It was a clear night that was brightened by thousands of candles. Families gathered around various tombstones as they placed plates overflowing with food for their ancestors. Small children ran and screamed in delight as they chased one another in a game of tag. Adults bowed their heads and prayed, feeling their deceased family come up from the Land of the Remembered to visit them for that one night out of the year. All around were smiles and celebrating. Everything was so colorful and lively in a field filled with death.
La Muerte smiled from her spot on the roof of the church as she watched a dog join in the game of tag with the children. She laughed behind a raised hand as one of the children had tried to tag the dog, succeeding only when he baited the creature with a churro. The poor thing was confused as the children ran away from it, but after a moment it barked in joy as it chased the one who had tagged him. La Muerte suspected that it was more out of the desire to get more churros than the joy of playing the game.
A scoff was heard from behind her. "Really my dear. Why do you find such squealing creatures amusing?"
The smile only grew but she kept her eyes on the game of tag as she answered the presence behind her. "Come now Xibalba, it is the Day of the Dead. The children are only celebrating the only way they know. They're living."
A humph was her only reply and La Muerte turned her head to look at her husband. Xibalba leaned against his two headed snake staff, his eyes watching the children with a look akin to puzzlement. La Muerte giggled at the expression and got up from her sitting position. She more floated than walked to his side and entwined their arms. She felt Xibalba tense for a moment before leaning into her touch with a barely audible sigh of content.
"I simply do not understand the appeal to children. They screech like a banshee if they get a scraped knee, they need to be constantly looked after, and they know nothing of manners." Xibalba shook his head in distaste as his black wings ruffled behind him.
"They also smile at even the most simplest of gestures, they are so filled with potential, and they do not know of the hardships of this world," La Muerte replied. When Xibalba grunted in disagreement, she reached up with her free hand and stroked his face in a way that would make him agree with anything she said. She smirked at the way he followed her hand when she began to pull it away.
"See mi amor, children aren't so bad." She nodded towards the group who were now sharing food with one another. They gave the dog most of the food and the creature's tail would not stop wagging. La Muerte smiled at the scene and with a discreet wave of her hand, a bone appeared in front of the dog. It yipped in shock at the sudden appearance of magic but quickly dove for the treat. The children were thankfully too busy talking to one another to notice the bone manifesting.
"Hmm," Xibalba hummed noncommittally, still dazed by La Muerte's display of affection. He smiled at his wife, completely unaware of his surroundings.
La Muerte laughed as she rolled her eyes. He is simply too easy, she said in her head. Her eyes wandered back over the festivities. After a second, she focused on a statue of a man a little ways away from the main part of the cemetery. She knew that the statue was not there a year prior and wondered for a moment who it could possibly be. The statue was very short and had some sort of round body that indicated the man had a hunchback when he was alive. She tilted her head to the side as she saw a figure dressed in black bow its head and bend over to rest a bouquet in front of the statue's feet. The figure was very much unlike the other people, this one preferring silence and gloom rather than celebration.
"Maria?" La Muerte knew that the young woman's father had passed recently and that the town and had made him a statue as a tribute to his dedication to the safety of San Angel. She glanced at Xibalba who finally realized where he was and was now watching the woman as well.
Together, they materialized into a cloud of magic to get a better spot: La Muerte a breeze of marigold pedals; Xibalba an inky shadow.
They stopped on top of a dome of some mausoleum. They paid their respect to the ancestors by making flowers spring out of the ground around the stone building, or rather La Muerte did. Xibalba only scoffed at the irritated ancestors. With one glare, he forced the dead to back away without any more complaints.
La Muerte frowned at her husband and turned her attention back to Maria.
Maria smiled sadly at the statue. "Hola Papa. It's me, Maria. I'm sorry that I haven't come to see you as often as I probably should but-" she paused as she wiped some tears from her eyes. "Oh papa," she cried, "I-I think I made a mistake in marrying Manolo."
La Muerte and Xibalba shared a shocked glance before looking back at the grieving woman. Neither of them were expecting this.
"I j-just don't l-love him and I know he d-doesn't love me," Maria sobbed. She angrily wiped away the tears before she continued. "I just - oh papa I'm so al-alone!"
La Muerte felt sympathy for the young woman; from the sound of her voice, she guessed that Maria was holding this in for a long time. She glanced at her husband. Xibalba looked uncomfortable as he witnessed the woman's break down. Strangely, he was the first to say anything.
