Chapter 26: Coming to Terms

The next morning Héctor and Imelda had sat Coco, Matty and Julio down on the couch and, after much hemming and hawing in the next room, finally made their way in to sit across from them. Any little confidence they felt was immediately lost at the three pairs of eyes boring into them, and an awkward silence hung in the air for a few minutes. It was Matty who managed to break the uncomfortableness.

"If you two are just going to sit there sweating, I'm going to go study for my English test." Matty said in a bored tone.

Héctor jumped up. "No! No, we're sorry. We'll talk." When Matty sat back down Héctor took a deep breath and smiled widely. "So… How are all of you doing this morning?"

Julio and Matty looked confused before they both mumbled out that they were doing fine. Coco spoke up, "Actually, I am a little nauseous this morning. But I guess that's one of the drawbacks to having a baby."

"Ah yes, the baby!" Héctor smiled even more unnaturally wide, with Imelda mimicking him. "Yes… Baby, baby, baby… Congratulations for your baby, again. Having a baby is truly wonderful, baby. Baby girl, baby boy, who cares? As long as the baby is healthy and the baby is happy, then the baby can just be a baby in the only baby way a baby can be."

"Papá, if you say baby one more time I'll get Coco to puke on you."

"What your father is trying to say," Imelda interjected. "Is that we are just very excited about your baby, Coco. After you tried so hard to get one, and now your dream is coming true… But you know is better than one baby? Two babies!"

"You mean like twins?" Coco asked, looking at Matty with concern. Sure enough the teen's face darkened at that thought, so it was time to change course.

"No, not exactly, mija." Imelda said. "Though I would say, another different baby from a different mother. Who would be born around the same time as your little one. Two babies who would grow up close to one another…"

"Oh, you mean the Herrera's?" Julio asked. "Si, they came into the shop yesterday and told me that they were also expecting. Looks like I'll be building two new luxury cribs these next few months."

"Or three?" Héctor shrugged. "Three would be nice. Especially if this baby was really, really close to our family… As in blood related… As in being your baby's tio or tia."

There was a few seconds pause before Matty shot up with a gasp and glared down at them. "No mames! Mamá, you're… You're having a baby too?!"

"Mateo, watch your language!" Imelda snapped. "And… yes. Yes I am."

"No mames! No mames!" Matty strode out of the living room and marched across the courtyard to his bedroom. Everyone jerked as the door was slammed shut, leaving them all in silence again. Coco and Julio stared at them with wide eyes and mouths agape before Coco managed to snap out of it. She leapt from the sofa and knelt down in front of her mother, gingerly holding her hand.

"I can't believe it! Mamá… are you sure?"

Imelda nodded. "I missed my monthly and I've been feeling sick and tired as well, so I went to the doctor a few days ago just to make sure. And the tests confirmed it."

"Oh Mamá." Coco stood up and hugged Imelda tightly, and some of the tension melted from Imelda's shoulders. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"I'm okay for now, thank you Coco." Imelda sighed. "I just want you to know that this was not planned. I would never have dreamed of trying to take this excitement away from you-"

"Don't think that, Mamá. I don't care about that! I just want you and I to be healthy. Besides," Coco smiled, "It might be fun, the two of us being pregnant together. We can help each other out, eat a bunch of food together, and make sure we're wearing the right shoes on our feet." Imelda broke down into happy tears and hugged her daughter back, and soon Coco was crying as well.

Julio stood up and made his way over to Héctor, patting him on the back. "Congratulations, Papá Héctor. Looks like you and I are in for quite the ride."

"Si…" Héctor said, glaring out the window to Matty's bedroom. "If you all will excuse me, I have to go talk to my son." He left the three of them and marched across the courtyard, and as he got closer he could hear the sound of Matty's trumpet playing loud and hard, with Dante howling along with the notes from the other side. The boy always did that when he was angry, and these last few years that had been a lot. Sometimes to be extra spiteful he would play one of Héctor's songs, like what he was doing right now. But now was not the time for teenage temper tantrums. His family needed him now more than ever.

Héctor knocked on the wood harshly. "Mateo, open the door." The ranchera song blew even louder to drown out his pounding. "No matter how hard you blow I know you can still hear me!... Matty, if you don't open this door right now I'm going to kick it down, make you drive me to the hospital and then make you pay for my broken foot!"

The door opened abruptly to let Dante in and left ajar for Héctor. When he stepped inside Matty had flopped down onto his bed, glaring up at the ceiling with his trumpet still in his hands and rapidly fingering the valves. Dante jumped up onto the bed and lay across his lap, but that did little to calm the boy's ire. Héctor walked to the other side of the room and gingerly sat down on Leti's bed, careful not to knock over any of the stuffed animals or mess up the sheets too much. "I know what you're thinking, mijo."

Matty scoffed. "Do you now?"

