Turning Tables Chapter 25
Hey everybody! Hope you're all doing well! I'm so sorry for the wait-both me and my beta reader are recovering from being sick and finishing up senior year of college. We're so glad you are enjoying the story so far and hope you enjoy this chapter!
Coco could tell something was up. It had been two days since she arrived and although neither parent spoke, something seemed wrong. Not wanting to ruin their daughter's arrival, Héctor and Imelda both agreed to not reveal who had the book for a few days. Eventually, one night after dinner, she simply asked them and the whole story came pouring out, shocking everyone as they tried to come to terms with the information.
That night, after some tears (mostly from Imelda and Coco), Imelda decided to try to track her parents down by herself. But the twins disagreed, wanting to go with her.
"Hermana, por favor—" Oscar pleaded.
"Cálmese." Felipe added, wincing as his sister directed Pepita to find their parents.
"At least, let us—" Oscar started to say, ignoring Imelda's glare.
"Come with you." Felipe said as he tried to calm his sister down.
Taking a deep breath, Imelda nodded and after a minute, both twins had climbed on board Pepita, both a bit shaky. If Pepita noticed this fear, she didn't react to it. After a whispered request from Imelda, the alebrije took off into the morning light, leaving behind a concerned family.
Victoria and Rosita sat down, trying to grasp some sense of the situation. Coco and Julio sat idle nearby, wearing looks of anger and sadness on their faces. In their minds, Imelda had been through enough without her parents giving her trouble.
"I don't know why Marco y Josefina have my book. Or where it could be in the living world." Héctor spoke firmly. "I didn't even realize that they were still here. I thought they had been forgotten."
Five minutes later, Pepita landed on a boat dock nearby, gently nuzzling Imelda in an attempt to comfort her. While Pepita could not track anyone due to the amount of foot traffic and the fact that Shantytown was virtually untraceable, it didn't matter to Imelda. She was on a mission and she knew where to look.
Taking a deep breath, Imelda walked away from the dock, feeling more emboldened by the minute as she walked towards the little stretch of houses, her brothers close behind.
"Are you sure—" Oscar whispered as he shuddered slightly.
"This is the place?" Felipe continued as he looked around nervously. Somehow it felt weird seeing his parents living on the outskirts of Shantytown.
Nodding firmly, Imelda answered, "Sí, gemelos. I'm sure." Walking forward without any hesitation, Imelda went to one door and knocked on it gently. Within minutes, a young 20-something skeleton wearing a flapper dress answered the door. Looking a bit confused, she asked, "Can I help you, doña?"
Holding out the piece of paper, Imelda asked simply. "I was just wondering if Marco y Josefina Escobar live near here?"
Smiling softly, the young skeleton answered, "Sí, they live two houses over." With a brief 'gracias', the siblings left the house, not wanting to explain what was going on.
Arriving at the house that they were directed to, Imelda rapped on the door a few times, feeling her anger grow minute by minute as footsteps neared. Oscar and Felipe took a protective stance behind their sister, sensing that the situation was about to turn ugly.
As the door slowly opened, the siblings stepped back and received their first view of their parents in almost 90 years. Josefina Escobar had aged well in both life and death. Revered as a town beauty at only 17, Josefina married her husband Marco only after a year of courting and Imelda had been born a year later, the twins following three years after.
Marco was a strict parent, a harsh believer in tradition and when Imelda revealed that she wanted to marry Héctor (as well as the news that she was pregnant) he had not hesitated in throwing her out and a few days later, both twins had left as well.
Marco icily looked at his children, knowing fully well the reason they had come, if not anything else. Josefina looked calm, almost collected as she watched her daughter thrust a piece of paper into her hands. Nothing about them had changed, except for the fact they were both dead.
"I see you got our note, Imelda." Marco responded as he took in his daughter's appearance.
"Por qué, Padre?" Imelda asked, ice hanging on every word. She hadn't felt that angry in years.
After Héctor had left, Marco had written to Imelda to convince her to come back but refusing to acknowledge his granddaughter except to call her un bastardo. Imelda had torn the letter up almost immediately.
After a tense minute, the couple invited their children into the home, mostly out of a sense of social obligation and the fact that many of the neighbors were gathering to watch.
