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-But Mita wants me to make her a bedspread for the baby's crib, with bright colors since the bedrooms get so little light. Three rooms one after the other leading into a hallway with big windows, all covered with canvas curtains that you can pull open.

-If I had more time, I'd make myself a bedspread. You know what's really tiring? Typewriting on a high desk like the one I have in the office.

-If I lived in this house, I'd sit next to the window whenever I had a minute to work on Mita's bedspread-for the light.

-Is Mita's furniture nice?

-Mom feels terrible Mita can't take advantage of the house, now we've gotten all the modern conveniences, and she's right.

-I had a premonition when they gave Mita that job, it seemed the year would never end, imagine going away for a whole year, and now she's there to stay. You've got to face it, that's where she's going to live.

-She ought to come twice a year to La Plata instead of only once.

-Vacation days fly, the first day she's here doesn't seem so short, it seems like you're getting a lot done, but then the time is gone before you know it.

-Mom, don't think I get that much advantage out of the house either.

-I think your children got into the chicken coop.

-Clara, you should come every afternoon with the babies, they never touch the plants. But they drive grandfather crazy with the chickens.

-How much are you getting for the chickens?

-When you write to Mita, tell her to take her time getting furniture. I'm afraid if she buys her own furniture she's going to stay in that town forever. Write to your sister, she's always anxious to hear from us.

-Did you buy all new furniture for this house?

-If the house had been finished when Mita graduated, it wouldn't have been easy for her to go away all by herself, to work in that small town.

-Is Vallejos as ugly as Mita says?

-Not at all, Violeta. I liked it quite a bit, it's not so ugly, do you think so, Mom? When I got off the train, my first impression was awful, there's not a single tall building. They're always having droughts there, so you don't see many trees either. In the station there are no taxis, they still just use the horse and buggy, and the center of town is just two and a half blocks away. You can find a few trees that are hardly growing, but what you don't see at all, anywhere, is real grass. Mita has already planted lawn grass twice, and at the right time of the year too, but not luck.

-But by watering the pots practically twenty times a day she finally managed to grow some beautiful plants in a kind of small patio behind the kitchen.

-Then it's not so bad?

-When I first saw Vallejos I didn't like it, but life there is very easy. Mita has a maid who cooks and cleans the house, and a girl who takes care of the baby while she works in the hospital. All the poor people in Vallejos love Mita since she isn't stingy with the cotton and antiseptics and bandages.

-Is it one of those beautiful, new hospitals?

-The man who was in charge of the laboratory before Mita came was so stingy-as if everything belonged to him and not the hospital.

-The other day I saw Carlos Palau's latest movie.

-Mita's sure to see it when it comes to Vallejos.

-How long was she engaged to Carlos Palau?

-We never really thought Carlos Palau would make it.

-She was never engaged to Carlos Palau, he would ask her to dance, but I always stayed to the very end to chaperone the girls home.

-He was only a stagehand in the local theater.

-He's the only real actor in Argentine movies.

-Mita's husband looks exactly like Carlos Palau, I always said.

-In a way, but not exactly.

-Some of the Palaus still live in the same slum.

-But I never thought Mita would get used to living in a small town.

-What the chickens eat first are the leftovers from dinner, even before they eat the corn.

-Grandpa, which one is the one you're going to kill for Sunday?

-Today I'm going to kill one for Violeta's father, but don't tell Grandma, she'll get mad.

-Grandma's in the kitchen with Mommy and Violeta, she can't see you.

-I'm going to kill this chicken for Violeta's father and send it to him for a surprise.

-Grandpa, who makes more money, you with the chickens or Violeta's father fixing shoes?

-Clara, while your mother was here I couldn't tell you about the office. He's the kind of man that grows on you. He proposed to me.

-How can you say he proposed? That's when a man wants to get married, a married man can't propose Violeta, what he does is proposition you. Don't start twisting things around because then I'd rather not listen.

-He's not at all handsome. It's just that he grows on you.

-If you want to embroider a bedspread the best time of the year is now, days are longer and after work you still have an hour of light, it's not half as tiring if you embroider in daylight, if you're lucky and get out of work early.

-Poor Adela.

-Poor thing, she has to use artificial light in the office all day long.

-I'll have to go without getting to see her.

-Didn't you know that she worked late?

-Adela could have used a degree, then she wouldn't have to be a secretary.

-The one who got the degree doesn't need it.

-How's business going with Mita's husband?

-He sold a house and with the money he bought some cattle. Mom wants me to make a bedspread for Mita but I don't think I'll have the time. I'll send the patterns to her in Vallejos and she can make it herself. She has two maids. Don't tell anyone but Dad went to kill a chicken to surprise your father.

-It doesn't seem right to me that she got married in that town, instead of staying to help here after all the sacrifice your mother went through to give her a good education.

-Adela's new glasses are made out of genuine tortoise shell.

-I'm sorry, I'd help you kill the chicken but it really upsets me. Dad is going to be ever so grateful.

-Mita didn't want to look when I killed a chicken either, but she sure ate it up all right.

-Remember that classmate of Mita's at the university, the professor's daughter, the one who was always so finicky?

- Sofia Cabalus?

-Did she ever get married?

-Now Mita must miss the good times she had here.

-Sofia Cabalus never set foot in this house again after Mita went away. It's been months since I've seen her.

-They told me in the office that her father went crazy, he hardly ever makes it to class. And all they do at home is read. You never see Sofia because she's always locked up in the house reading.

