"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where are you going?" Bruno caught my wrist as he stumbled in after me. I blinked back at me perplexed. "I just wanted to take a look." His curly black head shook definitively. "Nuh nun, bad idea. Let's go back." "But, Bruno, I….." "Look, I believe you got your gift….. clearly," he paused momentarily here to gaze around. But soon enough his wide eyes were back on me. "But we shouldn't be here. Let's go back; we'll return later with the rest of the fam-….."
My uncle's sentence was cut short once his head spun around to see that my bedroom door had vanished. What faced us now was nothing but a red-clay brick wall. Horror instantly took over his expression as he stared at the wall blind-sided. "Where's the door?!" While he looked all kinds of scared, I simply blinked at the beginning stages of my understanding. "Just like on the cliff….." I spoke more to myself than Bruno, who was presently having a meltdown, touching the bricks in a desperate bid to get them to move. "It's gone! It's gone! Now how are we gonna get home?!" He panicked.
I walked over to him, setting my hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm his nerves, though I don't think I did. "It's ok, Tío Bruno. I think…. I just need to open a door to get back home," my eyes veered off to the side as I said this. Yeeeeeeeeah, it did sound a little bizarre when I said it aloud like that. My uncle obviously thought so too. "Just open a door? That's it?!" He gave me an incredulous glare. I nodded. "That's what I did last time. The first door I opened led me back into our kitchen. I don't see why it wouldn't work again," my shoulder shrugged. "Really? That's all you did? You just…. opened a random door like that?" He didn't sound like believed me. But I remained steadfast, nodding my head again. "It's the best we've got to go on now, unless you have a vision which says otherwise."
Bruno stared into my eyes for a moment before relenting with a long sigh. "Alright, let's find a door! Uh, what kind of door?" "I don't know. I don't….. think it matters." "Ok, then! Finding a door to open- shouldn't be hard," sounding a little more confident, Bruno took my hand in his and he cautiously guided me down the alleyway. One thing you gotta know about my uncle is that he's very much a homebody. He didn't leave Casita for much, and even then it was never for long. It didn't help that we were in a totally foreign country which didn't speak the language.
Bruno was taking no chances, freezing at every noise, and clenching onto my hand like he was ready to pull me out of harm's way any minute. In reality the way we'd just left was vacant of any people, and the town square we'd just come out onto wasn't that busy either. While my uncle kept peering from side to side anxiously, I took the opportunity to take in our surroundings.
This was indeed the same small town I saw from up on the cliffside. Compact and colourful, there were lots of new smells and things I'd never seen before. Little boxes were playing music…. somehow. Kids were riding around on metal horses, and the fires burning didn't need candle sticks. It was all overwhelming. But the most overwhelming sight of all was right in front of us.
My feet stopped moving for a second, making my uncle also come to an abrupt halt in front of me. He glanced puzzled back at me from over his shoulder, but I motioned for to look ahead with my head. He spun his head around, only for his jaw to drop again. There, right before both of us, was the endless, shimmering, light blue ocean. It was pretty magical- you know, when you weren't drowning in it. It was Bruno's first time seeing the sea too… And his awed expression said it all.
Some shouting brought us crashing down from the moment. Bruno urged me to step backwards as this moving red metal carte thing zoomed past us; its rider yelling at both of us bitterly. "Ehi, guarda dove vai, idioti! Sto guidando qui!" The skinny man with half a moustache shook his fist in our direction as he puttered off. One of the locals standing near us also yelled back at the man, shaking his fist high in the air too. "Rallenta, Ercole! Stai per investire qualcuno!" "What was that?" Bruno asked me in a stunned whisper, still holding me close. "I have no idea," I replied honestly. Then my uncle let me go as he peered back toward the fountain in the centre of… wherever this place was.
"Uh, Mirabel? Where are we?" "I don't know. I didn't learn where I was last time." "So you've… really been here before?" Bruno asked while looking every which way with a sort of frazzled face, twirling his feet around in a little circle. "Well, not in the town exactly," more so above it. My uncle was so preoccupied with soaking in the scenery that he failed to notice this old lady standing mere feet from him. He accidently bumped into her, causing both to stumble a little in alarm. "I'm sorry!" Bruno's hands immediately shot up in a show of surrender. But the old woman was having none of it, sending him a vicious scowl. "Perché non guardi dove stai andando?" She hissed. "I really am sorry," I watched my poor uncle try to reason with her. Some of the other villagers had gathered around the two of us by this point, making me glance at them a bit nervous now myself.
