-0-
Victoria came down as soon as Elena let Héctor in. She immediately gave him an enormous hug. It had struck Elena as strange, because her sister had never been that cuddly in life. "I'm glad you're here." Victoria had whispered to him, but Elena still heard. She pretended she hadn't because Victoria was smiling widely now. Elena could tell she was feeling less alone, now she was not the only re-animated person in the household.
They both followed her into the kitchen and watched as Elena began to brew a large pot of coffee.
Elena could clearly see the family resemblance now that they were standing next to each other; they had the same bone structure and tall, lanky frame. (They have no clothes that properly fit either of these two giraffes. Elena would have to take them both shopping.) Victoria looked like she could have been Héctor's mother.
This was something that amused her greatly. She never failed to it point out, apparently. Victoria made a steady succession of sarcastic comments about what had taken her kiddo so long (also several comments about Héctor's outfit in general). He sassed something back at her. It made her laugh.
Héctor retold the story of his journey home – starting with waking up in his underwear in a back-end alley in the dodgy part of Mexico City. It didn't sound like a pleasant experience, but from the way Héctor told it, this was the most hilarious thing to happen to anyone, ever.
Héctor can make Victoria laugh. A lot. Elena finds this interesting. Their laughs are actually really similar, and Elena finds this worrying.
They have more in common than having the same bone structure, the same laugh and a tendency towards impatience. They both have the same way of sighing in frustration, and then running their hands through their hair. They both tuck one arm under their elbow then gesture wildly when they are making a point. They drum their fingers on the side of their coffee cups to the exact same beat.
Did Mama Imelda notice?
Was that why she was always so much harder on Victoria when they were both girls? Did Victoria remind her of Héctor? Mama Imelda was adamantly against Victoria's tendency to have her head in the clouds. Sometimes Mama Imelda had been overly harsh towards her sister. Elena hadn't like it, but she had also never said anything in defence of her sister either.
-0-
"Héctor !" Miguel had yelled excitedly from the top of the stairs when he had woken up that morning. His enthusiasm would have woken everyone else up to, but Miguel wasn't bothered by this. Miguel had practically flung himself down the stairs towards Héctor. Héctor, with a speed Elena envied, got up from his seat, rushed over and caught the boy in his arms.
"Miguel, don't jump at me like that when you know I am holding coffee. I wasn't ready." Héctor said as he scooped Miguel up again and the boy laughed. Making the boy laugh really undermined Héctor's scolding Elena thought. It would only encourage Miguel.
"I knew you would catch me!"
"I would, but I still want my coffee first before you try that again."
"Don't try it again Miguel!" Elena scolded. Elena scolded properly. She was a champion scolder. She had a face for it and everything. "Héctor's has had a long trip and doesn't need any of your nonsense."
"No, it's okay Elena. I don't mind nonsense," Héctor started to say. Elena made her scolding face at him and he blanched. "... No I mean, you're right. No nonsense Miguel." Héctor said, and waggled his finger in an exaggerated fashion.
Miguel was going to take no notice of this and engage in nonsense anyway. Elena just knew it.
"Miguel, I love you but I don't have the energy for you now." Victoria had announced and wandered back to her room to sleep.
Despite the similarities between Victoria and Héctor, this was a stark differences. Victoria had no problem yawning in people's faces, announcing she was tired and didn't want to talk any more and then abruptly leaving the conversation to have a nap. Héctor would apparently rather eat his own arm than be rude like that to Miguel. (It was often Miguel's conversations that Victoria walked out on).
A few more bleary eyed members of the family had drifted in at this point, woken by Miguel's enthusiasm. Miguel started talking about how worried they had been and asking Héctor all manner of questions; Where had he woken up? How had he gotten here? What took him so long?
Héctor, aware of his audience, told a much more child-friendly version of his tale of woe. Elena was glad he had at least that much sense, and hadn't mentioned details about parading around in his underwear or what he had speculated about Pedro's real occupation or any of the foul language that had passed between him and Pedro during the failed driving lesson. Elena had been planning on kicking him in his shins with her heavy soled boots if he had let those details slip.
