Free Four Doors and Other Stories by A. G. Billig Page A

rumpled piece of paper. “You turned it down, right?”
    His head was spinning. It was perfectly true. A major company in the capital had offered him his dream job, yet, he did not take it. However, he had thrown this paper into the garbage bin a long time ago. Besides, nobody ever passed by that place, at the seaside.
    “Who is she? Is she someone at work? Do I know her?”
    “She is a gypsy…”
    The words went out of his mouth by themselves, lightening up his heart. He was sorry for Mary, yet, he was relieved with telling the truth. For a second, the curse seemed to fade away. But to his astonishment, the woman’s face lit up.
    “It’s a spell. She must have put a spell on you!” she said throwing her arms around him. “Today, when that kid’s mother told me about it, I knew that you were unable to act like this out of your own will. Now, I have the confirmation. We must go to church.”
    “Mary, you don’t understand. I’m in love with her!”
    “Of course, my darling you are. Because she made you believe so. She made you see her as a goddess while she may be as ugly as a toad. I shall talk to Father Thomas tomorrow morning, see what we must do.”
    Her cheeks were red with excitement and she was determined to save him.
    “Have it your way,” he answered, sure that no priest could change his heart and happy to see her cheering up.
    The problem was solved for now, but what about the curse? Well, the curse continued working its magic. The next day, somebody, somehow heard the conversation between Mary and Father Thomas. It was a matter of days before the news crawled through the town, like a snake, reaching the respectable society members’ ears. They were watching him, willing to see repent and regret. Yet, he carried on, as before, with his life refusing to seek help from God. The only love potion Margaret had given him was her lips. He told Mary he should move out but she begged him to stay.
    “This would be the supreme shame,” she argued. “I still believe you are under a spell and I feel like I haven’t done all that I can to cast it way. Think how it would make me look, being ditched for a gypsy. I could never get out of the house.”
    A month passed by. People started avoiding him and eventually, he lost his job. Now, he had all the time in the world for Margaret. He let his hair and beard grow and started wearing colorful shirts. Eventually, Margaret gave birth to a baby boy. That day, he went to his apartment, while Mary was away, took a few things that he held dear and wrote a short note, asking her to forgive him.
    “I must have been a gypsy all my life, only now I realize it. I wish you always stay true to who you are and I thank you for all your love and caring.”
    Since that day, neither him nor Margaret were ever seen again. Even the gypsies packed their shawls, kettles, their hats and their mustaches, put the horses to the carts and moved out. They were the talk of the town for months. Some women stood by him: it must have been the curse. Give up a good life, to become a bum. Or maybe die, after all. Some people said the girl’s father must have killed him. Others swore that they had seen him in one of the carts, together with a very young woman who was feeding a baby at her breast. Others blamed him and his kindred: men go crazy whenever they see a skirt lifting up.
    As for Mary, she packed her bags and moved back to the big city, for fear that the curse might harm her as well. She remarried an older, almost bald man of substance, and turned into a big lady.

T HE L EATHER B ELT
    The little boy was looking at his father with dry, wide-open eyes. He still sensed the touch of the thin, brown leather belt. So much pain just for spilling the soup! The bowl had fallen on the rug with a stifled noise, then rolled and smashed against the wall, into two big equal pieces. It had been just a moment of absentmindedness, and his mum knew it. The woman had left the table murmuring, “It’s all