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long time to buy her the "little movie" she had<br />
seen in the display<br />
window of a store. It was called a little<br />
movie, because it was an<br />
apparatus for projecting images on the wall<br />
using a petroleum lamp as a<br />
light source, producing an effect like a<br />
movie1 but its real name was<br />
"zoetrope." What joy she felt seeing it next to<br />
her stocking when she<br />
got up in the morning.<br />
How she and her sisters enjoyed the many<br />
afternoons spent watching the<br />
sequence of images drawn on strips of glass,<br />
which pictured different<br />
situations that were so entertaining. Those<br />
happy days when Nancha was<br />
with her seemed so distant now. Nancha!<br />
The smells: her noodle soup,<br />
her chilaquiles, her champurrado, her<br />
molcajete sauce, her bread with<br />
cream, all were far away in a distant past.<br />
They could never be<br />
surpassed, her seasoning, her atole drinks,<br />
her teas, her laugh, her<br />
herbal remedies, the way she braided her<br />
hair and tucked Tita in at<br />
night, took care of her when she was sick,<br />
and cooked what she craved<br />
and whipped the chocolate! If she could<br />
bring back a single moment<br />
from that time, a little of the 1 poreelail 0oII<br />
PREPARATION: Break up<br />
the yeast in 1/4 kilo of flour using your hands<br />
or a fork and adding<br />
1/2 cup of warm milk a little at a time.<br />
When the ingredients are well blended,<br />
knead briefly, form into a ball,<br />
and let rest, until the dough grows to double<br />
its size.<br />
Just as Tita was putting the dough to rest,<br />
Rosaura made her appearance<br />
in the kitchen. She came to ask Tita's help in<br />
carrying out the diet<br />
John had prescribed for her. For some<br />
weeks now, she had been having<br />
serious digestive problems, she suffered<br />
from flatulence and bad<br />
breath. Rosaura felt so distressed by these<br />
upheavals that she had<br />
determined that she and Pedro should sleep<br />
in separate bedrooms.<br />
That reduced her suffering slightly; she could<br />
pass gas as she<br />
pleased.<br />
John had recommended that she abstain<br />
from such foods as root and leafy<br />
vegetables, and that she perform some<br />
active physical labor.<br />
This last was made difficult by her excessive<br />
bulk. There was no<br />
explaining the way she had gotten so fat<br />
after her return to the ranch,<br />
since she was still eating the same as<br />
always. It took an enormous<br />
effort for her to set her voluminous,<br />
gelatinous body in motion.<br />
All these ills carried with them an infinity of<br />
problems, the worst<br />
being that every day Pedro moved farther<br />
and farther away from her.<br />
She couldn't blame him; even she couldn't<br />
stand the foul smell.<br />
She couldn't take any more.<br />
It was the first time Rosaura had plucked up<br />
her courage and discussed<br />
these topics with Tita. She confessed E-PT<br />
E-M BE R happiness from<br />
those days, she could prepare the Kings' Day<br />
bread with the same<br />
enthusiasm she had felt then! If only she<br />
could eat the bread<br />
afterward with her sisters, laughing and<br />
joking, just like old times,
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