- Harry AnderS -
Dutch psychotherapist and alternative writer

The wonderful adventures of a little Gypsy boy

Born as a Prince 2
Book 2: Our Lucky Mascot
- by Harry AnderS -

A children's series of stories

http://www.harryanders.com
harry@harryanders.com

In book 1 'Heir to the Throne'; a little Gypsy boy narrates the story of his first five years in a secluded place in the Rumanian mountains, surrounded by huge woods and dense forests.
He is the Heir to the Throne, and soon he will be our Chief Cook(ie) and a Real Trapper...

This is book 2 'Our Lucky Mascot'; where he discovers the gadjo world outside, is imprisoned during a police raid, has his own little snow scooter, and finally travels to several foreign countries...

Book 1 chapter 20 ended with:

    Everybody around us started to laugh, and many people congratulated Misha with his new job as my private teacher.
Slowly, Misha started to beam and smile from ear to ear, looking more and more proud.
    He dried his eyes, turned towards me, and asked a bit hesitantly:

    "Okay, I will teach you everything I know. Shall we start our lessons tomorrow morning?"

    "I would like that, but our Wise Woman told me not to leave our camp for at least three days..."

    "That's good! That way, I will be able to teach you a couple of important things in advance!"

    "Okay, then I will be here on our bench early in the morning, to have my first lesson."

    "Please, don't be here too early, because I think I will need a lot of beauty sleep first after all those heavy emotions..."

    "Well, I'm afraid a BEAUTY sleep will be totally spilled on you..."

    "WHAT?"

    Misha started to tickle me mercilessly; and I shrieked with laughter and desperately tried to tickle him back.
Everything was normal again!

     In my first book (Born as a Prince 1 - Heir to the Throne) I've told you how I was lost in the vast forest surrounding our secluded Gypsy camp in our Rumanian mountains.
I had been following a stupid porcupine, all the time thinking I was catching up with my fourteen-year-old companion and trapper-friend Misha...
I was only a five-and-a-half-year old little runt, completely naked, and desperately trying to go home by following a steep ravine, rounding thick thorn bushes, and jumping nasty cracks.
After a while, my wounded feet started to be painfully swollen, and my legs were already severely cramped from the unusual strain.
After darkness set in, I had to sleep in a hidden porcupine's lair, accompanied by a bunch of snoring rats and attacked by a small army of nasty bugs.
The next day, my worried Dad (our King and Leader) and my Big Friend Michail (our vice Leader) found me, almost hugged me to death, and happily carried me back to our camp.
Everybody started to cheer when they saw I was unharmed...

    To our surprise, my Dad asked my friend Misha to teach me how to orientate in our woods!
I was delighted, because now I would learn how Misha was able to find his way blindly in the densest of forest, every time again.
I had already asked how he was able to do that; but, so far, he still hadn't told me...

    I woke up early in the morning, feeling delighted to be Misha's pupil today.
What was he going to teach me? Would it be interesting stuff?
I hobbled out of bed on my sore feet, still feeling as stiff as a dead tree, and looked outside at our faintly glowing campfire.
Nobody else was awake yet, and all our caravans were still dark inside.
Maybe, I was a little bit too enthusiastic? My Dad once called me an early bird...

    I limped to my parents' bed, and carefully crawled in between them.
My Dad grunted a little bit, but he threw his strong arms around me and held me close.
My Mom yawned, turned around, and embraced us from the other side.
Now, I felt totally safe and loved, marveling in their warming sandwich.
Slowly, I drifted off again, until...

    "Harry, come on, wake up and eat your breakfast! Misha is already waiting for you on our bench..."

    I opened my eyes, and squinted at my Mom's face in the bright sunlight that was already shining from a window.
WHAT? Did I oversleep my first appointment with my new teacher?
I jumped out of my parent's bed in a hurry, and groaned at the sudden stabs of pain that went through my sore feet.
As fast as my painful legs let me, I hobbled to our living room and looked out of the windows...

    Many people were already gathering around our campfire, planning to visit a nearby gadjo town to try to find some work.
A bunch of kids were patiently waiting for the lazy slackers, to go to our woods and look at their traps as usual.
Misha moved around on our wooden bench, impatiently playing with his fingers and now and then staring at our caravan.
He saw me, smiled from ear to ear, and waved enthusiastically.

    I forgot my cramped legs and sore feet, and hurried to the kitchen:

    "Come on, Mom, hurry up! Misha is WAITING for me!"

    "I've told you... Now don't be impatient and eat your breakfast. I'm sure Misha will not go away."

    I wolfed my healthy breakfast down, gulped a glass of milk, kissed my parents, and hobbled outside.
I limped straight up to Misha, suddenly feeling a little bit guilty:

    "Sorry for letting you wait for so long! My parents didn't wake me up in time..."

    "Yes, I know. Your Mom told me she would let you have your beauty sleep for another while, after yesterday's adventures."

    Women...
I shook my head in frustration. Why didn't she wake me up in time?
    Misha looked at me, smiling and showing little fun lights in his eyes:

    "Did you enjoy your beauty sleep?"

    "Oh yes, I certainly did. Of course, I don't have to be afraid to LOSE my beauty..."

    Misha grinned, pulled me close, and mercilessly started to tickle me.
I tickled him back with all my force, until both of us fell off our bench with laughter.
We wrestled for a moment, and clambered back onto our wooden bench, still laughing.
    Now, Misha told me to be serious, and listen to his first lesson:

    "Let's have a look at what I want to teach you today..."

