One Hundred Years of Solitude

and her stomach rejected
even water. Not even she
herself knew that her fertility
had outwitted the mustard
vapors, just as Fernanda did
not know until almost a year
later, when they brought the
child. In the suffocating
cabin, maddened by the
vibration of the metal plates
and the unbearable stench of
the mud stirred up by the
paddle wheel, Meme lost
track of the days. Much time