Show Me Chapter 4

"Time for bed, Miguel," Enrique said as he stood in the doorway, watching as Miguel's sleep-deprived body looked up countless Google pages on the U.S. and the Land of the Dead. With his parents' permission, Miguel had been editing the Spanish Wikipedia page on the Land of the Dead (anonymously of course) with some help from Abel and Silvana Martinez.

So far, not too many people had made many corrections. There were a few "did-that-really-happen" questions about what the Land of the Dead could look like, but nothing crazy. Miguel had been very careful not to post anything that alluded to his adventure, mostly to avoid raising suspicion. He also noticed the Ernesto de la Cruz page had been receiving changes, most of them blasting the man for murder, but Miguel had decided to not get involved in that.

"Almost done, Papá," Miguel replied as he finished up his search. Turning off the computer monitor, Miguel turned around to face his papá. "Do you think that everything is going to be okay, Papá? I mean it seems that Silvana is getting blamed for everything! And I'm the one responsible for it."

When Silvana had come forward with the information that proved that de la Cruz had murdered Héctor and stolen his songs, she had been contacted by several colleges and universities almost immediately to confirm the truth. To go along with Luisa and Enrique's wishes, she had not mentioned Miguel's name in any of it. And Miguel was fine with that. After all, he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself than necessary. He had more than enough to keep him busy, starting with the new computer that his family had gotten.

There was even a Wiki page on the Rivera shoe business but after countless trolls (most of them from Lopez's nephew Antonio and de la Cruz supporters) began to blast Elena Rivera for "child abuse" and "unpaid labor," the page had to be taken down. But little did anyone know that Miguel had been working on getting it up and running again.

Elena was also not aware that Enrique had been helping Miguel when time allowed, and Rosa had been helping as well. Rosa had been learning English from reading Twilight (unknown to both of her parents) as well as helping out in the museum by giving tours to English-speaking groups.

Abel was utilizing his computer skills to help out too. Part of the restitution money went into a college fund for Rosa, Miguel, little Socorro Benny and Manny; and the other portion went into funding Abel's studies for his computer science degree from the local university.

Enrique shrugged slightly. "Lo no se, Miguel. These kind of investigations can last for months, years even. It really depends on the Rodriguez family."

Miguel nodded and, as he turned towards the kitchen to bid Elena and Luisa goodnight, he had a quick thought.

"Abuelita?" Miguel asked quietly. "Can I try and get in touch with the Rodriguez family? Just to see if they'll cooperate again?

Elena shook her head no, hugging Miguel to her. "It's a good idea, mijo, but I don't think they're ready to talk to anyone yet. Señor Martinez told me that if we try to contact them, they could think that we were responsible for the leak too."

Kissing her son on the head, Luisa also added, "We need to be careful who we talk to, mijo. If the Rodriguez family took it as badly as Señor Martinez said they did, it could be that things could get a whole lot worse."

Miguel frowned slightly and asked, "Worse how, Mamá? Abuelita, como es peor?Usted pude decirme?"

But Elena shushed him and hugged him tight. "That's enough questions for now, Miguelito. We can talk more about this tomorrow, when you come back from school."

Although he was disappointed, Miguel simply hugged his abuelita goodnight and went off to bed. Elena watched him as he headed for his room. Pulling a piece of paper out of her apron, Elena sat down, her head in her hands. Enrique approached her slowly, not wanting to set off his mamá's fiery temper.

"Mamá? Que pasa?"

"If only life was easier for him," Elena murmured softly. "I wouldn't have said it at the time, but he was right to run away from us on Día de los Muertos. If he hadn't… I would have damaged him beyond belief."

Enrique was tempted to slam his hands into the table but Luisa's pointed glare stopped him. If he did that then not only would he wake up the others, but it would also injure his hand. Berto had been out of action for a few weeks, thanks to an arm injury due to a delivery accident, so Enrique was taking over all orders for the shop that his brother had been working on.

"Mamá, stop blaming yourself. Miguel has already forgiven us for what happened," Luisa said boldly as she fed little Coco. "Both times. There was nothing we could have done. If Miguel hadn't come forward about his love for music, it probably would have resulted in him resenting us behind our backs."

Enrique nodded, remembering how Miguel now had a zigzag scar on his left arm from the previous run-away incident. It had taken some time for Miguel to fully forgive Elena for her actions against him. Even at school, things were difficult. While Rosa was willing to stand up for Elena at school when the students spoke out, it took some time for Miguel to do that.

There were still incidents that had happened at school, but thankfully for everyone, they were fewer and farther between. Almost everyone at school was in shock over what had happened with Miguel but as soon as Silvana published her report on de la Cruz's true motives, they had become very supportive. There were a few students who still had doubts, but Miguel had learned to accept that not everyone would believe him.

"Why bring all this up, Mamá?" Luisa asked softly as she burped her daughter. "Que esta pasando? Is Miguel getting more threatening messages? I thought that was all over when Lopez went to jail."

Shaking her head to get rid of the horrible memories, Elena kept going. "The messages aren't just for me, mija. Gloria is getting them too."