A Heart From Heaven

Emily held her satchel tightly as she stared at the ofrenda that her grandmother was sitting atop of. It’s porcelain glistening on the spots where the moonlight could reach. The date was November 2nd, 7:09 pm. Day of the dead. The ofrenda was already covered with gifts and blessings from her other family members. Emily set her satchel down onto the dirt street and began to unbuckle the front pouch. She reached inside the pouch and pulled out the first item. Even though the sun had already set, the candles on the ofrenda guided her to what she had pulled out of her bag. It was a glass rose. The kind you would find in a China shop in an alcove of a mall. Even though the rose was on the cheaper side, Emily didn’t care as it reminded her about a time in her life where she was lucky to have it. And the person who gave it to her. Her grandmother.

The rose reminded Emily about the time that they danced the night away at her first high school dance. Her grandmother had chaperoned to refill the punch glasses with some kool aid from the punch bowl. Emily was standing alone on the dance floor, and her grandmother had happened to see her through the line of kids waiting for refills. Her grandmother ditched the punch, and pulled out a very special rose from her purse. The glass rose. She walked past the line of pumped up teenagers as she made her way to dance with Emily. 

Emily grinned once she rekindled that memory, but her grin widened as she remembered her grandmothers purse. The leather was worn, but it did the job. It reminded her of the purse that Mary Poppins carried, because like Mary Poppins, her grandmother carried everything in her purse. Necessary or unnecessary, she had it in that old leather sack. “Mabey that’s why she had a bad back”, Emily thought as she pulled out a small vase from the side pouch of her satchel. The vase, unlike the rose, was made of a crystal material with some sort of floral designs carved into it. Emily set the vase down onto the ofrenda as she pulled out an almost full, water bottle. The condensation dripped from the sides of the bottle as she unscrewed the cap and began to fill the vase up with the freshwater. Emily knew that it wasn’t a real rose, she just wanted to make sure there was enough weight in the vase so that it didn’t somehow miraculously tip over. Emily didn’t care about the vase breaking, only her rose inside the vase.  

Once the bottle was empty, Emily crushed it with her hands and set it back into her bag. She moved on to her next item. She opened the back pocket of her bag and pulled out two shoes. “Ah, your favorite pair of chanclas”, Emily said aloud to no one. She held the slippers up to the candlelight produced by the candles ontop of the ofrenda. She flipped the slippers over to reveal the bottle opener that was implanted onto the bottom of the shoe. “Your two favorite hobbies, Opening your Corona Light with the comfort of your slipper, and throwing it when we got out of our places ”. I know you miss these abuela”, Emily said as she set her grandmothers slippers down. Emily reached back into the back pocket and pulled out a fresh Corona light. “I got this right from the fridge, just how you like them”. Emily placed the beer ontop of the alter as she picked up the slippers and placed them next to the beer. She picked up the slipper that held the bottle opener and set it ontop of the beer for her grandmother to open once she crossed over from the underworld. 

The more items Emily pulled out from various pouches on her bag, the lighter her bag had gotten. She pulled out jewelry, CD’s, miscellaneous items, and even articles of clothing that her grandmother had loved. After a string of items later, Emily realized that she was down to the last item to place on her grandmothers ofrenda. Possibly the most valuable item of all. As Emily unzipped the last pouch, she stuck her hand in and pulled out a small, rectangular item. It was smooth and absorbed the moonlight as it bounced onto the item. It was a photo. The photo was taken in a hospital, with an older woman holding a newborn baby. Emily took out her phone and pulled up the flashlight. Getting one last good look at the photo, Emily, too, placed it onto the alter. 

After some visual readjusting, Emily stepped back to admire her work. She took her phone back out from the pocket of her jeans. Since it was too dark for facial recognization to recognize her face, Emily typed in her passcode to unlock her phone. Emily scrolled through the apps in her phone until she found the camera icon. She clicked it. Emily found the timer and set it to 10 seconds. She also put the flash on so the photo wasn’t just some black screen. Emily found a rock to prop her phone up on as she clicked the button for the timer to begin its countdown. Emily ran to the spot that she wanted to stand for the photo. 3…2…1…FLASH. Emily was blinded by the flash for a moment, but after a few seconds her vision came back in black blotchy spots. 

Emily eventually made her way back to her phone to see how the photos came out. She pulled up the photos app on her phone and clicked on the image. At first glance, everything looked normal. However, when Emily zoomed in she noticed something very strange. She hit the “view all 10 photos button” and began to scroll through. Every single photo looked almost exactly the same. She looked at each photo individually, then dragged her finger across them rapidly, almost like watching a video, but with only 10 frames. What she saw made her drop her phone and cry. She cried for a few minutes, but not because she was sad. These were tears of happiness that made her feel safe. 

In the photo, behind Emily, a mysterious haze trailed through the photo. Every photo made it move ever so slightly. Once Emily reached the last photo, the mysterious haze appeared to create a heart. 

“Thank you abuela”, Emily said as she collected her things and left the site of the alter.