Prophetic Italian Midgets

About two years ago in Rome, I was walking through the streets with my companion who had a fettish for watches and leather bracelets. Every time we passed a watch store or a store where they sold leather jewelry, we had to stop and look. I didn't complain---the fettish was semi-contagious. Whereas she would admire and buy, I would admire and wish I could buy.

One evening at the end of our p-day, we were returning to our apartment for the evening. We were on Via del Corso when we met a midget selling leather bracelets. He was rough looking and greasy, with long, stringy black hair. Imagine Hagrid as a midget and you've pretty much got it. We stopped and looked at his work---it was fantastic! There was this one bracelet that both of us loved, but it cost 38 euros (I'm still not to the stage in life where I can be spending fifty bucks on a bracelet). We looked at his other stuff and I fell in love with this one bracelet that he had made. It was simple---just a strip of black leather with a black star tacked on. That's it.

And it cost 15 euros.

I thought I could certainly argue him down on the price. I think I may have asked to buy it with ten, because I didn't have fifteen. I thought that he would readily agree. Instead, he brought me around to his side of the table to talk to me. He held my bracelet in his hand and said, "It takes a lot of work to make one of these. I'm an artisan. I don't make this stuff in a factory. I do everything myself. I cut the leather myself. Then I file it [he makes filing motions to show me exactly how he files it] and then I dye the leather black myself. I do it all myself. So you can see how much work goes into this [he gestures, indicating that he has to file all ten edges of the star]." I thought that by being stubborn, then he would cave. I said, "Well, I can only afford ten euro." He said he wouldn't sell it to me in that case and as I walked away he said, "Don't worry. I know you'll be back."

There's something uncanny about a miniature Hagrid telling you that he knows you're coming back in Italian. It just seemed so... prophetic. He said it the same way that I would say to people, "I know that families are eternal." He was bearing testimony to me that I'd be back to buy his bracelet.

It haunted me. I thought about it for days and weeks and months. Every time I thought about it, I thought that if I returned to buy the bracelet, then I would only be fulfilling the midget's prophecy. He knew I was coming back. My last day in Italy, I considered stopping by and buying the bracelet, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. The midget couldn't be right!

I went home, still unsure as to whether I had always wanted to return because the midget put a spell on me while my back was turned or because I really wanted the bracelet.

About a year and a half later, I met a man whose hobby is leather working. I explained the story to him and asked if he would be able to make the simple bracelet for me. He assured me that he certainly could! He didn't ever actually make it for me, and months later, it became apparent that he never would, though he'd frequently remind me, "I haven't forgotten about the bracelet!"

We were talking about it the other day and it finally hit me that I passed a leather supplier twice a day on my way to and from work. So on my way home from work that day I stopped in at the store. I went home and cut the pieces and got them ready for putting together. The next day on my way home from work, I stopped in at the store again and got the store owner to help me to finish it. Now I have a bracelet exactly like the one the midget was selling.

The thing is, it still haunts me. Did I fulfill his prophecy by making it myself? Does my wearing the bracelet bring some sort of curse upon me? I guess I'll have to wait to find out.