Chapter 19: Mijo

A dozen trucks roared out of Santa Cecilia and onto the dusty roads heading towards the dense wooded area outside of it. The forest surrounding the town was full of tall pine trees dried out into husks as the dry seasons ravaged them, and as they drove past they saw numerous trees uprooted and collapsed from the earthquake. This did little to ease the fears of the Riveras as they looked at the devastated flora around them. Héctor sat next to Facundo in the leading truck as they sped towards the creek and he prayed that his boy didn't end up in the water. While the creek was the local hotspot for families during the summer, the waters were chilled to a near unbearable level during January.

The trucks stopped when the trees grew too thick to drive through and everyone jumped out, immediately calling Matty's name. They crawled through dense brush and thorny bushes until they finally made their way to the bubbling creek. Sure enough trees had collapsed along the bank as well, making it unrecognizable to the search party. Despite the fact that the creek was several miles long, a little boy couldn't have gone that far. He had to be there someplace.

"Mateo!" Héctor called out, his voice hoarse from hours of screaming and from the constant pain he had been enduring. "Matty, are you here?!"

Several members of the party called out as well, and at one point there were so many voices crying out that Héctor had almost missed it. A long, mournful noise followed by several smaller bursts. Héctor turned a sharp ear towards it and concentrated until he found the direction it was coming from. He trotted as fast as he could go, the pain in his back hindering his movements, before he rounded the bend and nearly ran into a small, hairless animal.

"Dante?!" Héctor gasped out when he recognized the dog. Dante twirled in a circle and frantically yelped at Héctor before reaching down to tug at his pant leg. "Dante, you know where Matty is?" Another yip came. "Take me to him, Dante! Please!"

Dante didn't have to be told twice and raced off in the opposite direction, only pausing to turn around and make sure that Héctor was following him. Héctor limped after the pup as fast as he could, making their way off of the riverbed and into a thick grove of trees. They came upon an old, overturned tree precariously perched on top a bed of rocks. Dante stopped running and started twirling in circles, yapping all the while. Was this it?

"Matty?!" Héctor called out. "Matty, are you there?!" He climbed up the rock formation and as he was reaching the next foothold he heard a sound: The sound of a child moaning in pain. Héctor gasped and hurried his ascent towards the tree and when he looked through the numerous branches, twigs and leaves he saw a mop of dark, black hair and the shine off of a pair of glasses. "MATTY!"

Matty stirred weakly and turned his head to the sound of Héctor's voice. "Papá?..."

"Yes!" Héctor cried victoriously and started to break away at the branches. "Don't worry Matty. Papá's here. I'm going to get you-"

"NO! STOP!" Matty shouted before he moaned again and cried out in pain. "Don't move the tree!... It's got me… In the shoulder…"

Héctor peered down slightly and sure enough there was a thick, broken off piece of a branch piercing Matty through the shoulder, a small pool of blood staining the rock beneath him. Héctor's face paled and his heart jumped into his throat when he saw it, but he held the panic at bay and cracked a smile. "Niño torpe." Héctor chuckled. "Just like your Papá… Don't worry mijo. Help is on the way. We'll get you back on your feet in no time!"

Héctor maneuvered his way through all of the branches until he was within reaching distance of his son. "Here's some water," he said as filled the cap of the canteen. "You drink this, I know you're thirsty." He slowly tipped the cap into Matty's mouth but still the boy lightly choked on the liquid. When he managed to swallow it he filled it up again.

Dante in the meantime had wound his way through the branches and curled up against Matty, who sighed in relief. "You've been keeping him warm this whole time? Good boy Dante, very good boy!" He rubbed the scaly skin on Dante's head and the puppy thumped his tail happily at the praise.

"Héctor?!" Facundo shouted as he rounded the bend.

"Facundo, I found him!" Héctor yelled out, causing Matty to wince in pain. "Get everyone over here pronto, especially Dr. Alviso!" As Facundo raced back to the party, Héctor rubbed his son's face gently. "We're going to get you out of here soon, mijo. Just relax, it'll all be over soon."

