Chapter 5 Summary

Felipe wakes up from a troubled sleep. Though he sleeps in her room and was just physically intimate with her the night before, he feels an inexplicably great emotional distance from her. Meanwhile, he feels a strange presence in the room. Though he knows he is alone, he feels like there is a kind of "double presence" (60) in the room, created by their intercourse the previous night. He has a strange sense of emptiness, as if he were incomplete and desires to be reunited with his other half. His more mundane physical needs take precedence for now, however, and he returns to his room. As he bathes, he ponders the strange relationship between Consuelo and Aura. Whenever they are together, their actions mirror one another's, as if their beings were somehow intertwined. While he continues his morning routine, he falls into a strange...