Show Me Chapter 9

Imelda stared at the sketchpad in front of her, pen in her hand, knowing that she should be focusing on designing shoes, not on what was happening otherwise. Except for Julio, everyone else was out and about, focusing on their various tasks. Julio worked nearby, fixing up his snare drum and occasionally shooting worried looks towards his mother-in-law. The other women of the house had left earlier, helping Ceci get the ballet ready for its performance later that night. Héctor had gone to Shantytown, to send off one of his cousins.

"Mamá Imelda?" Julio asked timidly. "Are you alright?"

Startled, Imelda dropped her pen on her apron, leaving a dark ink stain on it and causing Julio to hide underneath his hat. Swearing, she quickly picked up a nearby towel and started furiously blotting the stain with a napkin.

"Sí, Julio," Imelda murmured as she turned towards her son-in-law. "I'm alright. Just a bit tired, is all."

Even Julio was smart enough to know that wasn't the truth, but he didn't press it. Everyone had been tired lately, given the fact that there was a huge order to fill for a dance company and for a group of musicians who were performing for the mayor of a nearby town not far from Santa Cecilia. But they had seen rough days before and like all the other families in the world, the Riveras got through it. Héctor had even taken to helping out in the workshop to help take lighten Imelda's workload.

Julio nodded, going back to his workshop to get some more work done on the house, leaving Imelda to sit by herself at the window. A lot had been happening lately with Imelda's mamá and it hadn't been easy.

When Julio wasn't looking, Imelda finished blotting up the stain and took a piece of crumpled paper from her desk. As she unfolded it, her anger began to grow. Ever since Imelda's papá, Marco, had been arrested for harboring de la Cruz, Josefina had been trying to get in touch with her children to apologize. Imelda had refused to even speak to her and the twins, not wanting to be disloyal to their sister, followed suit.

Imeldita,

Please talk to me. I know that forgiving me won't happen but please mija, try to find it in your heart to talk to me.

Te quiero and never forget it.

Mamá

Crumpling up the note into a tight ball, Imelda threw it into the waste bin, satisfied as she heard a dull thud, but yet reminded of the time that she had done that with Héctor's photo. Thank goodness that Coco had kept it. Otherwise who knew what could have happened? She was so caught up in her reverie that she didn't even notice when Julio fished the note out of the waste bin. Although Julio would never normally do this, he knew that otherwise Héctor would be worried about her. After all, "for better and for worse," right?

Even though Imelda had told her family countless times that she could take care of herself, even fearless matriarchs had their limits.

While the family matriarch was having a crisis, the women of the family were out and about, running errands and helping Ceci fix up her costumes. Héctor had joined them, a bit glum from having to send off a longtime friend who had been there for almost 40 years.

"Who was it, Abuelito?" Victoria asked softly as she touched Héctor's shoulder.

"Tía Chelo, mija." Héctor said sadly. Normally he wouldn't allow a Final Death to hit him this hard, but Chelo had been there it seemed since time immemorial. "But at least her friends were with her, no?"

Shrugging off his sadness, Héctor immediately got to work on helping Ceci, who gently patted Héctor on the shoulder and gestured for him to take a seat. More and more of Héctor's cousins were going through the Final Death now and each one hit him hard.

If the change in mood was detected by the others, no one said anything. Rosita made an attempt to lighten the atmosphere a bit: "So did you hear that our boy's gone to Tech-sass, Ceci?" Rosita said brightly as she handed a piece of fabric to the seamstress.

"Apparently, Miguel, Elena, Gloria and Enrique went to the United States of America to talk to the Rodriguez family," Victoria said. "The family stopped cooperating with the police and, according to Miguel, they wanted to see if they could talk to them and change their minds."

Ceci nodded empathetically, "Let's hope they change their minds, Victoria. No será fácil, even here. But that family deserves the right to know what happened to their ancestor."

Cocking her head in curiosity, Rosita said, "Do you think that Jorge Rodriguez is still remembered in the Land of the Dead?"

"It's hard to say, Tía." Victoria added. "And remember, we promised not to bring it up with Abuelita. She's already stressed enough about what's happening."

Cramming his hat on to his head, Héctor pointed out "She's not going to be happy if she finds out the real reason behind Miguel's trip, Vita. We have to tell her."

Silently agreeing with her abuelito, Victoria simply "It's not a matter of protecting her, but we just want her to be happy and stress-free."

"She's going to find out about it at some point!" Héctor said as they worked in the workshop later that evening, a radio playing silently in the background. "There's no point this from hiding it from her! Remember when Dante got into one of the paint jars in the workshop?"

Rosita sighed softly, agreeing with her father-in-law. Imelda had been keeping busy lately and even with all the drama, the family matriarch always managed to find out about things.

"If we don't tell her, she could find out in other ways. And that's the last thing we want right now." Héctor said.

Even with the ban being lifted, the radio in the kitchen suddenly turned to static as the twins walked in, turned the radio off, and handed Héctor the crumpled-up note from Josefina. As he skimmed it, Héctor pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Julio looked worried, half-expecting Imelda to come walking in, but Héctor patted his shoulder in reassurance. He knew that Julio's intentions were good and he simply wanted to this to end well for everyone.

"Should we—" Oscar began.

"Write to Mamá?" Felipe added.

"And ask her to leave Imelda alone?" they concluded together to various nods from the rest of the family. With one exception.

"Lo no se, gemelos," Héctor said reluctantly. "Josefina may have done something horrible to Imelda, but she's still her mamá. And Josefina deserves the chance to explain herself. But I don't want to see Imelda hurt from something that her mamá does."

Even though Héctor had only been in his wife's family for almost two years now, he knew deep down that Imelda was more than capable of taking care of herself. But he also knew that Imelda had spent the days after her papá's arrest in tears, overwhelmed from the emotions that she had been bottling up. This latest drama involving her mamá would hurt Imelda deeply.

Héctor was about to suggest talking to Imelda when the lady in question walked in, looking somewhat fatigued. If Héctor could take a guess, Imelda had just woken up from a nap.

"Imelda?" Héctor asked as his wife sat down in her designated chair. "Mí corazon, are you all right?"

Nodding, Imelda said, "Sí, Héctor. Have we heard anything from Miguel? About his trip?"

Taking a deep breath, Héctor said, "No, mí amor. But there is something we need to tell you."

Pulling out the note from Miguel that was tucked in her apron pocket, Victoria sat down across from her shocked abuelita.

"Miguel wrote to me a few days ago, Abuelita," Victoria said. "He said that the living Rodriguez family is not cooperating with the case against the de la Cruz estate anymore. And they're pressing charges against the investigator's office for breach of privacy."

Imelda couldn't even speak, as she stood up and grabbed the note from her nieta's hands. After quickly skimming through it, Imelda crumpled it up into a ball and chucked it into the waste bin that sat nearby.

"So, it wasn't a supply trip." Imelda said in an uncharacteristically shocked voice.

"Imelda?" Héctor asked. "Mí amor?"

Shaking her head to ward off tears, Imelda said, "We have to track down Jorge Rodriguez and get his side of the story, Héctor. He's the only one who knows what really happened."

Deciding not to bring up his mother-in-law, Héctor agreed with his wife in order to avoid an argument. They could easily look for Rodriguez the next day and ask everyone in the Arts District for help, just as they did when they were looking for de la Cruz.

But would it be that easy?