Fires to Come (Blaze Collection) by Asha Lemmie

Author:Asha Lemmie [Lemmie, Asha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Published: 2024-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

New York, New York

August 1923

Mama fainted when she listened to the news of President Harding’s death on the radio. That was when they all knew something was wrong. Mama loathed politics and would hardly have been moved by the death of a man in Washington she’d never met.

They’d all noticed, of course. Mama was slower than she used to be, and she sweated heavily doing even minor tasks. Often while making dinner, she had to stop and sit down. But Carlotta had attributed this to age, and Anna Maria herself had dismissed her symptoms as a persistent cold, brought on by improperly cooked food she’d eaten at a friend’s house, a nonexistent crack in the glass on her bedroom window, and the stinking New York air.

“I don’t want a doctor,” she insisted. “What good is a doctor? Give me some fresh oregano. It cleans the blood, you know. And fetch me my rosary.”

But Papa overruled her and took her to the hospital, where she underwent a series of tests.

Carlotta stayed glued to the corner of the room, silent, clutching Luca’s hand like they were children again.

“Six months,” Carlotta overheard the doctor tell Papa. “Maybe less. I’m very sorry.”

It was the first time she’d ever seen her father cry.

For her part, Mama did not waste any time on tears. The first thing she’d insisted on was going back home.

“It’s barbaric, to die surrounded by strangers. Though if people have to eat this food in their final days, I suppose they pray for the mercy of death. Fabrizio, check us out. Luca, bring me my shawl. Carlotta, what are you making for dinner tonight?”

Some days, Carlotta didn’t believe it was really happening. Her mother could still laugh from that place deep in the stomach. She still had an appetite. It couldn’t be possible that in just a few moments she would disappear from this world. She was the heart of everything. What would happen to the family without Mama’s steady, loving presence?

What would happen to her?

Eventually, despite Carlotta’s denial, Mama weakened so much that she could no longer make it up and down the stairs. By late October, Carlotta had set up a bed for her in the sunroom. She put Mama’s favorite photographs beside it and the quilt they’d made together on top of the regular bedding. She missed Walter, who she’d seen only once since her mother’s diagnosis, but she did not dare leave again. She could not bear the thought of her mother dying without her. Papa and Luca were there often, and so was Antonia. Alfonso, though he was prone to disappear for weeks at a time, made sure to stop by every Sunday. She had countless friends come to visit—she was a much-loved figure in the community—and they’d been given enough food to weather a yearlong famine.

But it was Carlotta who moved a pallet into the room so that her mother was never alone during the night.

Anna Maria looked at her with dark eyes that had grown too large in a gaunt face.

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