Don't Look Back

Well, that was unexpected

When the old, dirty, gypsy women approached me it felt like something out of a fairy tale. She grabbed my arms with surprising strength, strength that didn't match up with her frail wrinkled skin and slight tremors. Suddenly her body stiffened and her eyes rolled up so only the whites were showing. I panicked thinking she was having a seizure and prepared myself to catch her in case she collapsed.

"Hey I need some help over here!" I yell out as the women starts to convulse in my arms.

"You- you need to find her. You need to save her." She says in a raspy voice.

"Okay I'll find her." I tell the women without having any idea what she is talking about. I just want to calm her down.

"There is a girl! She is cursed, and you have to break it. Find this girl, break her curse. An act of true love to break the curse."

How cliché I think. I need to kiss a girl to break this mysterious curse. "Okay I'll find this girl, I'll help her okay?" I say again not meaning it but unsure of what else to say to this obviously ill women.

"You have to promise."

"Oh um-"

"YOU HAVE TO PROMISE TO HELP HER. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE!" the women yells out.

"Okay, okay. I promise. I promise to help her."

"Remember, you can't break a promise." She whispers out, and then she collapses, unconscious.

The sudden change in her body send us both falling to the ground. I roll so that I hit the ground first and cushion her fall, afraid that her frail body might break on impact. "God I'm so not made for this." I grunt out as I try to sit up without hurting her. Kneeling I slip one arm behind her neck and one under her knees and I try to stand, steadying myself against a brick wall. The women is very light- maybe 80 pounds, but I'm barley 5'2 and she is taller than I am making her difficult to hold.

I walk down the street, angling myself whenever we have to pass someone or something so that the lady doesn't get hurt. People will look at me when we pass but will immediately look away and keep walking. I stop in front of a man.

"Excuse me where is the nearest hospital?" I ask.

I get a blank stare in response. "Um okay thanks, sorry." I keep on walking.

The next person I stop is a Zulu women, I hope she might be more sympathetic. "Excuse me how do I get to a hospital, or doctor, or anything?" I ask her. I'm getting desperate and this gypsy is getting heavy.

"Oh what happened? Never mind no time just follow me." She exclaims in heavily accented English. She turns and starts to lead me not checking if I follow. Her long black hair trails after her as she walks and her dark brown skin stands out stunningly against her bead-adorned dress. After another ten minutes we make it to a house and she walks right inside. "This is my grandfather's house, he's an Inyanga."

"An inyan- I'm sorry what?"

"A healer." The women explains.

In the middle of the room is an old man with dark skin much like his granddaughter. He is wearing a skirt-like covering made of animal skins, an apron-like covering on his chest, and a headband. His skin is wrinkled and worn and his eyes are closed.

The women kneels in front of him and starts to speak in a language I don't know. I assume it is isiZulu, the Zulu language.

"Sawubona umkhulu" I assumes she's greeting him.