-Don't go before Adela comes home.

-I'd love to see her new glasses.

-They cost her almost a half-month's salary.

-She'd get splitting headaches when she went without glasses.

-Grandma, why does Violeta put black around her eyes?

-She's already involved with her new boss.

-Her father's going to be happy with the chicken. Who knows how long it's been since they've had chicken?

-I really hate to scold her but it's even worse to keep quiet and let her mess up her life with that man.

-Her poor mother, if she could come back from her grave today.

-Violeta must know we don't take our shoes to her father anymore.

-Every time I went to pick up the shoes I had to come back empty handed. It's not right for him to promise they'll be ready Tuesday and then Tuesday they're not ready even if it's only a simple heel. That's how he's been losing customers, for daydreaming all the time.

-They're not rehearsing at the Italian Society anymore, it's useless, opera is very difficult, and if the voices are no good it's a disaster.

-One day one friend buys him a drink, the next day another. Even your father sometimes pays for the drinks, he won't admit it but I'm sure he does.

-Mita and Sofia Cabalus started giggling and had to leave the rehearsal.

-What should I make for supper tonight?

-You'd better start cutting the lettuce out back. The edges are turning purple.

-I can grill a few steaks and make a big salad. Your father can finish the stew from lunch if he's still hungry. Why did you have to give that shoemaker a chicken?

-Violeta's father gets more mail from Italy than we do.

-It's time for me to go home; tonight I'll make croquettes for supper, the kids like them, and if I put them on the table without a word, Lito will eat them too.

-I don't know why he doesn't see a doctor.

-Pop, I want you to kill me a chicken for Sunday.

-I always eat everything and I never have trouble.

-What a bull-headed man. Just because you can eat like an ox you think everybody else can. How bull-headed can you get?

-Lito's stomach is a mess, he has to be careful.

-And his brother is the same. They all have weak stomachs, it runs in the family.

-It doesn't run in the family. It was the sister-in-law who finished off Lito's stomach. Even when we were engaged he'd complain to me about his digestion. I'd ask him what he had to eat and it was always the same: spicy food.

-When Lito was living with his brother he already had stomach trouble.

-And my sister-in-law keeps making these horrible stews. She spices the food by drowning it in hot pepper. The only thing that crosses her mind is to add more hot peppers.

-She's always out, that woman. When does she have time to cook?

-A good stew takes a long time, and watching over. Mom, you don't know what a help it is to grow your own greens, if you don't there're so many things you have to buy, all kinds of greens and seasonings that aren't spicy. You have to have basil and rosemary and lots of parsley. And she never has anything in the kitchen, so the last minute she throws hot peppers in the pot and any meal she makes comes out too rich, even if she pays a fortune for lean meat.

-I don't know how Mita does it because Berto has a very weak stomach too.

-If he eats calmly he digests everything. Mita says his problem is nerves, he doesn't have the weak stomach Lito has.

-Grandpa left to take the chicken to Violeta's father. Can I go with him, Mommy?

-He went out with that grey apron on again. If Mita saw him go out with that grey apron on she'd be furious.

-Clara, your father's one pleasure in life is to walk around with that apron on.

-Mita wouldn't stand up for Violeta any more if she knew what Violeta was saying about her.

-Mommy, grandpa already crossed the street so I couldn't follow him.

-But Adela couldn't have studied with such poor eyesight. Remember the headaches she'd get.

-Such long hours at that place, and besides which, she has to work with the light on.

-If Mita came to live in La Plata, would she still want to keep on with her career? Sofia's father could get her into the university as somebody's assistant.

-How I'd love to see Mita's baby.

-No, what Berto wants is for Mita not to work anymore, as soon as his affairs get straightened out a bit.

-I am completely worn out.

-Violeta thought you worked from nine to six, and she had to go make supper for her father. She says hello.

-Did she have anything to tell me?

-She began to tell Clara about the man at the office.

-I wanted to talk to Violeta, poor thing. Her father makes his own supper. Who knows where she went.

-She said she had to go make supper for her father, she left before seven.

-Mom, I'm completely worn out. What did you do today?

-I was planning to clean the stair rug but once Clara came we sat down to do a little sewing.

-Did you persuade her to make Mita's bedspread?

-She's going to send all the patterns. How I'd love to see Mita's baby!

-The tile floor looks so beautiful with the new wax. While I was waiting for you to open the door in the vestibule I could see how it shined all the way from the vestibule to the end of the hallway.

-Clara was right, but I'm not going to let her wax it for me again, she has enough to do with her house and the children and her husband. Because he likes croquettes and can't eat fried food. Clara takes the time to boil the meat for him, cut it up, season it with rosemary and cheese and pop it in the oven for a few minutes till the croquettes turn golden brown. They look like real croquette's; she fools the eye and doesn't upset the stomach.

-If it has to be waxed next Saturday, I can wax the whole thing for you in the afternoon.

-Violeta didn't know you had such long hours.

-There was a lot of work today.

-Violeta complained that her typewriter is on a high desk, and she gets tired.

-In her office there isn't half the work there is in mine.

-She had her eyes made up like a gypsy. She must have gone to meet that man.

-But if he's married he must be home eating supper at this hour.

-Then she must have gone to meet someone else.

-What do you expect her to do? If she goes home, all she'll find there is her father.

-I sometimes think what if all the mothers came back from their graves?