I am only a little Gypsy 1 - Reincarnation, does it exist? - 31. Chapter 31. Befriending little Dimi; and a police raid.

Pretending to look under one of our caravans, I squatted down, closed my eyes, and used my breath to bring myself into a Cosmic Mage trance. Next, I started to 'feel' or 'sense' around, by extending my aura field whilst concentrating on the energy of a four-year-old little boy that seemed to be nicknamed 'little Dimi'...

Almost immediately, I sensed a joyful little aura that touched my own energy field whilst trying to blur my visual mind so that I didn't see him! There he was, having lots of fun at being able to outdo 'our very best seeker ever' this easily. Feeling surprised, I had to admit that 'little Dimi' had to be a very powerful Shaman too, just like I was one! There went my unique position in our camp as being our youngest Shaman and Healing Mage ever. Should I now feel jealous?

Before I could decide on that, first of all, I had to find and tag the little cheater who still tried to blur my visual mind. Clearly, he hadn't found out yet that 'third eyes' don't react to blurring visual pictures. Therefore, finding the insolent little cheater, by concentrating on his still outstretching energy field, should be relatively easy. Still squatting down, while pretending to look under a caravan, I stretched my aura out and pinpointed it towards little Dimi's energy, so that I knew from which direction he contacted my energy field. Next, I reopened my eyes and looked into that same direction...

Very much to my surprise, I was looking straight at the underside of my own green-and-golden Royal caravan! For a few seconds, I felt too surprised to react, but then my inside became hot with ire. How the heck DARED the cheeky brat use my own Royal caravan to hide his insolent little frame under it! Until now, I never thought that any kid would ever dare to hide under what was my own Royal Home... But, now, I HAD him, the cheeky devil who still tried to defy me by blurring my visual mind.

Determinedly, I went to my own Royal caravan and crawled under it. Where could that cheeky little scalawag be hiding? In a corner, I saw some forest litter and a few fallen leaves that seemed to be blown haphazardly against one of the cartwheels. Although I had already seen them before, I never thought that any kid would ever be able to hide under them. This tiny heap of fallen leaves was just too small to be able to hide anything at all, unless there was a hole in the ground beneath them. Silently, I crawled towards the small heap of fallen leaves, and wiped them away in one big sweep...

A broadly smiling little face showed up from under the heap of fallen leaves, followed by a tiny head that was adorned with black curly hair. Two brightly twinkling dark brown eyes looked at me as if staring straight into my soul, showing little fun lights that seemed to sparkle with very much joy and inner pride. A little boy popped up from the tiny hole he had cleverly worked himself in, broadly smiling from ear to ear while he chuckled:

"I thought you would never find me."

Feeling utterly surprised, I could only stare at the little daredevil who had so easily outdone me. Yet, my heart liked him at first sight, and my inside was already sure that we would become best friends! There was the little cheater who had so cleverly outdone me, by using his Shaman abilities to blur my vision, until I pinpointed his aura by using my own Cosmic Mage powers to overrule him.

For quite some time, 'little Dimi' and I could only stare into each other's eyes, looking very surprised at already knowing each other and immediately liking each other at first sight. Then, as if reading each other's unspoken thoughts, we crawled from under my Royal caravan and silently started to help each other wiping the sticking forest litter and rotten leaves from each other's winter clothes.

Immediately when we showed up from under our caravan, all the others crowded around us and started to cheer, whilst high-fiving both little Dimi and me at the same time. All of them seemed to be truly happy that I had found their littlest hider who almost outdid their 'very best seeker ever'. After, finally, everybody calmed down some, I lifted little Dimi's right arm high into the air while I declared:

"This game of hide and seek is won by little Dimi, who absolutely is the very best hider we have ever seen in our entire camp!"

At hearing my praising words, my new little friend started to blush fiercely first, whilst reacting a bit timid at everybody else focusing on his spectacular achievement; but, soon, he started to beam with pride. Then, he wanted to be our next seeker. While closing his still brightly sparkling dark brown eyes, he asked me:

"Prince Harold, could you please help me count to twenty, as my Moms taught me counting only my ten fingers?"

