“Dear Father,
Over the past weeks my obsession with the gypsy camps in Croatia has grown. Most of my free time is spent researching the locations of their settlements in our homeland and lookup the price of plane tickets to fly there. The connection between vagrant gypsies and the worsening loss of hair on my head is both clear and unclear to me.
What I know for sure is that my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, all those years ago, made a foolish bet with a gypsy and lost, thus cursing our family line with hair loss. His unwise actions, undoubtedly made while under the influence of drink, have had terrible effects which echoed through the generations. What I don’t quite understand is how the curse was cast, and how the curse could perhaps be reversed. The amount of scholarship done on Roma folk traditions is scant; the amount of research on tribes specific to Croat lands is negligible bordering on non-existent.
When I last wrote you, I mentioned that I was overcome with the urge to enact some sort of vengeance upon the Roma. Now, my thoughts have grown more compassionate, and I wish to negotiate with them, to reconcile with them, in the hopes that their elders will know enough of the ancient magic to undo the curse of baldness which afflicts nearly every man in our family’s maternal line. It does no good to harbor anger towards them; while I have been victimized here, the gypsy folk are also victims, albeit in a different way.
I must find out the nature of this curse that was placed on our ancestors. I must find out what bet was made and for what amount of money or goods. I must. Given the failure of all the conventional remedies available here in America, and all the traditional folk remedies that you so kindly sent me, I feel that this is the only way that I can restore hair to its rightful place – the top of my head.
Your loving son,
-Bojan”