Miguel was beyond delighted that the musician was in their home. He kept babbling so much at Héctor about what had happened since they'd last seen each other. Barely anyone else could get a word in edgewise, beyond brief introductions.
Héctor, though he looked like a drowned alpaca that had washed up on an unlikely shore after surviving a particularly brutal shipwreck, tried his best to focus on Miguel and listen to what he was saying. Héctor never let on that he was fatigued. Though he couldn't fool Elena. He had the same tells as Victoria – if not her perchance for leaving conversations abruptly.
Elena wondered how long Héctor would fight his obvious exhaustion before he excused himself for a nap. After more than half an hour of watching him stifle yawns and slump further, she intervened. She reminded Miguel that it was a school day and he needed to go get ready.
"Aaaawww, but I want to play with Héctor."
"Héctor will be here when you get back, but he needs some rest now. Can't you see you're tiring him out?"
"It's okay, Elena, I don't mind listening to …."
Elena shot Héctor her scolding face again. Couldn't the fool see she was trying to help him.
"... I was planning on staying awake until Coco gets up anyway. And I like hearing what Miguel has been doing." Héctor offered hesitantly, after a moment.
Elena raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. Idiot musician.
"Well, it's still a school day!" Elena barked. "Go get ready Miguel, or you'll be late."
-0-
Héctor walked the children to school with Luisa and Dante. Luisa told Héctor that the dog had been unofficially adopted by the family – even though Elena chose to ignore him, or call him that street mongrel.
Luisa had smiled kindly at Héctor, and then she had invited him to walk to school with them, so they could 'get to know each other'. Héctor had walked all the way to the house from the highway last night, but he couldn't refuse an offer like that. His Coco was still asleep, and he had wanted to spend more time with Miguel.
Miguel was the only family member who was really welcoming Héctor aside from Victoria. Elena had made a lot of frowning faces at him, and no one else in the family seemed to know how to react to him. Héctor wanted to put them at ease, but he didn't really know them.
Miguel had talked most of the way to school, while his sister, Little Coco, dozed in her pram. Rosa was also friendly, in a hesitant and shy kind of way. Her twin brothers had been running rampant. Héctor had held both their hands to stop them dashing away from their big sister. He swung their little arms in big swinging motions and sang some silly made-up songs with them - the sort of songs that Coco had always liked. They giggled, stopped trying to run off, and had stuck to Héctor like glue for the rest of the walk.
On the way back, Luisa talked to him about the family and tried to help him keep track of who was who. She was not his blood relative. She had married Enrique, who was Elena's youngest son and Miguel's father. He was the one who had lent Héctor some jeans and a different T-shirt, which had been a drastic improvement.
The jeans were far too short for Héctor, but they were miles better than the first pair of pants. Those pants had been big enough to fit three Héctors, after all, and he'd had to use string to make a belt for them. Elena had refused to let him leave the house wearing them. She had scolded him and saying "The Riveras have standards! You can't go wandering around like some hobo and bring shame upon us again."
Héctor hoped Elena wasn't still angry at him when they got back. But when they arrived, she was standing at the door, wringing her hands on her apron. "Mama is awake, if you want to see her." She announced briskly, then turned and walked into the house. "I'm warning you now though, she hasn't been well. She may not know who you are." Héctor nodded in understanding, and followed Elena eagerly, heart in his mouth.
His Coco.
After all this time.
He'd finally get to see his Coco again. Even if she didn't recognise him, he'd still get to see her.
Héctor pushed the door open nervously. Coco was an old lady, sitting cozy in her bed. Elena had tucked the blanket around her shoulders. She was looking vaguely out the window. Héctor knocked gently, not wanting to startled her. Coco turned. Her smile grew slowly, then all at once, it became a huge grin. It was just the same way she used to smile when she had been a little girl. She recognised him instantly.
"PAPA!" she cried out, sounding surprised and excited.