"Come mi amor, let her have her peace." He turned away and morphed into a cloud of inky shadow, zooming his way back to the church roof.
La Muerte prepared to follow his lead but someone coughed to get her attention. She looked down to see the ghost of General Posada looking pleadingly up at her. "Please my lady, can I tell mi hija that I am with her?"
La Muerte smiled sadly and shook her head. "We do not belong in this world, Dali Posada. We can allow them to feel our presence for this day but they cannot see us. I'm sorry." And she meant it. She knew that Maria only wanted some company but she could not bend the laws again. Not so soon after last year.
Posada gazed at his weeping daughter and sniffed. "If I ever get my hands on that boy, I'll-" He stopped talking and walked over to Maria, placing a hand on a shuddering shoulder that will not be felt. He looked back at La Muerte. "Surely you can do something? My child does not deserve such pain."
La Muerte thought for a moment and sighed. "Life can be really hard for the living. I swear that I will see if I can do anything to ease her burden." She bowed her head. "Goodbye General Posada."
She did not wait to hear the dead man's words. She left in a cloud of marigold flowers and materialized next to Xibalba. She noticed that the god was looking anywhere but the direction of Maria. She placed a hand on his arm. "Are you okay, Xibalba?" she asked.
"You seem saddened by the girl's predicament," he said carefully. He still did not look at her.
La Muerte furrowed her brow. "And you are not?" She looked down at the celebrating people. "It is our fault that she is feeling the pain she is now."
It was Xibalba's turn to look confused. "How so?"
"That wager we made long ago, about who will take Maria's hand in marriage. Perhaps we shouldn't have." La Muerte sighed, her shoulders sagging under the sudden weight of her actions.
Xibalba raised his eyebrows in shock. "Even if we hadn't, Manolo would have married the girl. It was inevitable," he reasoned.
La Muerte shook her head after considering the god's words. "We can never know for sure though. We interfered with their lives, used them as pawns for some stupid bet! Xibalba, what if Maria was never meant to marry either of those two boys?" She looked at Maria's silhouette in shame and panic. "We could have very well robbed her of her chance at True Love."
Xibalba did not look convinced. "Who could she possibly have married if it wasn't Manolo or Joaquin? Face it dear, you are simply too excitable these days."
La Muerte frowned at the lack of sympathy from the lord of the Land of the Forgotten. She knew that the time he spent ruling such a wasteland had hardened his heart but she could not believe he was acting so callous.
He seemed to notice the change of mood with his wife as Xibalba cleared his throat a moment later. "What I meant to say is, the girl would most likely have wound up with one of the boys. I bet you that if we were to take a look at the Book of Life then it would have clearly shown Manolo and Maria getting married!"
La Muerte looked appalled and Xibalba retreated a step, ashamed of himself as if he brought up a taboo subject. After a moment La Muerte shrugged her shoulders as she looked over at Maria, the burst of anger giving way to sadness. "We will never know now," she said. "Manolo erased his predestined story and wrote his own. Because of us."
Xibalba's eyes darted from one family to another down below as he thought of a way to cheer up his wife. A fleeting thought entered his mind of telling La Muerte that some people do not have stories set in stone for them but threw it out a moment later. This will only serve to make her more upset. He smiled suddenly when an idea came to his mind. "Are you so sure about that?" he said, his voice becoming as smooth as honey.
La Muerte glanced at him, her face warning him to think his words very carefully. She knew that tone of voice and when he spoke like that, he wanted to-
"How about we have another little wager?"
- have a bet of some sort. She scowled at the smiling god, the candles that adorned her dress and sombrero flaring up and her eyes glowing with the force of a small sun. "I just told you that we should have never made that wager and you ask me for another one." Her words were calm but her eyes did not lose their luminescence.
Xibalba smiled, apparently unaffected by his wife's display of displeasure. "Yes. I wager that you cannot make that girl happy again."
La Muerte narrowed her eyes, not believing what she had just heard. She barely noticed that the flames of her candles receded to their natural height and her eyes dimmed to their normal luminescence. "What did you just say?"
Xibalba's smile grew. "I said I bet that you cannot make that Maria girl happy again."
She thought over the words, wary to the fact that she was starting to like this idea of Xibalba's. "And if I do?"
His smile turned triumphant. "If you win then," he trailed off, thinking of something not that important for him to lose but something that would keep his wife interested. He frowned when he found the perfect gamble. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he decided.
This is to make her happy, he thought.
"If you win then I will not interfere with the lives of men. For only one century mind you!" he added hastily.
