K.Esquivel-LWFC

inappropriately named dark room. Tita was
moved at the thought of the
work that Pedro had done to prepare the
room in this way, and so was
Pedro, thinking how clever she had been to
arrange it all in secret.
They were so filled with pleasure that they
didn't notice that in a
corner of the room Nancha lit the last candle,
raised her finger to her
lips as if asking for silence, and faded away.
Pedro placed Tita on the bed and slowly
removed her clothing, piece by
piece. After caressing each other, gazing at
each other with infinite
passion, they released the passion that had
been contained for so many
years.
The striking of the brass headboard against
the wall and the guttural
sounds that escaped from both of them
mixed with the sound of the
thousand doves flying free above them.
Some sixth sense had told the
doves that it was time to flee the ranch. With
them fled all the other
animals-the cows, the pigs, the chickens, the
quails, the lambs, the
horses.
to was aware of none of it. She was
experiencing a climax so intense
that her closed eyes glowed, and a brilliant
tunnel appeared before
her.
She remembered then the words that John
had once spoken to her: "If a
strong emotion suddenly lights all the
candles we carry inside
ourselves, it creates a brightness that shines
far beyond our normal
vision and then a splendid tunnel appears
that shows us the way that we
forgot when we were born and calls us to
recover our lost divine
origin. The soul longs to return to the place it
came from, leaving
the body lifeless." Tita checked her passion.
She didn't want to die. She wanted to
explore these emotions many more
times. This was just the beginning.
She tried to still her breathing, and only then
did she hear the
flutter of the wings of the last doves as they
flew off. Apart from
that sound she heard only their hearts
beating fiercely. She could
feel Pedro's heart pounding against her
chest. Suddenly the pounding
ceased. A mortal silence spread through the
room. It took her but a
moment to realize that Pedro was dead.
With Pedro died the possibility of ever again
lighting her inner fire,
with him went all the candles. She knew that
the natural heat that she
was now feeling would cool little by little,
consuming itself as
rapidly as if it lacked fuel to maintain itself.
Surely Pedro had died at the moment of
ecstasy when he entered the
luminous tunnel. She regretted not having
done the same. Now it would
never again be possible to see that light,
because she could no longer
feel anything. She would but wander through
the shadows for eternity,
alone, all alone. She would have to find
some way, even if it was an
artificial one, of striking a fire that would light
the way back to her
origin and to Pedro.
But first she had to thaw the freezing chill
that was beginning to