One morning in Madrid, I was taking a walk in the public park
with one of my relatives, Amr. Sitting by the lake, I saw an elderly
woman handing tree branches to the tourists. I was very surprised,
and asked Amr: Why is this old woman selling tree branches?! Amr
asked me to stay away from her and not to look at her so that she
would not notice us. Unconvinced, however, I asked him again:
Why?! He replied that this old woman was called "Gitana". She is
a fortune teller who comes to the park and defraud tourists. She
is one of the Gitanos, a very poor and oppressed tribe in Spain.
Suddenly this old woman appeared in front of us. As my curiosity
grew, I informed Amr that I wanted her to read my palm, so I could
see if she was honest or not. I was planning to deride her a while
later. is bizarre woman started to examine my palm, and my
friend translated for me what she said in Spanish. "You have been
going through very dicult conditions for a long time, but that will
completely change when you reach the age of twenty-five!", she said.