Héctor ran to her. He knelt on the ground next to her bed and threw his arms around her, giving her the biggest hug. He tried to hug her gently, because he knew she was an old woman now. Elena had lectured him about how frail she'd become, and told him he shouldn't over-tire or over-excite his Coco. Still he held her so close to his chest, to his heart.
"Coco, my Coco. I love you so much." Héctor was saying over and over again. He hadn't been able to tell her for nearly 100 years, but she had still waited for him. She had remembered him. He was home. He had finally made it. He had been trying to get home to Coco for what felt like an eternity.
"Papa. You're home. You were gone a long time." Coco sounded almost giddy with happiness. Héctor felt her wrinkled arms come around him, and she squeezed him back. It made the tangled and tightly knotted thing in Héctor's heart and soul begin to relax.
"Sorry it took me so long, my Coco."
" You came back." her voice was full of wonder, like she didn't quite believe it.
"I did come back. I have spent so long trying to come home to you. Thank you for remembering me."
Héctor was crying, but Coco was crying too. She pulled away to look at his face. She put her hands on either side of his cheeks, to catch his tears. It was a mirror of the gesture she had done when he had sung his lullaby to her the first time, back in the autumn of 1921. Her hands were larger and more gnarled with aged, but for an instant Héctor felt like he was back in that sunlight room.
"I had to. It was our song." Coco replied seriously.
-0-
Elena turned from the door to wipe her eyes, and squash down the lump in her throat. Now she was crying too! That fool musician, making everybody cry.
Elena had said to herself that she wasn't going to go soft – she was just going too check to make sure that fool musician didn't try anything foolish, like upset her poor mother. But then Mama Coco's face had lit up as soon as she saw her Papa.
She knew him. Her mother had recently started not remembering Elena again. After so long of seeming a little better, her mother had started slipping back into the fog. She didn't know her own daughter, but she knew Héctor. He hadn't aged a day since she had last seen him after all.
Oh dear. That was probably going to be confusing for her. Mama Coco probably wouldn't understand why her Papa was so young and she was so old. She just thought he'd come back home. She probably thought she was a little girl again.
Elena checked on them throughout the morning. Héctor made Coco an Oaxaca hot chocolate, just the way she liked it. Mama Coco drank it all. He got the old guitar out at some point. He was playing songs for Mama Coco. He played songs she knew, songs she liked – the songs from her childhood. She'd clap and say "Again! Again!"in this delighted, girlish voice that Elena had not heard in years.
Then it was lunchtime. Héctor fed Mama Coco patiently, saying things like "Open up for me. There's a good girl." For the first time in weeks, Mama Coco ate the whole bowl without fuss, because she wanted to make her Papa happy.
She off her food lately, and Elena had been worried. But Mama Coco would eat for Héctor. Héctor helped Elena care for her, clean her up and tuck her into bed. He sang her a lullabye, then pulled the covers up over her.
"Rest now, Coco. Have a sweet dream." Héctor leaned over and kissed her wrinkled forehead, and Mama Coco sighed contently.
"I knew you'd come back Papa. You'll be here when I wake up, won't you?" she asked. She sounded like a worried little girl.
"I will. I'm not going anywhere." Héctor reassured her.
Mama Coco was satisfied at that, and settled down into sleep.
Mama Coco had gotten confused when Elena had come in and she'd seen the age difference between her daughter and her father. But Mama Coco had always been very easy going and had taken it in her stride today.
Aside from that, Mama Coco had a good morning. It was the first good morning in a long time. She'd seemed much more alert and clearer with her father home. She'd seemed happier too. If only for that, Elena would happily tolerate Héctor, fool musician that he was.
The fool musician was actually very good at taking care of her, Elena thought begrudgingly. At least he was good for something. If he actually stuck around for once, and helped Elena with feeding her, Mama Coco might get a bit more of her strength back; a bit more of her old spark.
