The whole town was wild, people shouting, and children running around. Tents, stages, and stands with games, puppet shows, palm readings, and performances for all the people to enjoy. There were also people leaving offerings and saying prayers by the graves of their loved ones. Music filled the air along with the laughter of people dressed in costumes who danced. It was even more exciting than Manny had hoped but he was determined not to be seen unfortunately a gypsy boy named Davi had other ideas.
"Hey where are you going?" He asked Manny. "Once a year we throw a party and you're trying to hide? Get out! Join the fun!"
"No! Wait!"
But Davi grabbed him by the arm and spun him around and around along with the other dancers. When Manny managed to break away from Davi he was so dizzy from all that spinning that he accidentally fell backwards into a tent and in his desperation to stop himself from falling, he grabbed on to the nearest thing which was a curtain. But his falling weight was too heavy so he ended up going down and taking the curtain with where a young girl was changing behind it.
"Hey!" She cried quickly covering herself with a robe. "Look buddy this is the changing tents for the ladies so you better get out of here or I'll knock you senseless you pervert!"
"I didn't mean to." Manny said pulling his hood over his face. "It was an accident...I tripped! I fell!"
"Oh you're not hurt are you?" She asked moving closer to him. "Here let me see."
"No! No! No!"
But she managed to remove his hood, he closed his eyes and waited for her screams but instead he heard her give a sigh a relief.
"Thank goodness, I thought you had hurt yourself."
Surprised by her reaction, he opened his eyes and a saw that she was a gypsy girl and a very beautiful one with silvery, sky blue hair, sapphire blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and fair skin smiling at him. She gently took him by the arm and helped him up.
"There we go, see? No harm done." She said. "But try to be more careful okay? Because not all the girls around here are as forgiving as I am if a boy falls into her dressing tent."
"Oh...I...I will." He said.
"Good now can you please leave? So I can finish getting dress?"
Manny finally noticed that she only wore a robe so he blushed and shyly left her tent.
"By the way, great mask." She called.
Mask? He thought. That's right everyone here was in costume so that's probably why when she saw him she didn't scream in bloody terror like Tito always said a woman would if one ever saw him. She didn't know that, that was his real face and he hoped that it would stay that way. Just then Tito, Captain T.J, and the other soldiers arrived and took their place at a nearby stage.
"Come one! Come all!" Davi announced as he pushed Manny toward the stage then jumped on top to introduce the act. "See the most beautiful girl in Spain. Miss Frida."
He threw some dust on to the stage, in a puff of smoke Davi vanished and in his place stood a lovley gypsy girl wearing a glittering lilac blouse and a long scarlet red skirt with sliver ribbons in her blue hair. Manny recognized her as the same girl he met in the tent. Music started to play and the girl called Frida began dancing on the stage with the most elegant of grace. All of the men in the audience stared, whistled, and awed in amazement of her beauty. Tito on the other hand found himself disgusted by her, seeing her dancing like that, looking so lovely and fair reminded him of Maria the gypsy woman he blamed for his brother Rodolfo's death.
"Look at that disgusting display!" Tito scoffed at T.J.
"Yes sir!" The soldier said wide eyed and beguiled by the dancing gypsy.
With a playful smile Frida danced over to Tito and threw her scarf at him then over to T.J who she pulled close and ushered in a kiss which he leaned in to accept only to have her push him back into the crowd with a giggle. She did a back flip and a cart wheel then landed near where Manny was sitting and winked at him making him blush. For her finale she grabbed a nerby spear, stuck it in the stage floor and spun her body around and around it until she the end. The crowd clapped and threw money at her.
"Thank you all." She said. "But do not forget to give your applause to the smartest animal in Spain Zebra Donkey."
Then her pet who was the combination of a donkey and zebra hurried on stage and performed a fantastic trick juggling apples with his nose and catching them in his mouth. The audience clapped for him as well.
"And now ladies and gentlemen it is the moment you've been waiting for." Davi said. "It is time to choose who will be king for a day but only the man with the ugliest and/or scariest face in Spain can win! So make a face that's horrible and frightening! Make a face as gruesome as Xibalba's grin!"
"Hey!" Xibalba shouted from the bell tower.
"Now let the contest begin!" Davi said.
"Hey wanna be king for a day?" Frida asked Manny. "With a mask like yours you'll surely win."
"No I can't-"
"Now don't be shy. The worst they can do is boo."
"But I-"
However she had already pulled him on to the stage and placed him with the others.
Several men with masks got on stage, when Frida removed the masks they all made faces but none of them were ugly or scary enough so they were booed off the stage. Finally it was Manny's turn but when Frida pulled on his whiskers she and everyone else was shocked to see that it wasn't a mask it was his face.