La Muerte blinked slowly as Xibalba told her of her possible winnings. "You swear? No meddling with the affairs of men for an entire century?"
The god nodded, making sure that his wife knew just how reluctant he was.
"And if I lose?"
Xibalba's smile returned however it turned much darker. "Then I get the Land of the Remembered!" La Muerte's eyes narrowed as the flames rose up warningly. "I'm only kidding mi amor! If I win then you must allow me to at least go to one of your Day of the Dead fiestas."
La Muerte smiled as she held out a hand. "I will do you one even better. If I lose, then you can visit me every Day of the Dead and we can enjoy the endless fiestas together."
Xibalba chuckled and shook hands with his wife. "That my dear, sounds most wonderful. Good luck." He vanished away without another word, leaving La Muerte alone on the church's roof.
She shook her head in amusement before calming down. She stepped off of the roof, a cloud of marigolds making steps for her. She reached the ground and began to walk towards Maria and her father's grave. None of the people even glanced at her, she was invisible to them. When she passed a fountain, she glanced at the wall of water flowing down to meet the pool below.
No longer was she La Muerte. She was now Mary Beth. Her glowing eyes became baby blue and her long, curvy black hair turned into straight red hair that ended at her waist. Her traditional dress and hat also changed. Instead of a red dress, she wore a white shirt hidden under a blue jacket that highlighted her eyes and a white skirt that showed off her legs and black heels.
Mary made her way over to Maria and hesitated at the mausoleum. She took a deep breath before resuming her march.
Maria sniffed and did not look at the figure that was approaching her. "Manolo please, I just want to be left alone," she said with another sniff.
"I'm sorry but who is Manolo?"
Maria stiffened and looked at the woman who was watching her curiously. She rubbed the tears from her eyes and stood up. "I'm sorry, I thought you were my husband." Her breath caught on the word 'husband' and she turned her head so the stranger did not see her watery eyes.
Mary looked at the statue Maria was staring at. "He looks like a hero," she commented.
Maria smiled weakly at the other woman. "He was," she whispered. Tears pricked at her eyes but she would not allow them to fall in front of someone she did not know.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Mary said softly. She took a step closer and glanced to the left of Maria where her father stood watching them. The man looked like he did not like this turn of events but did not voice his opinion. "Can you feel him?"
Maria hesitated before shaking her head. "No. I think he might not have shown up today. He's probably disappointed in me." She blushed as she realized that she had told a complete stranger something extremely personal.
"How are you so sure?"
Maria glanced at the strange woman who had turned her head to stare at the statue. "That's none of your business." She was shocked at how cold her voice sounded.
Mary was surprised as well. She turned her head to stare at the younger woman, as if she could not believe that Maria would have the audacity to talk to her like that. Maria saw a glimmer of something that looked like admiration but she could not tell for sure. Mary nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry for prying. It's just that I just arrived here and I have no idea where anything is or who anyone is. If you like, I can leave you to grieve in peace. Although, if I may, I believe that your father would prefer if you celebrate who he was in life."
Mary turned to walk away from Maria but felt a soft hand touch her shoulder.
"No wait. I'm sorry that I snapped at you." Maria looked ashamed as she looked at the ground. "Today is the first Day of the Dead without my papa."
Mary turned around and offered a sad smile. "It gets better." She nodded towards the statue. "He doesn't seem like the kind of man who would be ashamed of his daughter."
Maria smiled but it did not reach her eyes. "I hope so. I really do." She ran her hands across her dress to buy herself some time to think of something to say. "You mentioned that you were new right?" Mary nodded with a smile. "Well, how about I show you around tomorrow as an apology?"
Mary looked confused for a moment. "You already apologized and besides, it was my fault. I shouldn't have intruded on your private moment."
Maria shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It would be my pleasure to show you around San Angel." The little light in her eyes dimmed as she added. "It would get my mind off of some things too."
Mary nodded and felt a little concerned at Maria's attitude. "Okay, where do you want to meet?"
Maria asked, "Do you know where the town's fountain is?" Mary nodded. "Great! We'll meet up there at noon."
Mary smiled a small smile. "Until then," she said. She turned around and began to walk away. After leaving Maria's eyesight, she turned back into La Muerte. She dashed to the church's roof top before anyone could see that she was there. She looked at the direction of Maria and felt relieved when the young woman did not seem to start crying again. She felt excitement bubble up inside her and she found that she could not wait until tomorrow.
The bet was on.