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patio, a hole so deep that most of the<br />
chickens disappeared from the<br />
face of the earth. The earth swallowed them<br />
up. After that fight only<br />
three chickens remained, plucked bald and<br />
oneeyed. And no diapers.<br />
Tita, shaking the dust off of her, looked<br />
around the patio: there was<br />
no sign of the chickens. She was more<br />
worried about the disappearance<br />
of the diapers she had embroidered so<br />
lovingly. They had to be<br />
replaced with new ones right away. But then<br />
that was no longer her<br />
prnblemhadn't Rosaura told her she didn't<br />
want her around Esperanza<br />
anymore? Let Rosaura tend to her concerns<br />
and Tita would tend to hers,<br />
which at the moment was getting dinner<br />
ready for John and his Aunt<br />
Mary.<br />
She entered the kitchen and went to finish<br />
the preparation of the<br />
beans, but much to her surprise she found<br />
that the beans still weren't<br />
done, despite the hours they had been<br />
cooking.<br />
Something strange was going on. Tita<br />
remembered that Nancha had always<br />
said that when people argue while preparing<br />
tamales, the tamales won't<br />
get cooked.<br />
They can be heated day after day and still<br />
stay raw, because the<br />
tamales are angry. In a case like that, you<br />
have to sing to them,<br />
which makes them happy; then they'll cook.<br />
Tita supposed the same<br />
thing had happened with the beans, which<br />
had witnessed her fight with<br />
Rosaura. That meant all she could do was to<br />
try to improve their mood,<br />
to sing them a song full of love: she didn't<br />
have much time to finish<br />
preparing the meal for her guests.<br />
The best thing was to try to remember a<br />
moment when she had felt great<br />
joy and relive it as she sang. She closed her<br />
eyes and began to sing a<br />
waltz that went: "I'm so happy since I have<br />
found you, I've surrendered<br />
my love to you, and given up my soul Images<br />
from her first meeting with<br />
Pedro in the dark room flooded her mind.<br />
The passion with which Pedro<br />
had torn away her clothes, causing the flesh<br />
beneath her skin to burn<br />
beneath the touch of those incandescent<br />
hands. The blood simmered in<br />
her veins. Her heart burst into a seething<br />
passion.<br />
Very slowly the frenzy had subsided and<br />
given way to infinite<br />
tenderness, leaving their shaken souls<br />
satisfied.<br />
While Tita was singing, the bean liquor was<br />
boiling madly.<br />
The beans allowed the liquid in which they<br />
were floating to penetrate<br />
them; they swelled until they were about to<br />
burst. When Tita opened<br />
her eyes and took a bean to test it, she saw<br />
that now the beans were<br />
done perfectly. That left enough time to get<br />
herself ready for Aunt<br />
Mary.<br />
Happy with life, she left the kitchen and went<br />
to her bedroom,<br />
intending to get dressed. The first Perhaps it<br />
was just the feathers<br />
matted in her hair because of her fall; but<br />
still, she was horrified.
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