Chapter Four

Hector looked at the officers who were talking amongst themselves. He put a bony hand to Miguel's shoulder and looked at him intently. He felt a strong connection to the boy, since he had learned the truth about their familial connection he had known that he loved him, and he trusted that he was being honest. Hector looked to Miguel again and then to the officers.

"Can I have a moment alone with him?" He then turned to Coco, "Or can we have a moment alone with him."

"We have to ask him some questions, we're not sure if what he did was a crime or…" the officers said but Hector looked at them with a firm glance that was telling them that they should at least let the dead man talk to the newly deceased. "Miguel," he said slowly. "Are you okay? You don't seem hurt at all."

"I'm dead," Miguel whispered, "Can I be hurt other than emotionally or trapped under a giant bell. I know what I saw Papa Hector," he said as he bowed his head. "I want to know that my daughters are safe, that no more men will target them because of me." He looked at his family members and then at the officers.

"We will give you some time to talk but we do have to ask some questions," the lead officer said and Hector nodded. He put a hand to Miguel's arm.

"I understand," he replied and Miguel continued to look away.

"Miguel," Coco said in a much more coherent manner than the last few years of her life. "You have to think about what happens when you see a dead man. Did you appear dead to her?"

"I appeared as I am now," Miguel nodded. He closed his eyes. His head had fallen off but he could feel the way that she had touched him and the way that she had tearfully accepted him as being there as a ghost or spirit or skeleton or whatever he was. "She won't tell or I don't think people will believe her if she does. I trust her. I think she was happy to see me."

"As good as that sounds, it must have been difficult for her," Hector added and Miguel sighed. He nodded .He wanted to see her again, he didn't doubt that at all.

He was silent for a moment longer before looking down. He felt his heart ache at knowing that he had at least been with her one more time. Growing up, he had thought that music was the most important thing to him but after visiting the land of the dead, he knew that family was most important and when his daughters had been born, he was sure of it. He didn't want to miss them growing up. Although he knew that every Dia de Los Muertes, he would be able to see them and watch them grow up, he had wanted to do things like walk them down the aisle, throw them amazing quincieneras, watched them discover their passions and work on achieving their dreams. Those things he wouldn't be able to do any longer.

"What would you have done if you had seen a dead person in the land of the living?" Coco asked, "Even after you learned about what happened to those who had gone."

Miguel turned to her with a pained expression on his face. "You're talking as if I'm someone random, a dead man who turned up to her randomly. I think if I had seen someone I had believed to be dead walking around like a zombie, it would have been scary but if it had been my wife then it would be different. I would be mourning her and I would want her."

"Have you thought that maybe you need to let her go?" Hector asked and Miguel stared at him.

"If you could have gone back to the land of the living, even as a skeleton, just to see Mama Imelda for a few moments to tell her the truth about what happened to you and why you didn't return to her and Coco, wouldn't you have taken that opportunity?" Miguel asked and Hector nodded. He felt his story was a little different to Miguel's but he couldn't argue.

"What are you going to say to the officers?" Coco asked and Miguel turned to her.

"It depends what they ask me for, Mama Coco. If I am under arrest for returning to the land of the living then it would have been worth it. Gloria knows about the alfrenza, she knows that even as a dead man that I'm doing as well as I can, and she knows that I support any decision she makes for herself in the future and for our girls." Miguel closed his eyes. There was a chance that they would arrest him for what he had done. There was a reason that the bridge existed and a reason that the living shouldn't see the dead. His case was different. He loved Gloria but maybe it was because he had visited the land of the dead as a boy.

As he sat silently, the lead officer came over to him. "Are you ready to speak one on one," he asked and Miguel took a look back at the two members of his family and then nodded. He stood and followed the officer. Would they call him a freak and lock him up for everyone's protection? What about the leaves? Would he be able to use them to leave this world again? Would Gloria be punished? He couldn't forgive himself for the last one.

