Disclaimer: I do not own Encanto. This story is not for profit.


Chapter 17

October 28th

Afternoon

Lunch was more relaxed after Antonio started feeling better. By the time everyone was eating the tres leches cake, Mirabel's attention had gone to the fact that since it was Sunday, it was the perfect opportunity to spend time on Bruno's birthday presents.

"Tio Bruno," Mirabel said.

Bruno snapped out of some thought or daydream he'd been having, made obvious by the fact that his fork had been hovering over his cake for almost two minutes. "Huh?" His eyes focused on her. "Yes, Mirabel?"

Mirabel gave him her best smile. "Antonio loves your rats so much."

"Oh? Uh, thank you, Tonito. They really love you, too."

Abuela frowned. "Is this discussion appropriate for the lunch table?"

Mirabel ignored that. "Antonio was wondering if he could borrow one of your rats for the afternoon."

Antonio's eyes widened, and he sat up straight, having been slouching. It was obvious that he remembered their plan to borrow a rat so that fittings could be done for the rat clothes. "Yes! May I, please?"

"I don't know, Tonito. I'll have to ask them." Bruno chuckled. "As long as one of them says yes, then, of course."

"Rats are not an appropriate topic of discussion when we are eating," Abuela said.

Antonio looked at her with an expression of confusion. "They're just pets. And they're very clean. They groom themselves more than most humans do."

"Manners," Pepa hissed.

Antonio ducked down in his chair. "I'm sorry, Abuela."

"Think of our hostess," Abuela said.

Señora Guzmán shook her head with a small laugh. "Rats may be an unusual topic, but I'm not offended. It would take much more than that to offend me." She turned a smile on Bruno. "I've always been curious about why you chose rats as pets."

Abuela looked upset and astonished.

"Yes, Señora. Well, you see…they chose me. Because I'm quiet." Bruno offered her a shy smile in return. "Th-They're really like my best friends."

"Tio Bruno says rats are like tiny dogs," Antonio said, beaming at being allowed to talk about rats after all. As usual, anything animal-related cheered him up.

Señora Guzmán laughed again, but not unkindly. "Really?"

Antonio nodded. "Mm-hmm!"

"They know my voice and understand when I speak to them," Bruno said in the same shy tone. "I can ask them to do lots of things, and they'll help me."

"My goodness! That sounds almost like a Gift," Señora Guzmán said.

Bruno fiddled with the sleeve of his borrowed suit. "N-No, there's no magic to it." His gaze dropped to his plate, but he was still smiling.

"Soon it will be possible to start building the second story onto the house," Abuela said, a little loudly. "I cannot thank you enough for your support."

Señora Guzmán responded, "Our families have always been friends. That will not change because of some change in fortune. Our family friendship is based on our love and loyalty for each other."

"What you told me last week about our family history is so interesting," Isabela said, seeming to understand she was coming to Abuela's rescue in helping change the topic.

"I'm glad, my dear," Señora Guzmán said. "You are invited to come over and have coffee anytime."

Isabela glowed at the invitation. "Thank you so much! I will do that."

"This cake is really delicious," Julieta said.

Everyone happily agreed.

After lunch was over, Abuela, Julieta, and Isabela stayed behind to talk about the old days with Señora Guzmán. Dolores hurriedly left, taking the excuse that Camilo offered her about helping him with something, most likely just code for going and working on the props, because Luisa threw herself in with them.

Pepa managed to disappear in this process somewhere.

The men of the family looked like loose ends.

Antonio looked at Bruno expectantly.

"Oh, right! You want to spend time with a friend for the day." Bruno made a clicking noise with his tongue. A rat popped out of his left sleeve, and five more popped their heads out of the blazer of his suit. He spoke to them. "Who wants to spend time with Antonio for the day? Go to Antonio." He pointed at Antonio. "Antonio. Go?"

Bruno helped one of the rats scramble out of the blazer. The rat leapt from Bruno's hand to Antonio's shoulder.

Antonio giggled. "Peanut."

Bruno grinned. "That's right. I knew you would remember all their names. Peanut wants to spend the day with you."

Antonio petted Peanut's head as Peanut licked his ear, making him giggle and scrunch his shoulders.

Mirabel narrowly held in a victory cheer. Yes! "Great, let's go!"

"Where are you off to?" Julieta asked.

