K.Esquivel-LWFC

placed a cut-up watermelon in case
someone was hot and got up in the
middle of the night wanting to eat a slice to
cool down. Mama Elena
was a specialist in cutting the watermelon:
taking a sharp knife, she
would drive the point in so it penetrated just
to the end of the green
part of the rind, without touching the heart of
the watermelon.
She made her cuts through the rind with
such mathematical precision
that when she was done, she could pick up
the watermelon and give it a
single blow against a stone, in a particular
spot, and like magic the
watermelon rind would open like the petals of
a flower, leaving the
heart intact on the table. Unquestionably,
when it came to dividing,
dismantling, dismembering, desolating,
detaching, dispossessing,
destroying, or dominating, Mama Elena was
a pro.
After she died, no one ever came close to
accomplishing the same feats,
with the watermelon.
From her hammock Tita heard someone get
up for a chunk of watermelon.
This awakened in her the urge to go to the
bathroom.
She had been drinking beer all day long, not
to cool off, but to make
more milk to nurse her nephew.
He was sleeping peacefully next to her sister.
Getting up in the dark,
she couldn't see a thing-there wasn't a
glimmer of light.
She was walking toward the bathroom, trying
to remember where the
hammocks were; she didn't want to stumble
into anybody.
Pedro, sitting in his hammock, was eating a
slice of watermelon and
thinking of Tita. Having her so near made
him feel a tremendous
excitement. He couldn't sleep thinking of her
there a few steps from
him .
and from Mama Elena, too, of course. He
heard the sound of footsteps
in the shadows and stopped breathing for a
few moments.
It had to be Tita, her distinctive fragrance
wafted toward him on the
breeze, a mixture of jasmine and cooking
odors that was hers alone.
For a moment he thought that Tita had
gotten up to look for him.
The sound of her approaching footsteps
blended with the violent beating
of his heart. But no, the steps were moving
away from him, to the
bathroom. Pedro got up as quiet as a cat
and followed her.
Tita was surprised to feel someone pull her
toward him and cover her
mouth, but she realized who it was
immedatermelon.
She made her cuts through the rind with
such mathematical precision
that when she was done, she could pick up
the watermelon and give it a
single blow against a stone, in a particular
spot, and like magic the
watermelon rind would open like the petals of
a flower, leaving the
heart intact on the table. Unquestionably,
when it came to dividing,