Thoughts of the cracks in Casita began to eat away at Mirabel, even as she crept about, doing as Abuela had instructed her and staying out of the way. She peered into the kitchen, to see her mother moving about rapidly, trying to get all of her cooking tasks accomplished. Mirabel thought to offer help before remembering her own job today - stay out of the way. So she shrunk back, not going in to help her poor, worn out mother. Turning she saw Isa twirling on a vine and sprouting flowers along banisters and in pots. For a moment she thought to offer her help to Isa, but then what would she even help her with? Isabela could do it all on her own. Head down she inched out to the patio to see Luisa putting a piano down near the table, for Mariano to play this afternoon. For a moment she too thought about offering to help Luisa, but Luisa was strong enough to carry anything she needed. Mirabel would only get in the way, and that went against her one and only job for the day. Looking up to the balcony she saw Dolores with her eyes closed, listening intently. No, Dolores needed to focus and having Mirabel pester her wouldn't do her any good.
Dejectedly Mirabel slowly inched her way back up the stairs. As she made her way to the nursery, as far out of the way as she could be, she paused seeing Tio Bruno's door up the thin, dark staircase. And she couldn't help but wonder. Tio Bruno wasn't there, but maybe she could find some answers to the cracks she was seeing in Casita there. After all, surely, he would have seen if something devastating were to happen to the family, to their Casita and their gift. Maybe that's why he left. These thoughts swirled in her mind, and she took a deep breath, making her choice. It was, after all, still out of the way as Abuela had ordered.
Feeling strangely brave she slid into her Tio's unused room and blinked in surprise. Tia Pepa's room was wide open, room for her to isolate herself when she couldn't maintain control over her emotions; little bled out to the weather around Encanto when she was locked up in there. Isabela's room was spacious, vines and flowers galore. Even the floor was made of flowers! Even her bed, hung by vines, was more or less made of the softest flowers there ever were. Luisa's room was all hard edges and angles and weights, but even then it wasn't a small room either. None of them were. But this? Tio Bruno's room? All she saw was a small rectangle with a wall of sand freely falling in front of her. There was no room to speak of. None at all.
Timidly, she stepped forward, tugging at her hair and twirling it around a finger as she did so. Her outstretched hand touched the falling sand and she flinched before realizing there wasn't any pain. With all the haunting stories she had been told, part of her had assumed there would be boobytraps littering Bruno's tower room. Finding none yet, Mirabel tried to pull herself together. She could do this, couldn't she? Tightly shutting her eyes, she edged her way through the falling sand. Coming out the other side she began to splutter, rubbing at her face to get it all off. Absently she stepped forward and let out a blood-curdling scream as she fell, eyes squeezing shut even tighter than they were before. Finally, her tumbling came to a stop and she sat up, coughing and shaking herself free of the sand that had gotten everywhere once more. Reaching up she removed her glasses and rubbed the sand away from her eyes before opening them and squinting as she attempted to do the same to her glasses.
Looking around she saw the sand all around her looked as though it had piled up, covering any furniture that her Tio may have had in here beneath the surface. The one thing she could see was something thin and wooden sticking out by the wall. Reaching she pulled on it only to fall back when it came free, landing back on her butt with a 'oomph!" Mirabel tilted her head in confusion for a moment as she regarded the tiny rake that was now in her hands. "Oh!" she jumped up, excitedly and carefully, she trailed it around the room, creating a design that spanned the whole room, careful to leave a walkway. The more she used the rake to create lines in the sand, the calmer she found herself. After the lines were done, she turned and stared up the staircase. It seemed rather tall, but with a calm demeanor she stepped up to the challenge, pacing herself as she took each stair, one at a time. Her muscles burned as she finally reached the top, and she wished she had time to take a break, but the bridge in front of her was hanging on by a thread. Clearly broken from years of disuse. There was no way for her to fix it by herself, not right now anyways.
Spying a rope hanging she grabbed it with both hands, drawing herself back ready to swing. Gritting her teeth, she ran forward and when she let go she tumbled onto the other side. Looking up, she was surprised when terror didn't flood her at how close she had come to falling down into the mountainous crevasse. With a quiet breath in she got to her feet and peered into the temple looking room in front of her. The round edges and pictures clearly to Bruno's design, or what she assumed was Bruno's design. Inside she found even more sand in the large, cavernous room. As she looked at the shelves, she saw green tablets upon green tablets resting on shelves, covered in sandy layers of dust. Curiosity piqued and she found herself reaching out and picking one up. Carefully she blew off the dust to get to the images she knew would be inscribed upon its surface.