Elena gestured for Héctor to follow her down the hall to the room she had made up for him. Victoria had taken the guestroom (in all fairness she had arrived first), and Elena had improvised. It had been an old storeroom, but she'd cleaned it out and made up a bed. She'd tried to make it as nice as she could. She'd placed a toothbrush, a small soap and a folded towel on the bed, and gave Héctor a meaningful look. Use these – the look said. Then she'd nodded towards the bathroom.
" You need to get some sleep too, Héctor." Elena said severely.
He hadn't slept since sometime yesterday by Elena's calculations. He needed to rest. The fool had never learned how to take care of himself, it appeared.
He had as much common sense as a dolphin wearing knee-pads.
-0-
Their two re-animated guests settled into the household rhythm. They both still had irregular sleeping schedules. After that first ridiculous morning, Héctor stopped being as ridiculous (he was still ridiculous, but it was a moderated ridiculousness that Elena could live with).
Héctor would join Victoria in going to sleep at unlikely times and locations. He still tried to stay awake to see Miguel before and after school, and spend the day with Mama Coco, but it was without that same stubbornness as the first morning.
As soon as those two giraffes were both awake at the same time, Elena took them shopping to get them both clothes. The couldn't keep borrowing from Enrique and Gloria.
The shopping experience took much longer than Elena had anticipated, simply because everything was so fascinating for Héctor. The supermarket blew his mind. Her quick grocery shop took over two hours. Vending Machines, the bubble-making machine outside a toy shop, the woman busking on the street, the man selling a gadget called "the nicer-dicer-plus" that Elena had seen advertised on TV – all these things required Héctor's immediate and close inspection.
"Just let him have a turn, Elena – then he'll get it out of his system and we can move on with our lives." Victoria sighed, evidentially used to Héctor's enthusiasm for everything.
"Fine. One turn, but then we are really going!"
The charlatan selling the gadget set it up with an onion for Héctor to chop, so he could see how it worked. Héctor moved the handle and then made a little surprised noise as the entire onion fell into the container, evenly and perfectly diced.
"Look Elena– Look at how much it has chopped the onion! Now we never need to cry when we make dinner." Héctor said, proudly showing Elena. "This machine is incredible."
"He's doing your job for you, he is." Victoria remarked dryly to the charlatan as she rolled her eyes.
"How much is this gadet, amigo?" Héctor asked.
The charlatan told him.
Héctor gasped, looked supremely offended, and put the gadget back down gently before taking a huge step back. "Ridiculous – what do I look like? The king of Prussia!" He strode off.
Elena wondered if she should tell him that Prussia didn't have a king...because it wasn't even a country any more.
"I always believe in negotiating a price – but that man was ridiculous. He started so high! You can't start that high if you want to make a sale..." Héctor was ranting about the appropriate way to haggle. Even though he only looked twenty-one years old, Elena had to remind herself that Héctor had been born in 1900, and probably had no idea about inflation.
Inflation – someone would have to tell Héctor about inflation so he didn't make a scene at every price-tag he came across.
Elena realised with some horror, that she was going to have to be that someone. Explaining economic principles had never been her strong suit, but she tried anyway – if only to save their little group the embarrassment of having to put up with Héctor's conniptions. After three graphs drawn on napkins and 20 minutes of Elena throwing out economic terms that she only vaguely understood herself, Héctor agreed to stop complaining about the price of things.
This was a lie.
"These jeans – they're worth what I would get for three months slaving away! This is three months worth of money! I could have kept Imelda and Coco well provided for with just these pants!" He complained indignantly, waving the jeans at Elena.
"Oh, you would have provided for them would you?" Elena scoffed sarcastically – and a little cruelly.
Victoria inhaled sharply, and busied herself with the racks of shirts.
Héctor's face fell. Elena knew she had hurt his feelings. Elena hadn't meant to be unkind, but she couldn't help it. She had been told for her entire life that this man had abandoned his family and never looked back, all to go and pursue some stupid musical fantasy. Mama Imelda had to struggle so hard in those first years to build her business up. Hearing Héctor rant about providing for them needled Elena.