Taking a deep breath, Marco stood up and addressed his daughter's question, "We wanted to give you a chance to come back to our lives and we wanted to talk to you without him getting in the way. After all, one can hardly expect a músico to be a sufficient father and husband. Héctor certainly is not family material."
After taking a minute to calm herself down, Imelda simply asked, "Why do you have the book? And how did you get it?"
"We found it outside our house one day," Josefina answered. "It was from Jorge Rodriguez." The twins recognized it as the name of one of de la Cruz's bandmates and, if they remembered correctly, Jorge Rodriguez had taken a shine to Imelda before she had married Héctor.
"Why would he have the book? How did he get it?" Imelda demanded. "Necesito saber."
Marco turned away at those words, refusing to answer further. Josefina attempted to reach out for her daughter's hands, but a sharp look from her husband caused her to withdraw. It would seem that Imelda would have to find out for herself what Rodriguez did with the book in the living world.
With a curt 'gracias', the twins and their sister left the house feeling somewhat satisfied but still curious. Jorge Rodriguez clearly had a lot to answer for. As the twins were about to board, Felipe ran back into the house, yelling "I forgot something!" and came back, holding the book tightly in his arms as he handed it to his twin.
Just before Pepita was about to take off, Marco came outside, hands clasped behind his back.
"Won't you consider leaving that man behind? Or your bas-" Marco began but was silenced by an icy look from Imelda.
"De ninguna manera. Never call my daughter that again," Imelda said, her voice dripping with ice. "I won't hesitate in having Pepita pay you a visit."
The twins went silent. Imelda never threatened anyone unless it was absolutely necessary, and her daughter meant the world to her. Even if Coco was a grandmother and great-grandmother, Imelda would not hesitate to protect her only child.
On those words, Imelda and the twins climbed boarded Pepita, refusing to look back as they headed home. Imelda was eerily silent the entire time, refusing to talk, while the twins looked through the book to see whether or not it was the book they were looking for. After flipping through the pages (which were surprisingly intact), they managed to locate a single page on the back that had a child's drawing inserted as well as an attempt to white out three initials: H.E.R.
Upon landing back at the main house, Imelda went up to her bedroom, while the twins filled everyone in on the update and why they would need to track down Jorge Rodriguez. Coco's mouth hung open in shock as she attempted to take in the information while Victoria's face bore no emotion at all. Rosita had followed Héctor up the stairs, wanting to get to the bottom of what had happened.
Meanwhile upstairs, Héctor and Rosita had been trying unsuccessfully to console Imelda, as the distraught matriarch paced around the master bedroom. After a few tense minutes, Imelda collapsed on the bed in uncharacteristic defeat, tears streaming down her face. She was truly shaken, not just by what her parents said but also with the knowledge that there were more hurdles to jump before they could prove de la Cruz was a fraud to the living world. Héctor took her in his arms, gently shushing her as she cried. Never in his life had he seen Imelda this upset. Eventually Rosita decided to let the couple have some time alone and she went downstairs to prepare some snacks.
Héctor didn't know what to say that could help comfort his wife—he knew fully well that Imelda's father did not like him and if anything, this new development was below the belt.
Realizing that Imelda's sobs had turned to slow steady breaths, Héctor pulled the duvet over her sleeping form and went downstairs to speak to the rest of the family. They had gathered at the kitchen table, talking in hushed voices about the new developments.
"So, what do we do now?" Julio asked with a level of uncertainty to his voice. "We've had no luck finding de la Cruz and even if we did, almost everyone here wants him gone."
Julio's words were true in a way. The day before Coco's arrival, a group of angry skeletons had placed a bounty on de la Cruz and took out a hit on him. The possibility of de la Cruz already being found and captured was very likely, but the bodyguards? Not so much. Many of his bodyguards had gone into hiding and the ones who had thrown Miguel and Héctor into the cenote had been apprehended earlier that week.
"We have to try," Héctor said. "Jorge Rodriguez and his ancestors have the answers to what happened to the book. First things first, we have to get in touch with Miguel and see what he can find out. Then we have to talk to Ernesto. No matter what."