CHAPTER SIX

FERMINA DAZA could not have imagined that her letter, inspired by blind

rage, would

have been interpreted by Florentino Ariza as a love letter. She had put into

it all the fury

of which she was capable, her crudest words, the most wounding, most

unjust vilifica-

tions, which still seemed minuscule to her in light of the enormity of the

offense. It was

the final act in a bitter exorcism through which she was attempting to

come to terms with

her new situation. She wanted to be herself again, to recover all that she

had been obliged

to give up in half a century of servitude that had doubtless made her happy

but which,

once her husband was dead, did not leave her even the vestiges of her

identity.

CHAPTER FIVE

ON THE OCCASION of the celebration of the new century, there was an

innovative

program of public ceremonies, the most memorable of which was the first

journey in a

balloon, the fruit of the boundless initiative of Dr. Juvenal Urbino. Half the

city gathered

on the Arsenal Beach to express their wonderment at the ascent of the

enormous balloon

made of taffeta in the colors of the flag, which carried the first airmail to

San Juan de la

Ciénaga, some thirty leagues to the northeast as the crow flies. Dr. Juvenal

Urbino and

his wife, who had experienced the excitement of flight at the World’s Fair

in Paris, were

the first to climb into the wicker basket, followed by the pilot and six

distinguished

guests.

CHAPTER FOUR

THE DAY THAT Florentino Ariza saw Fermina Daza in the atrium of the

Cathedral, in

the sixth month of her pregnancy and in full command of her new

condition as a woman

of the world, he made a fierce decision to win fame and fortune in order to

deserve her.

He did not even stop to think about the obstacle of her being married,

because at the same

time he decided, as if it depended on himself alone, that Dr. Juvenal Urbino

had to die.

He did not know when or how, but he considered it an ineluctable event

that he was

resolved to wait for without impatience or violence, even till the end of

time.