by M. D. Melai
I slowed my pace down as I came to one of the first buildings on my list. It was the Palermo Cathedral. I stared at it in amazement. It was a beautifully constructed rectangular shaped building with a small dome that came out of the top. There was a gate that wrapped around the side that I was on. On each corner and the sides of the entrance was a statue. Each statute was so delicately carved and gave the gate the perfect touch.
I walked through an opening in the gate and into a huge courtyard. Even though it was close to the end of October, there were trees, bushes, and flowers that decorated the entire area. I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. This place was absolutely amazing and I hadn’t even seen the inside yet. I wished we could have had something this beautiful at home.
When I entered the cathedral and walked around, I found myself in the main area. My jaw dropped as I took in every detail. There were pews that were perfectly aligned on both sides of the room. The building came into a huge arch in the middle of the room that led up into the dome. The inside was done in what I would guess was white marble or limestone. There were about eight to ten statues spread out on each side of the walls, and the closer I got to the front, the bigger the statutes were.
When I finally reached the front, I looked straight up to the ceiling. There were paintings that filled the entire top. Each was filled with soft colors that brought stories to life. I wished that I had brought a camera so that I could capture the essence of everything. I felt selfish for being the only one from my family here. I wished we could have at least come here on a family vacation so all of us could have seen this.
I walked out of the cathedral thinking that it couldn’t get any better than that. I still had three more places I wanted to see and I hoped that they all would live up to this.
It didn’t take me long to jog down the main road and come to the second place I wanted to see. It was called Palazzo Riso. It was another beautiful building, but it didn’t spark anything inside me like the cathedral had.
I was about to leave when I overheard some other observers talking. One of them had mentioned that this particular plaza was better to see at nighttime. That got my attention and I knew I needed to come back here on a midnight stroll.
When I walked back onto the sidewalk of the main road, I saw a group of tourists all heading in one direction. That piqued my curiosity and I knew that there had to be another sight to see not too far ahead. I followed them down the road and soon came to see the Fontana Pretoria, the third place on my list.
I was completely wrong whenever I thought it couldn’t get any better. This site was absolutely amazing. It was a huge circular fountain. On the outer part was an open walkway so tourists could circle the center. Then four different sets of stairs each made a bridge that led to the top layer of the fountain. Under the stairs was a circle of water. The part that was built in the center to make it a fountain was three different statutes stacked on top of each other, divided by a plate that caused the water to spill over onto the next. Medium sized statues were found throughout the entire structure, and near the water were small busts of almost every type of animal.
I stayed there for over twenty minutes just taking in the beauty of the fountain. This would be another place that I would have to revisit while I was here.
The last site that I wanted to see was just on the other side of the fountain. The name of it was Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio. The outside of the building was in a square shape with the bottom half protruding outward. To the right of it was a slender, taller attachment. It looked like a place where a bell could possibly be hung.
The inside was completely decorated with paintings. Everything except for the floors and an occasional wall was covered in blue, gold, brown, and white. Pillars were seen throughout the main area and around the pillars were seats, which were directed toward the front.
I didn’t stay there as long as I had at the fountain or the cathedral. It was a beautiful building, but it was also getting pretty late and I still wanted to make my way to the sea.
It didn’t take long for me to make it there. When I looked at it on the tourist map, I expected I would see a beach, but what I found was a boat dock. There were all kinds of boats docked, from personal boats to ships. I could tell this was a main loading dock for the transportation across the seas.
I contemplated this location as I watched the men work on loading the boats. This could have been one of the places in which my ancestors loaded cargo to be shipped to the United States, especially during the prohibition era. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. While I was sure the cargo these days wasn’t as prohibited as it may have been back in the nineteen-twenties, it still had me wondering.
I stayed and watched a few boats and ships come in and out, but the sun started to set and I knew it was time to head back to the apartment.
As soon as I arrived home, I said a passing hello to Gianna, who was outside collecting her clothes from the line, before going straight into my apartment and grabbing a much needed shower. After my shower, I cooked a small homemade pizza and watched some television.
I texted Violet after I cleaned up the kitchen and caught her up on my day. I assured her that today was a much better day than yesterday, and that I wished she could have been with me and seen all the amazing structures. Then I told her about how tomorrow I would be doing research on my ancestry and would soon know a great deal more about them.
She wished me luck when I told her there wasn’t a specific place I could go and find out any information. I was going to try my luck with the internet and see if I could dig up any information about them. If I failed at that, then I would try the University again, and maybe even the courthouse for any documents that might lead me in the right direction.
Violet didn’t talk much about what was going on back home. She was sparing me the details, which I appreciated. All she said was that Emilio really missed me, and he had told her if she heard from me to tell me he missed me and that he wanted me to come home. He was sorry for whatever he had done to help drive me away, and when I returned he promised we could fix it together.
