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Genre: Historical/Biographical Fiction

Word Count: 100

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

            After thirty hours of labor, at 3 o’clock in the morning, Dolly’s desperate physician resorted to forceps to deliver her baby.   

            Dolly clutched her sister’s hand. “Josie, is it a girl?  I don’t hear her cry. Is she—?”

            “Stillborn,” said the doctor, sweat beading his forehead. “He nearly killed his mama.”

            The midwife laid the motionless infant on the kitchen scale. “Thirteen pounds. Big boy for such a tiny mother.” She held him under running water. “Sveglia!” 

            He sputtered and cried.

            “Hello, piccolo sconosciuto.” Dolly Sinatra took her wailing son in her arms. “Just listen to my Francis sing.”

*piccolo sconosciuto is Italian for ‘little stranger’

Sveglia is “Wake up!”

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           Because a story about Old Blue Eyes wouldn’t be complete without a song, I leave you with one that Frank Sinatra hated when he first heard it. Doobie doobie doo.