"That's no mask!" A man said.
"It's his face!" Another said.
"Who is he?" A woman asked.
"Is it a demon?"
"It's the bell ringer."
Manny looked to see his uncle glaring at him with a look of utter rage.
"Ladies and gentlemen don't panic." Davi said. "We asked for the most hideous face in Spain and here he is!"
To Manny's surprise the crowd began to cheer and clap for him. He was presented to the crowd onto a stockade while everyone threw flowers and streamers at him. It was enough to make him smile. They liked him, they really liked him. They weren't afraid or disgusted by him and for that one moment Manny felt accepted, like he finally belonged with other people. But that moment ended much too quickly.
"You think he's ugly now? Just wait." Sergio said. He then flung a tomato right at Manny's face and burst out laughing. "Now that's ugly!"
"Actually I think it's an improvement!" Diego said throwing another tomato at him while he and Sergio laughed. Soon everyone joined in laughing at the boy and throwing rotten fruit, vegetables, and rocks at him. He tried to run away but ropes lassoed him and his body was tied down to the stockade. He tried in vain to break loose but the ropes were too strong not to mention the hundreds of garbage being thrown in his face. To make matters worse one man tore the shirt off of his back and began beating him with a whip. He hissed and cried out in pain then looked to Judge Tito for help.
"Uncle please help me!" He begged pitfully. "Uncle please!"
But he wicked judge ignored his nephew's pleas and smiled. He took pleasure in watching the poor boy suffer like this.
"Sir I request permission to stop this cruelty." T.J said.
"In a moment." Tito said his grin growing wider. "A lesson needs to be learned here."
"But sir-"
"Don't argue!"
T.J was strongly against this but he had his orders to follow so recanted but Frida couldn't bear to watch this injustice any longer.
"No! Stop! Stop it!" She cried to the peasants. "Stop this! You animals!"
"Frida what are you doing?" Davi said grabbing her arm.
"Let go of me!" She said jerking her arm away.
"Frida people treat us bad enough for being gypsies! Imagine how they'll treat us if we ruin their fun!"
"I don't care! This is sick and inhumane!" She made her way through the crowd, toward the stockade, and screamed as loud as she could. "STOP!"
The man whipping Manny stopped while the peasants ceased fire.
"You all should be ashamed of yourselves!" She scolded. "Tormenting an innocent person like this! It's evil! And I won't stand for it!"
She then slowly walked up the stockade and approached Manny. As she got closer to him Manny looked away in shame, hoping to hide the tears streaming down his face. Frida kneeled down next to him and pulled a scarf from her sleeve.
"Don't be scared." She said gently wiping the tomato juice from his face and the tears from his eyes with her scarf. "I'm so sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen."
"You gypsy girl!" Tito called. "Get down from there!"
"Yes your honor." She said. "Just as soon as I free this poor boy."
"I forbid it!"
But she pulled a knife from her pouch and untied the ropes holding him.
"How dare you defy me! I told you to leave him!"
"So you'd just leave him tied up like this? To be tormented by these...These savages!"
"Young lady you forget your place!"
"No you forget your place!" She responded. "You call yourself a man of justice! A man of God! and yet you would let this innocent boy be tortured like this? Is that the way of our God? To mistreat others and ignore their cries for help?"
"You gypsy wretch! Mark my words you will pay for this!"
"Then it appears that the title ugliest man in Spain was given to the wrong person! Because you sir are by far the most hideous man I have ever laid eyes on!"
"Captain! Arrest her!" Tito ordered.
T.J reluctantly did as he was told and sent the soldiers to capture her.
"Hmmm...Let's see." Frida said counting them. "So there's ten of you and only one of me, what's a poor girl to do?"
She pulled a metal disk from her sleeve and threw it at the guards knocking them out nearly T.J.
"What a woman!" He said amazed.
Then she pulled a tissue from her sleeve and blew into it. In a puff of smoke she vanished.
"Witchcraft!" Tito cried. "This girl is a witch!"
"Uh sir I think it's just cheap parlor tricks." T.J said.
"Either way I want that girl! Find her and bring her to me alive! Now!"
"Yes sir!" His men replied.
Tito turned to his nephew angrily.
"I will deal with you later." He said.
Manny tearfully got off the stockade and went back to the church. The peasants all looked at him with disgust and horror, Manny tried to hide his face best he could and didn't stop until he was safe inside the cathedral. Once inside Archdeacon Tonio went to tend and bandage his wounds.
"Thank you." Manny said.
"I'm so sorry for the abuse you were given today." He said. "Get some rest my boy. I shall pray for you."