Big Stone Gap (32 page)

Men don’t like church weddings the first time around, so you can imagine the begging I have to do to get Jack to repeat the vows. But I realize something important about him in all of this, something that I never knew before. No matter what I ask of him, no matter how corny or difficult or plain old-fashioned undoable it is, if I ask, he will do it for me. He loves me so completely that he cannot deny me anything. I pray that I will never abuse this gift. But knowing me, there will be times I come close. I just hope he understands.

The best summer of our lives comes to an end. We say our good-byes, but they aren’t really binding, as Papa plans to visit us the next spring. Jack and I promise to spend part of every summer for the rest of our lives here in Schilpario, my father’s home. Good-byes are not sad to me at all anymore. I have learned to enjoy what leads up to them too much to worry about finalities.

I am anxious to get home. I have missed the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jack laughs about this.

“Mountains are mountains wherever you go,” he says.

“No. Our mountains are home,” I tell him. I can’t explain it to him, but Big Stone Gap has gone from the place I was running from to the place I most want to be. I have seen where I come from, but now I know where I belong. Home is with Jack MacChesney in that stone house on the hill.

The plane ride home is bumpy. I am sick most of the way, as is Jack. But I think he gets sick when he sees me get sick. What is the old expression about true lovers: When one gets cut, the other bleeds? When we land at Tri-Cities Airport, I am not sad. I am looking forward to returning to Cracker’s Neck and waiting for the seasons to change and bring us our first autumn together.

Well, it wasn’t airsickness back in August. Almost a year to the day after our American wedding, April 28, 1980, Fiametta Bluebell MacChesney was born to two very happy parents. This is all so new to me, and I have no words to describe it.

I do know, and I will explain to my daughter, that she is a very lucky girl. She need look no further than her own family to inspire her to cut her own path in life. We’re calling the baby Etta, the name my mother’s true love called her. I hope that she has my mother’s heart; it is evident to all, in the two days she’s been on earth, that she has already inherited her stubbornness. Most of the time, when I hold her, I think of Mama. I feel her around me now, guiding me. Finally, my mother’s choices make sense to me. Now I understand how she found the courage to leave her family and start a new life with me. A baby gives you the strength to do just about anything.

Etta has Nan MacChesney’s eyes. They say all babies have blue eyes, but I see the green there already, and they have a knowingness and a humor that can only have come from her no-nonsense grandmother. How sad I am Etta will never know her grandmothers! Why am I making a list of all the things our daughter won’t have? The only thing I know for sure is that I will worry about this little one until the day I die. Jack agrees with that; he says I’ve been practicing worry for thirty-seven years, so I’m mighty good at it.

And what about Jack MacChesney, my husband and the father of our daughter? Will he teach her to play the guitar and whistle?

The moon is just a sliver the first night home with our baby. I’m tired, so Jack relieves me and I doze off to sleep for twenty minutes or so. When I wake up, the house is quiet. I can’t find Jack and Etta inside, so I go to the backyard and circle around to the front of the house. There they are. Father and daughter. Sitting on the porch, looking at the moon. I stand there for a very long time. I don’t know why. She starts to fuss and I know she is hungry. But I can’t move. I want to watch the two of them forever—a daughter learning to trust, and a father doing the thing he does best: protecting her.

By Adriana Trigiani

Big Stone Gap

Big Cherry Holler

Milk Glass Moon

“IN A SASSY SOUTHERN VOICE, [TRIGIANI] CREATES HONEST, ENDEARINGLY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS.”

—Mademoiselle

“A Southern novel that has the ring of truth . . . Its characters are bizarre, its story hilarious, and it hooked me on page one.”

—JOHN BERENDT

“It is one of my all-time favorite novels . . . Unforgettable.”

—WHOOPI GOLDBERG

“Here’s a feel-good novel with a strong story line, a totally likable and sympathetic heroine, and enough intrigue to keep readers intent. Adriana Trigiani . . . has a great ability to pull you into the world where she grew up, back in the Big Stone Gap of the 1970s. . . . Ms. Trigiani has an eye for the details that make a small town sing.”

—The Dallas Morning News

“Adriana Trigiani writes with wit and grace about misguided romances and family secrets, and so very winningly about generous hearts. This urban Yankee reader found hours of bliss in Big Stone Gap, Virginia.”

—ELINOR LIPMAN

“ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I’VE READ IN QUITE A WHILE . . .

I love a story that moves to the rhythms of a southern drawl, that reveals characters slowly through their actions, tragedies, dilemmas and their own voices. . . .
Big Stone Gap
is funny. Ave Maria’s observations about people and small-town life are often hilarious. . . . This is southern storytelling at its best, but its allure goes beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains into all of our hearts.”

—Grand Rapids Press

“Ave Maria Mulligan is so real, she is almost a miracle. The story is poignant without being sentimental, and funny without being mean. The people and the place of
Big Stone Gap
have stayed with me long after reading the book.”

—ROSANNE CASH

“
Big Stone Gap
is a touching tale of a sleepy Southern town and a young woman on the brink of self-discovery and acceptance. Author Adriana Trigiani offers one-of-a-kind characters.”

—Southern Living

“Witty . . . [A] story with a winning blend of’70s nostalgia and Appalachian local color, Trigiani’s debut introduces a likable heroine who’s smart but obtuse, needy but rejecting, and generous with affection but afraid of love. . . . [Trigiani] immerse[s] the reader in the atmosphere of her little mining town.”

—Publishers Weekly

“EVERY ONCE IN A GREAT WHILE, A BOOK COMES ALONG THAT YOU ABSOLUTELY ADORE.

You devour every word and are incredibly sad when it ends. . . .
Big Stone Gap
by Adriana Trigiani is just that sort of book. Overflowing with humor and compassion . . . filled with a delightful assortment of small-town eccentrics,
Big Stone Gap
is a treasure trove of unique, wise, and wonderful characters.”

—BookPage

“
Big Stone Gap
, with its heartfelt tale of misguided romance, small-town shenanigans, and a closetful of family secrets, is the kind of Southern novel that often rings true. . . . [Trigiani’s] readers will smell the mountain air, visualize the bookmobile turning the corner, hear the characters chat, feel the Southern hospitality, maybe even taste the greasy fried chicken and homemade buttermilk biscuits.”

—San Jose Mercury News

“[Trigiani] paints lovely word pictures of the southwestern Virginia mountains. . . . The dialogue in this book is often witty and the story zips right along. Ave Maria’s feelings for her mother, who has died recently, and her search for someone to love her (rather than someone to love) are endearing.”

—Greensboro News & Record

“In this delightful tale of intimate community life in the hamlet of Big Stone Gap, the characters are as real as the ones who live next door.”

—Sunday Oklahoman

A Fawcett Book

Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group

Copyright © 2000 by The Glory of Everything Company

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eISBN: 978-0-345-46361-6

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