Savariana VI

© Aaron Watson

That was when they crowded around me and held me tight while Brutilla, the pork-butcher's daughter, tried to take off my headband. But Mama had braided my hair in little plaits all interwoven with the headband and also fixed it in place with a hairpin. So Brutilla left off trying to take that and undid the clasp of my lucky eye bead necklace.

'No!' I cried. 'Not my lucky eye necklace! It protects me from the evil eye!'