K.Esquivel-LWFC

when she and Rosaura had not had to
compete for the love of a man
before she knew that she would not be
allowed to wed, that Gertrudis
would run away from home and work in a
brothel, and when she still
believed that if she found the doll in the
bread, all her wishes would
miraculously come true, literally, everything
she had wished for.
Life had taught her that it was not that easy;
there are few prepared
to fulfill their desires whatever the cost, and
the right to determine
the course of one's own life would take more
effort than she had
imagined.
That battle she had to fight alone, and it
weighed on her. If she
could only have her sister Gertrudis by her
side! But it seemed more
likely that a corpse would come back to life
than that Gertrudis would
come back home.
No one had gone for news of her since
Nicholas had taken her clothes to
the brothel. Putting those memories to rest
along with the squares of
chocolate she had just finished, Tita began
the Three Kings' Day bread
at last.
INGREDIENTS: 30 ;rai frh yet 11/4 kiD flour
8egg 1 to6poon ait to6noo
orange-Am water 11/2 coed,u 500 gin&
eLL9or 300aram cutter she had not
approached her before because of the
jealousy she felt.
She had thought that there was an amorous
relationship between to and
Pedro, concealed, hidden by outward
appearances. Now that she saw how
much John loved her, and how soon she
would be married to him, she had
realized the absurdity of continuing to harbor
this type of
suspicion.
She was sure there was still time to establish
good relations between
them. To tell the truth, until now the
Rosaura-Tita relationship had
been like water in boiling oil! With tears in
her eyes, she begged
Tita not to harbor bad feelings about her
marriage to Pedro. She asked
Tita's advice how to save it. As if Tita was
the one to dispense that
kind of advice! With difficulty, Rosaura
reported that it had been
several months since Pedro had approached
her with amorous
intentions.
He practically avoided her. That alone didn't
worry her too much;
Pedro had never been disposed to sexual
excess. It wasn't just that,
it was his attitude-in it she detected his frank
rejection of her.
And she could put her finger on just when it
started since she
remembered perfectly. It was the night the
ghost of Mama Elena first
appeared. She was awake, waiting for
Pedro to return from his walk.
When he returned, he paid almost no
attention to her story of the
ghost, as if he was hardly there. During the
night she had tried to
embrace him, but he was either asleep or
pretending to be, and he
didn't respond to her advances.
Later she had heard him weeping quietly;
then she had pretended not to
hear.