It wasn't surprising that Imelda was the first of them to reach the fallen tree and when she saw Matty she burst into tears. "Oh, mi hijo! Matty, pobrecito! You're bleeding!" She reached out to cup Matty's cheek.

"Mamá…" Matty moaned and leaned into Imelda's touch, savoring the warmth.

"Stand back!" Dr. Alviso called out as he made his way towards the boy. "Dios mio, Mateo! We've really got to stop meeting like this!" He said jokingly as he examined the branch impaling Matty. "It looks like we were in luck. The rocks stopped the tree from crushing him completely, but at the same time the tree is providing enough pressure to stifle the bleeding. If one or the other was missing it would have been too late."

Héctor and Imelda paled as they looked at each other. Matty would have died from either being crushed or having bled out.

"We need to do this slowly and carefully." Dr. Alviso said as he dug out a small needle from his bag. "First we need to cut away these branches so we can all reach the trunk. We need to saw them off, no axes and no standing on any part of the tree. We can't risk adding more pressure to the wound." He filled the syringe up with a small dose of morphine. "Then we have to lift the tree up in the exact angle it pierced him so it doesn't tear him anymore. Mateo, you're going to feel a slight pinch but you'll start feeling better soon." At Matty's faint nod Dr. Alviso stuck him in the neck with the needle. Matty didn't even flinch. "Once the tree is off him we have to immediately pull him out and apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Claro?"

Héctor nodded and rubbed Matty's face as the boy started to doze off. "We'll get you out of here, mijo." He whispered.

It took another trip back into town to get enough saws for everyone to use, and despite everyone working together it took hours to slowly saw away the branches. Finally all that was left was the long, knobby tree trunk pinning the little boy. Héctor and Imelda grabbed hold of Matty's arms and braced for their cue. On the count of three all the men lifted the trunk straight up. Matty screamed in pain as the jagged end of the branch slid out of his shoulder and his parents quickly pulled him out from underneath it. Dr. Alviso immediately applied pressure to the hemorrhaging wound and transferred Matty to the stretcher waiting to the side. With a mighty heave the tree was tossed off the rock formation to tumble into the creek below.

"Let's get him to Aldo's truck!" Dr. Alviso called out. "He has the biggest bed!"

Oscar and Felipe took hold of the stretcher and gently lifted up, slowly walking down the rocks and onto the river bed with Dr. Alviso still applying pressure to the wound. Héctor and Imelda followed on the other side of the board, whispering reassuring words to their son as he lay unconscious. They made their way through the thick brush again until they made it back to the trucks. Matty was laid down on the truck bed of Aldo's truck as his parents and Dr. Alviso climbed in with him.

The truck sped off towards the hospital at top speed, every bump and jerk causing Matty to cry out in pain. "Give him some more of that morphine, Tomas!" Héctor said.

"I don't want to give him too much, Héctor!" Dr. Alviso yelled back over the noise and wind. "He might have a concussion as well! It could affect his brain!"

As they reached the hospital Matty was immediately placed on a waiting gurney and whisked off into the emergency room. Héctor, Imelda and the twins were left standing in the entrance hallway, watching the little boy disappear behind closed doors. Héctor sighed and leant against the wall in relief. This terrible day was coming to a close.

"That was a good thing you remembered the creek, Héctor." Oscar said smiling.

"Good? No it was great!" Felipe exclaimed.

"Yes, it was." Imelda said with tears in her eyes. "You saved our son, Héctor! Gracias!" Imelda rushed to her husband and wrapped him in a big hug.

Héctor cried out in pain as the worse muscle spasm he had experienced yet shot electrical pain all up and down his spine. His vision whited out and the last thing he heard as he collapsed to the ground was his wife's frantic voice.

