He ended up marrying the Bride’s cousin, and the whole affair is mostly forgotten now. This disconcerts Mother, and the news only gets worse: When she was fifteen and he was eight, Leonardo Felix had a crush on the Bride. The Bride’s mother is dead, but when she was alive had a reputation for being very proud and not truly loving her husband. According to the Neighbour, the Bride is “a fine young woman” (6) who lives on the outskirts of town with her father. Mother announces that the Bridegroom has recently bought his own vineyard, questions the Neighbour about her son’s fiancée. She tells Mother about a horrible industrial accident, in which a town boy, Rafael, lost both of his arms. The Bridegroom happily leaves.Ī Neighbour drops by to visit Mother, who no longer goes to town very much. Finally, Mother comes around, promising to give the Bride her heirloom brass earrings and the Bridegroom enough money for three new suits. Once again, the Bridegroom brushes off her concerns, remarking that “a girl has to look hard before she says yes” (4). Mother interrogates the Bridegroom about the Bride, wondering aloud whether she had a boyfriend when she first met the Bridegroom. She worries that if she moves away from the farm, the townspeople will bury one of “that Felix lot” (4) near the dead father and son, which would be a disgrace to their memory. The Bridegroom urges her to come live with him and his wife, but she insists on staying at the farm, so she can be close to the graves of her husband and son. Mother comments sadly that she will be all alone after the Bridegroom marries his fiancée and moves away from home.
The topic shifts to the Bridegroom’s fiancée, whom Mother distrusts even though she knows that his fiancée is “a good girl. He suggests that it might ease her nerves to come with him, but she declines, explaining that there is no use for an old woman in the vineyard. Mother announces that she wishes the Bridegroom were a girl, so that he would stay home with her instead of roaming the countryside. Mother is upset because she worries that the Bridegroom will be next. It slowly becomes clear that the Bridegroom’s father and his brother both died violently, and their murderers are now in prison.
She continues to wail about the harm that knives and pistols can do to good people. The Bridegroom is irritated but tries to calm Mother down, to no avail. He does however ask for a knife to cut grapes from the vine, which sends Mother into a fit of hysterics: “Damn the devil who created knives,” (1) she cries. She urges him to bring along a lunch, but he brushes her off, promising to eat some grapes when he gets there.
The Bridegroom announces to his Mother that he is going out to the vineyard.
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