For a second, I felt surprised. Was little Dimi really talking about his 'Moms', as in more than one Mom? Because nobody else seemed to notice anything strange, I just let it go and only answered:

"Yes, of course! Just go to our big tree and close your eyes; and I will count for you until you have reached twenty. A next time, I will also try to teach you counting beyond ten, if you wish."

Happily, I counted for my new little friend; although it prevented me from partaking in our next game of hide and seek. Surprisingly, helping little Dimi felt as if I declared my 'eternal friendship' to him. My inside was also sure that we knew each other from several shared past lives; and that, from this remarkable day on, we would be best friends again and probably forever!

Whilst counting, many memories showed up in my inside, of little Dimi and I being upcoming Priests, together with five other young apprentices, under our Supreme High Priest who later on became our Beloved Gypsy Monarch Harold the Great, in our own Temple Complex that had been situated in Ancient Egypt from around five thousand years ago...

Although little Dimi was our seeker for the first time, he turned out to be extremely good at finding even the most cleverly hidden kids. While he closed his eyes, I counted for him to twenty. Then, he reopened his eyes and immediately tagged the first hiding kid. In no time, he had tagged all the others, with a still proudly beaming face and sparkling dark brown eyes with little fun lights in them. Clearly, my new little friend was using the same sneaky Shaman tactics that I had been using several times before, of finding our hiders by tracing their auras and thus knowing in which direction they were hiding.

Soon, we were already playing out next game, and, this time, our frustrated looking seeker couldn't find both my new friend and me, because little Dimi had cleverly wiped both his and my picture from our seeker's visual mind! Perhaps, I should bring the little cheater to our Wise Woman; to talk to him before he went too far and unintentionally damaged his innocent 'victims'. Or, should I try to explain those important Shaman things to him?

Near the end of the day, we started to feel too tired and therefore decided to stop our games of hide and seek. Feeling tired but also satisfied, we went to our circle of wooden benches and slumped down around our faintly glowing campfire, to take some much-needed rest and to wait for our grownups and minors to show up from visiting their gadjo towns, of course also hoping they would bring something edible and tasteful to still our always-gnawing hunger.

A few minutes later, little Dimi suddenly jumped up from sitting next to me, looked a bit surprised, but then shouted at the top of his lungs:

"There are our cars! I can hear them from far away!"

Indeed, by concentrating on the same faint sound, I too heard our cars approaching our camp at full speed. Clearly, my new little friend had at least the same excellent hearing that I possessed! Within a few seconds, our cars showed up from our surrounding woods and drove into our parking lot, while all our kids started to cheer loudly whilst racing towards them. Curiously, we crowded around them, to find out what valuable things our grownups had gathered from their far-away gadjo towns. Very much to our delight, all our cars had their trunks filled to the brim with many valuable gadjo goods!

My Dad showed up from one of the cars, smiled at seeing out over-enthusiastic faces, and then asked us to help him carry the goods into our hidden caves. In there, they would be safe from any too prying eyes, until Michail could sell them in another far-away gadjo town. In a happy mood, all of us helped our tired grownups carry their goods towards our hidden caves. Up to now, I didn't even know we had those 'hidden caves', and therefore I stared in surprise at their cleverly obscured entrances that were covered with several nasty looking thorn bushes. Again, our technical man, Pietro, had created something truly usable, so that no nosy gadjo stranger would ever be able to find them!

After their gadjo goods were stowed away, all our tired looking grownups slumped down around our campfire. Sipping their coffee, they told us how they barely escaped a mistrustful police officer who accused them of thievery and then tried to arrest them. Of course, they immediately spread out into several different directions, until they were sure they were no longer followed. Cautiously, they returned to their cleverly hidden cars and drove home.

Again, my new little friend jumped up from sitting next to me on our Royal wooden bench, and shouted with a happy sounding voice:

"There are the others! I can hear Michail's truck!"