He didn't know how long he was out, but the next thing Héctor knew he was laying on his own gurney surrounded by nurses as they wheeled him down the hallway.

"N-no…" Héctor mumbled out. "I'm fine. Gotta see Matty…"

"Mateo is in surgery right now." Another doctor that Héctor didn't recognize said. "Don't you worry, he's in Dr. Alviso's hands now and will pull through. Right now I need to check your own injuries, Señor Rivera."

"B-but-"

"You will listen to the doctor!" Imelda said as she briskly kept up with the gurney. "No more of this machismo Héctor, it doesn't suit you! You were hurt protecting me, and you will get treated or I will make those injuries seem minor compared to what my boot will do to you!"

Héctor shrunk back onto the gurney. "Si, capitán…"

The doctor examined Héctor's back, cleaning and stitching up the worse of the cuts while also rubbing and pulling at different spots. Héctor would jerk and moan at each pull, trying not to crush Imelda's hand as she held his for comfort. The doctor finally wrapped up Héctor's torso with his findings.

"Well, you have some torn back muscles and a cracked rib. No concussion, which is surprising. It's amazing you were able to walk around and lift stuff for so long. Love and adrenaline are amazing things, eh?" The doctor joked. "The only way to heal these is just to rest. No heavy lifting, but there are some exercises you can start doing in a few days. I'll prescribe you some pain pills as well."

"Gracias doctor." Imelda said. "When will we know about Matty?"

"Can't say for sure, Señora." The doctor said. "But you can both sit in the waiting area for the time being."

It turned out to be over an hour of waiting in quiet desperation for the Riveras. Oscar and Felipe had returned home to fetch Coco, so now the whole family was waiting for news on their youngest child. Finally Dr. Alviso came out, with Imelda helping Héctor to stand as he approached them.

"Well, I cleaned and stitched up the wound." Dr. Alviso said. "The branch didn't hit any arteries, but infection has already set in and he lost a lot of blood. He's on heavy antibiotics right now and I want to keep him in the hospital for a few days. Puncture wounds are tricky things, especially when they're from dirty objects like that tree branch. I want to keep an eye on it." Then he managed a small, reassuring smile. "That being said I think we made it just in time. Mateo's tougher than he looks."

"Can we see him?" Héctor asked quietly.

"Si." Dr. Alviso nodded. "He's asleep right now in recovery. Just one person at a time though."

"You go first, Imelda." Héctor said. "I-I need to sit down." Héctor gingerly sat back down on the chair as he watched Imelda leave with the doctor. Coco sat down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, with Héctor also leaning against her. A small wave of relief washed over him and he closed his eyes tiredly. His son was going to be alright.

It was pure luck that when it was Héctor's turn to sit with Matty that the boy's eyes fluttered open. He let out a soft sigh which alerted his father to his bedside. "Mijo? Are you awake?"

Matty winced a little before swallowing. "Thirsty…"

"Of course you are, you lost too much fluid!" Héctor filled up a paper cup with water and gently lifted the boy's head up to drink. "Slowly mijo, nice and slow." Once Matty had taken a few sips to wet his mouth and throat Héctor set him back down and retrieved his glasses off the bedside table. "There you are, now you can see." He said as he placed them on his son's face.

Matty blinked the blurriness from his eyes before they settled on Héctor. "Papá…"

"Oh, Matty!" Héctor said as he bent forward to kiss Matty on the head, wincing slightly at the pull on his back. "Gracias a Dios. We thought we were going to lose you! I was so terrified!" He sniffled a little and placed a hand on Matty's cheek. "Why mijo? Why were you at the creek alone? Why didn't you go to school all week? If you weren't ready you should have just told me!"

Matty glanced away from his father's questioning eyes. "Didn't think there would be an earthquake…"

Héctor's brow furrowed. "Don't dodge the question, chamaco." He said sternly. "Why were you skipping school? You've had all of us worried sick, we deserve to know why."

