I wrote this because Victoria Solmin requested it as a birthday gift. I know it's not exactly what you wanted, Victoria, I'm sorry; I kind of have the show "Gravity Falls" on the brain right now and am not really in the mood for writing much else. But I hope you enjoy this regardless. Féliz cumpleaños.
Four-year-old Coco Rivera II lay on her belly on the floor of the ofrenda room, a colored pencil clenched in her tiny hand and a sheet of paper spread out in front of her. She knew she wasn't supposed to be in here by herself, especially not when there were lit candles in the room, but she needed to finish this picture for her Papá Héctor tonight, and to finish it she needed to have a good look at his photo where it hung on the ofrenda.
Sticking the tip of her tongue between her teeth as she drew, she began filling in the wide-brimmed hat with her black colored pencil.
It was Miguel who had inadvertently put the idea in her head; lately he'd been watching this old show about Zorro, a great hero who wore a black mask and a cape and had a cool sword that he used to fight the bad guys. And one day, Coco had decided to just combine that with her favorite bedtime story, about her hero great-great-grandpa the musician.
Coco finally sat up, looking with approval at her drawing. It was of Papá Héctor, sitting on a black horse and wearing a mask, hat and cape (by now her colored pencil was practically a stub). But instead of a sword, he was brandishing his guitar in one hand, because it felt better that way.
Underneath it she scrawled, "Las Aventuras de Papá Zorro." Aside from "Aventuras" being spelled with two n's and the Z being the wrong way around, the spelling was pretty good.
Carefully Coco gathered up her other drawings; the villain "Capítan Ernesto Ramon," Mamá Imelda fighting ten villains at once with her boot, and Papá Zorro's servant (she'd started to write Bernardo, then changed it to Miguel, then changed it back to Bernardo again, so it looked something like Ber-Mig-nardo) helping save the day. She stuck them together with a paperclip, and then carried them to the ofrenda, pulling over a chair and standing on it so she could reach the top and lay down the papers under the right photo.
"These are for you, Papá Héctor," she said. "I hope you like them."
As she climbed down from the chair, she almost thought she heard voices in the air above her.
One said, "Hey, she's not bad. She drew me muy guapo; think you could make that outfit for me, mi amor?"
The other said, sounding like it was trying to be disgusted but was too amused to really manage it, "Oh si, because you need an excuse to have a more swollen head than usual."
"You wound me, Imelda!"
"Oh shush. Let's go see what the rest of the familia is up to."