Zwei zwillinge Zigeunerinen
Ages: 16
Eyes: Red brown
Weight:115 soaking wet with sand in their pockets.
Height: 5'2''
Predominant features: Completely identical
Two twin girls were born under numerous stars in the inauspicious dark of night. Caught unawares and alone by an early labor, their mother died giving birth; one of many deaths that year in the kumpania.
The twins survived that night, and three days later were accepted warily into their mother's tent-family, who kept them with cautious love. One girl was named "Leptka", light-footed and quiet as a butterfly, the other "Kezia" because she ran about in the sun and was the color of cinnamon. They had other names as well, that they used in case of evil spirits, or secret names they only called each other. As the girls grew the family suffered no worse luck than the rest of their vista for many years.
The girls were like two trees planted in the same pot; twined together by necessity and too closely knit to let anyone slide between them.
Kezia especially grew fierce and protective of her sister; this was because after Leptka's first blood came, she could see spirits.
Leptka would have fits during the night, vivid hallucinations of demons and waking nightmares. The devil had visited her, she said: A sly, sable-furred cat who spoke with a man's voice. It had frightened her so badly that her soul shook loose from her body, and since that day it never properly rooted itself again. Leptka's spirit frequently wandered around on its own for hours before reconnecting with her unconscious body.
A counsel was held in the tribe. Many families complained of ill health and prikáza. The Devil was all around, it seemed. The oldest drabarni declared Leptka the source of this bad luck. It was hoped that if she could find a husband, and quickly, she would be cured of her madness. But no offers came, and she had no parents to speak for her. Soon her name was whispered everywhere; if a horse died, if an arm was broken, if the food spoiled. It was too much- a trial was held for the unlucky girl. Her sister Kezia, whose temper was fiercer than a wildcat's, defended her sibling as best she could. Her mind was sharp and flinty and found no use for superstitions, but gentle Leptka's fate was sealed. She was Marimé, impure and outcast, rejected from the company of Rom.
Outraged at this verdict, Kezia turned her back on her elders and joined her sister in exile.
That winter the twins left their names behind, and became "Katja" and "Lettie", Gaje names, for living amongst strangers. They left their skirts and long hair behind and became "brothers" for the saftey's sake, and found work as performers.
A novelty act: "Identical Gypsy Brothers" who could play the violin in perfect synchrony, mimic each other's improvisations with increasing levels of dexterity.
They lived hushed and secret lives, more protective of each other than ever before.
After a slow night's performance in the early Spring, a tall gajo with glasses and a bandaged face approached them about a permanent job at his theater, which was in need of musical accompaniment to go with its shows, and always welcomed new talent to its stage. A home for outcasts, he called it.
The twins had answered with a single, simultaneous "yes".
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