Violet and I said our goodbyes, and I headed straight to bed that night. I set my alarm and crawled into bed. A million things ran through my mind, and I mostly tossed and turned for the rest of the night.
I dreamt about Emilio and being home. I missed him, Violet, and my family so very much.
At one point I just laid there and stared at the ceiling, thinking about what I might discover in the morning. I hoped it was good news.
***
The alarm blared in my ear the following morning. I hit snooze three times before actually getting out of bed. This was the day that I had looked forward to and dreaded at the same time. I just wished I would have had more sleep to face the day.
For breakfast I grabbed a granola bar and a glass of milk before sitting down in front of my computer. I needed to find out more of my ancestor’s names, so I would know who I needed to search for.
I was in such a hurry to leave the states, I didn’t have time to look up all the information I needed there. I was lucky enough to find a website that was known for their records on family histories.
I registered quickly and followed all the instructions as I loaded in all the information I knew about my father’s side. I had known my father’s parents well, but I had lost them when I was very young. My grandfather had died when I was eight and my grandmother died when I was ten.
It took a little math to figure it out their birth year. I knew that my grandfather was twenty-five and my grandmother was twenty-three when they had my father, so I used that information to help me. The next screen popped up and asked where they were born. I honestly didn’t know if they were born in America or Sicily, so I clicked the box labeled ‘don’t know’ and went from there.
Name after name flooded the screen in front of me. I moved the mouse to the sidebar and started to scroll down the list. After a couple swipes down, I found my gr
andfather, Vincienzio Dapprima, and under his name, it listed his spouse, my grandmother, Evelina Dapprima. I hit the preview button beside his name and it popped up a dated record of all the Dapprimas. I scrolled down and found Vincienzio at the bottom. I swiped the page to the left and found his parents, Enrico and Maria Dapprima.
I started to make notes with each new ancestor I found. When I made it as far as the website took me, I had a page full of my family. I restructured it into a family tree and there it was, my family. The tree extended all the way up to my great, great, great, great grandparents. I still couldn’t believe that I found all of them. I didn’t expect to make it past my great grandparents, and the fact that I did was exciting.
I leaned back in my seat and took a deep breath. This was my family, dated all the way back to the eighteen-hundreds. This was where I came from.
Right as I was about to search through more information, my phone rang.
“Hey, Vi. What’s up?” I asked as I pressed the phone to my ear.
“Nothing much, I'm just getting ready for the day. Everyone else is still asleep. I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re doing okay,” she said.
“I’m doing a lot better,” I began. “I just finished researching my family. The website took me all the way back to my great, great, great, great grandparents.”
“Wow. Really? I’m surprised it had that much information on them.”
“I am too. I was just about to do some more research when you called. I’m trying to find out who they were and what they did. I was hoping to find an article or story about them, anything that would tell me how and when my family came to power in the mafia, whether it was here or in America. If I can’t find any information about them being involved in the mafia here, then that means they joined whoever was in charge when they migrated to America. I have a lot of work to do,” I sighed.
“Sounds like it,” Violet said. “Well, I’m here if you need me. Maybe I can find something out for you. I’ve been asking Dante more questions than he probably wants to answer, so bringing up something like this wouldn’t be weird.”
“Do I even want to know what you have been asking him?” I asked.
“Nope,” she said. I could almost hear the smile in her voice.
“Okay,” I laughed. “I’ll let you know what I find first and then I’ll be in touch.”
“Awesome. Well, it was great to hear your voice. I’m glad you’re doing okay. Dante just woke up, so I got to go, but text me if you need to talk or find out anything and I’ll call you as soon as possible.”
“Will do. Love you Vi,” I said.
“You too, Lil,” she said before she hung up.
It was good to hear from Violet. Talking to her was always nice. She was my connection to home. Even though I had only been gone for a few days, I still missed everything and everyone terribly.
I caught a tear before it flowed down my face. As much as I missed them, I needed to do this, and with that, I continued my research.
The first name I Googled was Riccardo Dapprima, Palermo, Italy. He was my eldest grandfather and quite possibly the one who came to power first. When I clicked enter, a page of links popped up and I started to scroll. Each time I thought I found something about him, I would search the page, but all of them were dead ends.
It wasn’t until the fourth page that I finally found something about him. It was an article written about him in the eighteen-sixties. As I read it, it confirmed all the details I found out about how the mafia came about. Riccardo was involved with stopping crimes in Palermo when the Italian government was trying to gain control. Apparently, my grandfather had many connections and was a very powerful and influential man. He established himself as a man to not be trifled with and anyone who did such a thing would be punished.
The government had looked to him for help when they were trying to gain control. With his help, the Italian government was able to take control over Sicily and become established.
