Carolina

Carolina is one of Blanca’s close friends and a quietly observant presence in moments when grief or embarrassment threatens to overwhelm her. At Blanca’s mother’s funeral, she notices Blanca becoming dizzy in the heat, takes her by the arm, and leads her away from the crowd to a wall overlooking the sea. In later scenes, she checks whether Blanca is all right and speaks plainly about the choices she makes in love. Her role is less that of a confidante who explains herself than of a friend whose gestures and silences Blanca reads closely.

Friendship and Attentiveness

Blanca includes Carolina among the friends who come to her mother’s funeral, alongside Mercè, Elisa, and Sofía. The gathering is a difficult social occasion, but Carolina’s attention to Blanca is immediate and practical: seeing that she is unsteady, she takes her arm and guides her to the wall, away from the others, where the sea is visible beyond a slope of olive trees. The gesture gives Blanca a moment apart without requiring her to ask for help. Blanca describes Carolina as someone who always notices everything, making this small act consistent with a broader attentiveness rather than an isolated kindness.

That attentiveness appears again at a meal, when Carolina looks at Blanca with concern and asks whether something is wrong. Blanca insists that she is fine and says she is only going to buy cigarettes, but laughter escapes her as she says it. Sofía answers with a brief acknowledgment, while Carolina continues to look at her without smiling. The exchange leaves Blanca’s distress only partly spoken: Carolina registers the mismatch between the reassurance and the laugh, even as Blanca avoids explaining herself.

A Measure of Blanca’s Choices

Carolina’s own relationship provides a contrast to Blanca’s romantic uncertainty. Blanca describes her as the only one among the women in their circle who has maintained a long relationship, with a man she considers wonderful. Blanca believes, though Carolina has never said so directly, that Carolina views Blanca’s involvement with a married man as both a waste of time and a small betrayal of her. The judgment is therefore presented through Blanca’s interpretation, not through a direct confrontation or an explicit declaration from Carolina.

That distinction matters to their friendship. Carolina’s concern can be felt without being stated as accusation: her unsmiling look across the table accompanies Blanca’s strained attempt to pass off her departure as a cigarette errand. Blanca understands the look as carrying a view of her affair, but the text does not establish that Carolina has voiced that view. Her position in the scene gives her an implicit moral weight, while Blanca’s awareness of being judged remains bound to her own reading of her friend.

Humor and Ease Among Friends

Carolina is also part of the group’s frank, physical humor. When Blanca realizes she has forgotten to bring a swimsuit, Carolina tells her to swim naked, presenting it as the most pleasant option. Sofía then slips off her faded pink-and-gray striped robe and dives cleanly into the water. Carolina follows with a teasing observation about how many people have already seen Sofía naked. The sequence places Carolina not only in scenes of worry but in the friends’ unceremonious ease with one another: embarrassment is met with direct advice, and nudity becomes material for a joke rather than a crisis.

The humor does not erase the differences between the women. Carolina’s practical suggestion is aimed at Blanca; the joke that follows is about Sofía. Together, the exchanges show a friendship circle comfortable enough for bluntness and teasing, while Carolina’s distinct contribution remains her straightforward way of responding to a situation.

Narrative Role

Carolina’s scenes connect care with judgment without collapsing one into the other. At the funeral, she responds to grief through physical assistance, guiding Blanca to a place where she can stand apart and see the sea. At the meal, she notices that Blanca’s breezy explanation does not settle the question of whether she is well. In the relationship episode, her long partnership becomes the standard against which Blanca imagines her friend assessing an affair with a married man. These moments make Carolina a significant observer within Blanca’s social world, even though the available scenes do not develop her private history or give her account of the friendship independently of Blanca’s narration.