Read Online The Witch of Little Italy by Suzanne Palmieri - Free Book Online

matronly body covered in a boldly flowered housecoat, the knee-high stockings and sensible black shoes. It was safe here. The yarn squeaked across the hook.
    Babygirl was in the garden with Itsy and George. “Chain five. Single crochet, single crochet…” Itsy sat on a bench behind the little girl moving her hands while George sat at her feet giving the words to the movements. He didn’t even have to look. He just knew what Itsy was doing as if he’d heard the same, basic lesson one thousand times before.
    Elly put her hands over her eyes trying to capture more of the memory. Mimi squeezed her hand and said, “Don’t worry my Elly. It will come back. All of it. Just as you’ve come back to us, all that you need to remember will come back to you.”
    Elly shook her head as tears started to flow. It bothered her, this instant crying business.
    “What is it, my love? Tell Mimi.”
    Elly looked at her grandmother again. Yes. It was safe here. She let the flood of worry out. “I’m worried my Mom won’t forgive me for this. For coming here. For having the baby. It’s always been just us, you know? And I’m worried about Cooper.” That he’ll find me . “And finishing my senior year. I’m worried about telling my mentor I won’t be going to Florence.”
    “You were going to go to Florence?”
    “Yes, I won a scholarship to restore frescoes.”
    “That’s truly an accomplishment, Elly! And you think you’re not interesting! My goodness.”
    “I don’t remember telling you I felt un interesting, Mimi.”
    “I’m sorry, honey. It’s the damn Sight. It talks to us with such a loud voice sometimes. And other times it’s completely silent. Itsy calls it fickle. I know there’s a part of you afraid of all this. Afraid of being who you are.”
    “But isn’t there a chance that when I remember everything I’ll be different? That I’ll be fascinating?”
    “I can’t tell you what you’ll find, I only know how you feel. And right now there’s a part of you so very afraid that you’ve made all this up. That you wanted so much to escape and now that you’ve achieved it you’ve found there’s no escape from yourself.”
    It was true. Mimi could have disappeared in a cloud of smoke right in front of her and it wouldn’t have seemed any crazier than Elly’s desperate need to escape her life at Yale. Her life with Carmen. Her life with Cooper. Witches, ESP, mystery children crying … all of it was preferable to her other world. A world she worried about.
    Mimi put the granny square she was making in her lap. “Don’t worry about any of that now. It’ll all work itself out. Those kinds of things always do. Carmen will get over herself. We can deal with that Cooper boy in our own way. I’ll stand by you tomorrow while you call whomever you need to call about your trip. And school? You will finish. You can drive in. It’s not far. You can use Uncle George’s car. Anthony can show you tomorrow. Abast . Finito. Done.”
    “Really?” Could it all be so easy? Elly wondered.
    “Really.”
    “Mimi?
    “Mmmhmm?”
    “If you have The Sight and it’s so strong why don’t you know what Itsy said to me that day?”
    “She blocked me, the witch,” said Mimi.
    “I thought you didn’t use that word?”
    “Call a spade a spade, Mama used to say.”
    Elly sat quietly watching Mimi crochet while trying to let the whole bizarre situation sink in.
    “Mimi, do you have an extra hook?”
    Mimi dug into the basket and found a shiny pink hook and a ball of soft, white yarn. “Here,” she said. “Make that baby a blanket or something already.”
    Elly took the hook and the yarn. Her hands knew what to do. Chain 100, single crochet, single crochet, single crochet.… Oh look, Uncle George! Come see, Aunt Itsy! I’m doing it!
    *   *   *
    Later that night, when Mimi was asleep, Elly stole out of bed to grab some cookies and a glass of milk. The cookies were the best she’d ever had. Little round