"Yes, I do. I'm a lot sharper than I look." Héctor sighed and rubbed his face. "You think that this was planned. That we set out to have another baby to… replace the one we lost." He reached behind him and picked up a stuffed elephant. He smiled at the beaded eyes and fingered the dark juice stain that Leti had spilled on it when she was three. "Come on now, if that was the case then we would have tried immediately after Leti died. But we would never do something as callous as that. Besides, nothing could ever replace her, Matty… I still wake up every day thinking that my family is whole, and then I feel that pain when I realize that it isn't. Every day."

"But just because a piece of our family is gone doesn't mean we can't still grow. This new baby is not going to be Leti. It's not going to be anything remotely like her. It's going to be his or her own person. I know it's hard to let someone into your heart again after it's been broken, but we can't just shut ourselves off from ever experiencing love again."

"I know." Matty sighed, finally looking at his father. "It's still scary though."

Héctor put the elephant back in its proper place and smoothed out Leti's sheets. "It's scary for all of us, mijo. But the one who is most scared is your Mamá. She was terrified when she found out, and she cried in my arms all night until she fell asleep."

Matty looked concerned as he sat up. "She did? Why?"

Héctor nodded at his son's question, sat at the foot of Matty's bed and began to pet Dante. "Well, you have to admit it is a little surreal: Being a new Mamá and a grandma at the same time. She was also afraid of what her family would think of it." He glared at his son, who had the decency to look ashamed as he averted his eyes. "It's also dangerous, mijo. There are a lot of complications with pregnancy, and the older you get the more those complications increase. She's afraid that something might happen and she'd lose it."

Matty's eyes widened. "Lose it? Oh…"

Héctor crossed his arms. "This is going to be especially tough on her, Matty. The last thing she needs right now is stress, which is why I want her to have our full support and give her anything she might need. And that means no more of these outbursts of yours. You think you can handle that?"

Matty nodded his head solemnly. "Si, I understand. And… I'm sorry, Papá."

Héctor shook his head. "I'm not the one you need to say sorry to. First you are going to apologize profusely to your Mamá. Then you are going to make it up to her by making dinner for the whole family. I think your famous chilaquiles will do the trick."

"You mean the only thing I know how to make? Sure, I can do that." Matty grinned and gave Héctor a hug, both of them a little more at peace with the odd situation at hand. When they pulled away he still had to ask, "So… You're sure this wasn't planned?"

Héctor patted Matty shoulder. "Ay, mi niño precioso… None of you were planned."

Héctor gasped and wheezed as he doubled over with laughter, his face turning red and tears flowing down his face.

"It's not funny Héctor." Ernesto grumbled.

"Oh, but it is! HA ha ha ha!" He trailed off into tittering giggles that he tried to suppress with his hand but to no avail. There was the great Ernesto de la Cruz, the most famous singer in all of Mexico, dressed up like a priest of all things and dangling from a wire in front of a cloudy backdrop. The wire twisted and untwisted itself and Ernesto was helpless as he slowly turned to and fro while clutching his golden guitar. "Ernesto de la Cruz, the world's first flying penguin! BAH HA HA!"

"It's supposed to be majestic!" Ernesto tried to say with pride, though whatever dignity he had was lost as the wire twisted him with his back to Héctor. "The music convinces the landowner to keep the orphanage from being turned into a tavern, the children are saved from going to work in the mines, and then I metaphorically soar amongst the heavens in triumph!"

"Of course, of course!" Héctor wiped away his tears. "Tell me hermano, did those priest robes burn your skin when you put them on?! Ha!"

"I don't have to take this. Juan! Lower me down!" Ernesto glared with menace at Héctor as he squeakily came close to the ground. "I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget." Once his feet touched the ground Ernesto continued his descent until he was lying flat on the ground, making Héctor only laugh harder. "…My legs are asleep."

"Here, I'll lower myself to your standards." Héctor said as he sat down on the ground while Ernesto struggled to sit up.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Ernesto asked. "Shouldn't you be at home with your expecting wife?"

Héctor gave Ernesto the box he had been holding. "Imelda wanted me to give you these personally. She said that these were too important to entrust to some acne-riddled courier. Not after last time when all the shoes for your last movie ended up at a brothel across town."

"Hey we got the shoes back in the end, after some, heh, negotiations." Ernesto opened the box and marveled at the bright red, jewel encrusted boots with golden toes. "Ha, bonita! Imelda has really outdone herself this time! They're perfect!"

"I'm glad you like them." Héctor said. "Though if you're planning for a Mexican remake of The Wizard of Oz, I've gotta say that you'd make an ugly Dorothy."

Ernesto huffed in exasperation. "Is there a celebrity roast going on that I've not been made aware of?! Madre de Dios!... And no, pendejo. These boots are for my upcoming Navidad Spectacular. The one that you won't be coming to."