Again, little Dimi with his excellent hearing turned out to be right. Within a few seconds, Michail's enormous truck-caravan-combination showed up from our surrounding woods and drove straight into our parking lot, of course immediately followed by all our again cheering kids, including little Dimi and me. Finally, we would see our minors back; and I would see my special friend Misha back! Impatiently, we waited, until all our happy looking minors had left Michail's truck and its attached caravan. Very much to our delight, they were carrying several gadjo paper bags that turned out to be filled with lots of nicely scenting gadjo goodies and other tasty looking edible things!

With happy faces, our minors piled their paper bags onto a wooden table. Followed by us kids, Michail first emptied a couple of paper bags onto a big platter, and then invited us to come over and try out some nice looking gadjo goodies... Happily, we crowded around the filled platter and started to munch on all the delicious looking gadjo things. For the first time in several hungry days, all of us were able to fill our empty stomachs to the brim, and that felt awesome!

Still bubbling over with enthusiasm, a couple of minors started to tell us about their adventures whilst begging for food or money in a nearby gadjo town. In some places, angry looking gadjo's had chased them away and called them nasty names like 'thieves' or 'robbers'. In other places, a few nicer gadjo's had helped them, by offering them paper bags that were filled to the brim with tasty gadjo goodies. Here and there, they got a little bit of gadjo money that Michail gathered and put away into another paper bag. The best place for begging was the 'central market' that was situated near the center of the gadjo town. Whilst begging around its 'vending booths', our kids got the biggest paper bags that were filled to the brim with the most delicious things. Now, we had lots of brownies, cakes, hotdogs, rolls, and even loafs of real gadjo bread that tasted a bit strange but still very nice.

Finally, we could eat as much tasty gadjo food as we could stow away into our still hungry stomachs, and that felt absolutely marvelous! After all our stomachs were filled to the brim, and we had burped loudly to thank the nice gadjo's for giving us their tasty food, I was finally able to greet my older friend Misha. In a cheerful mood, I went to the bench where he sat, and slumped down next to him. Misha smiled happily at me, while he draped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me even closer to his side. Could my older friend have missed me at least as much as I had missed him?

In the meantime, my new friend 'little Dimi' seemed to miss me as well, probably because I suddenly disappeared from our food supply. When he found me, sitting next to Misha, he trotted towards us and happily scooted against my other side. Instinctively, I put my arms around Dimi's tiny frame and pulled him closer against my own body. Misha smiled broadly at seeing us together, while he put his arms around Dimi and me and pulled both of us even closer against his side. With a happy sounding voice, he asked my little friend:

"Hi, Dimi, how was your first day in your new Gypsy camp? And it feels good that you've already befriended our Prince Harold, now that your Mom and you are joining us! I'm also sure that you've found the very best friend there is in our own community."

Looking bashful, little Dimi smiled at Misha while he answered:

"To tell the truth, Prince Harold found ME, hiding under his own Royal caravan. But it feels good to be his friend."

"Well, apart from your curly hair being pitch black and Harold's hair being almost white, you and he could easily be brothers and perhaps even twins, because both of you are of nearly the same length and posture! Therefore, I think I will start calling the pair of you our 'black and white twins' from now on."

Several grownups around us started to laugh, probably because they had been thinking those same things. My unruly blond hair was nearly white, while little Dimi's curly hair was pitch black, and we were really of about the same length and posture, although Dimi had to be at least a few months younger than I was. Sitting together on Misha's bench like this, we were absolutely looking like little 'black and white' twins! Feeling happy with our shared nickname, my little friend and I smiled at each other, also because everybody else in our camp immediately started calling us 'our black and white twins'. Well, both little Dimi and I certainly didn't mind.

That same evening, we had another Big Feast. Feeling thankful, all of us gathered around our glowing campfire, to drink and eat even more gadjo goodies, while our violin players started playing our most wonderful Gypsy melodies full of joy and longing. Soon, many cheerful grownups started dancing, several young kids were climbing from lap to lap, clearly to be cuddled or to feel even more loved, and everybody else in our camp felt totally content and happy.

