“Oh. My. God,” she said under her breath not wanting to disturb the electrified air.
The two children dressed in old-fashioned clothes and holding hands turned to face her. The little girl, hair in ringlets with a bow askew, the boy in short pants and wearing a cap, both seemed to squirm nervously in front of her.
“She’s so pretty, Elly,” said the little girl, and Elly knew her voice. “She’s got your nose, and red hair? Imagine!”
Elly stood very still. “Thank you, Itsy. We love her very much. Please … don’t take her.”
“Don’t worry, Elly.” The little girl giggled. “I’m not here for your baby. I’m here to collect Georgie.” She cupped her hands over the boy’s ear and whispered something to him. He smiled.
“What did you say, Itsy?” asked Elly.
The girl was instantly in front of her, looking up and motioning Elly to lean down with her finger. Elly knelt on the floor in front of her old friend.
The little ghost put her hand on Elly’s cheek. “I told him it was time to go.”
“Oh, Itsy. I’ll miss you. Won’t you stay? You and George?”
Elly held out her arms to young George who took off his cap and ran into them with abandon. A shock of wild electricity went through Elly as she felt all his sorrow and lonesome days. “I want to go home, Elly,” he said. “I’m tired of being here, of crying all the time. When you came back, I started to laugh … but you don’t have no more time for me, Elly.”
Itsy took Georgie’s hand. “Like I said, Georgie, time to go. Mama’s waiting. Henry, too.”
“Henry?” asked George.
“Yes, silly!”
“Well, let’s get going then!”
The two children disappeared in a shimmer and reappeared perched on the wide windowsill, the window open once again.
“No, wait,” said Elly reaching out for them.
“One, two, three … you and me!!!!!!!” they shouted, swinging their arms as they jumped out of the window and into thin air.
Elly sat on the floor listening to the quiet and crying softly. They were gone. It’d been Itsy and George all along. Now the walls rang silent. “Loss is a funny kind of thing,” she said to the house. “You need to feel it in order to appreciate what you had, right? You can’t live without it, can you?” The silence answered its affirmation. It seemed to arch forward and tell her “What would have been, is simply—what was, only different. It’s up to you.”
“It’s up to me,” said Elly.
* * *
After a while little Maj woke up hungry and began to cry. A real cry. Elly went to her, gathered her up and sat in the rocking chair. She pushed down the scratchy, beaded satin of her unfinished wedding gown to breastfeed her baby.
“Let me tell you a story,” began Elly as the rocking chair creaked back and forth. “Once upon a time there was a family. A very special family. They came here to America to find a better life, and what they found was hard work and mystical, magical things. The ancients called to them from over the ocean, and those voices carried in their minds and made them a little … well … strange. But they loved and were loved. And they all love you, even from beyond.
“There was Elizabeth and George the twins, and Bonita who was, like her name, very beautiful … there was Filomena your great-grandmother and not forgetting Fiona or the boys, Enzo, Franco, and Dante, all lost in the war. And let’s not forget the magical Greens, Faith and Margaret and Ephraim. And then there was Carmen, and me and now … you. You are our redo. Everyone deserves a redo, don’t they? Sure they do.”
Discussion Questions
1. Facing what seems like an impossible situation, Eleanor decides to leave all that she knows and return to her estranged family in the Bronx. This decision was hasty, but all of her instincts were telling her to go. Would you have made the same choice? Were there any other options that may have taken the story in another direction? How often do you trust your own instinct (instead of logic) when making a decision?
2. The bond that Mimi, Itsy, and Fee share is a strong one. How do you think the loss they suffered together as young women helped define their relationship?
3. Mama, Margaret Green, is the keeper of all the wisdom in the family—but she has many flaws. What are some moments when Margaret was “less than perfect”? Did her flaws diminish her relationship with her children? Why or why not?
4. Many young women suffer from domestic abuse in romantic relationships. The signature of these relationships is that they are difficult to leave. Yet Elly seems to be able to walk away from Cooper without too much internal questioning. What do you think helped her to overcome the abuse so quickly?
5. Though the women in this novel consider themselves witches, what kind of magic do they practice? Is this very far from the traditions, habits, and superstitions that can be found in almost every family? What were some “magical” traditions that you remember from growing up (examples: “Step on the Crack, Break Your Mother’s Back,” black cats, the number 13…)? How do you think these superstitions or traditions can bring people, especially family, together?
6. Anthony is very sure of his love for Elly. How does he know her so well? He knows her better than she knows herself, and he helps her rediscover the memories that hold the key to her entire personality. In many ways, their love story is the stuff of movies. Has there ever been anyone that you loved, no matter what? How do you think a love like that shapes you? How do you think it shaped Elly?
7. Throughout the novel Itsy has a secret that she holds very dear—a secret that, had her family known sooner, might have changed many things. How do you think their lives might have been different if Itsy had, at the time, added to the Amore tragedies, but in a sense, freed herself of the weight of her secret?
8. Mimi and Carmen have a complicated relationship. Mimi never took care of Carmen emotionally when she was a child because The Sight told her that Carmen would leave one day. Do you think if she had, things might have been different? Or would Carmen have left anyway? Was it in Carmen’s nature to be cold and leave, or was that her nature because of her lack of nurturing?
9. Elly changed significantly from the first page to the last. Do you think this was because she recovered all her memories or because she learned what real love—both familial and romantic—is? Could she have become whole with only one or the other? Discuss.
10. There is an unwritten element of the adage “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” with regard to Mimi and the aunts. Do you think this a purposeful theme added by the author, or did it occur organically? And, how does this theme play into the events of the story?
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Praise for The Witch of Little Italy
“An enchanting debut, Palmieri’s plot makes for a wickedly good read!”
—MELISSA DE LA CRUZ, New York Times bestselling author of the Blue Bloods series
“The Witch of Little Italy had me spellbound from the very start. Suzanne Palmieri has created a poignant, beautiful tale of love, magic, history, and family, where all are deeply connected and interwoven.”
—JOANNE RENDELL, author of Crossing Washington Square and The Professors’ Wives’ Club
“A mystical family secret hidden in a spicy Italian stew.”
—KELLY SIMMONS, author of Standing Still and The Bird House
About the Author
SUZANNE PALMIERI is coauthor of the forthcoming I’ll Be Seeing You (as Suzanne Hayes), and her essays have been published online in Life Learning Magazine and Full of Crow: On the Wing edition. She lives with her husband and three daughters in New Haven, Connecticut.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE WITCH OF LITTLE ITALY. Copyright © 2013 by Suzanne Palmieri. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Olga Grlic
Cover photographs: girl by Irene Lamprakou/Arcangel Images; street by John Halpern
ISBN 978-1-250-01551-8 (paperback)
ISBN 9781250015501 (e-book)
First Edition: March 2013
The Witch of Little Italy Page 25
