Trini by Estella Portillo Trambley

Author:Estella Portillo Trambley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781936932092
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
Published: 2017-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

13

Storm

Trini was running again. Loving Tonio, she tried to grow in stillness, easily weaving her days into his, projecting them into years. It had been like that to her. But not to Tonio. That was the reason she was running again. It was January, and she was leaving for La Junta in the morning. Isidoro would be waiting for her. Looking out at the bare apple tree, she reconstructed the events of the last two years. Time backed up like a well of tortured anger, thoughts rushing through her mind, thoughts of Tonio, of the wounds he had inflicted, wounds to the heart, wounds to the spirit. The romantic, tender Tonio. The first year had been good. . . . She looked at the sad, bare branches melting into a sad, grey sky.

She remembered that first year, waiting up for Tonio to come home. There was always the late supper with a special treat from Domico’s. She listened to his stories, wild and absurd, until the wee hours, then watched him sleep late into the mornings. She would wake him in the quietness of the early afternoon. His dear, handsome face would break into a smile. He would reach out for her. Then they made love in a white sea of sun and stillness. Such love!

She loved to brush his uniform and iron his white shirts. It was done with so much care. Trini watched him dress before the wall mirror. Sometimes he would take her for a walk along Libertad Street, holding her hand firmly in his warm grasp. Trini felt the joy of belonging. She enjoyed the fabric of night life along the street because he enjoyed it, because she was with him. She would sit in the darkness of a cantina, watching him drink, play guitar, gamble. But always he would find his way back to her, to take her hand, to lead her to wherever he desired. . . .

He had loved her. He had come home on her eighteenth birthday with a piñata full of silly little gifts—a tiny doll made out of buttons, a bunch of wilted flowers sweet in their dying fragrance, a wisp of silk handkerchief some lady customer had left behind at the restaurant. The caring, the sense of belonging, the steady storm of passion in the afternoons, they were glad things to remember. Tonio, making love, his supple hands discovering with such mastery—Ah! the first year had been so good!

Then came the second year. One night in bed, sweet with the body smell of love, she had confided, “I’m pregnant, Tonio.”

He had reached for a cigarette in silence and found none. He got out of bed with the pretext of looking for a cigarette. But she knew that he was not happy with the news. She wanted to tell of her happiness, but she swallowed the words in the darkness. She sensed a door closing between them. She wanted to cry out, “We are family, I want the baby, marry me,” but there were no words, only darkness.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.