The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker

Author:Michael Schmicker
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Palladino Books
Published: 2015-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

D’Argent delivered a verdict we knew would stagger Huxley. He described how he arrived skeptical, carefully inspected the room and the table, and retained tight control of Alessandra throughout the evening, but she had still performed a miracle.

“I do insist that Signora Poverelli showed genuine levitation, not by trickery but by some baffling, intangible, invisible force that radiated through her body and over which she exercised a temporary and thoroughly exhausting control.”

Lombardi was ecstatic. So was Alessandra.

“Huxley can kiss my ass,” she said.

Huxley certainly sucked a sour lemon. The three telegraphic monopolies – Agence France-Presse, Reuters, and Wolff – picked up the story from the Tribune, and newspapers across Europe ran the story of Lombardi and his bewitching protégé Alessandra. I earned a photo credit, but I already had my eye on a bigger prize.

I wanted to become an editor, and that meant I had to become a reporter first.

That night I sat down with a pencil and paper and wrote up what I had witnessed, just as if I had been assigned the story. “A smirk on his mustachioed, Gallic visage, D’Argent took his seat at the séance table, confident he would unmask the Italian trickster.” Lombardi and Fournier had judiciously avoided mentioning Alessandra’s flirtations with Philippe, but I knew the Mattino audience wanted scandal. “Philippe wiped his lips and leered at Alessandra. ‘Your kiss is sweet’…”

I dropped my dispatch in the mail the day we left Geneva, and within a week Venzano had telegraphed back. Bravo, Tommaso. More stories. Sending 20 francs via Lombardi.

I was now Mattino special correspondent Tommaso Labella.

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