Spring, 2019.

Elena heard a commotion from the offrenda room. She rushed in to see that fool stray dog had brought a fool stray cat into her house! Elena knew this would happen. Mama Imelda used to say 'Stray animals are just like musicians, you let one in and then they will always bring a friend!'

Elena chased the animals out, but this didn't stop them from sneaking back into the offrenda room. The cat, in typical cat fashion, liked to knock things off shelves just to be an asshole. The cat's favourite thing to do was tip over the big bundle of letters for Mama Imelda, because this was the thing that made the most mess. The letters would flutter everywhere. The cat would then scurry through the papers just to make an even bigger mess. Cats never made a little mess when a big mess was an option. Elena was sure the cat was doing it on purpose. Just as Elena had finished cleaning it up, the horrid beast snuck back in and knocked the letters off again.

Miguel and Rosa had come home from school to find their grandmother irately shouting at the cat and chasing it around the courtyard, sandal in hand. The cat did not seem scared, at all. It had climbed up on the roof of the offrenda room, and began licking itself casually. This was a blatant display of how unafraid it was. It didn't seem to mind having shoes thrown in its general direction. It was like the cat was taunting Elena.

"Abueltia, no. I think it could be Pepita. She's Mama Imelda's magestic alerbrije" Miguel said, thrusting himself between Elena's considerable wrath and the petite, smug, aloof cat sitting on her roof.

Rosa turned to Miguel, eyebrow raised. "You been at the cactus juice again?"

"No. I'm serious! I think she wants to take something to Mama Imelda. That's why she's on the offrenda room."

"Oh, she's a deliveroo cat now is she? What are her shipping costs? I've always found delivery by cat to be the most useful and reliable."

"She really is an alerbrije, Rosa!"

"Earth to Miguel: Not everything in the world is connected to you crazy adventure. Not every stray animal is a majestic alerbrije."

"What's all the shouting about?" Héctor asked blearily from the door, leaning on his crutches heavily. He'd clearly been woken by the noise they were all making. Elena blamed that arrogant cat, to be honest.

Dr Torrez had changed Héctor's dosage. He still slept a lot, but this was helping him heal. Dr Torrez said he was making excellent progress and would be better within two weeks. The internal bleeding and head trauma had cleared themselves up. They were just waiting for the bones now.

Dr Torrez had given Héctor some crutches, but said that he still needed as much bed-rest as possible and should avoid moving about. But of course Héctor ignored this completely. He was the sort of person who would wander around absently to investigate loud or strange noises. Honestly, if they were in one of those horror movies Abel liked, Héctor would be the first character to die.

"Héctor, what on earth are you doing up? Get back to bed." Elena scolded, before turning her scolding face to that cat. "You horrid beast, you woke up our Héctor!"

"It's okay. Elena It's Pepita. She's Imelda's alerbrije." Héctor said, like this was a perfectly normal thing to say.

Miguel shot Rosa a very self-satisfied, I-told-you-so kind of smile. Elena frowned a very irritated what-fresh-ridiculousness-is-this kind of frown.

Héctor had asked her just this morning 'if oranges are orange, should we start calling lemons yellows?' A question that ridiculous meant she shouldn't have to listen to a word Héctor said for the rest of the day. He'd made her double-check that she'd given him the right dosage twice this morning already. Elena wasn't taking Héctor's word for anything.

She suspected Héctor had overheard Miguel and was hopping on the bandwagon to support his chamanco. No way that stray cat was a majestic alerbrije. She was tiny and Elena knew alerbrije were meant to be big and colourful. She kind of agreed with Rosa. Not every single scrappy animal Miguel encountered would be an alerbrije. It was crazy, and his insistence that his dumb dog also had magical powers was proof of that.