Mirabel waved and grinned. "I'm showing Antonio how to sew. We're going to Señorita Torres' house."

xxx

They quickly learned what Peanut did and didn't like about the mock-up clothes. He actually liked the skirt the best. It was just a ruffle of cloth with a button clasp to fasten it around the rat's waist. Mirabel ended up reworking her ideas for blouses, shirts, and pants several times. Eventually she came up with a design for blouses and shirts that Peanut would accept, but the pants she never got to work. "OK," she sighed, slumping over the sewing table. "I can't take anymore. Forget the pants."

"Rats don't need pants," Antonio said.

"I'm sure the shirts will mark them as the men in the scene," Señorita Torres said, patting Mirabel's back.

"And the skirts work," Antonio said.

"All right, all right, all right. I accept defeat." Mirabel dragged herself up and hugged her mentor. "Thanks for sharing your house with me."

"You are an excellent student." She hugged Mirabel in return. Then she turned to Antonio, smiling. "And you are welcome anytime. I think you're the most well-behaved boy I've ever met!" She laughed.

Antonio beamed. "Thank you, Señorita."

Mirabel and Antonio walked back to the church, Peanut riding on Antonio's shoulder.

Bruno and Padre Agudelo were outside the church talking.

"Look, they're making friends," Antonio said, pointing.

Mirabel took in the way Bruno waved his arms around. "Uh…I don't think so, Antonio." She put on a smile for him. "Wait here. I'll go make sure nothing is wrong."

"What would be wrong?" Antonio asked.

"I don't know. I'll just go see. OK?"

Antonio's shoulders slumped. "OK." He didn't try to follow her. He stood by at the end of the street and petted Peanut.

Mirabel sprinted up to Bruno and the Padre, trying not to look like she was worried.

"W-What's the deal?" Bruno's hands clenched, and his expression was so fiercely, furiously angry that he didn't look like himself. Mirabel could almost imagine him as a prophet getting ready to strike someone down for insulting God.

"I beg your pardon?" Padre Agudelo seemed genuinely confused and concerned.

"You terrified my 5-year-old sobrino! What are you? Some kind of heartless maniac? Couldn't you do your gossiping about me behind my back? Behind his back? No, no, not you." Bruno shook his head vigorously. "You feel free to – to –" He gestured incoherently.

"The treatment you suffered is a spiritual illness suffered by the whole village," Padre Agudelo said. "Only as a village can we overcome this."

"I'm not a public problem!" He jerked forward as if he were going to punch the Padre in the face.

Mirabel gasped and grabbed his arm. "Tio, that's not what he's saying!" She was scared. She'd never seen him like this. How he had come to her rescue by the river was the closest thing, but here, now, Bruno was even angrier. And unlike by the river, her uncle didn't seem to be listening.

"You talked about adult things in front of children," Bruno said as if that were one of the worst crimes on Earth. "My sobrino is probably going to be traumatized for life! As if he isn't dealing with enough right now!"

"I meant no harm," Padre Agudelo said, raising his hands in front of him with surrendering, placating motions.

"He was crying at lunch about this, because you can't grasp the level of spiritual understanding that a 5-year-old has, because you can't understand children, because you think everyone sees things the way you do, and you never stop to think how the children will feel! The children are precious before Dios el padre, but are they precious to you?" Bruno lunged forward despite Mirabel and jabbed the Padre's chest with his index finger.

Several onlookers gasped.

Padre Agudelo bowed his head and lowered his arms, then knelt. "You have come to humble me, and I accept in the name of the Lord."

Bruno turned away. "Oh, forget it." He walked away, past Mirabel.

Mirabel looked from her retreating uncle to the Padre, who was down on his knees publicly praying. Then she ran after Bruno. "I know you're angry, but –"

"Don't."

She flinched.

Bruno's jaw was clenched, and he moved so fast she could barely keep up. "You don't know who that man is. You don't know how – when he –" He took a deep breath. "I don't believe he's ever going to change, no matter what he says. All that in there? That was for show. I don't believe it. I'll have to see some results before I believe that he's changed at all. Or – or the village. All I see right now is someone grandstanding and scaring my sobrino and making my life awkward. Me, like Jesucristo? What mealy-mouthed nonsense!"

Mirabel's eyes widened. She did a weird mix of fast walking and running in order to keep up with him, her bag slapping against her thigh. "It really hits a nerve when people compliment you too much, doesn't it?"

"Yes. That's all people ever do. I'm a living saint or I'm demon-possessed. I'm perfect, or I'm broken. I'm n-neither! I'm just me! I've always been, and I always will be, just me: Bruno. Not a genius, not a madman, not special, not un-special. Just, forever and always, me. Why can't people see me? They make these illusions of people who never existed, but they can't bring themselves to see me."