    I nodded my consent, and held my breath...
Misha immediately started to explain a lot of things I had never thought of before!
    I listened open-mouthed, while he told me to have a look at the sun over our heads:

    "Maybe, you thought the sun is like sort of a lamp; but, in reality, the sun is like an enormous glowing cinder from our campfire...
    "When you are blowing onto the cinder, it's glowing more and more; until, finally, it starts to radiate a bright yellow light."

    "Yes, I know what you mean. Only, who is blowing onto the sun to make it glow?"

    "Well... that's a rather difficult question. I don't know... maybe our Supreme Being?"

    Okay, some things in our lives could be a little bit too incomprehensible.
I had to accept that...
    Misha went on, squatting down and making a drawing in the sand to clarify what he told me:

    "This piece of wood is the enormous glowing cinder, the sun, floating around in Heaven, and radiating a bright yellow light.
    "This pebble, over here, is our earth, being like a huge boulder full of moss, trees, mountains, and potholes.
    "The huge boulder is floating around the glowing cinder, and the cinder is always lighting only one side of the boulder, as you can see.
    "Now, the boulder is turning around slowly; and, every time, another part of it is illuminated. Look, I am turning it around slowly.
    "That is how our earth is turning around and around; and, every time, another part of it is warmed and illuminated by the sun..."

    I had to think Misha's explanation over for a while, and looked at the sun over our heads that was still glowing brightly.
Where was our Supreme Being? I didn't see anybody blowing at the sun to make it glow...
Couldn't our Supreme Being blow at the sun too forcefully, and thus blow it away? That would be a disaster...
    Now, back to our earth, still turning around and around...

    "Why can't I feel our earth turning around? How come the turning around doesn't make people feel dizzy after a while?"

    "Well, the earth is turning around very slowly. It's taking only one turn a day, making the sunlight create day and night."

    Ah, that seemed to make sense!
The turning around was too slow to be able to feel it, and it also explained why our sun did reappear only once a day...

    "Why is there never a collision between the earth and the sun? That would put everything on fire!"

    "Well... you know how sometimes a kid will attach a small pebble to a rope and sway it around? Now, imagine how the kid is the sun, and the pebble is the earth."

    "Oh yeah, now I can see how it's functioning... but where is the rope? I don't see any, and doesn't the rope catch fire on the hot sun?"

    "The rope is an invisible one, and it's called 'gravitation'. It's pulling everything towards the earth, that's why everything is always falling down."

    Again, I had to think over such an obvious thing I had never thought of before...
I imagined our Supreme Being, swaying the earth around and around attached to an invisible rope of gravitation.
    It sounded like fun...

    "What happens if the rope breaks or He lets it slip? Then, he earth would fly away through the air, just like our pebbles are doing all the time..."

    "I think our Supreme Being will catch the earth in time, and immediately attach another rope."

    "But what if He's sleeping when that happens?"

    "I think He will not need any sleep, because he's too busy governing everything."

    "What's 'governing'? Is that the same thing as navigating?"

    "I think that's the same thing, but now let's go back to my lessons..."

    "Am I annoying you too much with my questions? Sorry..."

    "You're not annoying me, but you're asking exactly those things I've never thought of before!"

    "Sorry for being too witty. Even my Dad is complaining about it all the time. He's calling me a wandering question mark..."

    Misha grinned, sat down again, and resumed our lessons.
He started to tell me about day and night and summer and winter.
Fortunately, he wasn't mad with me for interrupting him every time...
I decided to be a better pupil and listen more carefully from now on.

    After a while, Misha got a dry throat from all the explaining, and I was becoming thirsty from the intensive listening and asking questions.
We decided to stop our lessons for a moment, and enjoy a short break.
Together, we went to my caravan, to fetch a drink.
Nobody was at home, so I had to make our drinks myself.
My Dad had joined our men to a nearby gadjo town, and my Mom seemed to be visiting somebody around.
Maybe, she was at my grandmother's; or, she was babysitting Michail's little sons while he was away.
I prepared us fresh orange juice, carefully adding a few herbs to refine its taste.
    Misha sipped his glass of juice; and his eyes started to beam:

    "I'm really impressed by your ability to make everything taste so much better. It's unbelievable!"

    "Thank you very much. I'm enjoying it myself as well! My mom is calling it a 'gift'."

    "Can't you teach me how to do it? I surely would like to have such a gift myself..."

    "I could give it a try... but first I want to know a lot more about the earth turning around at an angle, thus creating summer and winter. Why are you telling me those things?"

    "Well, I think it might be necessary to understand what I'm going to teach you next. Let's go outside again."

    "Okay, and I want to learn a lot more about those interesting things!"

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Thank you for reading the first chapter of this story 'Born as a Prince 2 - Our Lucky Mascot'.
This is the SECOND book of the children's series. Many more books will follow, just be patient...
Enjoy the reading, and help us make our world a better place. We need you!

Have a look at my ADULT stories, about a retired Dutch psychotherapist taking the now eight years old and severely burnt little Gypsy boy into his house and raising him.
The adult story is on Nifty in adult-youth, contains NO sex, and is callled: 'Born to be a King'...
Just click this link to go to Nifty, or go to my homepage to read the latest versions.

All the stories are on my own homepage as well: http://www.harryanders.com
Just click this link to go there and read the latest and rewritten versions (recommended)!

I would LOVE to receive your comments or appreciations...
Please, send me an email now and then, to let me know the story has some impact on you.

I wish you lots of Love in your Life, and Profound Peace in your Heart.
Harry AnderS, Dutch psychotherapist and alternative writer.

harry@harryanders.com
http://www.harryanders.com