"I would have. If I hadn't died, I would have taken care of them." His voice was softly insistent, filled with regret and longing.
Well, fat lot of good feeling regretful did for anyone.
"Oh, would you? You picked music over them, so you can't stand on your high horse now."
" No, I picked music for them. I had hoped I could send enough back to help Imelda set up any kind of business she wanted."
"Well, you didn't. She had to do it all herself, and with a child to raise on her own too." Elena didn't see the point in dancing around the subject. She had always believed in being direct and speaking her mind. Though Mama Imelda had never really elaborated on those struggling early years, Elena knew it would have been horrible for her.
" I didn't just abandon them. It wasn't like I said "oh, I'm going down to the shops" and then ran out on them. My best friend killed me when I tried to come home." Héctor said, arms crossed, looking uncannily like Victoria when she was annoyed and defensive.
"Well, you still should not have left home in the first place." Elena stated simply.
"It seemed like the best idea at the time." Héctor's was looking down at his crossed arms, chastised, not meeting her furious gaze.
"Why on earth would leaving your family seem like a good idea?" Elena demanded.
This was the one thing in the story – the new story – that she had never wrapped her head around. If things between them had been so good, and they had been so in love, why had Héctor left Mama Imelda to begin with? He should have stayed home.
"I'd grown up with nothing. I was an orphan, you see. I was penniless. And Imelda came from a good family. They hadn't approved of me at all." He confessed in a small voice.
I can see why, Elena thought acidly.
"They'd wanted her to marry one of the more respectable businessmen in town, They refused to bless us, but she left home to be with me,...she chose me." Héctor still sounded surprised, even though he was re-telling something that had happened nearly 100 years ago. It was like the fact that Imelda had chosen to be with a penniless fool of a musician had never really sunk in for him.
"I just wanted to give her everything. I wanted to give Coco everything. I didn't want them to ever know poverty the way I did. Music was the one thing I was really good at. It paid the best."
"Mama Imelda said you left you share your songs with the world."
"That was one of the reasons, yes. But really, I did it so that I could make enough money to take care of my family." He said, looking up and finally meeting her eyes.
Had he been wrong to do it ? Elena found herself traitorously wondering. She had never disagreed with Mama Imelda about anything. Elena never thought she'd agree with that fool musician in her entire life. She didn't want to start now. Mama Imelda had always maintained it was a mistake for her husband to leave to pursue what she had called a stupid musical fantasy.
But it hadn't been stupid, not really.
Héctor was actually talented. His songs were very popular, even today. Elena thought of the Héctor Money, piling up in the bank account, and her comfortable and completely refurbished home. He'd provided very well for her family when the truth about his songs had come out.
What if Héctor hadn't been murdered? If he had made it home, and managed to sell his songs...Mama Imelda would never have struggled miserably. They would have had more than enough money to be very comfortable together. Their lives would have been sweet and good.
"If I could go back and choose differently, believe me I would." Héctor said and he sounded sincere.
Elena shook herself at his wistful words. There was no point in wondering what if, or thinking about what might have been. Héctor had been murdered, far from home. Mama Imelda had felt abandoned and had struggled. The past was the past. There was no point dwelling on it.
"Well, you can't." Elena said. Her voice wasn't scolding. It was sad.
Victoria interrupted their heated conversation by thrusting a fistful of shirts between them, saying "These are all in your size, Kiddo."
Héctor protested at being called Kiddo, but took the shirts to try them on, like a good boy.
-0-
Things Elena had to put up with now that she had Héctor with living her family – a short list:
The noises Héctor made whenever he ate anything. Had nobody ever fed this boy properly?
Héctor's reaction to pizza. It was in her brain now.
Héctor's obsession with modern appliances like the washing machine, and refrigerator.
Héctor's inability to work modern appliances.
Héctor's persistence at pressing buttons until "CHILD LOCK" flashed on the mircowave screen.
Victoria's echoing laughter at the childlock fiasco.
