Fe couldn’t wait until she got out—of her mother’s home as well as Tome—but she would get out properly, with a little more style and class than the women in her family had. Except for Esperanza these days, whose being on television every night was lending some prestige to Fe at the bank. Although when Esperanza was in college, being a radical and living with that crazy Chicano who was always speeding on peyote or something, Fe hadn’t known what to make of her older sister and certainly had no desire to copy Esperanza’s La Raza politics.

Fe had just come back from Bernadette’s Bridal Gowns, where she had had herself fitted for her dress, and the three gabachas (my term, not Fe’s) she had chosen from the bank as her bridesmaids, instead of her sisters, had met that Saturday to have their pink-and-orchid chiffon gowns fitted too, when La Loca, sweeping the living room, pointed with her chin to the mail as soon as Fe came in.

“What? A letter for me?” Fe said cheerfully, recognizing Tom’s neat, small printing on the square envelope. She smiled and took it to the bathroom to get a little privacy. La Loca had that look like she was going to stick close to her. Sometimes she did that. She had this sixth sense when she suspected something was amiss in the house and wouldn’t let up until she uncovered it.

Dear Honey, it began, a short note on yellow paper from a legal pad. This was a little unusual, since Tom always sent cards, cards with lovers kissing, with irises and roses, with beautiful little sayings that rhymed to which he simply signed, “Your Tom.” Dear Honey. Fe stopped. She heard a faint rap on the door. “Go away, Loca,” she said. She heard her sister move away from the door. Fe read on: I have been thinking about this for a long time, but I didn’t have the nerve to tell you in person. It’s not that I don’t love you. I do. I always will. But I just don’t think I’m ready to get married. Like I said, I thought about this a long time. Please don’t call to try to change my mind. I hope you find happiness with someone who deserves you and can make you happy. Tom.

When La Loca and Sofi—along with the help of Fred and Wilma, the two Irish setters that immediately joined in the commotion of the women’s breaking down the bathroom door, and Fe’s screaming and tearing the tiny bathroom apart—finally got to Fe, she was wrapped up in the shower curtain in the tub. “You’re gonna suffocate, ’jita, get outa there!” Sofi called and with La Loca’s help unwrapped the plastic from around Fe, who in her ravings had inadvertently made herself into a human tamale—all the while letting out one loud continuous scream that could have woken the dead.