Chuck Schading

“Ya tell yer filthy boys to stay out my yard now, Josephine Di Lucci!”

Josephine hugged her belly under her sauce-stained linen apron, as if to shield her nascent unborn child from what would come next, then dismissed the plump Irishwoman from across the street with a wave of her hand.

“Pfffft.”

No one was ever quite sure what Josephine understood or didn’t understand. Although she had been in the United States for more than a decade, she had made little headway toward mastering English, at least from outward appearances. With four boys under twelve and another on the way, there was little time for language other than what was needed to keep her brood fed.

It was good enough, however, to know that Margaret McFadden, that ill-tempered beast, was saying nothing that she cared to understand anyway.

“Antonio! Eugenio! Carlo! Thomaso!” Josephine hollered. “Pronto! Andiamo!” 

From across the street, the four boys, caked in varying degrees of dirt and sweat and dressed in an assortment of hand-me-downs that had been mended many times over, heeded their mother’s call immediately.

Irritated, the diminutive but always intimidating Sicilian woman grabbed the child closest to her and yanked him close, whispering something in his ear.

It was the oldest, Thomaso, or as his father insisted he be called, Thomas.

With his upper arm caught in his mother’s steely claw, the boy had no choice but to comply and called out to Mrs. McFadden. 

The Irishwoman, a mop of scarlet hair standing in sharp contrast to the dark-haired foreigners who had invaded her neighborhood, spun around with both hands on her own belly, as if to keep her unborn child, also her fifth, from being flung from her porch into the yard. She said nothing but simply glared at the Italian woman and her four rambunctious children.

Neither expectant mother was showing yet, but already their mannerisms suggested they had something worth protecting inside of them.

“My mother says we apologize,” called Thomas, sanitizing his translation. “And God bless you.”

You can read more of this story in Vol. 37.1 of VIA: Voices in Italian Americana: https://shop.lightningsource.com/b/085?params=Lea8IUJ2846Q9pMdPx3SVOLHhJDnRGz84AVLE44NRTK