That brazen feline jumped down from the roof, strolled past Elena arrogantly and went straight to Héctor, rubbing against his ankles and miaowing sweetly like she was such an innocent little kitty who would never make the exact same mess 12 times in a row. The cat was making the big-eyes at him and he was looking down at it adoringly. Oh no! Héctor was a cat person on top of being a fool musician. Héctor tried to reach down to pat the cat and then winced at the movement - But he still kept trying anyway! This annoyed Elena.

She ushered Héctor back to bed. Did he not know the meaning of resting, fool musician that he was! The stray cat came with them, upon Héctor's insistence and Elena's capitulation, because she saw this was the only way to get him to actually follow a doctor's instruction.

"I have not seen you in months Pepita. Thank you for visiting me. How is my Imelda? " Héctor said, as the cat jumped up on the bed and snuggled next to him. Just make yourself at home, why don't you? Elena thought archly as she glared at the cat from the door. Héctor started scratching the cat behind the ears and the cat purred in response.

"Ah, That's good. I'm glad she's okay. I am glad you are looking after her. Who's a good girl, then?" Héctor cooed as he patted the cat softly, obviously enjoying having a one-sided conversation with the cat. As if he wasn't ridiculous enough already? Now he was talking to cats.

The cat leaned into Héctor's hand, and then put her chin on top of his fingers so he'd give her a little scratch under her chin. It purred loudly, closing its eyes blissfully. " Oooh you like that. Good girl. Who's a pretty girl? It's Pepita. Pepita's a pretty girl." Héctor said indulgently as he kept scratching the cat and murmuring sweetly at it.

"Can we keep her Abueltia, please?" Miguel asked.

"No. I have already let you have the dog Miguel. We are not an all-hours shelter for animals. We can't just keep taking in every scruffy thing that turns up on our door! If we feed her, she'll stay forever."

Héctor was the first scruffy thing Elena had taken in, and just look what had happened! Mama Imelda was right. You let one scruffy stray in and the rest followed. Elena was going to be a proud dog and cat owner before this nonsense was finished, she just knew it.

"She probably won't stay for long, Elena. She prefers to be over the otherside with Imelda. I think she's just visiting." Héctor said, a little sleepily, still cuddling the cat. "Can she stay Elena, please? I like having her here," Héctor said as he made the puppy-dog eyes at Elena, like he thought his big, sad, brown eyes would convince her to allow a cat into her house.

He was right.

Oh, he was a sneaky, fool musician today!

"Please Abuelita. Pepita likes Héctor and she makes him feel better, and Héctor did get hit by a car saving Manny. Shouldn't we want him to feel better?" Miguel wheedled, with absolutely no concept of over-kill. Elena was going to say yes already, he didn't need to lay it on that thick.

"Pah! Fine. But keep her out of the offrenda room Miguel. I'm not cleaning up anymore messes!"

"Beautiful, wonderful, elegant, wise Elena, thank you! Everyone thinks you are made of granite and steel, but I know are made of marshmellows." Héctor said with a smile.

"I am not made of marshmellows Héctor!" Elena grumbled at him. She wasn't going soft. She didn't want Héctor to get the wrong idea.

-0-

Miguel had introduced Pepita around after Héctor had fallen asleep. Pepita wouldn't leave him until he was resting comfortably again. The twins were super excited to have a cat and chased her. Pepita ran away from them like her tail was on fire and took refuge in Victoria's room, under Victoria's stool.

"What's with the cat?" Victoria glanced up from her painting.

"It's Pepita. Abuelita says we can keep her."

"Elena is letting you keep her? But she hates cats." Victoria exclaimed, sounding very surprised.

"Pepita makes Héctor happy. Abuelita wants him to be happy."

"It's cute he named her after Mama Imelda's ridiculously huge alerbrije." Victoria chuckled. "Dream big, little kitten." She remarked dryly to the cat exploring her room.

"It actually is Pepita, Victoria. Can't you see how wise she is?"

