#coco imelda

My question is, has a person ever been confused thinking that Imelda is your mother, due to the fact that she is much older than you?

Hector: "Oh, You see… It's very hard for such a thing to happen in the land of the dead! I mean, there are so many people who tragically lose their lives earlier than expected… So it's not uncommon to see couples who appear very different in age! In short, it's normal here, usually we tend to interact without assuming what the family ties are between the members of a specific family, so if you need to know, you always ask..."

"...BUT… It wasn't our case! Yep… Unfortunately it happened in a way! Our situation was very particular, Imelda has a large clientele and many people know her and consequently know all about our family… I had the "newcomer" period within the "shoe making" family-business and well… They all thought I was the nephew at first!"

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Imelda: "Hector, I'll take care of the clients! Please, place these in the shelf of the shoes to restore and polish!"

Hector: "Third shelf on the right! I got it! Consider it done!"

Customer: "Poor dear! The boy is so young! Is he your nephew right?"

Imelda: "Ehmmm... No, actually, he's my husband... We haven't been together for a long time but......"

Customer: "Oh, Wait... What? Is that the man who abandoned you with a little girl to raise?!?!" 😠

Imelda: "........ Si... I mean NO! It's a long story! Many things have changed now!" 😳

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Hector: "Let's just say it was an embarrassing time!" 😅

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OF COURSE, I will make appreciation posts of the others as well and the queen will come next! I just need a bit of time for that as well 🤗

Summary: Héctor's afterlife had been traversed by tragedies until one fateful night on Dia de los Muertos in the year 2017 changed it all. Not only his road to recovery begins. While Miguel is trying his best to bring justice to his great-great-grandfather, unknown mysteries start to unwrap themselves. Things that will not only impact and completely change Héctor's life forever. What if some things aren't quite the way they seem? And how do you pick up your existence after so much hurt?

Main Characters: Héctor, Imelda, Ernesto, Ceci, (Miguel)

Rating: M

A/N: A very special thanks to my besties who have been the first to support me, are regulary beta-reading and keeping up with the insane rollercoaster of emotions, which is this journey of writing that book. I love you guys ❤ - Will I keep tweaking? Perhaps? I don’t know ... before I print the thing I surely will but that’s in the future. (I will only print it for myself and a few special persons I will choose later on!)

                 ~ Prologue ~

With a cry and a twirl of glowing marigold petals, Miguel was gone.

The Rivera family stood frozen in shock, watching the scene in front of them with great sorrow. Each of them held their very own emotion deep inside. It was painful, all of it. Both, the newly found knowledge and the situation they were in. The man they had been told to hate and forget, had all along been innocent and was now about to fade away. It felt like a cruel joke, a sick twist of fate. Each of them wished that there would be something that they could do but there was nothing. Their only hope now was Miguel. If he would succeed, Héctor would live. But most likely, that was too late.

“Héctor!” Imelda clutched her husband’s hand tighter, voice heavy with desperation and panic, “Please hold on! You have to hold on! Don’t leave me again! I cannot li-”

“Imelda,” with the last strength he could bring up, he lifted his hand to her left cheekbone, “it’s ok!”

“No!” she choked, lips trembling, “nothing’s ok! You are fading and it’s my fault!”

“No! Don’t blame yourself! I ... I don’t want you to!”

“But it’s true!” she wailed, “all my life I’ve thought ... I’ve believed this lie and I should have known better! I should have known that you would never abandon me!”

Héctor managed a small smile. His eyes were filled with so much love, it drove daggers into her spiritual heart. How could he just forgive her that easily after all she’d done?

“I‘m so, so sorry Imelda!” He said. Deep regret and sadness in each of his words. “I should have never left Santa Cecilia, I - Augh!” Another painful seizure of orange, glowing light, shook him.

“Héctor!” Imelda cried, bending down further, “No! No, no, no, please!” tears welled up in her eyes. “Please! Please ... you have to hold on a bit longer! Miguel will-”

He turned his head back to her, taking deep, heavy, rattling breaths. “It was my dream to make music and share it with the world once. But I never left because I wanted fame. I left because I wanted to provide for my family. You and Coco!”

