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the table where he was sitting, he got up and<br />
went over to her on the<br />
pretext of admiring the baby.<br />
"How nice the child looks with such a<br />
beautiful aunt holding him!"<br />
`Thank you, Doctor."<br />
"He isn't even your own son. Imagine how<br />
pretty you will look with one<br />
of your own.<br />
A look of sorrow crossed Tita's face. John<br />
saw it and said: "Forgive<br />
me, it seems I've said something wrong."<br />
"No, it's not that. I can't marry or have<br />
children because I have to<br />
take care of my mother until she dies."<br />
"But how can that be! It's absurd."<br />
"But it's true. Now, please excuse me, I have<br />
to attend to my<br />
guests."<br />
Tita quickly moved away from John, leaving<br />
him completely shaken.<br />
She was too, but she recovered when she<br />
felt Roberto in her arms.<br />
What did her fate matter, when she had this<br />
child near her, this child<br />
who was as much hers as anybody's?<br />
Really, she did a mother's work<br />
without the official title. Pedro and Roberto<br />
were hers and that was<br />
all she needed.<br />
Tita was so happy that she didn't realize that<br />
her mother-like John,<br />
except that she had a different motive-was<br />
not letting her out of sight<br />
for a single instant.<br />
She was convinced that something was<br />
going on between Tita and Pedro.<br />
Trying to catch them, she didn't even eat,<br />
and she was so intent on the<br />
task of watching them that she hardly noticed<br />
the success of the<br />
party.<br />
Everyone agreed that a large part of the<br />
credit should go to Tita; the<br />
mole she had prepared was delicious! She<br />
kept getting compliments on<br />
her skill as a cook, and everyone wanted to<br />
know what her secret was.<br />
It was really a shame that as Tita was<br />
answering this question, saying<br />
that her secret was to prepare the mole with<br />
a lot of love, Pedro<br />
happened to be nearby, and that they looked<br />
at each other for a<br />
fraction of a second like conspirators,<br />
remembering when Tita had been<br />
bent over the grinding stone; for the eagle<br />
eye of Mama Elena saw the<br />
spark that flew between them from twenty<br />
feet away, and it troubled her<br />
deeply.<br />
Actually, among all the guests, she was the<br />
only one who felt at all<br />
troubled. Everyone, oddly enough, was in a<br />
euphoric mood after eating<br />
the mole; it had made them unusually<br />
cheerful. They laughed and<br />
carried on as they never had before and<br />
wouldn't again for a long<br />
time.<br />
The threat of the revolution hung over them,<br />
bringing famine and death<br />
in its wake. But for those few moments they<br />
all seemed dete."<br />
"But how can that be! It's absurd."
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