El Viaje de Coquita
El Capítulo Trece
Héctor ran up to the grave Socorro had fallen into. "¡Dios mio! Socorro, you can't run off like this!"
Socorro climbed out of the empty grave. "Sorry, Miguel. I just didn't want Abuelita to - -"
Her train of thought stopped dead when her eyes met Héctor's.
She screamed.
He screamed as well.
She shuffled back through the grass and ran into another skeleton.
With every new direction she tried to run, another skeleton stood in her path.
They quickly grew more and more dense as they approached her with confusion and fear.
She dove behind a gravestone to hide from all the skeletons.
As she peered out quaking like apples in a truck on potholes, she saw skeletons engaged in various activities. Dancing with one another, taking ghost copies of offerings off graves, and reminiscing fondly on their living family.
It quickly became apparent that she was seeing dead people.
But how was this possible? And why couldn't she interact with any living people?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a dog's tongue on her cheek.
"Dante?! You can see me?!"
The dog ran off toward the middle of the cemetery.
"Wait! What's going on? Dante? Dante!"
She ran into yet another skeleton, scattering his bones all over the place and tumbling to a stop.
She struggled to her feet. "S-Sorry, señor, I - -"
The man's skull popped upright. "Socorro?"
His exclamation was echoed by a woman in pink. "Socorro?"
Followed by another. "Socorro?"
Then a woman in blue. "Socorro?"
And a woman in purple. "Socorro?"
"Huh?" As the girl looked to the group, the man pulled himself together.
"You're here? Here here? And you can see us?"
Both women in pink ran through him as they went to give her a hug.
The younger-looking one squeezed the hardest. "Our Coqui-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ta!"
Socorro fought for breath. "Remind me how I know you?"
The older-looking skeleton answered her. "We're your family, mija."
They released her, allowing her to assess the spirits surrounding her.
She first assessed the dark-haired skeleton in pink. "Tía... Rosita?"
She gave a smile and a wave. "Sí."
Then the male skeleton, who was once again in one piece. "Papá Julio?"
He waved with a nervous smile. "Hola."
She turned around to the elder-looking skeleton in pink. "Mamá Coco?"
She smiled warmly. "Buenas noches."
She saw the skeleton in blue adjust her glasses. "Tía Victoria?"
She prodded Socorro's cheek. "She doesn't seem entirely dead..."
A girl with a sparkler ran through her.
Rosita laughed nervously. "Sh-She's not quite alive, either."
Two male voices sounded from across the graveyard. "¡Oyé!"
Two identical skeletons ran up to them.
"No sign of Elena."
"She hasn't crossed over."
"She's safe."
"For the time being."
While the others sighed with relief, Socorro took a long look at them. "Tío Óscar? Tío Felipe?"
"Ah. Hola, Socorro." The twins both gasped.
"Alright, that's enough! We need to know what's going on here!"
Socorro gulped at the sound of the last female voice. "M-Mamá Imelda..."
The late matriarch stared down the young girl. "You've got a lot of explaining to do, mujer joven."
Héctor found the family at that point. "We need to find Socorro! I think she - -"
"We know," they all responded together.
"Oh." He let off an embarrassed laugh. "Let's go see if anyone on the other side knows what's going on."
Imelda started walking to the back end of the graveyard. "¡Vámonos!"
The rest of the family followed after her, with Socorro in the middle and Dante, Coco, and Héctor bringing up the rear.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see."
As they approached the far end of the cemetery, Socorro saw a large pile of cempazuchitl pedals shaped into a bridge arching through a dark purple fog. Skeletons were walking across the bridge in both directions as though it was made of solid stone. At the point where earthly ground peeked through the pedals, the skeletons transitioned between translucent and intangible to opaque and solid.
Julio turned to see Socorro shy away from the invisible curtain separating the living world from the realm beyond. "Come on, Socorro; it-it's okay."
Héctor gently clasped Socorro by the shoulder and helped her onto the bridge. "There we go."
Socorro stepped along the bridge, marveling at how the pedals fully supported her weight despite being supported by nothing more than air. She picked up a handful of pedals, her attention being drawn to other bridges made of pedals spanning the same expanse of dark purple fog. "Whoa!"
Dante scampered ahead of the family down the bridge.
"Dante? Dante!" Socorro ran after the xolo dog. "You gotta stay with us, boy; we don't know..." she slowed down as the fog began to lift, "where..."
She was greeted with the sight of skyscrapers upon skyscrapers of every shape and size piled together and on top of one another, all of them decorated with more lights than Socorro could count.
She heard the rest of the family catching up to her. "This isn't a dream! You really are all out there!"
"Did you think we weren't?" Coco asked.
"Yo no sé. I thought it might have been one of those things that grown ups tell kids, like vitamins."
Victoria sighed. "Socorro, vitamins are a real thing."
"Well, now I'm thinking maybe they could be."
A skeleton girl caught sight of Socorro and gasped.
"Mija, it's not nice to stare at - - ¡Ay! ¡Santa Maria!"
Socorro pulled her sombrero lower over her face, but soon caught sight of a multicolored creature landing on a stone ledge ahead of them.
"Are those...?" Socorro gasped. "Alebrijes! But those are..."
Óscar nodded. "Real alebrijes."
"Spirit creatures," Felipe added.
"They guide souls on their journeys," Rosita explained.
"Just be careful where you step."
"They leave caquitas everywhere."
The family reached solid ground in the form of a stone walkway and joined the queue of souls returning from the Land of the Living.