K.Esquivel-LWFC

"What? What do you mean?"
"What I thought was a pregnancy was just an
irregularity; now I'm back
to normal."
"So, is that it? Now I see what's going on.
You don't want to talk to
John because you're starting to have doubts
about whether to stay with
me or marry him, right? You aren't tied to me
anymore, a poor sick
man."
Tita couldn't understand Pedro's attitude; he
was behaving like a child
throwing a tantrum. He talked as if he was
going to be sick for the
rest of his days, but it wouldn't be that long-in
a little while he'd
be completely healed. Perhaps the accident
he had suffered had
affected his mind. Perhaps his head was full
of the smoke his body had
given off when it burned and just as burnt
toast changes the way the
whole house smells, making it unpleasant, so
his smoky brain was
producing these black thoughts, turning his
usually pleasant words into
awful ones. How could he doubt her, how
could he mean to behave this
way, contrary to the principle that had always
governed his treatment
of others-his sense of decency.
She left his room upset; Pedro, before the
door was shut, yelled after
her that she needn't come back to bring him
his dinner, she should send
Chencha, so she'd have as much time as
she liked for seeing John.
Angry, Tita went into the kitchen and got her
breakfast; she hadn't
made it earlier because her first concern was
to take care of Pedro and
then her daily work-and all for what? So that
Pedro could offend her
with everything he said and did, not once
considering her feelings.
It was definitely true, Pedro had turned into a
monster of selfishness
and suspicion.
She prepared some chilaquiles and sat down
at the kitchen table to eat
them. She didn't like to eat alone, but when
it came right down to it
she had no choice, since Pedro couldn't get
out of his bed; Rosaura
didn't want to get out of hers and stayed shut
up in her bedroom,
hermetically sealed, not taking any meals;
and Chencha, having had her
first baby, had taken a few days off.
That's why the chilaquiles didn't taste as
good as usual: for want of
someone's company. Immediately she heard
some footsteps. The door of
the kitchen opened, and there stood
Rosaura.
Tita was astonished at the sight of her. She
was as thin as she had
been when she was single. After just a week
without eating!
It seemed impossible that she had lost sixtyfive
pounds in just seven
days, but so she had.
The same thing had happened when she had
gone to live in San Antonio:
she had become thin very quickly, but all she
had to do was come back
to the ranch and she got fat again!
Rosaura swept in and sat down facing Tita.
It was time to confront her
sister, but it wouldn't be Tita who would start
the argument. She