Gradually Matty's face began to scrunch up and turn red, his mouth in a tight line as he tried to hold a flood of emotions back. Then a small burst erupted from him and it was all downhill from there. Maybe it was the drugs in his system, the shock of the whole day, or maybe it was just finally time, but the tears that had been kept dormant in his eyes since his sister's death suddenly erupted forth and the poor boy was wracked with heaving painful sobs.

Héctor kept his hands on his son as he jerked with the force of his sobs, trying to keep the healing wound from reopening. "Matty! It's alright, cálmese! We're not angry with you, you are not in trouble!" He wiped the tears pouring down Matty's face. "It's okay."

Between a few choking gasps, Matty managed to squeak a word out. "…me…"

"What?"

"It should have been me!" Matty sobbed as he scrubbed at his eyes furiously. "I was the smaller baby. I'm the one who always gets sick or hurt. I'm the one who has no friends, so no one would miss me! It wouldn't be this painful for our family if it was me! Leti shouldn't have gotten sick, I should have! I was the one who was supposed to just… die!"

Héctor had to physically restrain himself from grabbing hold of the boy and shake some sense into him. Instead he placed his hands on Matty's shoulders, his eyes wide with horror. "No! Don't say that! Don't even think for a moment that is true!" Tears came to his own eyes as he cried. "Mateo, I love you! I love you so much that it hurts! When I thought you might have been dead as well, I-… I felt like dying myself! You have to realize how loved you really are!"

Matty continued to cry and shake his head, and Héctor sighed in sadness. "Matty, when Leti died, a part of all of us died with her. Especially in me. I tried so hard to make her well again that when she did die I felt like a failure. But mijo, just because I wished she never died doesn't mean I would have rather it had been you, or Coco, or Mamá, or your tios. Every single one of you are so precious to me. I will do everything in my power to keep my family safe and loved. Even if I have to hold you close and smother you in kisses every minute of the day. But you wouldn't want that, would you?"

Matty still sobbed out in grief, but a small quirk of his lips and a pained laugh escaped him. "No…"

"Matty…" Héctor whispered as he kissed the boy's forehead. "I love you more than life itself. Don't you ever forget that."

"I'm sorry Papá…" Matty whimpered as he held his arms out for a hug. Héctor gladly gave it to him. "I love you too. But-… I miss her so much. I feel so empty in my heart."

"I know mijo. I feel it too." Héctor said into his son's hair. "And it'll never really go away, but it will get better I promise. We'll be here for you. Always."

The week slowly crawled by as Héctor and Matty were stuck in bed while their wounds healed, with Imelda stuffing them both with too much food and fussing over them to sleep more and more. When they were finally cleared for light work by their doctors Héctor sighed with relief while Matty was still apprehensive. While he still wasn't ready he knew he needed to go back to school. All that homework piling up was going to hurt him in the long run.

In order to quell his parents' fears he allowed Héctor to walk him to school on his first day back, despite the embarrassment, and would be walked back home by him as well. When he arrived in the classroom he was greeted by warm welcomes from his teacher and by the other students as well, some of them giving him cards and candies in order to make him feel better. In fact it did lift his spirits up, that is until his eyes fell on Sergio, who was sneering at him with a malicious glint that he was all too familiar with, and his nerves began to fray again. Still he was determined to stick it out and complete his first day back.

The day ended without a fuss, and as the children all ran off towards their own homes Matty sat on the steps of the school, sucking on one of the tamarind candies given to him as he waited for his father to come. He felt a presence behind him and suddenly a foot shoved him on his back, sending him tumbling down to the ground. With a groan he pushed himself up only to see Sergio with his friends.

"Well well, Fatty Matty is waiting for his papi to come pick him up from school like a baby." Sergio laughed crudely as he elbowed his friends in to join him. To Matty's surprise Sergio's friends didn't laugh along with him, instead they just looked at Matty with what he could only describe as empathy.

