Chapter 47 Híjole is like wow, right?
Híjole is like wow, right?
Transcript. Hollywood, De Repente with Hugo Valencia.
HUGO: Ladies and gentlemen, Hollywood, De Repente comes before you today with news of great joy! Today, we have in the studio Sean O’Sullivan, along with a translator, and Miguel Angel Aguilar Porras. They’ve both had a bit of an adventure. I’ll let them tell it.
MIGUEL: Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to be here.
SEAN: Hello.
HUGO: Let’s get right to the point. You two were gone for over one hundred hours. And you came back with the beloved puppet Chuy, who has been missing for twelve years, in your arms. What happened? Start at the beginning.
MIGUEL: It all started the afternoon of Day of the Dead. We were done taping, and Sean invited me outside for a cigarette. Little did I know, he was going to force me into his car and make me help him drive to Mexico.
HUGO: Wow, that sounds harrowing. Sean, is that accurate?
SEAN: It’s accurate, Hugo. And, fortunately, Miguel has decided not to press charges.
HUGO: And, Miguel, you’re not upset with Sean?
MIGUEL: I was at first, but then he told me it was to protect me from being in breach of my contract. Plus, when he promised to introduce me to Robert Downey, Jr. at his next party, I forgave everything.
HUGO: And your phone that was found in the dumpster?
MIGUEL: That was so they couldn’t track us. He got me a new one. The latest iPhone! With a really cute Orbit case.
SEAN: I got you, bro. Put ’er there.
[Sean holds out a fist, and Miguel bumps it.]
HUGO: What happened next?
MIGUEL: So, we stopped at his house to pick up his passport. The traffic was a nightmare. Probably the worst part of the trip.
SEAN: The 405 was terrible. But we made it through, didn’t we, man?
[Sean and Miguel fist bump again.]
MIGUEL: We sure did. And we flew to San Antonio in his supercool private jet and rented a car to drive down. I’d never ridden in a private jet before. That thing had a fridge. And it had a bathroom. And it had leather seats. And it had—
HUGO: [interrupts] Let’s fast-forward to how you recovered Chuy.
SEAN: What, Hugo? You mean you don’t want to hear about all the beef jerky and Takis and chili-flavored candy involved in this trip? Or how hard it is to find an electric vehicle charging station in Mexico?
HUGO: You rented an electric vehicle to drive down to Mexico?
SEAN: I always drive electric. It offsets the carbon footprint of my jet. Go on, Miguel. Get to the good part.
MIGUEL: We drove all night and finally got down to Naolinco. But it was the day after the Fiesta de la Cantada, and the place was packed. People were everywhere. Some were still partying. And what happened with Chuy happened a long time ago, so I wasn’t confident that we’d find him.
HUGO: Let me stop you there, Miguel, because I, too, was in Naolinco during La Cantada. I had been searching for Chuy for days using information Savannah Bateman gave me, with no luck. You mean to tell us that you’ve known where Chuy was all this time?
SEAN: [interrupts] No, he didn’t. But I did! Josie told me she’d buried it in a cemetery near a tombstone with her name on it. In fact, she said that’s how she picked her new name.
HUGO: [grumbles] She neglected to tell me that part. So, you’re saying she buried Chuy near a tombstone with the name Josie Days?
SEAN: [chuckles] Yeah, that was the tricky part, see. I was looking for that, and I wasn’t finding it, but then my buddy here, Miguel. God, I love you, man. We’re such good friends now.
MIGUEL: Yeah. We are.
[Sean and Miguel fist bump a third time.]
SEAN: My bruh here, my second, my Number One, he says, “Maybe we should be looking for the Mexican version of her name.” And I said, “What would that be?” And he points to a tombstone with the name José Díaz.
MIGUEL: José Díaz. Josie Days.
HUGO: Astounding!
SEAN: I saw this little bit of red cloth poking out from the dirt. And whaddaya know. It was Chuy’s sleeve.
HUGO: Oh my, I’m getting emotional here.
SEAN: He was in bad shape, but salvageable. I just needed to get him back to my cosplay room where I could—
HUGO: Excuse me, your what?
SEAN: My workshop! Which has a sewing machine in it. When we got back, I cleaned him up, made him a new outfit.
HUGO: You sew?
SEAN: Yes, Hugo, I sew. My mother taught me.
HUGO: Did you witness this, Miguel?
MIGUEL: I was taking a nap on a raft in the pool, so I didn’t see anything. All I know is, whatever he did, it took all the soot off Chuy’s face. And he fixed his ears and made new clothes for him. I couldn’t believe it!
SEAN: I was quite pleased with the outcome.
HUGO: Wow. I don’t know what to say. And all this time you didn’t tell anyone you were back?
SEAN: Well, I knew the length of time we’d been gone was going to be a problem. In my defense, I didn’t realize it was going to take that long. As I mentioned before, there aren’t a lot of charging stations on the route, and when you find one, sometimes there’s a queue.
MIGUEL: I told him the electric car was a bad idea.
SEAN: Robert Downey, Jr. doesn’t like gloaters, Miguel. Anyway, I felt like the best course of action was to come back with a big splashy opportunity that would detract from the fact that we’d held taping up for almost a week.
HUGO: And your big splashy opportunity was…
SEAN: To introduce Chuy into Beyond the Stars!
I mean, after we let you break the story, of course.
Chuy was always meant to be a symbol of friendship across cultures.
I thought the crossover would be the perfect way to help him find his way back where he belongs, with Castillo Studios, representing friendship across galaxies.
HUGO: So, Chuy now has a role in the Lost Star/Beyond the Stars crossover thread?
SEAN: Well, we have to clear it with the producers first, but that’s our hope.
HUGO: That’s quite a story. I think we might all need a moment to process it. And I think many of us who love Chuy have to thank you both for recovering him, although, you know, some of us were very close and would have found him in the next day or so.
SEAN: Of course.
HUGO: But I have to ask you a question, Sean, on a more personal level.
SEAN: Okay, sure.
HUGO: Clearly, this was a big risk. Actors have lost their jobs over less.
Not to mention the rumors that have been flying around about that stolen hat.
Which raises the question… did you do this all for Savannah?
Were you hoping it would act as a recompense for her past, bring her out of hiding, and, hopefully, help you win her back?
SEAN: That’s a great question, Hugo. Did I jeopardize my job, kidnap a dude, and let the world think I’m an unhinged, desperate weirdo—not to mention risk jail time—all for Josie? [pauses] Yes. Yes, I did. And I’d do it again.
HUGO: Híjole.
SEAN: That’s right. Híjole.
MIGUEL: órale.
SEAN: [to Miguel] órale? I thought it was híjole. Híjole is like wow, right?
MIGUEL: Yeah. And órale is like right on. And órale wey is like, right on, man!
SEAN: ?órale wey!
MIGUEL: ?ándale!
SEAN: Wait, what’s ándale?