Birthday Surprises
Alma looked out on her village from her upstairs window. It was strange to think how it's been almost 35 years since the candle saved her. 29 years since it gave her children their gifts. Now her eldest granddaughter, Isabella, was turning five. Alma wanted the candle to give Isabela a gift, so her family could continue serving the community like Pedro wanted.
Casita came to life on the window ledge, she waved the window shutters. 'Heeeyyy Alma. I have a surprise for youuu- I mean- Isabelaaaa.'
"Really?" Alma didn't want to get too excited. It could be just another birthday present.
Casita waved the shutters again. 'Yeah! Yeah! Come on! Come on!' Casita turned Alma using the floor and brought her to the stairs. Alma walked down to the first floor of her room. The house she had with Pedro. Oh, how she wished he was still here in person. Alma reminded herself that she had his gifted kids. That would have to be enough.
Alma left her room and walked onto the balcony. All was normal, the nursery was on the other side, her children's rooms to her right. But to her left, in the hallway connecting the parents' rooms to the nursery, there was a new door.
"A door? For Isabela?"
'Yup!' Casita clitter-clattered her tiles. 'Surprise!'
Alma gazed upon the door. It was a blank slate of wood, and it had swirling yellow magic around it. Endless possibilities lay inside
"Thank you, Casita."
'You'rrre welcome!' she clattered 'Ohh I can't wait for Isa to see!'
"Haha, me neither. Today's going to be a big day."
Isabela, Dolores, and Luisa were in the nursery, talking about what a birthday means.
"You know, when it's your birthday, you can be a princess for a day and tell people what to do." Isa said, sitting on her bed and waving with elegant poise.
"Really?" Luisa asked, starry-eyed
"Yeah really." Isa answered, "Mama told me."
Dolores cut in. "You're not a princess. You don't even have a crown."
Their fight was prevented by a knock on the door.
"Come in!" Isabella called.
Abuela, Mama, and Tia Pepa opened the door and came inside. "Happy Birthday Isabella." The three said in unison
"Thanks!" Isa slid off her bed.
Abuela revealed a small purple box, tied with a pink bow and gave it to Isabela. Pepa and Julieta gave each other little smiles
Isa laid the present on her bed and untied the ribbon. She opened the box and found "A princess dress!"
"Wait, really!?" Dolores exclaimed.
Isabela excitedly pulled out the dress and held it up to herself to measure it. It had a pink top and purple skirt that went down to her ankles.
Dolores' jaw dropped. Luisa exclaimed excitedly, "It is a princess dress!"
Julieta and Pepa laughed. Their kids were too cute to handle.
Abuela smiled. "I don't know about a princess dress, but it is special. Julieta, Pepa, and I worked on it together."
"Really?" Isabela looked at her mom and aunt, who nodded together. Isa jumped around the room excitedly, hugging the dress. "I love it! I love it! I love it! I love it!" She ran to her mother. "Can I put it on right now?
"Sure!" Julieta replied. She helped her daughter take off her usual blue dress.
"You know you'll have to wash it before the party." Pepa scolded her sister.
"Yeah, but she wants to wear it." Julieta put the 'princess dress' on Isabela, and before she could even say "All done", Isa ran off to see herself in the mirror.
"Wooowww. It's so pretty!" Isa played with her skirt. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome, Corazon." Julieta replied. "Come on, let's show Papa."
Isa ran out of the room, with the procession of ladies following, and Luisa singing "My sister's a princess!" My sister's a princess!"
As Isa ran to through the hall to her parents' room, she noticed something on the wall that wasn't there before. She stopped in front of it, "Is that a new door?!"
'Surprise!' Casita rattled her roof shingles and dropped some confetti. 'You're getting a magical gift!'
"I'm getting a gift?"
"We're gonna get gifts?!" Dolores practically screamed in excitement.
The cousins grabbed hands and squealed. They would get gifts and be like their moms! Weather, healing, flight, earth, plants, portals, it didn't matter what the gift was, they'd be part of the magic!
Now all they had to do was wait for Isa to get her magic at the birthday party.