Back To Earth
Today is the day, the day where I get to eat real food, drink beer, and see what you, my family have planned for me this year, but most important of all, today is the first time I get to see you, my son. I have been dead for five months and today, November 1st, is the day I return to earth.
As I open the door, I hear a high-pitched squeaking sound and I start to see my old house it’s ironic that I use a door now that I don’t have to. A plethora of nostalgic memories, that I forgot I even had come to me as I recognise my surroundings. The gleaming yellow flowers guide me to my altar, like a bridge that connects my world with yours. I take my first steps into the living room, I can’t help but notice the vast amounts of handcrafted, perforated paper. Each of them is designed and created with precision and time. The salt you’ve left in the plates are a refinement, a purification for me – Well at least what is left of me, my soul. But then, I see it. A picture of me; I had almost forgotten what I looked like.
Before my first taste of my wife’s chilaquiles, I remember the love in all the moments I shared with her. The day I first saw that precious face and got enough courage to ask her out, the day I looked deep into those brown eyes and realized I found ‘the one’, the day I asked her to be my wife and the day she became my wife, all the fights were we stayed up, until the sun came out, because we didn’t want to fall asleep in conflict, the day were crying on my deathbed she told me that all those memories had made her life as perfect it was. But I digress. Only by the smell you know after eating this you will spend countless hours in the bathroom; a risk worth taking for the taste: Homemade tortilla chips covered with my wife ‘special sauce’. A Spicy sauce with green tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapenos and any other chili of your choice. Served with fresh chicken and melted cheese with a thick, crumbly texture and a herbaceous, smoky aroma that would water my mouth – If I had one.
I’ve finished the chilaquiles and finally I get the bread of the dead: White bread in shape of human bones glazed with sugar. Those were the things that I neglected in my past life, but now my only wish is that I should’ve eaten more. Something else I wish I had eaten more of are sugar skulls, little skulls made out of sugar, adorned with food colouring. The candles have the distinct fragrance of my wife’s perfume; the smell that I fell in love with. A smell of fresh spring roses, combined with innocence. If I could take one smell back with me, it would be that. Next to it I see a quarter gallon of my favorite tequila, with a box a cigarettes. My vices. As I take a sip, I feel a wave of freshness surge through my body. The agave plant, deceived me, it then became a burning sensation once it hits the back of my throat. It falls down my throat and lands in my stomach, I feel a glowing warmth spread across my insides. Punishment for my liver, delicacy for my soul.
Then I see what I’ve been expecting the most: You. Your mother walks in carrying you, when she turns around I can see your face. You have the eyes of your mother, my nose, the smile of my dad, and a single curled hair. Just like mine! You are my genetic heritage, my descendant. Make your life a good one because it’s the only thing I’ve left behind. You can’t see me but I know you can feel me. You have the same face I had when I first saw your mom.
The altar is the only memory you have of me, all of my acts, my goods and bads, everything I am, everything I was and everything I ever will be. Thank you for making it so beautiful.
I hope you read this when you die
