K.Esquivel-LWFC

aby. What good did it do her now to know
the names of the planets and
Carreno's manual from A to Z if her sister
was practically dead and she
couldn't help her. Rosaura had gained sixtyfive
pounds during her
pregnancy, which made the labor to deliver
her first child even more
difficult. Even allowing for her sister's
excessive bulk, Tita noticed
that Rosaura's body was extraordinarily
swollen. First her feet
swelled up, then her face and hands. Tita
wiped the sweat from her
brow and tried to revive her but Rosaura
didn't even seem to hear
her.
Tita had seen some animals being born, but
those experiences didn't
help with this birth. She had been only a
spectator on those
occasions. The animals knew everything
they had to do, whereas she
knew nothing.
She had prepared sheets, hot water, and
sterilized scissors.
She knew she had to cut the umbilical cord,
but she didn't know how, or
when, nor to what length. She knew there
was a series of little things
she had to do for the baby as soon as it
entered this world, but she
didn't know what they were. The only thing
she knew was that first it
had to be born, any moment now! Tita
peeked between her sister's legs
repeatedly, but nothing. Nothing but a
tunnel, dark, silent, deep.
Kneeling and facing Rosaura, Tita made an
urgent request to Nancha to
enlighten her at this time.
If Nancha could tell her recipes in the
kitchen, she should also be
able to help in this emergency. Somebody
up there had better attend to
Rosaura, because there was nobody down
here to do so.
She didn't know how long she knelt in prayer,
but when she pried her
eyes open, the dark tunnel of a moment
before had been transformed into
a red river, an erupting volcano, a rending of
paper. Her sister's
flesh opened to make way for life. Tita would
never forget that sound,
or the way her nephew's head had emerged,
tria 7 umphant in his
struggle for life. It was not a beautiful head;
indeed, it was shaped
like a cone of brown sugar because of the
pressure his bones had been
under for so many hours. But to Tita it
seemed the most beautiful head
she'd ever seen.
The baby's cries filled all the empty space in
Tita's heart.
She realized that she was feeling a new love:
for life, for this child,
for Pedro, even for the sister she had
despised for so long.
She took the child in her hands, carried him
to Rosaura, and they wept
together for a while, holding the child. She
knew exactly what to do
for the baby afterward from the instructions
Nancha whispered in her
ear: cut the umbilical cord, in the right place
at the right time,
clean him with sweet almond oil, bind the
navel, and finally dress
him.
No problem, she knew how to put on the
undershirt, and the shirt, the