Franco complaining endlessly as he dug through mountains of paperwork and old manuals in the office, looking for the microwave user manual so he could try and rectify the childlock fiasco.
Héctor constantly opening the refrigerator and trying to figure out how the fridge-light worked.
Héctor constantly trying to "help."
Héctor constantly playing the guitar sadly after Elena had rebuffed him.
Constantly feeling the urge to smash the sad guitar.
The frequent, blinding flash from Miguel's camera.
-0-
Miguel was, to put it mildly, ridiculously obsessed with taking Héctor's photograph.
That blasted camera that Elena had brought him for his last birthday was now flashing frequently. It flashed during dinner, during the walk to school, before her morning coffee, when he found Héctor dozing on the couch.
That was the only time Miguel had actually seemed to feel bad about his irritating habit – but only because the blinding flash and the accompanying noise had woken Héctor up with such a start that he'd tumbled off the couch. Héctor was all gangly arms and legs, and could barely fit on the couch as it was. The surprise flash had pushed him over the edge.
Elena now bitterly regretted buying Miguel this camera. She had just been glad Miguel asked for a present that wasn't music related.
"No more photos!" She commanded.
Miguel said it was really important for him to have lots of pictures of Héctor, just in case. Elena grilled him on why he was being so ridiculous, saying In case of what? Miguel hadn't been able to elaborate properly. Despite all her scoldings, she still saw flickers of the flash and heard the whirring of the lens when Miguel thought she wasn't looking.
-0-
Berto had bought a new projector with the Héctor money for Gloria's birthday. They had started a new tradition and closed the shop a little early just so they could all enjoy a movie together. Tonight was their first movie night with their re-animated guests.
It had been Gloria's turn to choose. She'd picked Home Alone because it was a nice Christmas time film, and she'd always liked watching criminals getting the stuffing knocked out of them by a small child. She had seen it so many times, and had never tired of it. However watching it with Héctor's running commentary – spoken softly to Victoria, but still audible to the entire family – was clearly not an experience she relished.
"This poor child. He's now all alone in the world. He thinks his family doesn't love him and he's been abandoned forever. His house is so empty and he is so lonely. He is pretending to have a good time, but really he is heartbroken on the inside. He must miss them so much."
"Héctor, shut up and watch the movie." Victoria snapped, to everyone's collective relief.
"Movies make me dizzy."
"Well shut up then. Just try and enjoy it. It's meant to be funny."
"What's funny about this whole family abandoning and forgetting about this boy, just because he is a little annoying? He thinks his family hates him and that they chose to leave him behind. And now these violent criminals are going to murder him and bury him in a shallow grave, and he'll never get to tell his family how much he loves them..."
"Shall we watch something else?" Elena said, getting up to turn Home Alone off.
She couldn't take it any more. Home Alone was only in it's 18th minute. It had a running time of 143 minutes. Elena couldn't put up with this for 143 minutes. She gave an apologetic glance at Gloria, and then turned to who was next on the list to choose. "Abel, you can choose."
Abel looked beyond surprised. "You said I had a life-long ban from choosing the family movie after I tried to get everyone to watch 28 days later."
Oh. He was right. Elena had said that last time it had been Abel's turn, but she had forgotten.
"Yes, well, anyway. I'm giving you a second chance now."
Abel looked incredibly panic-stricken at being given a surprise second chance. He was obviously unprepared and extremely keen not to screw up and annoy Elena again. He chose the most child-friendly and innocuous movie in their collection. Finding Nemo.
Finding Nemo was also a mistake.
Héctor had many emotions about recently widowed clownfish and their bumbling attempts at fatherhood. Emotions which he expressed loudly to Victoria. Finding Nemo got switched off after only 12 minutes.
Luisa was next. She chose a documentary about penguins, full of desolate yet beautiful scenery. It put the children to sleep, but the adults could watch it until the end without listening to Héctor over-identify with child delinquents or tropical fish.
