Enter the Virgins we are...

Kirrily, with more than a few silver threads amid her grey, hopped in her wheels, thinking how her other car was a broom. When she was so young, she and her sister had loved viewing the TV sitcom, "Bewitched'. It was fascinating and funny, a tale of Endora's daughter, conveying the old mother/daughter thing. Kirrily sat in the traffic jam, wondering why she was not magic, would have made driving, housework and cooking so much easier and faster.

Kirrily' s tapestry of life was also about a tale of two women. Her late ex-husband had been an Italianate, way back when in the seventies. They experienced their Holy Roman nuptials on the same day as a family acquaintance of his. Enter the virgin.

Elena was fair of coloring, shapely form and statuesque beauty. A blonde Calabrian, a rare jewel in the crown of Little Italy, also known as Ellen. Kirrily was a good ole gal, still quite young, but always denigrated by the Italians for her status, being married to her handsome Italian stallion, with his bad reputattion in the hood. Open-ended booty was then readily accessible for young lovers , as Kirrily and all married women were then.

In contrast, Elena had an arranged marriage, to a socially and family approved young, respectful lad of a similar racing team. For the five years of their engagement, the future bride and groom were never allowed to be alone with each other, or have any physical contact, not even holding hands.

Indeed, if Elena and her beau went on a date anywhere, some old Aunty or Zia was their designated chaperone. Kirrily used to consider, like, this is the seventies, post women's liberation, why did young couples accept those codes?

Enter the virgin. After Elena and Guiseppe's devout nuptial Mass, there was a massive wedding reception. There all the guests were expected to pin cash to her wedding gown. In those days, 27 thousand dollars was a fortune for the bride and groom on their wedding night. Yes, exit the virgin. She had immaculate conception for booty, Kirrily did not.

But this tapestry of living in the old world of Little Italy had a flip side. Elena had spent five years waiting, anticipating. Unfortunately for all concerned, waiting was not worth it! Disenchanted with her husband's holy blip, Elena kept up appearances for three years. She had waited, but kept having pregnancies. Such was the lot of Elena. Her husband made her flesh creep, and his fat kids looked just like him. All being totally spoilt by their doting grandparents.

Elena got in the ear of her loving father. Right, her Mamma had wanted grandchildren, she could raise them. Elena filed for divorce, it was the quickest in Little Italy. She was a 'keeper'. She did not wait much longer. She kept the big two storey house, which was a wedding present. She also kept all the flash white goods, also wedding gifts. Elena went on a roll there, she kept the kids, the beach house, two massive cars, and the gardener. Exit the virgin.

After all that waiting, Elena regained her figure, and went back to work in her couture, doing drinks with the girls. "With you, Elena," Kirrily had not thought twice when she divorced her husband too, in yet another saga in amicable divorces.

"None to blame these days," Kirrily realised. Like many ex-husbands, those spouses of Kirrily and Elena thought of their vanished wives as true witches, who only arose in the morning to match their shoes with the brooms. It was their female family dress code. Quite right. But then, the leading actor in "Bewitched" seemed to spend his life making his witchy woman feeling the need to apologise for her talents. Kirrily had always thought that was wrong, a flawed male stereotype. She had cut the fat controller free. In her opinion, all women were Endora's daughters, and should never feel the need to apologise for being women. Chicks just do, okay.

Endora's daughters around the globe are mortals too. Kirrily and Elena had feelings too, like love and envy, tending to ruminate on the hand of fate. Lots of Endora';s daughters can waste thoughts on selfish people who did not care anyway. They were only thoughts. Kirrily could still wander round, thinking of good, witty repartee for converations that took place years ago. So, she reflected, many a witchy brain can indulge in stinking thinking. The sorority needs to rule here, and support each other.

Kirrily had long ago accepted that she and many a gal could work on some aspects of the global sisterhood. Her trip home was a lot easier. The craft shop was really a second home for local witches, her coven of yarn addicts. Beautiful. Once home, she enjoyed her free time, now uncaring of long gone males. She sat at her task, with a spell book of patterns.

Kirrily selected her witch's wand, a crochet hook. Soon she was weaving her woollen threads while muttering curses, trying to decide if this heap of tangled yarn would end up as a UFO-Unfinished Craft Object. Such would be hurled to the back of the craft stash. She would unweave them all one day.

While she was crafting, Kirrily was simultaneously boiling broth in her large cauldron on the stove, perfectly content in her coven of one. But, lo, soon that certain Endora's daughter had produced a bunny rug. Alms are for donations. Magic. In fact, it was the true magic of any witch's chick power.

Barring unforeseen circumstances of extreme health incidents, Kirrily was doing okay. She sent messages of silent support for all women to consider how great the power of a witch can be. Women can give birth, raise babies, cook, clean, garden, craft, work at most jobs, play sport or music, and manage. No man has ever yet replaced the magic of a womb.

Ironically, Elena's father did brainwash the local parish priest, taking him to Roma, where these male figures procured an annulment. So, all was well in Little Italy. Officially, Elena was still intact. Enter the virgin, restored, whether she wanted to be or not. Believers do trust in religious miracles. Kirrily had not retained her virgin status, but never mind. She sometimes reflected on this saga of those good ole days, of languid, molten love in the afternoon. She supposed the young women would handle things a bit better these days. But some of it was fun, letting go and letting love hold its sway. KIrrily still had a secret smile, pondering on this tale of two women, cultures apart. but still sisters. They had arrived at a totally different place than what they expected, born again virgins. We are all vestals somewhen...