Pepita emerged from tumbling adorably in a pile of scarves. Victoria had heaps of scarves that she was using to tie her hair back lately. They all looked the exact same to Miguel. She kept them in piles on the floor. Pepita placed a scarf at Victoria's feet delicately, and then started rubbing her back against Victoria's ankles to get her attention. Victoria looked down and picked up the scarf in confusion, before her eyes grew large. She stuffed the scarf in her pocket.

Abuelita had put down an extra food bowl for Pepita next to Dante's and she called Miguel to come fed them both. It was dinner time for everyone. Pepita let him cuddle her close after dinner. She was such a tiny, cute, little cat. She looked so different here, but Miguel tried to remind herself what she really looked like. She a good alerbrije. She'd saved him from the cenote and from falling. Miguel loved her. Miguel loved Dante too. Dante was his. But Pepita was definitely a bit better practised at being a spirit guide.

She kept rubbing her head against Miguel's ankles and then walking towards the offrenda room. "I can't let you in there, Pepita. Abuelita will freak." Miguel warned the cat. She came back over and miaowed at him, sounding disgruntled. "What did you want to take from there anyway, girl?"

Pepita went to the window to Héctor's room and scratched at it. "I think you're too small to carry Héctor back with you this time." Miguel said ruefully as he knelt down next to her. The cat gazed at him sorrowfully.

"Paper. Someting really light and little. I think we can send that." Victoria said, coming out to sit next to him and the cat.

"How do you know?"

"I don't. But last week, when I was feeling...err... very creative, I got the idea into my head to try send some things to the otherside for my father with Dante. I tied some paper around his neck with a scarf that looked almost exactly this -" She took the scarf out of her pocket "- and now this cat is here."

"Maybe Mama Imelda sent Pepita as a reply. Do you think Pepita brought a reply from Papa Julio? Would Mama Imelda write to Héctor? That would make him so happy." Miguel asked hopefully.

"No, Miguelito. It doesn't work that way. What is real can become spirit, but what is from the otherside can't come back to this world. We can send things to them, but they can't send things back to us."

"Maybe that's why Mama Imelda sent Pepita. She can cross over! Should we go wake up Héctor and see what he wants to send to Mama Imelda." Miguel got excitedly to his feet.

"No!" Victoria grabbed his hand quickly. "We don't know if this actually works Miguel! I'm just guessing. What if I'm wrong? I really don't know much about alerbrijes. I never had one. I do know nothing is meant to pass between the worlds outside of Dia De Los Muertas. It could be that this is just a stray cat and Dante lost my paintings. I don't want to give Héctor false hope. That's not fair to him."

"But..."

"Look, how about we try sending something really small? We can follow her and see if she does cross over to the otherside with it. We can tell him when we're sure it's working."

"Okay. Maybe one of his letters for Mama Imelda?"

"Please, have you seen the size of some of them? Héctor goes on for pages and pages. He never shuts up, even on paper. They'll be too heavy." Victoria said, patting the little cat.

"A photo? I've got lots."

"Good idea."

Choosing a photo was hard. Miguel had so many. In the end, he settled on the selfie he had taken not long after Héctor got his glasses. It had him, Victoria, Héctor and Rosa. Miguel had wanted one that included everybody on team glasses. It was a good photo of all of them. Everyone looked happy and no one was blinking, winking, yawning or trying to push the person next to them off the seat. Héctor's arms were around the girls, while Miguel had lain across all three laps to get the shot. Miguel turned it over to write on the back, trying to make his writing as small as possible.

Hi Mama Imelda, Tio Oscar, Tio Felipe, Papa Julio and Tia Rosita. Victoria thinks we might be able to send things through with Pepita to the otherside, but she's not sure if this will work. We're sending this photo, because it's light and little and Pepita can carry it easily. I wanted to send one of Héctor's letters for Mama Imelda, but Victoria says they're too big because he never shuts up, even on paper. Let us know if this works, okay. I'm taking lots of photos of Héctor, just in case. I took this one after lunch in the courtyard not long after Héctor got his glasses. Oh, Héctor needs glasses. I probably should have said that first. He's long-sighted just like Victoria and Rosa. Abuelita is letting me keep Dante...