“I know! I know.” Imelda moved his hand to her lips, letting the first tears fall. Normally, she wasn’t the kind of woman who would cry easily, and usually, her pride would keep her from succumbing to it. But ever since her husband hadn’t returned, she had cried more than she had ever thought she could. All in secret. Even in the land of the dead. Never had she let her family catch her but now was different. Now she didn’t care anymore who saw her. “I ... I was so heartbroken a-and angry and blind!” She sobbed, “Oh Héctor, I should have listened to you earlier! If only I-”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. You’re here now!” Héctor tried to push himself to smile again but with each second, he felt weaker. He wanted to hide how bad he actually felt. Awfully tired and brittle. He knew he was seconds away from fading. He could feel it. Yes, he wished he could have seen his daughter one more time and spent more time with his beloved wife and family. Yes, he didn’t want to fade and yes, he was scared. But through it all, he also felt confident. He knew that everything would be fine, even with him gone. Who knew, eventually, whatever awaited him would one day reunite him and his wife, his soulmate, his one true love. “I love you, Imelda. More than anything! - Argh!” His body shook and glowed worse than all the times before and his face scrunched up in pain while the sun climbed higher and higher over the couple’s shoulders.

“No!” Imelda pushed her hands under her husband’s back, pulling him onto her lap. “I love you too! I’ve never and I will never stop loving you!”

The brightest smile Héctor had smiled in the past decades spread on his lips. “You ... you forgive me then?”

“I already have!” She leaned down to touch his forehead with hers. “Though there is nothing to forgive! You did everything right, mi amor!”

“When Coco arrives ... tell her ... tell her I’m sorry! Tell her ... how much I love her!” He received a nod.

“I will! I promise you, I will!”

“I’m glad. At least I get to see you one last ... time.” With a deep breath, Héctor’s eyes closed, his smile faded, his body faltered and the markings on his skull started glowing faintly.

“No!” Imelda cried, “No!”

The sun had risen over their heads. Her warm, golden light stretched out over the horizon and illuminated the whole backstage.

“Héctor?” Imelda whispered hoarsely, “mi vida?”

He didn’t respond anymore and with the silence, Imelda felt a cold come over her that she had never felt before. A pain spread through her whole being, worse than any wound. Worse than any pain she had ever felt. A crushing sensation that took her breath away. It burned and choked her. She couldn’t bear to watch her true love fade, so she pulled him closer to her chest, hugged him tightly, and then let out a bone-chilling, heart-wrenching wail. A scream full of sorrow and grief. A cry that mirrored all her frustration, her anger, her bitterness, her hurt, her desperation, and her regret. But mostly, her pain of losing him.

Oscar and Felipe turned their heads away. It was too painful to watch their sister bawl over her, soon-to-be-gone, husband. Rosita and Victoria comforted each other by hugging while Julio just placed his hand on his daughter’s lower arm. There was nothing they could do or say.

By now the sun had risen entirely. Time passed and each second felt like an awful eternity. Imelda didn’t dare to move or look. Too strong were her grief and pain. There were no words that could describe how much she hated herself at that moment. How much she wanted to turn back time and reverse her mistakes. And if it only was for the time Héctor had first found her and aimed to explain himself.

He had been overjoyed to see her. He had run up to her, picked her up, and spun her around. And what had she done? Before he could even try to explain himself, she had smashed her boot into his face so hard, it had sent his head flying straight across the street. Then she had yelled at him and had called him all kinds of ugly names. Her heart had broken into yet another thousand pieces, even though she had believed it couldn’t break any further. Each time and each year she had chased him away. Oftentimes not only with her boot but with Pepita, and he was presistant. Deep down, she was well aware that she didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help herself. No matter how hard she had tried to suppress the feeling that something wasn’t right, she couldn’t. She had tried to ignore it, tried to forget it, forget him. She had tried to hate him with all her might but she never could. He was her amor verdadero, her true love. She could never hate nor forget him. But forgetting was just what was killing him a second time.

Imelda had also thought that she had time. That had been her biggest mistake up to this day. She had thought that she had enough time to eventually, one day, find the courage to jump over her pride and hear him out. That’s when Miguel had come. It had been a wink of fate. He had solved the problem and unveiled the whole truth and all that in one night. And now that she’d finally realized the truth, now that she had the chance to get her husband back, it was too late.

“Urgh ...”

Her thoughts got interrupted by a weak groan that came from below. Immediately Imelda’s eyes shot down, finding her husband still in her arms, leaning against her chest. He hadn’t faded? He was still here? Coco remembered? “Héctor?” She breathed, a glimmer of relief tingling in her chest as she blinked tears. “Héctor?”

The heads of her family turned back around, gaping in astonishment. Another groan followed and his eyes slowly opened.

“Héctor!” Imelda repeated, still in shock.

His eyes lifted, an expression of pure confusion followed, “Imelda? Am I dead? Is this heaven?”

“You are dead but ...” She blinked, confused herself, “not faded. Coco she ...”

