Chapter One
Shawnee State Park Camping Trip 2003
The rain had awoken Christina Ciccone during the night as it dribbled down the front flap of her tent. She took little time to unzip herself out of her sleeping bag. I’ve got to get to that fire before it goes out, she worried. She slipped on her flannel jacket and threw more firewood on the fire that was now a small flame. “There now, that’ll keep ya going for a while. It looks like the rain has stopped,” she mumbled softly to herself. She glanced up at the sky to see a shooting star. Hmm, that is the first one I have ever seen since we have been coming to this area.She noticed it was quite large. Her eyes followed it as it streaked across the sky.
“Christina Ciccone, Madone! What are you doing out here this late?” yelled her mother. “Always worried about the damn fire! The world won’t end if the fire goes out, child. You’re going to catch pneumonia! Go back inside and get some rest. Tomorrow is the family hike, as long as the rain holds off.”
Christina pulled her flannel jacket tightly around her thin frame and walked back to her tent. Every September always the week before school started her family came to Shawnee State Park in Schellsburg, Pennsylvania to camp. It was a family tradition. There were many traditions in her family and this was one of her favorites.
Trying to fall back to sleep, she was fidgeting, and thought about all the traditions in her Italian American family. Already at ten years old, she felt as though her parents were secretly planning her wedding.
Helen’smom, had been born in Rome and her father’s family had come from Naples. Anthony, Christina’s older brother, was fourteen. It was 2003 and yes, growing up in an Italian family meant food, family, and more food.
Her family had taken over her Grandpa Damato’s small photography business in Struthers, Ohio when Grandpa got ill and couldn’t manage anymore. Grandma Damato had died the year before and this had put years on Grandpa. Christina remembered her grandpa giving direct orders to her dad shortly before he became so ill,“Salvatore, you won’t let me down. I know I can depend on you and Anthony to carry on our business as long as you can.” Her dad’s parents, the Ciccones, had passed several years before in Naples. She never got a chance to meet them.
Grandpa Damato was in an assisted living home, unable to care for himself, although the family did bring him home on weekends so he could enjoy being close to them. Christina was his favorite. He always seemed to take her side when the rest of the family expected her to get through school, and get married. She wondered about them planning how she would probably get married right out of high school and have a baby. That may have been their plans, but not Christina’s; she had plans of her own.
She looked at her watch to see it was three a.m. She was still feeling restless and just tossed and turned. She was hoping the rest of the family was still asleep.She decided to go sit by the fire. This was her favorite thing to do.
She was caught in a daze as her deep-hazel eyes stared transfixed by the flames. She never knew just what it was about a fire that drew her in, made her feel warm and safe, and reached deep down into her soul.
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