"Miguel! Don't hog all the room. I need to write a message too." Victoria grumbled.

"Oh. Sorry." Miguel said sheepishly as he handed the photo to her. He'd still left her a little sliver at the bottom at least.

Victoria read what he wrote and then frowned at him severely over the rim of her glasses. "You are just like him, you know. Neither of you can ever shut up, even on paper."

Victoria had to write in tiny cramped letters, but she could add her message to the bottom. Hello Everyone. I apologise if my last package caused any upset. We are both okay. We love you all. Victoria.

They attached it to Pepita and followed her.

"Let's see where she disappears. If she disappears and the photo goes with her, we'll know she really can make it to the otherside with a package." Victoria said.

-0-

Pepita had a mission for her human. Her human had been so sad without the music-making human. If Pepita was a good girl and finished her mission, her human would be happier. But this mission was getting very difficult and irritating.

The other two humans did not stop following her! Her human loved them. They were family. In other circumstances Pepita would feel compelled to protect them. At this current moment Pepita wanted to roar at them.

Didn't they know she couldn't pass to the otherside when they were watching! Alerbrijes could only pass between the worlds when they were completely unobserved by human eyes. Pepita tried her best to roar, but it came out as a cute little miaow.

"She wants us to follow her!"

Pepita miaowed again, trying to convey No, I don't! Go back home humans!

"She wants us to go this way!"

Pepita growled. If they hadn't tied the paper around her neck, she would have run from them, but she knew she couldn't lose the paper. It was important picture paper, like the one her human had fought the very bad man for. If she ran, she might lose it. Her human would be sad if she lost it. She tried walking in odd directions to confuse and disorientate the small boy human and the tall woman human.

"Where is she going? This isn't the way to the bridge?"

"I don't know but let's keep following her."

Pepita growled, then tried harder to lose them.

"I think we are going in circles."

"Is she lost? We've been past this corner eight times now."

"I don't know."

"Does she still have the photo?"

"It looks like it."

The humans were interested in the picture paper around her neck. Interesting. If she didn't have it tied on, Pepita could probably shake them. She'd have to be careful not to damage it, but she could carry it in her mouth.

"What's she doing now?"

"Just sitting there and licking herself."

"Oh, now she's nuzzling the photo. It looks like she's trying to eat the ribbon we tied it on with."

"She took it off?!"

"Where did it go?"

"I think she's sitting on it, actually."

"She's sitting on it? Should she be sitting on it? Is that normal for alerbrijes?"

"Miguel, how sure are we that this is actually Pepita and not some random stray?"

"Pretty sure. Héctor thinks it's Pepita."

"Miguel, Héctor is on hard-core painkillers right now! Don't listen to Héctor. He hallucinated that his guitar was talking to him for over two hours the other week."

"Well, she seems like a really smart cat."

Oh, why was this Pepita's lot on life? She knew what she had to do, even though it was so undignifed. If they thought she was a stupid stray, then they would stop following her and she could complete her mission. She threw herself around, like she saw the other alerbrije, Good Dog doing. Good Dog was a good boy, but he did not look very smart when he moved.

"Miguel, I think she just fell over."

"Oh no. She's chewing her own leg now."

"She's tripped herself up while chewing her own leg."

"Come on Pepita. Do something majestic!"

"Miguel, I'm sorry. I think this was a mistake. I think she really might be a random stray. Do you want me to try get your photo back."

"No need, I got lots of copies."

"We should go home, then."

Finally!

Once the humans had turned around the corner, Pepita picked up the picture paper gently in her teeth and set off for the bridge.