"Don't call me that!" Matty said. "I'm not fat…"

"I know you're not, estupido! It's an ironic joke!" Sergio growled. "You too stupid to know what that is? You probably weigh ten pounds soaking wet, and most of the weight is probably from your nose!" Sergio picked up the bag of spilled candy and popped one into his mouth. "You don't mind if I take this, do you?"

"Sergio, c'mon!" One of Sergio's friends pulled at the bully's shoulder pleadingly. It was Barto, one of the fatter kids at school who used his bulk to his advantage to pick on other kids. But apparently he had standards now. "This isn't right! He just lost his sister…"

"Yeah?" Sergio scoffed. "Well I would have left him alone too, until he decided to run away and get himself beat up by a tree! You know my Papá wasted his time trying to find you? Worthless, if you ask me!" He handed the near empty bag of candy to Barto, but the boy didn't dare eat any of them, or the rest of his friends.

"Leti was cool, unlike you. Even if she did push my face in the mud a few times for picking on you, I knew she liked me too." Sergio boasted as he circled Matty, who was still kneeling in the dirt. Sergio kicked up a few clouds of dirt at Matty, who flinched every time as he kept staring at the ground. "She was really cute, had tons of friends. All the girls cried when she died. Do you think they'd cry as much over un burro feo like you?"

Matty hunched his shoulders and squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to block out the insults, but tears still threatened to spill over.

"Sergio, stop! Please." Barto said imploringly.

"Hey, I'm trying to help him." Sergio said with fake sincerity. "Rivera probably thinks he should have died instead of his sweet twin sister. His better half. But I know how to make you feel better, Rivera!" He hunched down and placed a comforting hand on Matty's trembling shoulder. "Why don't we all go down to the cemetery, open Leti's crypt, take her out and stuff you inside it instead?!" Sergio laughed cruelly as his friends gasped in disgust. "And while you rot underneath, I'll show Leti a really good time that she never got to experience in life! Make a real woman out of her!"

Matty had a lot of makeup homework in his knapsack, filled with worksheets and thick volumes of textbooks that he was going to have to read in a short amount of time. He practically had to drag the bag outside on the ground, it was so heavy. But now it seemed as light as a feather as a newfound strength coursed through his muscles and he swung the sack as hard and fast as he could into an arch, and it came crashing into Sergio's stupid ugly face.

Sergio's head snapped to the side, bloody spit spewing out of his mouth and a crackling pain striking his cheek as he was thrown off of his feet onto the ground. Before he could even register what had happened a small bony body jumped onto his chest and knocked the wind out of him. Then bursts of pain came raining down him as his vision became blinding white flashes of stars and other shapes, all the while a voice was screaming horrible curse words at him.

As Héctor made his way to the school, he noticed a group of children gathered around in a huddle by the entrance and screaming. His brow twisted in confusion at the sight until a little girl came running up to him. "Señor Rivera, come quick! Matty's in a fight with Sergio!"

"Ay, joder!" Héctor whispered and broke out into a sprint towards the watching crowd of children. He knew one day it would come to this. No matter how many times he had talked with Sergio's father and no matter how many times the boy had been lectured, Sergio was rotten to the core. There was absolutely nothing good about that little slime, despite his young age. He was a stupid brute too, having been held back three years and using his age and size to rule over all the smaller children. Now that he had finally laid a hand on his son Héctor was not going to hold back this time.

He pushed his way through the children and instead of finding his son in danger, the exact opposite was happening. Matty was straddled on top of Sergio's chest, his fists bloodied and torn as he continued to pound and slap at the older boy, who was frantically screaming and crying with his face a bloodied mess. Matty was also crying, but instead of misery his face was skewed up in such a rictus of rage that it chilled Héctor to his bones. All the while one of the teachers was trying to pry Matty off of Sergio, but Matty was too strong and too full of rage to be pulled away.