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I don't know what's happening now, but I want you to know I love you and I miss you...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. I've decided to escape the processing centre with two fine people called Carmen and Pedro. We're all tired of waiting and have a plan to bust out, get an automobile and drive south. I don't think anything will go wrong...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. I had to hitch-hike with an Ernesto De La Cruz fan. It was awful. It was worse than that time...
-0-
Dear Imelda
I love you and miss you. I finally arrived. I am getting to know our living family. All our grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grand children are such fine people. And I got to spend all day with Coco. I got to give her the biggest hug and tell her how much I loved her...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. I now have new clothes that actually fit me. Elena took me shopping...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. Cameras are so small now. Miguel has one that fits in one hand...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. I am learning all about modern technology. I am very intrigued by the refrigerator and the light inside it. Is the food afraid of the dark? I don't understand the purpose of a light inside...
-0-
Dear Imelda,
I love you and miss you. Microwaves are strange. Did you know how to work a microwave when you were alive. Of course you did. You were always so clever with gadgets...
-0-
Mama Coco had gotten stronger with Héctor helping to take care of her. Mama Coco was a complete daddy's girl, evidentially. She ate heartily for him. She was more expressive. She sang songs. She seemed to understand and remember more again. Mama Coco would never get 'better,' but she had her old spark back.
Elena often found them together in the courtyard of a morning, after Héctor had helped walk the kids to school. They would sit together, soaking up the winter sun while Héctor played for Mama Coco on the guitar. Sometimes they would be whispering stories to each other. Always, they seemed happy.
Today, Coco had wanted to play the guitar herself. Héctor held it up for her and place her fingers near the strings. He watched his daughter avidly, like he had never seen anything more precious. Coco couldn't play the guitar very well with her arthritic hands – but at that moment, it hardly mattered. Mama Coco was smiling brighter than the sun as she made a truly terrible noise on that instrument. She was having another good day.
Everyday had been a good day since Héctor had come back. After Mama Coco was asleep for her siesta, Elena went looking for Héctor. Elena could see that, for all his other faults, Héctor was very devoted to his daughter. He was still as foolish as a knife-juggling slug, but she had been wrong about him being a complete wastrel.
She'd been harsh and unkind, because she had worried that he would somehow hurt Mama Coco's feelings or make her sad. But the opposite had been true. Just his presence had brought rare joy to Mama Coco's smile.
Elena was no good with words. She wasn't going to say she was sorry. But she made him some fresh fried chapulines to make amends. Then she hadn't been able to find that fool, and now the chapulines were getting cold.
It just went to prove Elena's other assumptions about the musician. Even when you tried to do something nice for him, he was such a human disaster that he would ruin it somehow.
Elena enlisted Victoria to help find him. They discovered him next to the offrenda, sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, a large writing pad resting on his knees and his pen moving rapidly. Victoria stood above him, looked at the haphazard pile of papers next to the family photo, then back down at his writing, and raised her eyebrow.
"You're writing to her every day, you big dork? Imelda's going to tease you about being such a drama queen when we get back."
"She will – but at least she'll know what I was up to, and that I loved her and missed her everyday."
"She'll also know that you have an unhealthy obsession with refrigerators." Victoria said, and she thumbed through the pile on the offrenda, glancing at previous letters.
"Why is that light there? How does that light even work!" Héctor was still indignant about this.
"I always assumed witchcraft." Victoria said with a cheeky grin.
Elena asked what was happening. Victoria explained that anything left on the offrenda could become a spirit-copy that could taken back to the Land of the Dead. If you wrote the dead a letter, and left in on the offrenda, they would be able to read your message on Dia De Los Muertas.
The more you know...
"Héctor – this is ridiculous." Victoria said, sitting next to Héctor on the floor and jostling his shoulder. "We could puff back home tomorrow. Mama Imelda is going to read these ten months from now. Then she'll know just what a total basketcase she married."