-0-

Thank you God. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Mary! Victoria thought to herself in relief. It wasn't Pepita. It was just some random cat. Sending packages to the otherside didn't work. Victoria had always been told spirit copies could only cross over when it was Dias de los Muertas, and now she knew for sure. If her package hadn't made it through, then this random stray cat was not Mama Imelda's way of replying.

They had spent two hours chasing a random cat around Santa Cecilia and now they probably had acquired a brand new stray pet, which would annoy Elena - but at least Victoria knew her 'package' hadn't made it to the otherside.

She had a vague, blearly memory of attaching her paintings to Dante when she was high, but that dog was so hopeless, he'd probably just lost them somewhere. It didn't mean that her whole family on the otherside now knew she got snozzled on Héctor's painkillers and then sent them inappropriate mail.

Thank God.

Sure, Miguel was dissappointed. He'd really thought that Mama Imelda was sending them Pepita and just being able to communicate with her again would cheer Héctor up.

Thank goodness they hadn't woken Héctor up for this - Elena would have killed them. Elena acted like Héctor annoyed her most of the time, but Victoria knew her sister was actually a big softie where Héctor was concerned. Victoria's stern, uncompromising big sister was going to let Héctor keep the stray cat on top of keeping the stray dog, just because the animals made him happy, after all.

-0-

Héctor was still normally the first person awake in the household. He'd been feeling much clearer in the mornings now. He was on a lower dose of painkillers, and it had made the world less foggy. He got his crutches and got up to fed Pepita and Dante. Pepita had spent the last night sleeping at the foot of his bed and sometimes growling at the window. It warmed his heart to think the alerbrije was trying to watch over him.

Dante seemed like a fully domesticated family dog now, but Pepita came and went as she pleased. Pepita would be gone for days at a time, and then she'd turn up again, miaow loudly at people, (Mostly Miguel and Victoria) until Elena got annoyed and would exclaim something like 'This isn't an animal shelter you know. You can keep her as long as you keep her quiet.'

Héctor would pick Pepita up one-handed (he could lean down on his right side now. Yay, leaning down!) and carry her somewhere else when Elena started saying things like this. He didn't want Pepita feeling like she was unwanted. He knew how much feeling unwanted sucked.

Sometimes Héctor could have sworn Pepita was huffing at them all and rolling her eyes, like they were the ones doing something to really frustrate her. She'd turn her cat nose in the air and stalk away. He wouldn't see her again for ages. Elena thought she was an ungrateful street cat, who only came to their house because they fed her. Héctor would say she was still a wild alerbrije at heart, with alerbrije business to attend to. Elena would raise her eyebrow and mutter about his dosage in response.

Héctor wondered how it had happened. He'd known Pepita when she'd been a little kitten. How had little Pepita transformed in a glorious winged jaguar that could cross between the worlds, save boys from falling to their deaths and always be with Imelda.

Imelda had rescued Pepita, the unwanted runt of the litter, when she was nine years old. They would have put the kitten down, but Imelda had hidden the cat in her skirts and taken her home. She'd kept Pepita a secret from everybody, but she'd shown Héctor her beloved pet one day. She'd sworn him to secrecy, saying her father would be cross if he knew. Héctor had only been eight-years-old, but he had promised solemnly, feeling like keeping Imelda's secrets was the most important task he had ever been entrusted with.

Imelda brought Pepita with her when she defied her father to be with Héctor. The cat was devoted to Imelda and would follow her around their house adoringly. Héctor thought the cat knew Imelda had saved her and would always be grateful.

It was so odd to see Pepita here now, and to have her be so affectionate with him. When he'd been alive Pepita had never really cared for him. She would barely tolerate him patting her and giving her little scratches behind the ears. Now she acted like Héctor was her favourite person. She was always very snuggly with him, while being obviously and dramatically rude and aloof with the rest of the family.

