.

                       WHEN THE DOOR let out it’s tinny chime, Imelda was mid-rise before she had even chanced to look up. With a pair of spectacles balanced neatly on her cheekbones, she glanced   (at last)   to find a familiar figure just inside her threshold. && it clenched something tight within the emptiness of her bosom as the Rivera matriarch stepped around the end of a work-bench to level a stern gaze ‘pon ERNESTO DE LA CRUZ.

He hadn’t changed much, given the circumstances. Tall && handsome, with a natural charisma that lent itself naturally to a life on-stage. Yet, the most striking thing about him was more bitter than such nostalgia. The solitude of his figure— - without Héctor cutting a lanky shadow beside - —made something deeper than years of anger sink in place of her stomach.

                          “ - ——Get out of my shop. ”

                              @delacrz

Ernesto: Oh, it’s finally happening ! ! ! ! !

Hector: . . . .

Hector: *Falls over*

   ❝ HELP ME?  Hector, you shouldn’t even be NEAR me, let alone willing to help me. ---eres un tonto.  ❞

           For MANY people ( -- Ernesto included. ) the idea of being alone conjures up a sense of dread.  PERHAPS it’s the sense of boredom, or the feelings of isolation. Being forced to confront own thoughts. In fact, he felt as though he would MUCH rather give himself electric shocks than be alone with own thoughts for just a few moments. KNOWING exactly what he did throughout his life. Many actions were regrettable & if he could take them all back ------------- , he would.  

      STRUGGLING with these feelings were becoming rather difficult. That the INTENSE guilt & strong pass of loneliness can easily link his struggles to deeper roots.  Many of which being felt at the moment was fueled by trauma, loss and grief ( -- and MOST recently a lack of self-esteem, and insecurity.  ) YEARS ago he was better equipped to face these negative experiences because  he had both internal and external resources that help guide guided through these kind of moments of grief and more easily DISTRACTIONS.  Once having guide from a sense of community to a strong and positive self-concept to ABSOLUTELY nothing.   People wanted him gone even though he was already dead, yet he remained far from the FINAL DEATH for being remembered as a thief, a liar, a MURDERER.