"Wow. Padre Agudelo really messed up," Mirabel said.

"He never listens. He never has, and he never will. And I will never forgive him for hurting Antonio. God might forgive him, but I never will."

Not even in Heaven? But Mirabel knew better than to say that right now. Her uncle was angry, and until he walked off his anger, this was the best he could do. "What about the villagers? I feel like the Padre is trying to patch things up between you and them."

Bruno snorted. "To Hell with it. I'm not going to force myself into their lives, and they can stay out of mine for all I care. I love you. I love my family. But them? I have no love left for them. They took it from me and broke it in front of me and laughed as they set all the pieces on fire. No, to-to Hell with them. Who cares?"

Mirabel nodded a little. It makes sense. Now that you're coming out of your shell, instead of being scared of them, you're angry at them. "You don't have to forgive them. Not for me. The only person I would want you to do it for is you, so if you don't feel like it…don't."

Bruno's expression lost its fierceness, and his footsteps lost their steam, and after a moment he dropped to his knees and sat on the street corner next to the rain barrel, arms resting on his knees.

Mirabel knelt beside him. "You don't have to do any of that. I understand – we understand – if you never forgive them for the awful things that they did." She rested her hand on his arm. "And you're right. I don't know who Padre Agudelo is to you. I know that he's been Padre for a long time, and that he's older than you and Tio Félix, but not as old as Abuela."

"He became the Padre for the village when your madre, Pepa, and I were ten," Bruno muttered. "That was also around the same time my visions went sour. So he's made things difficult for me almost from the start. He contributed to the village turning against me. And that was way before he asked me to see his future, and the tiniest detail in it was that he was bald, and that was all he cared about, and he told the whole village I'd cursed him to have his hair fall out, and then it was, 'Oh, Bruno curses people, he's a bad guy and he's creepy'."

"I'm sorry," Mirabel whispered. She hugged him gently.

Antonio came up to them and sat down next to them. Peanut squeaked and ran down Antonio's arm and up Bruno's leg.

Bruno petted Peanut absently.

"What were you fighting with the Padre about?" Antonio asked.

Mirabel waited to see if Bruno would answer the question himself.

After a moment, Bruno touched Antonio's head and gently filtered his fingers through Antonio's curls. "He made you worry about me. I was angry."

Antonio's brow furrowed. "I worry about you because we're a family. Te quiero mucho."

Bruno was suddenly crying. He hugged Antonio tightly. "Te quiero mucho. Te amo tanto. Tanto."

Antonio hugged Bruno in return. "You're like everybody all in one."

Bruno sniffled, took a deep breath, and used his handkerchief. "What do you mean?"

Antonio smiled. "You like animals like me, and acting and writing like Camilo, sewing like Mirabel, you're nice like Tia Julieta and angry like Mamá." He paused a moment. "You listen as good as Dolores, and you try to be perfect like Isabela, and you carry too much, like Luisa…when you joke, you joke like Papá, and when you get embarrassed, you get awkward like Tio Agustín and don't know what to do. And you worry about everyone's future like Abuela! So you're like everyone, all of us, all in one." He hugged Bruno again. "So don't go away."

Bruno rubbed Antonio's back, smiling gently in return. "I'm not going away. But don't tell your Abuela that. The suspense keeps her on her manners."

Antonio giggled.

Mirabel was amazed at Antonio's insights and relieved that Antonio had come and defused the tension.

"Thank you for letting me spend time with Peanut," Antonio said.

Bruno stood, picking Antonio up in the process. "Thank you for spending time with Peanut. I know he enjoyed it." He balanced Antonio against him easily, once more showing that though he was scrawny, he was basically pure muscle. A puzzled expression crossed his face, and he looked at Mirabel. "I meant to ask you…"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"How did you know where to find my vision of you?"

"Oh. Well, Luisa told me. Sort of. Not really, but she told me to look for the vision in your tower. And it was Dolores who told me to ask Luisa."

"That answers one question," Bruno said. "But how did you get into my room?"

Mirabel felt like this was a trick question. "I opened…the door?"

"Casita let you open the door?"

Mirabel saw her uncle's point. "Right, because Abuela said your room was off limits, Casita shouldn't have. But she did. I guess she felt like the reason I was trying to get into your room was good enough to disobey Abuela's orders. And you're glad, right? Because otherwise you wouldn't be here."

"Right, I'm glad." Bruno smiled at Antonio reassuringly. "Just surprised."

"We're all surprised, and we're all glad." Mirabel hugged his side.