K.Esquivel-LWFC

emoved her plate, took a sip of her coffee,
and began carefully
breaking up the ends of the tortillas that she
had used to make the
chilaquiles.
They always cut off the edges of the tortillas
they ate to throw them
to the chickens. They crumbled the crusts
from the hard rolls, too,
for the same purpose. Rosaura and Tita
stared unblinkingly at each
other, and their eyes were still locked when
Rosafor 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
removed her plate, took a sip of her coffee,
and began carefully
breaking up the ends of the tortillas that she
had used to make the
chilaquiles.
They always cut off the edges of the tortillas
they ate to throw them
to the chickens. They crumbled the crusts
from the hard rolls, too,
for the same purpose. Rosaura and Tita
stared unblinkingly at each
other, and their eyes were still locked when
Rosaura opened the
discussion.
"I think you and I are overdue for a talk, don't
you agree?
"Yes, I certainly do. We have been ever
since you married my
boyfriend."
"Fine, if that's what you want, let's start there.
With your wrongful
claim to a boyfriend. You had no right to
have a boyfriend."