She was miaowing loudly at him and rubbing her back against his legs. Héctor kept putting food in her bowl until she stopped making so much noise. He didn't want Elena to get annoyed at little Pepita again, and feeding her huge amounts seemed to help keep her quiet. Elena said Héctor's tendency to overfeed the cat was why the cat liked him the best.

When Pepita was finally eating quietly with Dante, Héctor heard it. There were strange noises coming from outside. It sound like a lot of people scuffling about. Héctor got his crutches. His arm had healed much faster than his leg, and now he could get about more independently now. He went to investigate.

Héctor opened the front door to see a crowd of people. Lots of voices started yelling excitedly. They were yelling his name. There was a series of bright flashes that nearly blinded him.

FLASH!

FLASH!

FLASH!

"Excuse me." Héctor said, then closed the door abruptly on the flashes, light and commotion. He hauled himself over to Elena and Franco's room on his crutches. He poked his grand-daughter lightly. She stirred.

"Elena, something very strange is happening outside."

-0-

Things Elena had to put up with now that Héctor lived with her - a short list:

⦁ Stray cats underfoot.
⦁ Stray dogs underfoot.
⦁ Spending good money on flim-flam for stray animals - so they would feel 'wanted' and 'loved'.
⦁ Buying a dog bed to give that mangy beast a proper place to sleep, only to have the stupid animal have no idea what it was for, and choose sleep at the food of Miguel's bed most nights.
⦁ Buying a little cat bed only to have the rude little beast obviously and deliberately ignore the cat bed and Elena, (giving both a rather disdainful look), and choose sleeping at the end of Héctor's bed as her favourite place to nap.
⦁ Having a long conversation with the cat, (when no one else was around), saying it had to be very careful with Héctor's leg if it was going to continue sleeping at the foot of the bed. That leg was still broken and healing, and if the cat bumped it during the night and hurt Héctor, Elena was going to give it such a slap with her sandal.
⦁ Being one hundred percent sure that the cat had rolled its eyes at Elena in response.
⦁ Not being able to tell anyone about this rudeness because that would mean confessing to having long conversations with a rude cat, and Elena wouldn't be doing that.
⦁ Having to put up with a cat who was aloof to everyone except Héctor.
⦁ Dealing with that cat's kleptomania. Honestly, the little thing Héctor loved so much was such a thief. It was forever taking socks, papers, guitar strings, and photos. Heaven's knew where the little beast was hiding its ill-gotten horde.
⦁ Listening to Héctor excuse his cat's bad behaviour, saying she was Imelda's alerbrije and alerbrijes were just like that.
⦁ Having to indulge much crazy talk about alerbrijes.
⦁ Constantly checking the bottles of pain-mediation to make sure she wasn't making a mistake with the dosage after conversations with Héctor.
⦁ Not complaining too much about that stray cat, despite the thieving, the rudeness and the noise it made - because Héctor clearly loved the cat and he didn't like anyone speaking badly of it.
⦁ Being woken at 5 am to a driveway full of journalists.

-0-

Thank you so much everyone who comments. It really does give me so much motivation.

Title is from " To the otherside" by Passion Pit. It's a great song, and it fits the chapters theme of the difficulty in communicating between the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living. I actually have heaps of ideas as to how Imelda is dealing with everything in the Land of the Dead, but I think I'll write a separate tie-in fic that would explore that.

Poor Pepita is trying her best to be a good alerbrije, but Riveras are frustrating. Neither Victoria or Miguel try writing to the other side again after they assume she's just a stray. So pepita takes matters into her own hands and thieves. Miguel and Imelda both have alerbrijes, and so Miguel can better sense what pepita really is - but because he has no way of knowing for sure, he bows to Victoria's assessment. Victoria and Hector don't have alerbrijes and so neither of them have much idea what to do with them in the Land of the Living aside from treat them like pets.

In my head canon Pepita was Imelda's childhood pet, so Hector is the other one who saw her when she was alive and a normal cat. However, he gets dismissed because he's on painkillers.