I leaned back into the couch and shut my eyes, taking in every detail. My family never made their way into the mafia—they started it. My great, great, great, great grandfather was the original leader, and as each generation bore a son, it had flowed down the family tree to the point in which my father was now the leader.
I stood and paced around the living room. This was all so crazy. My family was the original family that started the Italian mafia. That meant that they were the ones that started everything. I didn’t know why, but I felt like I could have coped with this information better if I had known my family had been brought into this rather than started it.
I shut down my computer after pacing for twenty minutes. I had information overload. I needed some time to think about this news. Everything else would have to wait until tomorrow.
Chapter 12
I found myself at the fountain the next day. I had ran a few miles as I tried to clear my head and think about anything other than where I came from.
I thought a lot about Violet and wondered if she was doing okay. Most of our conversations were focused on me and what I had been doing. I failed as a friend for not taking an interest in what was going on back home. She was running the business all by herself now that I wasn’t there. On top of that, she was having to deal with everyone and how they were coping with my absence. I knew there had to be a lot on her plate, so I promised myself the next time I talked to her that we would do nothing but talk about her.
As I sat down, I shimmied off my backpack and took out my journal. I had decided last night that I would start writing about my adventures here. This was my first time writing in it, so I had a lot to catch up on. I started writing about the city and what all it held. The next few pages consisted of the information I found out about my family, and on the very last page I sketched my family tree.
Last night I had thought about what other articles there could be about my family. I decided to go back to the library and try to dig up as many articles about my ancestors as I could.
When I got close to the library, I noticed a woman was trailing me from behind. I started to panic as the realization struck that I could have been found and that my family knew exactly where I was. I slowed down my pace and was just about to turn and face her when she spoke first.
“Elle?” she asked.
My face dropped as I registered who she just called me.
Elle?
How did she know who Elle was? Was it a coincidence that Elle was from here? I knew the answer before the thought even left my mind. No, it wasn’t.
“Elena?” she asked again.
“I’m sorry, but you have the wrong girl,” I said as I turned to face her. “My name’s Caterina.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. You look just like a friend of mine,” she explained. “I’m Bianca, by the way.”
“It’s okay. No big deal. So, who is this Elena or Elle girl you know?”
“Her name is Elena, but all of us call her Elle. We’ve been friends since we were in secondary school. Wow! It’s crazy how much you look like her.”
“So, is she here? I want to meet someone I actually look like,” I said. I figured I might as well find out as much about Elle while I was here. After all, I knew nothing about the girl impersonating my life. I just hoped it was the same Elle.
“No. Last I heard she left for America. Apparently her family needed her. I don’t really know all the details.”
“That’s unfortunate. It would have been nice to meet her.”
“Yes, well, I've got to get to class, but I’ll see you around some time?”
“Sure,” I lied. “That’d be great. It was nice to meet you.”
“You too,” she said before walking away.
I paused outside the library thinking about what just happened. Elle was from Palermo. I never even heard an inkling of an accent. What stood out to me the most though was Bianca’s comment about Elle going to America to help her family. She wasn’t part of our family. She was the reason it was falling ap
art. But, she did look a lot like me.
No, it is not a possibility.
I quickly pushed my thoughts of Elle out of my head. I didn’t have time to think about her. My main mission was to find out about my family, the family I actually knew was my family.
The library was completely empty when I entered. Most of the students were either in another section or were in class judging by the time.
I went straight to a librarian and asked where I could find articles from the early nineteen-hundreds. She pointed me in the opposite direction and I made my way to several large filing cabinets.
They were sorted by years, and when I found the nineteen-hundreds to nineteen-twenties, I opened it. Each manila folder was categorized with a year. I was really only interested in the nineteen-twenties, around the prohibition era, so I pulled out those folders and found a desk nearby.
I opened the folder that had ‘1920’ scribbled across the top and started flipping through each article. Most of the articles were about different murders that happened around the city and conspiracy theories on what exactly happened. I had a pretty good idea what happened.
After coming up with nothing, I opened the ‘1921’ folder and browsed through the articles. These articles had the exact same theme as the others that I looked at. No article ever made a reference to the Dapprima family.
I was about to give up when I saw the very last article. Two sheets were stapled together. The first article was titled, ‘After Death: Which Dapprima brother will take over the family business?’ I couldn’t believe I had found something! I quickly flipped to the next page and read the headline. ‘Feuding in the family: Where has Enrico Dapprima gone?’
I paused for a second and got out my journal from my backpack and immediately flipped through the pages until I got to the page that my family tree was written on. I traced my finger up the tree until I found Enrico Dapprima. He was an ancestor of mine. He had a twin brother named Sergio, but I was a descendant from Enrico. I looked back down and started reading the first article.