“Remembered me!” Héctor beamed. “Our Miguelito made it!”

“He did!” She started beaming as well, laughing in relief.

Héctor’s eyes opened further. As he realized his position, they trailed down to his wife’s chest on which she had him pressed and he grinned. As soon as she noticed, she pushed him away with an offended gasp. That Fool. The nerve he had. There he had been at the edge of Nirvana and the first thing he did after surviving that, was boldly and shamelessly flirting with her. He didn't need words. And she hated herself for liking it.

“Ay!” he dropped down full force, bones clattering on the ground. 

“Dios, I’m sorry! Are you hurt?” Her gasp was drowned out by Héctor’s laughter, which got her angry again and at the same time filled her with indescribable happiness. “Stop laughing, tonto! You almost faded!” 

“I know!” He winced as she pushed his shoulder, causing her to flinch away and straight up apologize a second time. He chuckled once more before growing serious again. “I’m still here.”

“Sí.” she crossed her arms.

“Now what?” Lifting himself into a sitting position, he felt his chest and then looked at her expectantly.

Now what? His question caught her off guard, just as the loud cheering of her family behind them. Suddenly an overjoyed Dante came rushing toward them. Heckling, he leaped between the couple, licking Héctor’s skull and hands wildly.

“Ah! Dante, no! Stop it!” He laughed, trying to twist himself free. But Dante didn’t think of stopping. Instead, he turned around and ran his tongue over Imelda’s face next. She tried to push him off but to no avail.

“Augh! No, not me!” She groaned.

Dante wagged his tail back and front seemingly in lightspeed, causing funny sounds on the couple’s bones. He kept on licking Imelda until she was finally able to push him off. “Enough!” She told him strictly. Intimidated, he retreated to the side, causing her to topple forward, crashing onto her husband’s chest.

His laughing got exchanged with his goofy grin. “Still falling for me, eh?”

Imelda’s mouth opened, closed, opened, and closed again. She was certain that if she still had skin, she would have blushed furiously. That foolish grin that had made her fall in love with him in the first place all those years ago, made the tingling feeling in the area where her stomach had been, reappear. Then, as soon as the grin had come, it vanished again. Now his expression was entirely different. His pupils enlarged as he gave her a look of absolute adoration. It had been decades since she had looked that deep into his eyes. Quickly she shook herself out of her trance and scrambled away from him.

Sighing, she got up, holding out a hand for Héctor to take. He hesitated for a moment, searched in her eyes if it was really ok, and then took her hand, letting himself get pulled up. Suddenly shy and bashful again both looked away. Héctor‘s brow-bones furrowed and his right hand grabbed his left arm like he always used to do when he became flustered. Imelda on the other hand pressed her lips together and wrung her hands. Words itching to be spoken but left in silence.

Felipe and Óscar both wanted nothing more than to run to them and hug them but they kept themselves from doing so. It was still weird after all those years. They had never truly believed that Héctor had left their sister on purpose but running up to him now seemed inappropriate. Rosita and Victoria just as much as Julio kept away as well. None of them dared to come too close to the couple. Or Héctor for that matter.

Héctor thought. He wondered how things were now between him and his wife. They had somewhat reconciled but that was because both had thought that he was about to vanish to dust. Now he was alive. Well, as alive as one could call it.

“Erm ...” he dared a glance to the side, finding his wife looking just as emotionally conflicted as he himself. “Imelda?” His voice was reduced to an unsure whisper.

Just as she was about to say something, Pepita came flying back above their heads. Circling for a moment, she landed right next to her master. Her big head instantly turned to Héctor, her pupils became slits and she lowered herself down, stalking towards him just like she had moments ago with Ernesto.

Gritting his teeth, Héctor slowly walked backward, lifting his hands in defense. “Uh, Pepita? You’re not angry with me anymore, are you? Nice kitty! ... Good kitty? Please don’t eat me!” He lifted his arms to shield himself.

“Pepita! Déjalo ser!” Imelda demanded but this time her alebrije didn’t listen. She kept walking until she stood right in front of Héctor, who grimaced and leaned away.

Fearful he closed his eyes and waited for the biggest, most rough, and wet tongue to swoop over his whole head. Wait ... tongue? Pepita licked Héctor with so much force, it lifted him a few inches from the ground, a deep, loud purr erupting in her chest as she looked at her owner’s mate with great satisfaction. Her lick had ruffled his, already messy hair and caused it to now stand in each possible direction. 

Don't forget that underlining slap on the table!

Life note :

Don't mess with Imelda ~