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"What do you mean, decent? Like you?"<br />
"Yes."<br />
"But that's just what I'm doing! Or didn't you<br />
have an illicit<br />
child?"<br />
"You will be condemned to hell for talking to<br />
me like this!"<br />
"No more than you!"<br />
"Shut your mouth! Who do you think you<br />
are?"<br />
"I know who I am! A person who has a<br />
perfect right to live her life as<br />
she pleases. Once and for all, leave me<br />
alone1 I won't put up with<br />
you! I hate you, I've always hated you!"<br />
Lita had said the magic words that would<br />
make Mama Elena disappear<br />
forever. The imposing figure of her mother<br />
began to shrink until it<br />
became no more than a tiny light. As the<br />
ghost faded away, a sense of<br />
relief grew inside Tita's body. The<br />
inflammation in her belly and the<br />
pain in her breasts began to subside. The<br />
muscles at the center of her<br />
body relaxed, loosing a violent menstrual<br />
flow.<br />
This discharge, so many days late, relieved<br />
all her pains.<br />
She gave a deep peaceful sigh. She wasn't<br />
pregnant.<br />
But her problems weren't over. The little<br />
light, all that was left of<br />
Mama Elena's image, began to spin<br />
feverishly.<br />
It went through the window and shot out onto<br />
the patio, like a<br />
firecracker out of control. Pedro, drunk as he<br />
was, didn't realize the<br />
danger. Cheerfully crooning "Estrellita" by<br />
Manuel M. Ponce, he stood<br />
under Tita's window surrounded by some<br />
rebels who were as drunk as he<br />
was. Gertrudis and Juan didn't see the<br />
danger approaching either.<br />
They were dancing like a pair of love struck<br />
teenagers by the glow of<br />
one of the many oil lamps set up on the patio<br />
to light up the party.<br />
The firecracker moved fast, approaching<br />
Pedro, whirling crazily, with<br />
enough violence to make the lamp closest to<br />
him explode into a thousand<br />
pieces. The oil quickly spread the flames<br />
onto Pedro's face and<br />
body.<br />
Tita, who was taking measures to cope with<br />
her menstruation, heard the<br />
pandemonium set off by Pedro's accident.<br />
She rushed to the window,<br />
opened it, and saw Pedro running across the<br />
patio, like a human<br />
torch.<br />
Then, Gertrudis caught up with him, tearing<br />
the skirt from her dress,<br />
wrapping it around him, and knocking him to<br />
the ground.<br />
Tita didn't know how she got down the stairs,<br />
but in less than twenty<br />
seconds she was at Pedro's side. As she<br />
arrived, Gertrudis was<br />
removing his smoldering clothes.<br />
- zui Pedro was howling in pain. He had<br />
burns over his whole body.
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