From now on, my 'twin friend' and I were absolutely inseparable, as if we could be real twins. After having lots of fun at eating even more tasty gadjo goodies, my little friend and I started to pretend we could be clowns who didn't know the difference between white and black. Soon, everybody else in our camp was bellowing with laughter, because my little friend turned out to be extremely good at fantasizing the most hilarious things, while I tried to answer him with my most foolish responses and witty remarks. My 'black-and-white' twin friend turned out to be at least as brainy as I always was!

Sitting closely together and having a good time, I finally lost even the last traces of my negativity, while I very much enjoyed our Big Feast and my newly found friendship. Until my little twin friend started to yawn and look sleepy, so that his Mom plucked him from my side and took him to their own caravan, to put him to bed. A few minutes later, I too started to yawn and asked my Mom to put me to bed. Of course, she happily obliged.

Inside our caravan, I quickly undressed and showered, before I dived under my blankets in my own small sleeping den. Within less than a minute, I had already disappeared into a deep and sound sleep, wherein I started dreaming of a gadjo town where I chased away all its annoying inhabitants, by calling them names and by using my own powerful Shaman abilities. Their gadjo police tried to arrest me, but I laughed at them and gave them a huge 'fine' for not obeying OUR rules of having lots and lots of fun! Finally, I went home, carrying several filled paper bags of delicious gadjo food and nice looking warm gadjo clothes. Of course, my new 'black and white' friend, little Dimi, enthusiastically helped me distribute them among our own Gypsy people.

The next morning, heavy rain was pouring down from a clouded sky, so that, in no time, our entire camp and our surrounding woods were soaked with water. Although the cozy interiors in our warmed caravans remained dry, we kids wanted to go outside anyway. After eating some more gadjo goodies, we just raced outside, clad in our winter clothes, whilst trying to warm each other from the unwelcome cold and wetness. This time, I stepped in front of Misha and leaned against his broad stomach, to enjoy our friendship and feel a bit warmer, while little Dimi stepped in front of me and leaned against my stomach, obviously for the same reason.

Misha threw his arms around his shivering 'black and white twins', and that felt wonderful. Happily, we started to warm each other even more, by concentrating on each other's auras whilst trying to send each other our combined healing energy. Surprisingly, my new 'black and white' friend turned out to be an extremely strong healer, just like I was one, making Misha and I look at each other with stunned faces.

After a few minutes of huddling together and warming each other, a couple of helpful grownups showed up, to protect us from the cold wetness. Of course, they didn't want their kids to catch a fever or to get some nasty illness from the unhealthy cold. Working together, they built a provisional shelter from a few wooden stakes and some pieces of plastic. Much to our happiness, the shelter really helped to keep the rain away, so that we thanked our grownups abundantly.

Unfortunately, everything in and around our camp was still too cold and too damp to have any real fun. Languidly, all of us sat down under our plastic shelter, while munching on a couple of delicious gadjo leftovers. Now and then, we tried to dispel our boredom, by teasing each other or by playing some silly games. Fortunately, the rain in our mountains never lasted long. After a couple of boring minutes, the rain turned into a drizzle, and the too dark sky around our mountains started to clear up. Secretly, we hoped that, near the end of this morning, we would be able to leave our shelter and have some more fun in our surrounding woods.

Suddenly, my little twin friend jumped up from sitting next to me and perked his ears up, as if he could hear something unexpected! A few seconds later, all of us heard several loudly howling sirens that sounded as if coming from far away. Feeling surprised, we too perked our ears up, wondering where the sounds came from, whilst trying to guess what could be happening. Never before had we heard such mysterious and melancholic noises reverberating through the trees whilst rapidly approaching our secluded camp.

Within another few seconds, several loudly roaring and blindingly flashing gadjo police cars showed up from our surrounding woods and drove into our circle of caravans at an impossible high speed. Their sudden presence felt like overflowing our entire camp, while all those police cars stopped in front of our faintly glowing campfire with screeching tires. Immediately, all their car doors opened and many angry looking police officers jumped out of their cars, approached us, and stared at us innocent kids with restrained faces...

Feeling utterly surprised and overpowered, we kids didn't know what we should do, other than going on huddling together under our plastic shelter. Why would all those angry looking police officers want to raid our normally peaceful Gypsy camp, at such an early hour of a rainy day? We were absolutely sure they wouldn't find anything questionable in our camp, so why were they here? They seemed to be very angry!