She smiled, lightly tracing the image with a finger. This one showed her mama and papa in their wedding clothes. They seemed quite happy and having heard the story plenty of times growing up, she knew that they were. Gently she put it back and picked up the next one. This time she frowned at it because on the tablet she saw a harsh divide separating people. On one side the girl, clearly broken in devastation, held her face in her hands as she crumbled and on the other side the other two people's backs were turned to her. They were dressed in wedding garb too, just like her parents on the last tablet, but only this time nobody looked truly happy. The next ones she picked up weren't very happy either. One showed Dolores screaming and crying. Another showed Isabela shutting herself off and she seemed to wither like a dying plant. Camilo looked at himself and he was cracked. Luisa struggled to lift even a feather. Each one left her feeling truly horrified. If this is the kind of thing Tio Bruno had to see on a daily basis, then she was glad she didn't have his gift. None of these tablets made sense to her, besides the first happy one.
She sat kneeling on the ground, reaching for another one when she saw a glinting green out of the corner of her eye and realized there was still one tablet hidden amongst the sandy circle that made up most of this room. Maybe it contained information about why he left! Could it tell her about the danger? About the cracks in Casita? She jumped up and quickly shuffled through the sand. Upon digging it out she realized it was broken, only part of a vision. Peering into the sand she saw a few more shining and quickly she began to dig, putting each one into her bag so she wouldn't lose them yet.
"Mirabel!" she heard another soft and timid voice call for her. Dolores! She started in surprise. She had come to get her from Tio Bruno's room. Not wanting to keep her Prima waiting, she cinched her bag and, although she felt her heart pounding, she quickly grabbed onto what was left of the bridge still hanging and began to shimmy her way across - one foot, one hand, at a time. It took her a few minutes, but she couldn't swing back across when the rope had gone back to the original side after she let go.
"I'm coming Dolores!" she whispered, waving down to the tiny figure she spotted from the top of the stairs. When she received a wave in return, she knew Dolores had heard her. Going down the stairs was far easier than going up, and in almost no time at all Mirabel found herself standing back in front of the taller girl. "Come." she urged, "We shouldn't be in Tio Bruno's room." She looked worried, "I don't think Abuela knows yet, she's so focused on the Guzman family coming tonight. If you want to know about Tio Bruno, I promise I'll tell you what I know later. Okay?" she whispered before the pair silently slipped back through the wall of sand, brushing as much of it from their faces and clothes as they could before Dolores nodded that they could still slip out of the room.
They rounded the corner and stood in front of the nursery door, the red paint declaring it Mirabel's, just in the nick of time for Abuela rounded the other corner and saw the two girls hunched close together. "Dolores! Mirabel!" she twitched, "What are you doing? Have you distracted Dolores from her duty?" her upset gaze was turned directly to the younger girl.
"Oh, um! Abuela!" Dolores hummed nervously, drawing her attention, "I just needed a moment to let my ears focus on just one thing before I go back to listening to everything." she wrung her hands and looked down at her feet as she shifted between them. "Mirabel was drawing me a new dress and I wanted her to tell me about it for a few minutes. It's my fault, I insisted! I promise!"
"You know better." she scowled at both girls, "Mirabel you know you are not allowed to distract your cousin from her job. You know this and yet you continue to do it!"
"Oh, but Abuela! It's my fault! Not hers!" Dolores tried to insist again.
"No! Mirabel knows how important our gifts are! Our duties to Encanto! We all must earn our miracle, and we cannot do that when she is underfoot and distracting us!" Dolores and Mirabel both shrunk back again, shoulders hunching and heads down. "Now go Dolores! I want you to listen for the Guzman family! They should be on their way soon." turning she squinted down at the fifteen-year-old still in front of her. "And you! Mirabel! Do not make me regret this, but Julieta will need help finishing in the kitchen and setting the table for dinner tonight. Go."
"Yes Abuela!" she nodded vigorously, turning and fleeing to go offer her help to her mama once more, as she had originally thought to do before her adventure into Tio Bruno's mysterious room.