Flour #Wattys2016

CHAPTER 10 - FLOUR

Mrs. Raguso wasn't sure she remembered exactly what Concettina looked like. It had been so long ago.

She remembered a bright, sunny girl with a wonderful smile for everyone. She was the joy of her mother and father and for that matter anyone else that came into contact with her. She would light a room with her smile and was always ready to lend a helping hand to those that were in need. What Mrs. Raguso remembered most though, was that this "little sunshine" had had some sort of trouble..

No one really knew what this "trouble" was all about but what they did know was that Concettina had disappeared from the neighborhood. At first, Mrs. Rossi told those who asked about Concettina that she was "poco bene", just not well. Fever? Cold? Influenza? Nothing was clear..she was just not well. After a couple of months, the Not Well story was getting old and people started talking...pregnancy?!? This was the consensus...what else could it have been? She was young, beautiful, way too friendly and now gone.

Her mother started avoiding any talk concerning her daughter. She would not add logs to the already blazing fire of gossip that was devastating the the arid minds of the neighborhood. As for Mr. Rossi he would just shake his head..
There was no other logical explanation...she must have been with child people thought.

The more people talked and dropped their eyes when Mrs. Rossi passed, the more she  buried her pride in silence. She never once let on to what was or wasn't going on. She knew better than that. She would not give her family name up to be a topic of discussion around café tables, market places and family tables.

A year later, Concettina was seen with her mother at the butchers. She was thin and pale. No longer did she light up the room with a smile. There was no smile. She was quiet, shrivelled..like a dried yellow raisin.  No explanation, no words of any sort left Mrs. Rossi's lips as the butcher starred dumb founded at  the "remains" of what was once a  beautiful girl.
Her mother went about her business and after her shopping was done, she left the butcher's trialed by Concettina.

Of course the first sightings caused a stir in the neighborhood. The women had a fresh chunk of "meat" to sink their teeth into...fresh gossip!

" I saw her just the other day-poor thing-she looked so thin..."

"Baby? No, no baby, but of course not! It's much to hot to bring a baby out...."

"But who's the father? It was bound to happen you know...she was much to friendly with  everyone . ..if you know what I mean."

"Her mother never thought twice of  getting rid of the problem."

The women showed no mercy or compassion when Mrs. Rossi wasn't around. The arrival of Concettina was the scape goat to their own drab and troubled lives and they took advantage of this to make others believe that they were something they were not....different than the Rossi's.

As time went on Concettina regained some weight..no longer a raisin but more like a prune, she shuffled through what was once her life. She wasn't friendly anymore, she wasn't helpful...she just wasn't much of anything.

For some time afterwards the mystery remained but the gossip had died down. But after twenty years even the mystery had lost it's allure. No one cared any more and the whole ordeal had been laid to rest...forgotten

Rosalia had seen her once or twice since her return. What ever happened to Concettina, she thought, had changed her for the better...she had become a "serious" girl-good marriage material. Just what her son needed.