Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #45: "The Strega of Fitzgerald Street."

Streg is the Italian term for witch. A strega is a witch (with the "a" to designate the female gender). If you read to your kids or to young children in general, a good chance is you read Strega Nona (Grandmother Witch) by Tomie dePaola. In my history of a writer, I have written and published a handful of stories about a streg named Alessia Bernini who, as an ongoing character, is connected with the stories of Sossity Chandler, but not directly. The character who introduces Alessia is Kathy Farisi, a woman who was Sossity's best friend but destroys her marriage through an affair with her husband. At the beginning of the story "The Strega of Fitzgerald Street" we see Kathy in the aftermath of her disastrous adultery. She has visited the confessional but does not feel forgiven. Her aunt tells her she should go to see a streg to get help from her depression. Kathy will not hear of it at first, but desperation and the torments of depression make her finally agree.

Alessia

According to tradition, streg do not practice black magic; that is, they do not sell their souls to the Devil in order to get magical powers. Their magic is not evil—well, not exactly. They practice what is called natural magic—magic that derives its power from nature and from the study of natural forces found in the earth and in the power of life, growth, and continuance. Continuance, in fact, is very important, because a streg's power depends on her place in a line of magical practitioners that goes back a thousand years. The power Alessia possesses has accrued over a millennia.

The skeptical Kathy goes to see Alessia. She is surprised that the streg is young, very pretty, and stylishly dressed. And Kathy is immediately confronted with what she has done and with proof of Alessia's magical power. Alessia tells her she needs to see Sossity Chandler to begin making things right and to cleanse her soul of the guilt she feels—the same thing Kathy's priest told her when she confessed. Kathy flatly refuses: “I can’t. I can’t face her.” She took a deep breath. “If I think I have to see her, or even be near her, I’ll kill myself. I would rather die than see her, and I mean that.” Alessia asks her to agree to a contractual proposition that, she says, will cure Kathy. But there are is a penalty involved. If she reneges on the agreement

“I’ll come for your soul. We are not playing a game, Miss Farisi. This is a serious matter. If I tell you to do something and you don’t do it, you are in my debt and thus in my power—and I have a great deal of power—the power of the fifty generations of practitioners in whose succession I stand. I don’t like making people my possessions, but I will, and I have done so many times. Fail to do what I instruct you to do, and you are mine forever.”

Fear had taken her by now. Yet she had to make it clear to this woman that one thing was non-negotiable.

“I’ll do anything except go to Sossity. I won’t agree if you tell me to do that.”

“I will not ask you to do that or ask you to do anything like it. I promise as much.”

“What do you mean you’ll make me your possession?”

“You don’t want to know,” Alessia answered darkly.

They drink wine to seal the agreement. Alessia gives her particular instructions. She is to go to the campus of a local college, find an ash tree by a bridge, and eat a tiny portion of a leaf that has fallen from that tree. Kathy determines to obey the instructions.

She goes to the campus, finds the tree, picks up a leaf that has fallen from it, eats the tip of it, and throws the remainder on the ground. When she looks around, she sees Sossity Chandler and her daughter, Cheryl. They have come to the woody campus so Cheryl can collect leaves (a thing children inevitably end up doing at some time in their elementary years—mine did). Alessia has not lied. Kathy did not have to go to Sossity; Sossity has come to her.

The meeting is awkward. Cheryl, in her innocence, greets Kathy enthusiastically and says she is looking forward to staying at her house the next month (custody rights). To Kathy's surprise, Sossity is civil, perhaps even conciliatory, though the meeting is tense and the two women are uncomfortable. Still, Sossity silently communicates that she does not hate Kathy. She does not excoriate or insult her. Then Cheryl picks up the leaf Kathy has thrown to the ground. Kathy tells her it's broken and she should get a whole one, but the child says she likes it and puts the leaf into her basket—a sign, undoubtedly, that Alessia's spell has worked and what happened was not merely coincidence. After an awkward but gracious parting, Sossity goes her way. Kathy is enabled by what happened to begin what she was not able to do before:  to find healing and know the possibilities of recovery and perhaps even reconciliation are still present.

 "The Strega of Fitzgerald Street" can be found in the archives of the journal NewMyths.com (note:  this is the actual title of the publication, not its web address). Great story, enjoy the read.

For more the titles of novellas and novels, check out my Writer's Page.  

And if sorceresses are your thing--along with martial arts and wuxia--get a copy of my latest novella, The Sorceress of Time. 

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