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person, whatever her relationship with<br />
another, could reject a kind<br />
gesture in such a brutal manner, just like<br />
that, so highhandedly. She<br />
was sure the soup was delicious. She I 131<br />
had tasted it herself<br />
before bringing it up. It couldn't help but be<br />
good, she'd taken so<br />
much care in preparing it.<br />
It made her feel like a fool for having<br />
returned to the ranch to care<br />
for her mother. It would have been better to<br />
stay at John's house<br />
without ever giving a thought to the fate that<br />
might befall Mama<br />
Elena.<br />
But the pangs of her conscience wouldn't let<br />
her. The only way Tita<br />
would ever be really free of her mother was<br />
when she died, and Mama<br />
Elena wasn't ready for that.<br />
She felt an urge to run far, far away, to shield<br />
the tiny flame John<br />
had coaxed up inside her from her mother's<br />
chilling presence.<br />
It was as if Mama Elena's spit had landed<br />
dead-center on a fire that<br />
was about to catch and had put it out. Inside<br />
she felt the effects of<br />
snuffing the flame; smoke was rising into her<br />
throat, tightening into a<br />
thick knot and clouding her eyes and making<br />
her cry.<br />
She opened the door quickly and ran out at<br />
the exact moment that John<br />
arrived to visit the patient. They crashed into<br />
each other.<br />
John held her in his arms just long enough to<br />
keep her from falling.<br />
His warm embrace saved Tita from freezing.<br />
They only touched for a few<br />
seconds but it was enough to rekindle her<br />
spirit. Tita was beginning<br />
to wonder if the feeling of peace and security<br />
that John gave her<br />
wasn't true love, and not the agitation and<br />
anxiety she felt when she<br />
was with Pedro. With a real effort, she pulled<br />
away from John and left<br />
the room.<br />
`Tita, come here! I told you to take this<br />
away!"<br />
"Dona Elena, please don't move, you'll hurt<br />
yourself.<br />
I'll remove the tray, but tell me, don't you<br />
want to eat?"<br />
Mama Elena asked the doctor to lock the<br />
door and confided to him her<br />
suspicions about the bitterness of the food.<br />
John replied that it<br />
might be the effect of the medicines she was<br />
taking.<br />
"Certainly not, Doctor, if it were the medicine,<br />
I would have this<br />
taste in my mouth all of the time and I don't.<br />
They're putting<br />
something in my fooduriously enough, just<br />
since Tita came back. I want<br />
you to test it."<br />
With a smile at her malicious insinuation,<br />
John went over to taste the<br />
ox-tail soup that had been left untouched on<br />
the tray.<br />
"Let's see, let's find out what they've put into<br />
your food.<br />
Mmmmm! Delicious. It has beans, potatoes,<br />
chile, and . . .
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