Swift as Desire by Laura Esquivel

Author:Laura Esquivel [Esquivel, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4000-3326-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2001-01-25T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

A PART FROM LOVE, there is nothing more important than confidence, and the opportunity to enjoy it is one of the benefits that married life offers. The confidence to bare one’s soul, to expose one’s body before the eyes of one’s companion without the slightest trepidation, to give oneself freely, to open oneself, to abandon oneself shamelessly to another’s arms without fear of being hurt. The confidence to be able to say to one’s husband or wife, “Darling, you have a piece of spinach in your teeth,” or, from another perspective, to be informed that one has snot hanging from one’s nose.

Love and confidence go hand in hand. Only confidence allows loving energy to flow and insures intimacy between two human beings. The first sign that confidence no longer exists between two people is when one of the parties resists personal contact, when he or she is noticeably unwilling to receive caresses, kisses, hugs.

During the eight years that Lucha and Júbilo had been married, they had reveled in their confidence in each other. Neither had ever hurt the other, or had given any cause for suspicion. They loved and respected each other despite the huge differences between them. Without a doubt, the most revealing difference had to do with Lucha’s dissatisfaction with the life that Júbilo offered her. What’s more, Júbilo was convinced that this was the reason his wife had not been able to get pregnant again, something that, truthfully, didn’t worry him terribly. Not because he didn’t want to have more children, but because his salary as a telegraph operator was barely enough to provide for Lucha and Raúl, his firstborn. For the time being he couldn’t afford the luxury of feeding more children. Well, at least not in the way Lucha expected. She demanded a lifestyle that Júbilo was very far from being able to provide.

With the money he had won in the bet with don Pedro, after deducting the amount he had given Jesús and Lupita for their wedding, he had somehow come up with enough for a down payment on a house that was acceptable to his wife. It was small, but comfortable enough and located as close as possible to his in-laws’ residence. It was just inside the colonia Santa María la Rivera, but on the edge bordering on Santo Tomás. The house wasn’t as large as the Lascuráins’, but it was very pleasant. It had an elegant sala with balconies facing the street, three bedrooms with high ceilings and wooden beams that opened onto a tiled corridor at the end of which were a dining room and a bathroom. Next to the dining room was a large kitchen and a back patio where Raúl could play all he liked.

For a while Lucha felt very happy. The opportunity to settle in the capital and leave behind the nomadic life they had lived until then was more than enough for her. Arranging their scant pieces of furniture was as much fun for her as playing house.

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