The Hummingbird's Daughter_ A Novel - Luis Alberto Urrea [96]
Rouge made her cheeks look as if she had joined the circus. Creams and powders made her look like a white girl. Kohl around her eyes made her look like a mesmerist.
Item C: Undergarments
Teresita was irritated to be presented with Loreto’s bloomers. She agreed to the ridiculous long panties, but she refused to wear a petticoat. Either one or the other. It was, after all, her own body.
Item D: Proper Attire
Loreto’s steamer trunks delivered dresses. The house girls altered them. She chose a yellow skirt with a white blouse and light green shawl over her shoulders. She did not like the hats, however, and rejected out of hand the small pillbox-and-veil the cook set out for her.
“This looks like a spoiled cake covered in spiderwebs,” she said.
The vast straw sun hat made her laugh out loud.
“That’s a hat for a drunk mariachi!” she said.
Item E: Shoes
When he saw her, Tomás whistled. “Beautiful!” he enthused. But when he saw her rugged toes poking out from her filthy huaraches, he was offended.
“No, no!” he cried. “A young lady must never show her toes!”
“What’s wrong with my toes?”
“No, no. No, I’m afraid it’s not done. And those huaraches!”
“What’s wrong with my huaraches?”
“Awful,” he said. “Just awful.”
She was marched back to the dressing room and subjected to the torment of hard shoes being hammered onto her feet.
“I do not like this,” she announced.
The hard heels on the floor sounded to her like the hooves of a mule.
Whenever Tomás wasn’t looking, Teresita kicked off her shoes and went barefoot.
Item F: Table Manners
She was no longer allowed to hold her fork and knife in her fists. She was not allowed to chew with her mouth open. She was dissuaded from slurping her drinks. She refused to stick out her pinkie when sipping, though.
Item G: Proper Sleeping Behavior
Teresita was shown to her bedroom in the west wing of the house. It was whitewashed. The walls had apparently been planned as they were being built, for they wobbled off plumb, and there were seven of them, a chamber of corners. Some of the walls were quite small, as if the builders had thrown up a bit of adobe to connect two planes that hadn’t managed to meet in a corner. Her door and shutters were blue. She liked this.
The room had two windows, one in the south-facing wall and one in the west wall. A small table with two chairs. A freestanding cabinet would hold her new clothes; Tomás would not allow her to wear peasant garb in his house. In the corner, a washstand held a porcelain bowl with etchings of bucolic Swiss villages. A white pitcher with water. Soap.
Near the west window stood her bed. It had a wrought-iron headboard. Great piles of pillows. She had never had a good pillow before. She lay on the bed and was struck with a fit of giggles when she realized how soft the mattress was. She kicked off her shoes and slid her bare feet around on the smooth bedspread.
Cutting across the ceiling were two square vigas. Slightly lower, and at an angle, ran a charred third beam that had been rescued from the original fire. She stood on the bed and grabbed it and hung from it, swinging her legs.
She was given pink gowns and white gowns. Perhaps the Yoris were afraid they’d be naked in the dream time and the Indians would see their secrets.
Slippers!
Not even at night would Teresita be spared the torment of shoes! Yoris took off their shoes and boots, sighed and whined about their sore feet, even soaked their feet in salt water and made servants rub them. Then they put on more shoes to be “comfortable”!
Item H: Proper Conversation
Teresita was not to discuss midwifery, female problems,