Kellee Salena Lupacchino

Coming Home to Hell
Lupacchino.

It's not a name you hear every day in the grand spankin' US of A. A couple of people have teased me about it, saying it sounds like some delicious frapp from a Starbucks on the corner of Hollywood. Yeah, that made me chuckle a little - I'm good at taking the crap out of myself. I've always had to, because I often get this little niggling voice that bugs me about it: You ain't special, you're strange, you're odd, your family is odd - 

And that's when I tell it to shut up. I know my family did what they had to do. It was for my safety, especially with the great snowy hell that's swallowed them up. I don't know if they're still alive or dead, after what Granpa told me. Granma's in a fit I left, but I have to know the secret. I can't stop asking it, not after all the strangeness, the weirdness I've seen in life. That woman I met outside of that bar, Shy...something-or-other, back when I was visiting Uncle Toby; she told me about the storm. She told me about her "friends" down here that disappeared.

That's what got this started, I mean. I was more than happy to avoid anything that had to do with Georgia, up until Granma got the phone call. I'm sure cousin Todd wil be fine with her, and so will Aunt Maebelle; they've had to move a lot of times before. Whenever "the family" got in a pickle, it was always the same - "Kellee, pack your stuff, we've got to go." I've been around the block before - squatting, hotel-hopping trailer parks, the suburbs, downtown apartments not even a flea would touch.... And one even had fleas in it! My family suffered for months there. Still, they had to do what they had to do, and that's why they sent me north of the border.

"No one will find you in the Arctic," Daddy had said. "Too many people sympathetic to us. It's where we can roam free in peace, and I hope you do too."

I didn't appreciate being sent to the top of the world, but I got used to it. That was eleven years ago, and we kept in touch. That's how I knew they were gone, and how Aunt Maebelle was having a breakdown, and how my cousin was sick and needed a place to stay. Thank God for free healthcare up here; I'm sure Todd will like it. He was always sensitive to heat, but me? I'll take a musty old swamp over the bitter blizzards and cold any day.

My Name Is....
My name is Kellee Salena Lupacchino. Salena is another name for the moon, apparently; Kellee...that was a joke on Daddy's part. He loved Kellogg's Corn Flakes, you see, and wanted a kid named Kellogg as a result. Mommy (yes, I'm in my early twenties and I still call her Mommy) wouldn't have it, so they settled on Kellee. Heh, it fits, I guess; as you can probably tell, we're not your ordinary every-day family. Lupacchino is actually a pretty fancy way of saying the word "Lupo", too, which is Italian for "wolf" -

Yeah, that's relevant, all right. I know about them, sort of. That's why Daddy sent me to live with Granma and Granpa, where he used to be from. They never told me much, though, just that my ancestors were a little more wild than others. I wanted to ask more, but I don't "have it in me", you see. My Mommy and Daddy are half-'n'-half, like half milk and half sugar; they popped out three kids - my brother, my sister, then me - and two out of three had it in them. They were full...whatever my family is, and they were privy to all those dirty little secrets I couldn't hear. What I'm telling you now, my Daddy doesn't know I know; he still thinks I think we're back-to-nature hippies of some sort. I'm glad it was kept that way...but now, I'm feeling real guilty about it, too.

I don't really know why I'm back here. I used to hate Mommy and Daddy for sending me away because I'm just your average Jane, a full-blooded human with no magical powers or sorcery or what-not. Over the years, though, as I collected bits and fragments from listening in on too many private convos, I guess I...made peace with myself? Came to the realization that "the People" knew the value of family, and that they sent me away so someone couldn't use me to hurt "the pack"? So, because I (at, least, I think) I love my family still, I'm going to see what's gone on. Maybe Granma will stop fretting, and Aunt Maebelle won't stop rocking and crying over and over again that she "lost Jon too". Todd's all she's got left after that boating accident out on the Mississippi, and after losing Uncle Jonathan, whatever was wrong in her head finally broke loose. I'm not going to mention the howling I heard over the phone when I picked up the other end before Granpa came in.

I Just Want Some Answers
I just want some answers now. More about who "the People" are, more about my family, about my siblings, about why I heard howling one night and saw Granpa singing to a gibbous moon. I want to know what kind of cult or beings or whatever I belong to, that I'm descended from, and that this trip from the Arctic wasn't a waste. I couldn't take a plane down from the Yukon, you know; I had to hitch-hike/hike my way down to this God-forsaken land of swamps and steamy mists. And maybe, just maybe, my family isn't dead, and I'll be able to talk to them outside of a phone call or a letter that took weeks to get to me.

Character Sheet
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