The Tale of Amaretto

First Grain:

In Which Francesca Amaretto Covington is Born, and gains a Godmother...

Her name was Francesca Amaretto Covington. Her mother had named her after the drink in which she had been drunk on excess when she had been conceived. Some called her Francis, others simply called her Frank. Those that knew her exceptionally well called her Amaretto. It was strange growing up, being named after liquor, but the one thing that Amaretto knew was that it was better than being called Jose Cuervo or Jack Daniels. Those names would have been unbearable, even insufferable.

She had been born in Michigan on a cold and stormy night. The snow had piled up almost two and a half feet. Not very auspicious in and of itself, the hospital had almost lost power three times. Labor had taken four hours, nineteen minutes and thirty-six seconds. It had taken her mom all of five minutes and twelve seconds to be coherent enough to name her (apparently, she had thought of this a long while). She had smiled and then promptly passed out for three hours, twenty-two minutes and eighteen seconds.

During that time, Amaretto's mother had no visitors of any sort. It was not until two days later that she had been visited by the strange woman in purple. The woman had been dressed in tall stilettos that were obviously made by Gucci, and long purple slacks that were of dubious origin the way that they swayed around her. Her blouse was purple as well and finely buttoned up with smart buttons that looked like they had been carved out of amethyst. On each of her fingers, a single band of gold had been placed as if in an intricate dance. Her purse, also purple, was more than obviously done in couture fashion. No one would ever dream of buying that purse. It was simply hideous.

The woman's fiery red hair, about the only thing that wasn't purple, had been combed into a luscious mane of curls behind her head and carefully sculpted all the way past her shoulder blades and well to her waist. Her eyes were unseen by the sunglasses, carefully made by Donna Karen of New York, and also a tinted shade of purple from the frames down to the glass themselves. She clutched her handbag purse in her hands and stared straight at Ms. Diana Covington and smiled rather startlingly.

"Amaretto; what a pretty name. Did you come up with that yourself?" Her voice was crystal clear and as she tilted her head, large stones of pearl and amethyst appeared from within the frizz of her hair hanging from her ears. Francesca Amaretto's mother, Diana, tilted her own head and from her hospital bed and frowned at the stranger.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Her voice was flat and nowhere as musical as the stranger's but her inquisitive nature took over rather than fear. The woman in purple stood there and a look of shock appeared to cross her features. She then frowned and reached into her bag and pulled out a small palm pilot and began to click around on it at a furious pace. Diana simply sat there rather confused herself.

The stranger tisked and then removed her sunglasses. Startling purple eyes stared back at Diana and the new mother took a rather large breath. The eyes stared her down and then looked at the palm pilot and then the stranger said, "Mr. Diana Covington, to give birth to a Francesca Amaretto Covington at precisely three fifteen in the morning, labor to be lasting four hours, nineteen minutes and thirty-six seconds. That is you I presume?"

Diana, never to be one who was much for shock clearly allowed it to register across her face at this moment in time and nodded with a rather dumb shake in the affirmative. The woman smiled and let go of a rather pensive breath that made her seem like she had been holding it for hours and tucked the palm pilot back into her bag and zipped it up with a single motion. The woman then held out an expertly manicured hand, purple nail polish shining brilliantly in the dim lamplight of the room.

"My name is of no importance really, but here you may simply call me Katherine. I am to be Amaretto's Godmother." Diana blinked once and then held out her hand in shock, to which Katherine took her hand and grasped it firmly, but gently and shook.

"Godmother?" Diana looked as if her head was swimming. She was more than sure that she had asked for an epidural, but she was more than positive that the effects had worn off by now. The thought that she was dreaming crossed her mind and in that moment, Diana pinched Katherine on the hand. Katherine pulled her hand back as an expression of pain bloomed across her face.

"What on earth did you do that for then? Here I am trying to tell you some good news to add to your already good fortune and you go about pinching me!" The woman looked mildly perplexed as well.

Diana shrugged. "I was making sure that it wasn't a dream."

Katherine looked rather hurt and inspected her hand with her purple eyes. "You are supposed to pinch yourself for starters, not me, and it might leave an unsightly bruise. I bruise rather easily, so as of no concern to myself, I hope that it doesn't for your sake." Katherine continued to prattle on about how delicate she was as Diana examined her skin. It was only now that Diana noticed how pale the woman's skin was.

"You seem so pale; do you perhaps not get enough sun then?" Diana was more curious with this woman than she was with her cracked up statement that she was going to be her daughter's godmother. She had never met the woman in her entire life up until now. Diana thought that it would be a good time to get to know this strange woman. It was not as if anyone else was going to visit her in the hospital. Diana's parents had died only a few years ago in a terrible car crash. She had no siblings, being an only child, and her parents were only children as well, so that ruled out cousins and aunts and uncles of the sort. She had not really been expecting the father either, who had been a drunken one night stand. She was not even aware that she had been pregnant until the morning sickness had hit her in the second month.

Katherine sat down in a chair that was adjacent to the bed and then smiled rather dreamily. "You must be so happy to have a child. A child truly is a magical thing." Diana quickly found herself agreeing with the strange woman and soon called the nurses to bring Amaretto so that Katherine could see her. As soon as Katherine saw her, she made the most adorable face and cooed and fussed over the baby in a rather pleasing manner. Katherine stayed well through the day, talking about nothing in particular, then about the weather, then gossiping about people that Diana didn't know but soon found herself engrossed in hearing about and even watched soap operas on the television.

That day, Katherine stayed almost the entire day and then in the evening left of her own accord. Diana had not expected to see the woman ever again, but the next morning at nine forty-two and thirty-one seconds, Katherine showed up once again, all smiles and dressed all in purple once more. She sat down once again in the chair and began to talk to Diana as if she had never left and they were the greatest friends in the world. Diana rather enjoyed it.

For the next five days, Katherine never failed to come to visit her. On the day of her discharge, Katherine came to pick up Diana Covington in a beautiful Mazda RX8 that was painted purple. Katherine helped Diana to get back to her small apartment and helped the woman to get all of her affairs in order. It was so simple, but Katherine slowly became a natural part of Diana and Francis' lives. Diana never ever gave it another moment of thought and that was how Aunt Katherine became Francis' godmother.