Hadn't our grownups been careful enough when visiting a far-away gadjo town to gather some valuable merchandise, but only from really rich gadjo people who wouldn't miss some of their many possessions anyway? Or, had this unexpected police visit to do with our minors involuntarily breaking some unknown gadjo 'law' whilst begging for food and money? Would those very angry looking police officers now give us a 'fine', or put us in 'jail', as punishment for disobeying their laws, as my Big Friend Michail once explained?

After a few seconds of looking around, one of the police officers stepped away from us kids, turned around, and stared at our hastily gathering grownups. To us, huddling kids, he seemed to be their 'boss-officer', because he behaved as if he could be their 'big boss' and all the other officers had to follow his instructions...

Of course, our immediately gathering grownups just stared back at the angry looking officer, to let him know they weren't impressed at all and absolutely didn't appreciate such an unwelcome visit! For a second, the angry looking 'boss-officer' seemed to hesitate, probably because he didn't feel at ease with such an unwelcoming atmosphere. Then, he turned around again and returned to our group of huddling kids under our provisional plastic shelter. What did that angry looking police officer want from us? By quickly reading his gadjo mind, I found out he supposed that we, huddling children, could be the easiest prey to deal with, being inexperienced and all.

Clearly trying to look a tad friendlier, but without much success, the boss-officer asked our still huddling group of children:

"Kids, could you please tell me where your leader is, or could you please bring him to me? I want to talk to him."

Before any of our kids could answer; my Big Friend Michail, who also was our Vice Leader, stepped forward and asked:

"What is your problem, officer? What are you looking for?"

Immediately looking nastier again, the gadjo boss-officer turned towards my Big Friend and barked at him:

"Of course, you KNOW already what our problem is, and we want you to take us to your leader immediately!"

Smiling broadly, to let the nasty looking gadjo boss-officer know he wasn't impressed at all, Michail responded:

"Your leader is HERE, but I still don't have the faintest idea what sort of a 'problem' you are talking about."

Looking even nastier and angrier, the boss-officer retorted:

"Then, I will jog your forgetful Gypsy memory first! Yesterday morning, a whole bunch of your Gypsies entered one of our towns and robbed it thoroughly. After they had snatched away everything of value they could lay their hands on, they dodged one of our alerted officers on duty who tried to arrest them, returned to their hidden cars, and drove off. Now, we are here to find out who robbed our town, who was in charge of this umpteenth Gypsy raid, and we also want to have our stolen goods back immediately."

No longer smiling at the angry looking boss-officer, clearly to let him know he felt offended, Michail answered:

"Sorry, sir, but we have to disappoint you! Yesterday morning, we brought a couple of our children to a nearby town to beg there for food or money, because we were out of everything edible and our youngest kids were literally starving. However, we did NOT rob any towns, and we also didn't 'snatch away' anything at all! Our kids have only been begging for food around your central market and a few other places, and they returned home with a few paper bags filled with food and a little bit of money. Therefore, we feel truly offended by your accusations that are based on nothing, and I personally want your immediate apology for even thinking such nasty things!"

Chuckling inwardly, I had listened intently to Michail's cleverly dodging answers. In my humble opinion, my Big Friend was handling our precarious situation very well, without ever lying or giving away anything at all. Our real Leader WAS here, but he was staring at the spectacle from a safe distance; and our kids had really been begging in some nearby town without robbing or 'snatching away' anything.

Furtively, I winked at my Dad who was our real Leader, and he saw me looking at him and stealthily winked back at me. Again, my Dad and I understood each other perfectly, as usual.

In the meantime, my inside wondered what all these nasty looking police officers would do next. In my proud Gypsy eyes, they looked like grotesquely togged up clowns, wearing strange looking costumes whilst showing us their way too rude and condescending attitude. Inwardly, I started to chuckle. Yesterday evening, little Dimi and I had pretended to be clowns, but those haughtily prancing gadjo police officers seemed to be the REAL ones!