"Non sei di queste parti, vero? Perché non torni da dove sei venuto?!" The old lady continued to shout. "E tu cosa indossi? È poco virile!" Another elderly woman joined her friend- I assume they were friends- taking the edge of Bruno's poncho and sneering down at it disapprovingly. Bruno just kept raising his hands up at them. "I'm sorry; I can't understand you." "Coppia dall'aspetto strano," a middle-aged man hummed, looking at us and rubbing his thumb under his chin. Sensing that was our cue to go, I grabbed my uncle's hand. "Let's go," I told him quietly as I began to lead us away from the square.
As we neared the other side of it- the one closer to the seaside- something caught my eye. Or should I say "someone". The moment I spotted him, he saw me seconds later. In the middle of talking to another older man, he immediately cut the conversation short running up the way toward me. Bruno could only watch in surprise and alarm as this curly-haired boy grabbed both of my shoulders, making me face him head on.
"Eccoti! Dove sei andato?! Perché te ne sei andato così?! Stai bene? Stai bene?" The man scanned me repeated over for injury as he kept his hands on me. Oh boy, did Bruno NOT know what to make of this intrusion of my person. "Uh, who's the boy shouting in your face?" He asked me, coming up to my side. Before I could answer, the man removed a hand to cover his mouth as he hollered in the distance. "L'ho trovata, Massimo!" His head then quickly turned back my way, more eager and less worried this time. "Come hai fatto quella cosa con la porta prima?" He quired curiously. Bruno and I merely gazed at each other, unsure what to do or say next.
The older fisherman soon came dashing up the way. He looked more than a little relieved to see me there with the younger man. "Ah, sei al sicuro. Grazie a Dio," giving a sigh, the older man patted my shoulder. Ok, this seems like a good time to inform my uncle of the situation at hand. "Bruno, these are the men who rescued me from the sea. They pulled me out before I drowned when I first got here."
Bruno's face went from one of confusion to one of gratitude. The older man didn't know what to make of my uncle suddenly grabbing his hand and shaking it profusely. "Thank you for saving my niece, sir! On behalf of the Madrigal family, I thank you." Both fishermen merely blinked puzzled. "Questo è tuo... padre?" The one-armed man inquired to me. "Hanno gli stessi capelli," the younger man noted.
"Ti abbiamo cercato dappertutto," the older man then told us. "Sì. Pensavamo che fossi scomparso o qualcosa del genere," the younger man nodded in agreement. "Uh, do they know we can't understand them?" Uncle's head leaned into mine. I didn't verbally answer, instead replying with a sigh and shutting my eyes for a minute. This just gets better and better. "Bene, ora che hai trovato tuo padre e noi abbiamo trovato te, che ne diresti di venire a cena?" The one-armed man gave me another pat on the back. "Huh?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Dinner; he's inviting you to dinner," our heads shot in the direction of a Catholic priest not too far away from us. He grinned, coming over to our small gathering. His hands were firmly, yet contently, clasped behind his back. "You can speak Spanish?" My uncle pointed his forefinger at the pleasantly smiling priest. "Certainly. I need to be able to communicate with our Spanish visitors. You are from Spain, yes?" "Uhhhhhhhhh," Bruno and I side-eyed one another a tad concerned. What would the villagers do if they discovered that we were from Columbia instead? We still didn't know where we were. Best not to anger the locals.
As if reading each other's minds, we both perked up simultaneously. "Yep! We're from… there! For sure!" My uncle forced a grin. "Where in Spain are you from?" The priest innocently asked. You could see Bruno's face contort as he struggled to think of a response. "The… inside?" "Where the mountains are," I quickly tacked on with a cheeky grin of my own. The priest nodded in comprehension. "Ah, the south. Very nice. I've met several people from around Malaga; beautiful countryside." "It sure is," I said through clenched teeth. I think he bought it!
After giving us one last smile, his head turned to the two fishermen who were quietly observing our interaction. "Vorrebbero unirsi a te per cena" he said to them before directing his holy attention back to us. "It was nice meeting you; we don't get a lot of international visitors this time of year.
But you and your father are always welcome in Portorosso, dear child."