Capítulo 10: October/ Octubre

Well... get ready for a bumpy ride, because alot goes down in this chapter.  The next day, while making Gertrudis' favorite dish, Cream Fritters (which is this month's recipe), Tita summons the courage to tell her secret.  It just so happens that right after Tita tells Gertrudis her 'problem', Pedro walks into the kitchen and hears Gertrudis loudly proclaim that Tita needs to tell him her news.  As you can probably guess, Pedro is extatic about the news.  This gives him even more sway in convincing Tita she can no longer marry John.  And now Tita herself is convinced that she will not be able to marry John.  This kind of makes me mad.  Part of me wants her to stay with John, because he's been so kind and noble to her.  But then there is also a part of me that is glad she's happy in love with Pedro, however bad the timing their affair is.  But for the most part, I'm mad at Pedro.  He knew how Tita felt about him, and even though Tita was taking the high road and rightfully staying out of his and Rosaura's marriage, Pedro kept egging her on and then finally he surprise love-attacked her!  Two pretty awesome things happen at the end of this chapter, both great examples of Magic Realism.  First, Tita runs to her room to escape the busy nightly happenings of the night (now that the entire rebellion is at the ranch, it's very crowded and hectic).  All of a sudden an extremely drunk Pedro starts singing love songs to Tita outside her window.  This brings about the ghost of Mama Elena!  Mama goes into this huge speech about how Tita is indecent and that the baby inside her is destined to be cursed, and how Tita has ruined the family name forever.  Tita delivers a great line here, after taking a brutal verbal assault from her mother..."I know who I am!  A person who has a perfect right to live her life as she pleases.  Once and for all, leave me alone; I won't put up with you!  I hate you, I've always hated you!"  And with those last words the figure of Mama Elena began to shrink, until it was a tiny light.  As Mama Elena was shrinking, a huge sense of relief grew inside of Tita.  Then, all of a sudden she released a violent menstrual flow (that's magic realism for ya).  She hadn't been pregnant all along!  The act of her finally standing up to her mother had released all the tension from her body.  Let's not forget about that little ball of light that Mama Elena had turned into...all of a sudden that ball of light shoots out of Tita's window and hits Pedro as he is still singing outside.  His whole body bursts into flames as Mama Elena gets her last bit of revenge on Tita.  Pedro is now badly burned and is calling for Tita to remain at his side.  Rosaura hears this and finally realizes what has been growing between Tita and Pedro.  I think she just hadn't let herself believe it before, even though she had initially known of their love for eachother.  Tita takes up the role of Pedro's constant care provider, diligently helping him with home remedies for his burns.  She never leaves his side.  And what could happen next you ask?  Well... John comes home.  And, poor John, as soon as he and Tita embrace, he knows that something has changed in Tita.  Little does he know!!