Chapter 1
Promete que serás feliz
Te ponías tan guapo al reír
Y así, solo así quiero recordarte
***
Frank felt soft fingers running over his back.
“Hey sleepy head.” A voice whispered in his ear and he woke with a start. Maria was there, she laughed and sat next to him in bed.
“Hey.” Frank said, groggily.
“Hey.”
“What time is it?” Frank rubbed the sleep off his face.
“It's ten thirty.”
“Oh, shit.” It was late already, they had so much to do.
“You needed to sleep.” She said with a gentle smile, and Frank looked up at her and melted. “Got plenty of time now that you're home.”
“Yeah.” He touched her arm and squeezed her skin gently. “Where are the babies?”
“They're playing.”
“Mmm.”
“I told them to let you sleep.”
“Mmhmm.” Frank sighed and looked away. The room was like he remembered but something was off. Maria stood from the bed and walked to the door.
That's not how it goes, a voice in Frank's mind said. But he got out of bed anyway, and put his clothes on mechanically.
“You have to get up.” Maria said, standing in the doorway. Her smile was sweeter than he'd ever seen before. “You have so much to do today. Remember you're going out with Matt today.”
What the fuck?
“Matt?”
“Oh yes! He's a delight!” Maria went over to where Frank was standing in the middle of the room, staring dumbly at her. “I'm glad you found him, or rather, I'm glad that he found you. We were so worried about you, Frank.”
“What?” Frank was suddenly overcome by some mixture of fear and pain and joy.
“I still have to visit him, but the babies already love him. We're so happy you have him.”
“I…”
Maria shook her head and cupped Frank's face with her hands.
“You don't have to say anything, just promise me you'll take care of him, and yourself, and you'll be happy, okay? Promise me, Frank.”
Frank stared at her for what felt like a long time, the room and the bed were gone and now there was just them, he felt drunk and lightheaded and the room was all light. There were orange flowers all around, a kind Frank had never seen before.
“Yeah, okay.”
“You promise?”
“I-I promise.”
“Good.” A single tear rolled down Maria's cheek and Frank had the feeling this wasn't exactly a dream. “I’m only allowed to see you like this, but I'm so happy you're doing well, so happy.”
“Maria…” Frank felt a lump in his throat and Maria laughed and shook her head.
“No, no tears, silly. It's getting late and I’ll have to leave. But I'm happy I got to see you.”
“Wait I…”
“You'll wake up in a moment.”
“But-”
Frank woke with a start. He was cocooned in silk sheets that belonged to Matt, who snored softly, his back turned to Frank. Max slept at Frank's feet and Loot sat by the doorway. How they got a damn coyote to guard their bedroom (their bedroom!!!) was beyond Frank.
He didn't move for a moment, it was still nighttime from the looks of it. Frank felt the pillow for a moment. It was wet. So was his face. There was a single orange petal of a flower he couldn't identify on his pillow. They didn't have any flowers. Frank took the petal and placed it carefully on the nightstand.
He turned and held Matt by the waist and pulled him close, the lawyer muttered something about pad thai but didn't wake.
“He's a delight!” The Maria in his dream had said. What did she know? How did she know it? Matt said that girl Elektra told him after death there was nothing, and that had hurt to some extent but this… This couldn't possibly have been a dream.
He kissed Matt's shoulder (there was a scar there, a gunshot that had long scarred but he knew one when he saw one) and closed his eyes again.
Maria liked Matt for him.
He'd make sure to put the petal in Maria's favorite book.
***
Así, como antes
Así, adelante
Así, vida mía, mejor será así