El Viaje de Coquita
El Capítulo Cinco
In the Land of the Dead, Imelda was furiously waiting in a long line of holiday travelers. How dare those people say that her foto was not on an ofrenda! Her family always - ALWAYS - puts up her foto! All the people waiting in front of her were wasting her time! The family in front of her should have a strategy for visiting all of their ofrendas already, and the couple in front of them should already know which ofrenda to visit this year.
If the line didn't start moving again in the next 30 seconds, she was going to demand to speak to the person in charge.
The deadline hadn't come by the time she heard two voices calling to her.
"Imelda!"
"¡Hermana!"
She turned toward the voices and saw her brothers pushing their way through the crowd behind her.
"Óscar! Felipe!" She waved at them.
"Your foto is back!"
"Back on the ofrenda!"
Imelda grew suspicious. "What do you mean back?"
"Miguel took the foto off the ofrenda."
"And ripped off the entire right half of it."
"WHAT?!" She stormed out of the lobby and made a beeline for the bridge checkpoint.
Héctor took in the town around him as much as the trail of pedals would allow. The plaza, the markets, the schools, the church, and all the houses. Truly, he had missed out on a lot of changes since he died.
If only someone had put up his foto sooner.
And according to Sofía, he was a great-great-grandfather, and his great-great-grandson made an ofrenda for him. All he had to do now was find it, and hope that his Coco would be seen along the way.
The large sign shaped like a shoe was all he needed to know that he was back home. There were people gathered in the courtyard around a large table. Men and women laying out delicious food, two young boys chasing each other around the courtyard, and an old woman serving some older children.
There were also three translucent skeletons watching the oblivious family from the sidelines.
As soon as Héctor entered the courtyard, a very old woman in a wheelchair raised an arm toward Héctor.
"Papá?" She croaked weakly. "Papá?"
The living people took notice, and all activity tumbled to a standstill.
The woman who had been serving tamales set down her burden and tried to calm the woman who was no doubt his daughter Coco.
"Mamá, cálmese, cálmese."
Coco continued to look to Héctor as he inched closer.
"Papá is home!" She made an effort to smile. "You came home, Papá!"
By now, the invisible spirits had noticed this unusual behavior and were looking around.
It only took a few seconds for them to notice Héctor walking over to Coco, whose gaze remained fixed on him the entire time.
He smiled weakly as their expressions slipped into stunned disbelief. "Hola."
The living family remained unaware of the drama unfolding around them.
"So, these are the living members of the family?"
The skeleton in the blue dress was the first to speak. "I thought your face was ripped off of Abuelita's foto."
"Apparently, someone held onto that piece."
"It must have been Coco who kept it," the pink skeleton mused.
The short skeleton with the white mustache laughed nervously. "You might want to get out of here before Mamá Imelda gets here."
"Once I find my great-great-grandson's ofrenda, I will." He went off to look for it.
A Xolo dog barked to him, beckoning him to follow. The dog led him up to a rooftop below the shoe sign.
The other three skeletons watched as Héctor climbed through a hole behind the sign.
As soon as he had vanished behind the sign, Rosita looked to Julio and Victoria. "Should we tell Imelda about this?"