tomorrow we’ll move on.”
    With these words Santino left the waggon without turning.
    “You see, I told you. He’ll abide by Grandmother Aneta’s words.” said Sergio when his father had gone.
    “Why didn’t you tell me that he was your father?” I asked reproachfully.
    Sergio shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me apologetically.
    “Would it have made a difference? No one has influence over him apart from Grandmother Aneta and my mother.”
    “What’s she like?” I asked, curious.
    “Who? – My mother?”
    “Yes!”
    Sergio smiled with amusement.
    “She’s what my father said she is – a devil woman – when my father makes a decision that she doesn’t agree with, then she makes his life hell. And she refuses to have intimacy with him which makes him even more livid, so he does everything that she wants just to be back in her favour.”
    “But he could force her as he’s so big and strong,” I objected. I had never heard of a woman daring to deny her husband his marital rights.
    “My mother once threatened to castrate him in his sleep if he were to do that,” Sergio explained, grinning.
    My eyes were wide with amazement. My mother would never have dared say such a thing to her husband. She would not have even
thought
such a thing.
    “You really should sleep a little more now. Tomorrow we’ll be moving on – within a week we want to have reached our summer camp. We’ll be staying there for three months. You’re now under our protection,” said Sergio.
    *
    The next morning I finally made the acquaintance of Grandmother Aneta. I was awoken by melodic singing in a language that I did not recognise. I opened my eyes and saw a very old woman busy putting herbs into a pot from various containers. She was standing with her back to me, so she was not able to see that I was awake. What should I do? – Pretend to be asleep still or simple speak to her?
    “Good morning. Did you sleep well?” asked the old woman unexpectedly.
    I sat up, astonished.
    “How did you know that I’m awake? You can’t see me with your back to me.”
    “Oh, I don’t need to see,” said Grandmother Aneta and turned round to face me.
    I was shocked when I saw the old woman’s blind eyes.

    Grandmother Aneta chuckled with amusement. She brought me a steaming cup of tea and sat down on the chair. For a while she was silent and despite her blindness I felt that she was looking at me. Perhaps she was – in her way.
    “I haven’t been able to see anything for years, but I have other skills,” said Grandmother Aneta after a while, and she smiled.
    “You’re Grandmother Aneta,” I stated. There was no doubt about who she was. If I had ever seen a
wise woman
then it was this white-haired old woman with her strange blind eyes.
    “That’s right, child. Who’s told you about me? Ivo or Sergio? – No, it definitely won’t have been Ivo. He’s retreated to his waggon because he doesn’t want to look destiny in the face.”
    I