"Vete al infierno, mamahuevo! No me jodas!" Matty roared as he continued to punch Sergio. The little girls surrounding him covered their mouths, scandalized by the swears Matty was screaming. "You sick sadistic monster! I'll kill you!"

"Matty, stop!" Héctor said as he grabbed hold of Matty and managed to pull him off the screaming, crying child. "That's enough!"

Matty fought against Héctor's hold as he spat on Sergio. "Talk about my sister like that again and I will blind you!"

"MATEO!" Héctor yelled as he gave a harsh slap against his son's face. Matty's face jerked back and his eyes went wide in surprise, his face falling into a stupefied expression as he gazed off into nothing. Héctor took him by the shoulders and gave him a shake. "Snap out of it, mijo! C'mon, Matty breathe. It's okay, breathe!"

Matty blinked a few times before coming back to the present with a gasp, slowly registering that all of his schoolmates were staring at him in horror. Then he noticed he was being held by his father. "Papá?" he whispered in a hoarse voice.

"It's okay mijo." Héctor soothed and held the boy close. "You're alright. It's okay."

"El esta loco!" Sergio screamed as he tried to crawl his way backwards towards his gang. "He attacked me for no reason!" He turned towards the teacher with pleading eyes. "I was just talking to him and he started beating me up!"

Matty shook his head, his anger returning. "No!" he yelled. "You said you were going to put me in Leti's grave and then do terrible things to her body!" His last word came out as an anguished sob as he collapsed into Héctor's hold. Héctor and the teacher looked back at Sergio in anger and disgust.

Sergio shook his head vigorously. "No I didn't! He's lying! He's a liar! He lied about going to school when he was playing hooky and he's lying now!"

"You did say it!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes he did…"

A new voice popped up and everyone turned towards Barto and the rest of Sergio's gang. Barto stepped forward and spoke in Matty's defense. "Matty was just sitting there and Sergio came over and kicked him to the ground. And then he said all of those horrible things about Leti. About giving her a good time and making her a real woman. Didn't he?" He turned to the rest of the gang, and they all nodded their heads in agreement. The teacher was appalled as she glared daggers at Sergio.

Sergio was livid, but in too much pain to do anything else but scream. "You traitors! Barto, you filthy rat!"

"You're the filthy one, Sergio!" Barto said, before looking Matty in the eyes. "You don't speak that way about people after they die." Matty still lay limp in his father's arms, but he gave a slight nod of gratitude towards Barto and his friends.

"Señor Rivera, you may take your son home." The teacher said before roughly pulling Sergio to his feet. "I'll take care of this little deviant. The rest of you go on home as well!" And with that she took the little hellion by the arm and dragged him back into the schoolhouse.

"Matty beat up Sergio!" one child said.

"A boy half his size beat him up! Ha ha! Qué perdedor patético!" another laughed.

"Hooray for Matty! Olé!"

The children cheered for Matty, coming over to give the boy a hearty pat on the back and congratulate him for conquering the school bully who made all of their lives miserable. Even Barto came over to apologize for his past actions. Had he not been so tired from his fight Matty would have relished all the positive attention, but the rush had fled him now leaving him sore and exhausted. He even let his father carry him in his arms as they made their way out of the schoolyard and down the street.

"I'm sorry Papá." Matty said quietly when they were finally alone.

"I know you are mijo." Héctor said with a warm smile.

"Am I in trouble?" Matty asked.

"I think I'll let it slide this time." Héctor said. "I always knew and feared you two would come to blows one day, I'm just glad you were the victor. I won't even ask how you learned all those bad words."

Matty blushed. "I didn't know what I was saying, really." He sighed and rested his head on his father's shoulder. "Are we going home now?"

"Nope, we're going to the doctor." Héctor said.

"Eh?" Matty lifted his head up. "But why?"

"You've sprung a leak." Héctor said as he pointed to Matty's shoulder, which was stained red with blood. The stitches had burst through all of the mad flailing.

"Oh…"