It was late at night, close to midnight. The feast of friendship was in three days, and Esteban and Dona Paloma were finishing the planning meeting. "Wow, I've never planned anything this intense before. This is very hard, and a lot of work." Esteban whined, looking at Dona Paloma, who smirked. "Oh, Chancellor, you don't know the meaning of hard work. When did you work 21 hours a day at a shoe factory, 7 days a week?" Dona Paloma challenged.
"When have you?" Esteban shot back, figuring he had her trapped. The cocky smile slid from her face. Her voice got hushed, and she became grim and somber. "Five years. Fromjust before my thirteenth birthday to right after my eighteenth. I only made five cents a week. I finally got enough money to send home to my family in Paararhiso so they could rebuild our cattle ranch. But I took too long. So I bought my emporium, applied to Shuriki for magister of trade, and that's what I've been doing for the last ten years."
"I'm sorry, I... wait, you're only twenty eight? And you have a cattle ranch?"
She smiled weakly at the Chancellor. "Yes, I try to make myself look older so I look more professional. Clearly it worked. And I had a cattle ranch. It was my father's childhood home. He took over it when his parents died in a carriage accident. That was when my mom was pregnant with Ashley."
Esteban cocked his head. "Ashley?"
"My older sister. She was two years older than Emma, and then there was my brother Matthew. He was a year younger than Emma, and Chris was four years younger than him, and Sarah was three years behind Chris. I was eight years behind Sarah. My mom, Clara named all my siblings. My father, Diego, got to name me. He named me after his mom." Her voice cracked and tears sparkled in her eyes. "No matter how old they got, they all stayed on the ranch. Ashley was 31 when I left."
Esteban looked at me curiously. "So, your thirty one year old sister still stayed on the farm, but you left at thirteen?"
Dona Paloma nodded. "There was a flood. We lost everything. All the cattle, all our crops, all the structures on our property, gone. Ashley, Emma, and Chris were killed, and Matthew died in the hospital two days later for head injury. Our parents got awful cases of pneumonia. Sarah stayed to care for them while I went to make money. I was too slow. I wasn't a fast enough worker, and I didn't work hard enough. My parents died after a few months, and Sartah got sick and died soon too. It was just me." Tears rolled down her face, and she wiped at them angrily.
Esteban wrapped his arms around her, and Dona Paloma hurt too much to pull away. Dia de los muertos is coming soon," he said soothingly.
Dona Paloma shook her head into his chest. She pulled back to talk to him. " I can't. We lost everything. I don't have anything to make them an altar with."
"Don't say that," chided Esteban. "What did they like?"
A few weeks later, Dia De Los Muertos had arrived, and Esteban had slipped away from his family to collect Dona Paloma, who was managing an account book behind the counter. "Come with me." He said, simply, curtly. Curious, Dona Paloma followed him to a beautiful cliff overlooking the sea. The sun was just beginning to set. A wagon was filled with things. Things that represented Dona Paloma's family in some way or other. Red ribbon for Ashley, sunflowers for Emma, a model airplane for Matthew, a biology textbook for Chris, a stethoscope for Sarah, a paintbrush for her mother, and a carving knife for her father were just a few things mong the large number in the wagon. Crying, Dona Paloma whirled around, flung her arms around Esteban, and kissed him on the mouth. Esteban was only shocked for a second before kissing her back enthusiastically, the ocean breeze whirling around them, blowing Dona's hair loose, her hat off her head and her skirt against his legs, and the sun's last glow of day blessongf the kiss with a halo of light.