El Viaje de Coquita
El Capítulo Tres
Three skeletons entered the Rivera hacienda; one male, two females. None of the people living there could see them, but a Xolo dog ran up to greet them.
The skeleton in the pink dress bend down and started petting the dog. "Oh, such a cute perri-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-to!"
The skeleton in the blue and green dress sighed. "That dog has been here for four years now, Tía Rosita."
"Sí, but he's still so cute I could just eat him up."
The male skeleton walked over to the old woman in the wheelchair. "There's my angelita dulcita!"
"Sí." The blue dress skeleton adjusted her glasses. "I think this might be her last Día de los Muertos before she joins us."
"It's such a shame we couldn't hold out as long as she has."
"There's no use moping over what could have been."
"Por supuesto, Victoria. I just wish we could've lived as long as Julio instead of - "
That's when the male skeleton noticed something about the ofrenda. "Where's Mamá Imelda's photo?"
"What do you mean, Papá?" Victoria followed him inside.
Her father pointed out a vacant spot where a photo used to be.
His sister Rosita saw this. "¡Dios mio! She can't cross the bridge if her photo isn't on the ofrenda!"
"Tío Óscar and Tío Felipe are on the ofrenda; they should be able to reach us."
Her father saw two more skeletons walking toward the hacienda. "Habla del Diablo."
"¡Oyé!" A pair of identical skeletons rushed into the ofrenda room out of breath.
"It's Mamá Imelda!"
"She couldn't cross over!"
"She's stuck!"
"On the other side!"
They heard living footsteps approaching the ofrenda room, and turned to see Miguel walking in with a picture frame tucked under his shoulder.
He put it in the vacant spot on the ofrenda, and the skeletons could see that it was Imelda's photo that was returned to the ofrenda.
Except that the entire right side of the photo had been ripped out, the tear going straight through baby Coco.
Miguel stepped back to admire his handiwork. "Hopefully, they won't get too mad at this. It's not like they'll miss Papá Héctor's presence in the photo."
Victoria looked to her twin uncles. "Is that Abuelito's name? Héctor?"
"Sí, but..."
"...how could he possibly have figured out who he is?"
"Well, go see if Abuelita can get over the bridge now."
"We will."
"¡Vámonos!"
As they left, the rest of the dead family made their way to the courtyard, unaware of Miguel climbing up onto the roof of the house.
Meanwhile, in the Land of the Dead, the scanner operator saw a familiar sight stroll up to the station wearing a dress.
"Yes, it is I, Frida Kahlo. Shall we skip the scanner? I'm on so many ofrendas, I'll just overwhelm your blinky-thingy."
The request went straight over the agent's head, and she activated the scanner.
To the surprise of both, the database came back with a match.
"Oh, it looks like your great-great-grandson put up your foto, Frida."
"Really?" Héctor shed his disguise in favor of his usual attire and took a look at the screen.
Indeed, he saw the right half of his family photo, complete with his face that had been missing at one point, taped to a wall and surrounded by candles and tamales.
"Have a wonderful visit, Héctor."
"That's exactly what I plan on doing."
With a skip, a jump, and a grito, Héctor made bouncing strides toward the bridge, nearly running down a pair of identical skeletons going in the other direction.