Chapter 40

I felt the hairs on my neck straighten and stretch so hard that I felt like something was pricking me. I restrained my desire to touch my neck to ease the pain and remained motionless.

After a few moments that seemed like a century, she rolled into a ball the sheet again and put it back in the basket. She put the rest of the clothes that were left in the cauldron and mixed them.

She gave us hot water from the cauldrons so that Alma and I could start washing the other colored clothes, and she picked up the sheet and started rubbing the bloodstain.

I felt so ashamed that I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me. When Jimena finished rubbing the stain on the sheet, she put that sheet in the cauldron with the other boiling clothes. It impressed me that she hadn't said anything. Not a word. I expected her to say something.

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