She had walked ten yards. A moment earlier, Demetrio had announced his arrival with a fleeting gesture toward the open door of the stationery store. The house had three doors facing the street, and the diminutive diva emerged, without any hip-wiggling, from the one where three women and two children were shopping. Her lack of confidence was evident in her tentative steps. Was the future mother-in-law managing things from within? The summit meeting, smiles from both in response to an invitation to be seated: he with suave gesture and she with spirited submission, perhaps strategic as well. Once settled, a tremulous silence descended. Demetrio noticed something strange about her: a natural face-to-face—no! why? maybe later … Doña Luisa had recommended that her daughter avoid looking her suitor in the eye, not at first, for that would be flirting. Hence, the modest damsel’s eyes lowered in self-restraint, the pavement her only field of vision, a misguided sense of decorum rendering her like a wooden puppet, or to make her interest less obvious, among other things … The suitor, so as not to waste time, began to talk about the difficulties of traveling from Oaxaca to Sacramento.
