K.Esquivel-LWFC

She felt its rapid rising, flowing into every last
recess of her body;
like yeast in a small bowl, it spilled over to
the outside, escaping in
the form of steam through her ears, nose,
and all her pores.
A small part of this boundless fury was
caused by her discussion with
Pedro, another part by her accidents and her
work in the kitchen, and
the largest part by some- IJ nightfall, just in
time for supper, and
shut himself in his room immediately
afterward.
Nobody had an explanation for his behavior;
some believed the thought
of not having any more children hurt him
deeply. Whatever it was, it
seemed his rage dominated the thoughts and
actions of everyone in the
house. Tita was literally "like water for
chocolate"-she was on the
verge of boiling over. How irritable she was!
Even the cooing she loved so much-the
sound made by the doves she had
reestablished under the roof of the house, a
sound that had given her
so much pleasure since her returnven that
noise was annoying.
She felt her head about to burst, like a kernel
of popcorn. To prevent
that from happening, she pressed both her
hands against it hard.
A timid tap on her shoulder made her jump,
she felt an urge to punch
whoever it was, surely someone who wanted
to take up more of her
time.
What a surprise it was to see Chencha
standing in front of her.
The Chencha of old, smiling and happy.
Never in her life had Tita been
so delighted to see her, not even when
Chencha had visited her in
John's house. As usual Chencha had
dropped from the sky just when Tita
needed her most.
It was amazing to see the recovery Chencha
had made, after the state of
misery and despair in which she had left.
No signs remained of the trauma she had
suffered.
The man who had managed to erase them
was standing at her side, with a
huge honest smile on his face. From a
distance, Tita could tell she
was dealing with a decent, quiet man; though
Chencha didn't let him
open his thing Rosaura had said a few days
before. Tita, John, and
Alex had been together in her sister's
bedroom. John had brought his
son along on his medical call because the
boy missed having Tita in the
house and wanted to see her again. He
stuck his face up to the cradle
to see Esperanza and was struck by the girl's
beauty. Like all
children his age, he didn't have any secrets,
and he declaimed: "Papa,
l want to get married too, just like you. With
this little girl."
They all laughed at that, but when Rosaura
explained to Alex that he
couldn't because this little girl was destined
to take care of her
until the day she died, Tita felt her hair stand
on end. Only Rosaura
could have thought to perpetuate such an
inhuman tradition.