Cleofilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez has married Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez. On the day of their wedding she departed for her new house on the other side of the creek, to the United States. Her father told that he loved her and would never abandon. She had no mother, and sometimes thought of how the love towards a man differs from the maternal love. She thought of this usually when Juan Pedro did not come home for a sleep.
The town where she had grown up, did not offer much entertainments. Cleofilas liked to watch telenovelas very much, she liked the way passion has been portrayed in these, and often imagined how she would endure such feelings. To love someone with whole heart, to suffer for love – Cleofilas thought this was the best that can happen to a woman. She dreamt to wear dresses, to have house like women on the tele. Even her wedding dress has been designed after one she had seen on TV. Cleofilas always has been very good at sewing machine, and even without her mother to advise, her skills were pretty good. She made some changes in the dress so it would look like in the show.
The creek behind the house where she had settled with her husband was called Woman Hollering. Cleofilas found it funny to call such a nice place with such a sad name, but nobody in the town ever thought about it; it did not concern them, so it made no difference. There were two women in the neighborhood – Soledad and Dolores. Soledad called herself a widow, but none knew where her husband was. Lady Dolores also lived along, she had lost two sons at war, and later her husband, who had passed away because of grief. She spent much time in her garden looking after her famous sunflowers. Both women used to know why the creek was called so, but both forgot being busy remembering the men they loved.
When Juan Pedro hit her on her face for the first time Cleofilas was so surprised she could not even talk. She always thought that if a man would hit her, she would fight back, the way these things were described in telenovelas, but this time she could not even move. Cleofilas always thought him to be the man she has been waiting her entire life for. He looked nothing like men in telenovelas, he was not tall, and had a bit of a belly from all the beer he drank. He was often rude with her, and not romantic at all. She had first doubts of his faithfulness when she came back home from the hospital with their son on her hands, and found her personal things, like lipstick, hairbrush, not the way she had left them. But Cleofilas thought it all was her imagination. She began to think of her father’s house, but knew it would be a disgrace to come back here. She had changed one town of gossips for another town of gossips, and both towns are built so that women are dependent on their husbands.
When Cleofilas was pregnant with their next child, she was bitten by Juan Pedro. He was sorry, and asked her not to tell the doctor, but tell him that she had fallen or slipped. She promised. She would do anything for her children’s sake. At the hospital one woman, who was doing her sonogram and noticed all those black-and-blue marks all over her decided to help Cleofilas. This woman had a friend, Felice, and Felice agreed to give Cleofilas a ride to San Antonio on her way home. Cleofilas decided to run away, she would do anything for her children’s sake.
Then, when Cleofilas got into Felice’s car and they drove over the bridge Felice shouted. Cleofilas got scared, but Felice explained that she always did so when crossing this bridge because of the creek and its name – Hollering, so she hollered every time she went there. Cleofilas was amazed. She was even more amazed by the fact that Felice drove a pickup, and it was her own. Cleofilas was happy to leave.