"Well I'm sorry, amigo, but I can't go. The babies are going to be due in December and I need to be there. Especially for Imelda." Héctor sighed. "Things haven't been going easy for her."

Compared to her last two pregnancies, Imelda had been having a rough go at it this time. Her nausea still hadn't dissipated despite being in her sixth month, leading to her becoming severely dehydrated and having to take water intravenously a few times at the hospital.

The only thing she had been able to eat and keep down was discovered purely by accident. Matty had been attempting to cook something delicious for his mother and sister, still trying to make up for his earlier outburst. The end result had been tomatoes being burnt to a crisp and pozole having the consistency of wet cement. While Coco had fled the kitchen at the terrible smell of the food, Imelda was entranced by it. Then they all stared in awe as Imelda finished the whole pot of pozole herself and knocked back all of the crispy tomatoes in deep satisfaction, finally scratching an itch that no one would ever had thought she would be craving. Matty then became Imelda's own personal chef, feeding her all the overcooked meals she could eat.

Coco on the other hand had been going through pregnancy swimmingly. Her nausea had only been slight at the beginning, and after that she had been able to eat almost anything put in front of her, and a lot of it at that. The weird part was that no matter what she was eating, sweet or savory, she always had to have a heaping bowl of guacamole to go along with it. If no guacamole was available at the time then she would simply peel an avocado and bite into it as if it were an apple. Also at every meal she would always have to have a Coke or two. The drink had replaced all other liquids in Coco's life to the point where Julio had to buy another refrigerator just for her beverages. And heaven help you if you even tried to sneak one Coke out of the fridge. Those were Coco's Cokes and no one else's!

But while Coco had gained a little weight during her pregnancy, Imelda had lost weight. No matter how much overcooked food she managed to eat, all that nourishment had gone straight to the baby and not her. Her face had become gaunt, her arms bony and she was too tired to work in the shoe shop anymore. The doctor had grown quite worried about it as well and had put Imelda on strict bedrest, with nothing but a radio in her bedroom to keep her company. Her worst fears were slowly becoming realized: That this pregnancy was dangerous for not only her, but for her beloved child as well.

"I shouldn't even be here!" Héctor sighed. "I know I just got here Ernesto, but I have to catch the next train back. Imelda needs me. She's so bored being stuck in bed all day, but she's also scared. I need to be there for her."

Ernesto patted Héctor on the back. "Ah, my friend. You are a much better man than me."

Héctor smiled. "Oh, Ernesto. How can I be better than a man of the cloth?"

"I'm serious!" Ernesto growled. "It takes guts for any man to be a father. But you? After everything that has happened… I respect you a great deal, amigo."

"Gracias, Ernesto." Héctor said. "And hey, you're still young… ish. You could be a great father some day!"

Ernesto paled at that thought, and then barked out a laugh. "Who, me? Pffft! Don't be ridiculous! Me a father. I have no need to raise a family, amigo. The world is my family! Besides, I am far too free-spirited to be tied down to one woman and a child. Too wild. Too worldly!" He smiled big as a little voice echoed in his brain. Too haunted. Too damaged. Too awful. No one could ever love me, not if they knew what I was capable of. What I almost did…

"Well before I go," Héctor said, interrupting Ernesto from his dark thoughts as he pulled out a few pages. "I wanted to show you a song I had written on the train ride over here. It just sprung to my mind and I had to put it on paper."

"You wrote a song off the top of your head on a bumpy train? Amigo, you are indeed a maestro." Ernesto flipped through the pages and hummed out the notes to himself, a grin slowly spreading on his face and his eyes lighting up with glee. "Héctor… This is perfect!"

"Perfect for what?"

"Perfect for this movie! This is the song the priest should sing to the landowner! This is the song of my dreams! Oye, Anton!" Ernesto called over the director of the movie and flapped the pages in his face. "Change of plans amigo! This is the song that we'll play in the movie, not Cambiar el Mundo. The new song will be this gem by my songwriter, La Oración de los Niños!"

The director paled and his eyes bugged out before he chuckled nervously and spoke slowly. "Ernesto… we've already shot the scenes where you play Cambiar el Mundo. Filming has almost wrapped up, the orchestra has already recorded the score, hell the actor you play it to in the movie is already back home in Guadalajara!"

Ernesto rolled his eyes. "Well then bring him back! What am I paying you all for if I can't have the privilege of changing things at the last minute? Pull me back up Juan! We're going to reshoot all of the music scenes, including the sky scenes!" As he rose back up above their heads Ernesto pointed at Héctor. "My friend, this is all thanks to you. You should be proud! Everyone, give your thanks to Hector Rivera for making this all possible!"

As the director and all of the production staff glared at Héctor with tired eyes, Héctor shrunk back and smiled sheepishly. "Uh… I apologize for that."