It’s Friday November 6, 2015 and we’ve gone downtown for the Day of the Dead Festival on 4th St.

We park on 5th St near the 5th & Chestnut Garage and walk through the alley behind the Seelbach Hotel over to 4th. We’re aligned to come out right where we want, next to La Cocina de Mama where we’ll have dinner.

Dinner is noisy and fun. Everyone is chatty and hungry. The festival is in full swing when we come out of the restaurant.

There are fire jugglers at one end of the block and flamenco dancers at the other. La Cocina de Mama has a table set up with food and beer and margaritas. There are booths to get your face painted like a skull or to make paper flower bouquets or decorate sugar-skulls. Every little shop on the block is open too.

Ivar decides to get his face painted and I go and stand in line with him. It’s a long wait. There are only two people doing the face painting and each person takes time to do.

There is a little girl behind us in line. She’s maybe 4 and she’s wearing a fancy, almost medieval-looking velvet dress. Her hair is in a long braid with flowers woven through it.

Catarina and Stuart are goofing around nearby as we wait in line. They start doing trust-falls with each other and the little girl squeals with delight. She walks over to Rina and wants to do a trust-fall herself. She turns around and falls backwards, laughing, into Rina’s arms.

Then she wants Rina to do a trust-fall for her. Stuart and Rina confer for a second and then Stuart positions himself behind the little girl. Rina stands one step in front of them both as she prepares to fall. The girl only comes up to Rina’s waist.

Stuart braces the girl, Rina takes a step back and sort of leans over, letting the girl grab her hips. “I caught you!”, she yells.

The next time I look over, they’re chasing each other in circles around the picnic tables near by.

Ivar gets his face done, we make one last past through the booths and then it’s time to go home.