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“Avoid shepherds altogether. They’re strange and they drink.”
“Okay, Mamma.”
“Watch out for little children. You never know how they’ll react to you.”
“But remember that time? That little boy wasn’t frightened.”
“You were lucky. Stay away from dogs.”
Lucia groaned. “Dogs are fine.”
“Dogs are wolves.”
Lucia sighed, and Mafalda smiled, knowing Lucia wasn’t afraid to disagree, even with the only other person in her world. Mafalda didn’t know what such a quality was called, but it would serve her daughter well.
“Lucia, always remember why God made you the way you are.”
“I know, everyone has light inside their soul, and mine is on the outside, too.”
“Yes.” Mafalda wondered if she was the only mother who had lied to her child for her own good. She never understood why God had made Lucia such a color. She had hoped to know by the end of her life. Now that time was nigh, and she still had no idea.
“Mamma, you have a light, too.”
Mafalda smiled, pained. “No, I’m just a mother. I have nothing and I’ve given you nothing, not even a home.”
“Sicily is my home.”
“But no family.”
“You’re my family. You’re a wonderful mother, and I’m lucky I have you.”
“You don’t know any other mothers.”
Lucia sniffled. “I don’t have to. I know I have the best one. I have the perfect one for me.”
Mafalda sniffled, too. A tear ran down her cheek. “I have the best daughter, too, the perfect one for me.”
“Don’t worry. You can go to sleep now.” Lucia’s chest heaved, and Mafalda knew her daughter understood. Neither of them wanted tobe sad in their final moments together, so they watched the sun vanish, washing the sky with light to say goodbye.
“I love you, Lucia.”
“I love you, too, Mamma.”
Mafalda listened to her daughter’s heartbeat, and their hearts beat as one, the way they had in the beginning, when they had started each other’s worlds.
Then one heart stopped.
And the other kept beating.
Even though it was broken.
Lucia dug her mother’s graveusing a sharp rock, clawing at the dirt in the moonlight. The earth was fertile and rich, and she worked at a fever pitch, wanting to finish before dawn. She didn’t have time to cry. She prayed to Madonna del Lume for the eternal rest of her mother, who was now in heaven. Praying and purpose kept her grief at bay.
After she had dug the hole, she lifted her mother’s body inside. It was as light as a ghost, and she laid it on the earth, touched her mother’s face tenderly, and kissed her on the forehead. She took her own rosary and put it in her mother’s hands, already cooling.
Lucia climbed out of the hole, filled it with dirt, then tamped it down. She gathered rocks and placed them on top. She stood over the grave and prayed, holding her tears inside. She couldn’t afford to break down. It was almost dawn. She could see the sky brightening.
Lucia put on her cap and tucked her braid inside. Suddenly, she heard a rustling in the cypress trees nearby. They formed a thick screen, and she couldn’t see what was behind them. Instinct told her there was danger, and she never questioned her instincts. They kept her alive.