It had started happening. Just as suddenly as they had arrived, the re-animated had started exploding in a giant puff of petals and disappearing. Once again, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. No predicting it. Victoria or Héctor could disappear at a moment's notice and they had no way of knowing. Victoria had ranted about how irritating such an unpredictable system was. Héctor had stopped promising Mama Coco he would be there when she woke up, but otherwise hadn't let on how he felt about it.
"Imelda already knows I'm a basketcase." Héctor said, jostling Victoria good-naturedly. " Besides, I wrote to her everyday the last time I went away, even if I could only get to a post office once a week. Sometimes I had to try fit eight days worth in one envelope and I could barely fit them all in. Imelda told me she'd liked it – getting all those letters at once." Héctor said, looking adoringly up at the photo of his wife.
"You only had trouble fitting it in an envelope because your writing is ridiculously huge."
He did have large, looping handwriting. Victoria wasn't just teasing. Elena looked between Héctor and Victoria, and came to a sudden realisation. Héctor squinted at printed words. He said movies made him dizzy, and books gave him headaches. Victoria had needed glasses since she was child. They were so similar in so many ways. They had the same build, same bone structure, same unfortunate ears (that Victoria had always hidden with her hairstyle). Perhaps they were both long-sighted too?
"Here, try these." Elena said suddenly, reaching down and taking the glasses from Victoria's face, and placing them on Héctor's nose.
"Oh my goodness. I can see clearly now!" Héctor said as he looked around the room with Victoria's glasses. He smiled widely, taking in the new details. "Oh yay. Chapulines!" Héctor had only just noticed the plate that Elena had brought in for him.
Fool musician!
"Damnit! I get my eye-sight from you too?!" Victoria grumbled as she snatched her glasses back. "What other crap genes did you give me? I got your stupid height, your ridiculous jug ears and your god-damn cheekbones. Wasn't that enough?
"You got all my best features – I'm muy guapo" Héctor said, waggling his eyebrows at Victoria.
"Idiot." She said fondly, as she gave him a friendly shove.
Elena didn't understand their relationship at all. Héctor was Victoria's grandfather, and yet they acted like bickering siblings. They were worse than bickering siblings – Elena had never fought with Victoria.
Elena had never seen Victoria be this playful with another person, ever. Héctor seemed to bring out her mischievous side.
Elena should be worried. But it was nice to see her sister smile like that.
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Things Héctor needed – and updated list.
New glasses of his own.
Probably a haircut too. Honestly, he always looked so scruffy.
To stop trying to figure out the fridge light,
More common sense,
A good smack upside the head – as always.
-0-
notes:
Hi everyone, I hope you like the new chapter.
The chapter titles will be from song lyrics. This one is from Florence and the Machine's "Hunger".
Chapter one was from "I will survive" - ba dum tish - geddit.
So there were a few more b99 shout outs. Hector is like Terry. If Miguel runs and jumps at him, he will catch the kid in his arms.
So Coco clearly has dementia or Alzheimer's. Both are degenerative - however playing music from childhood does seem to stave off some of the worst effects and help patients hold on to memories a bit longer. So science points to Coco, along with beautiful storytelling points.
Gah, even the science behind the movie is beautiful.
Anyway, this is set two months after the Dia De los Muertas final scene of the movie. Mama Coco just held onto life a little bit longer, but she has been slipping recently. However, I wanted her to live long enough for Hector to see her in the living world and get to tell her he loved her himself, while she was still alive.
I think the Riveras would be getting pretty good royalties out of Hector's songs (They're great songs. He would have won an oscar!)- but they're practical people. They are splashing it around crazily. They're happy in their own home and with their shoeshop. However they have much more disposable money available now and have 'treated themselves' to the little luxuries.
The modern world would bamboozle Hector at the start. He was born before vaccinations, my friends! When he was alive people kept stuff in "iceboxes" which is exactly as it sounds. A box with ice. The refrigerator section of the supermarket would blow his mind. The fridge in general would be a marvel to him.
Oaxaca is great for coffee and cocoa growing. Most of the coffee is exported, but it is apparently really good and can be bought in the region too. There is also a special regional take on hot chocolate too.
Til next time.
