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...A glance at the past...

- Artopolis (and Mess County) ISN'T always as "Spooktacular" or "Ghoulicious" as many an "Out-of-Towner" is led to bieleve... Like any big burg in America, it has its share of pitfalls - AND tragedies! This emphasises upon one of the latter...

-- In the wee hours of Monday, July 7, 1980, mob boss Euginio "Big Gino" Novella went into one of the many establishments he owned... In this case, it happened to be his signature restaurant, "Novella's Chop House"... Noted as one of the finest places in the whole city to dine on choice steaks, prime rib, roast beef, and the like, the restaurant was a favorite of the local "movers and shakers" in business, legal and medical professions, public office, entertainment, and of course - criminal activities!

--- Coming off an extremely busy Fourth of July weekend, the overall take had been quite sizeable, so Big Gino, along with his two goonlike bodyguards, came in long after closing to take a glance at the books, and especially the register tapes, to make sure all was in order before the restaurant manager took everything to the bank later that morning... Satisfied with the figures, Big Gino hit upon the happy thought of serving up a few drinks at the bar with his goons to celebrate the weekend bounty, as he often would whenever business was above average... That particular instance never happened! Someone rigged the underside of the bar with explosives, along with a hidden device that would detonate at a specific time... The effort had certainly been successful, because the entire bar section exploded, literally vaporizing Big Gino and one of his goons instantly, as well as sending the other clear across the restaurant and through one of the front windows! What remained of him was found dead when the police and the fire departments arrived less than five minutes later... Although the authorities have always had their suspicions as to whom set the bomb, and more so - whom ordered it done, everyone brought in for questioning at that time were all found to be in the clear, and the case remains unsolved to this day...

The woman in the above image is Big Gino's widow (I think that's safe to say at this point in the story), Patricia "Patrice" Violetta Novella (nee - "Santorini"), mother of Gretchenne (then 16 years old), Iris (at that time, a mere toddler at almost two), and later, grandmother of both Gretchenne's daughters, Patrice, and Violette, of which the latter two are named after... Upon hearing of her husband's demise, Patrice silently and privately wept, and at the break of day, walked down to where her husband died (They only lived a few blocks away in an apartment building that Big Gino owned) with Gretchenne by her side and Iris in a stroller... When she saw the magnitude of the damage, she said to her oldest in broken English, "Imma gonna also tella your a-sister when she old enough to understand, but I wanta you to a-see for you'self whatta can happen if you a-get involved witha man like-a you father was! A 'No-good' canna only lead to a-trouble! You BOTH a-go an' getta good education, an' a-stay AWAY fromma creeps like-a this!" A shutterbug working for the then "Artopolis Informant" (Which later became the "Times", but that's another story) caught the image of Patrice as she crossed the police ribbons, as well as the shot of the bombed-out restaurant in the aged clipping...

After all the legal proceedings afterward, Patrice came away with the building she resided in, along with a sizeable amount of money for both her own living expenses, as well as both her daughters' respective educations... They all continued to live at that address even after Gretchenne and Iris had gone to college and were just starting their careers...Iris of course, never married, nor had children (Her later hectic job as the Times' Fashion Editor just didn't allow for either)... Gretchenne however, DID find time for children, but the man whom she had both her daughters with, NEVER married her, and although not EXACTLY the same "type a-man", as her mother stated, never was the "responsible type", and eventually drifted away from his clan, never to return...They don't miss him much - not much at all...

Patrice herself lived another 18 years (after this incident) and was able to enjoy seeing her granddaughters around her (The younger Patrice was born in 1988, and her sister Violette, two years later)... The elder Patrice succumbed to a terminal illness and passed in 1998... Gretchenne and her daughters moved back into the building they now owned via inheritance, and lived there until sometime in 2009, when the three of them sold it and bought the bookstore in Witches' Valley...

--- This small, but detailed "brief" (as I would more call it) should bring at least the "Novella" portion of the "Mess County" storyline into more clarity, thus explaining why these strange, but good-hearted women continue to live and work together as a family unit... Each one is all the others have in life, and to "Clan Novella" , THAT - is MOST important!

See Also: Jo1A R3dd...