As he entered the room, he sat down and watched as the officer brought out a pen and paper. He looked around the office, it looked as how he would imagine an officer's office to look like despite him having passed. He looked to his wrists, would they be handcuffed soon?

"What do you know about the land of the dead? Have you ever had a moment of death and then been brought back by the new medical technology they have these days?" he was asked.

Miguel took a slow breath and leaned forwards, "Many years ago there was a human boy who appeared in the land of the dead, it was at the same time that led to Ernesto DelaCruz being exposed and then for his being trapped. Do you remember that?" he asked and the officer slowly nodded. "That was me. I was the living boy who was transported here. With my family's help I returned to the living and made a life for myself, I had a family and a successful career before giving my life to save my young daughter."

"Makes sense," the officer said before Miguel exhaled with relief he didn't know he needed. "However, that only gives us more incentive to tell you your job in this world. Miguel stared at him. Job? From what he had seen when he had been here, the dead typically didn't have jobs. There were some who chose to continue their careers like Frida Kahlo but people didn't work.

"My job?" he asked, "I thought that when you were dead, working was a choice."

The officer nodded, "Technically we cannot force you to take this job but you are the only one who we know who can do it. We can give you what you want in return which is a chance to see your widow until she no longer wants to see you," Miguel felt his heartbeat quicken as he heard that. He wanted another chance to see Gloria again. "We want you to be a messenger of death."

Miguel blinked. What did that mean? A messenger of death? He had heard of the Grim Reaper that others believed in but he didn't want to be responsible for those who died, he didn't want to kill anyone even though it sounded as if there wouldn't be a punishment for doing so. He had only wanted to play music and spend time with his loved ones in life. Even if he did have the power to kill someone now, that was against his moral code.

"A messenger of death would visit those who will be known to die in the last half hour of their life. You will appear in a way that no one living for longer than that time will see you. You are to tell them about the land of the dead and answer any questions which they have. Then you will tell us the information and we can make sure to track some family members or friends down to comfort them. We will start you with the people we fear would find it most difficult to become accustomed to their new life. It can sometimes take the deceased months before they are prepared to live here."

Miguel took another slow breath as he listened to that and took it in. That seemed fair to him and he could imagine how these people might be fearful of having died. He didn't know how Hector had been when he had first come to this world. He hadn't wanted to die and it wasn't as if he had known that he was going to die from a long running illness. Coco had probably found an easier way to adjust since her age had been the factor of her passing.

"I can try it, give you my answer after I've done it a few times," Miguel replied. He thought again about what was just told to him. "You said that I wouldn't appear to those with more than half an hour to live yet you also told me that I would be able to see my wife. How can she see me if she -"

"We can make that exception for you," the officer said. "We will have to craft something which will be able to give you passage but we will do all we can to make that exception. We haven't had a messenger of death for a long time. It worked well for us in the past but unfortunately his family was killed, slaughtered and all evidence of him destroyed in a form that would allow him to return.

"He was gone from an alfrenza," Miguel stated and the officer nodded. "And so he vanished, disappeared and was no longer part of any world." Miguel stared at the officer again before nodding. "Let me know when the first assignment will be and I'll fill this position for you."

"Very good," the officer nodded before placing a picture of Miguel and his wife and daughters on the desk. This was from a magazine after he had become famous. Sadness struck the musician as he saw how happy they all were. He wouldn't be part of that happiness again. "Would you like to appear to your daughters in the same way when they are older?"

"When they are older?" Miguel asked in shock. He thought about the long years which Hector had waited to be able to hold Coco in his arms again. He had died and been unable to return to her. It sounded as if Miguel had the same thing. "How old will they be?"

"Fifteen," the officer informed him and Miguel nodded.

That meant he would be able to talk to them and explain everything after their quinceanera. Hopefully he would be able to explain everything to them by that point. Hopefully they would forgive him for leaving them.

End of Chapter Four

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