Disclaimer: I do not own Encanto. This story is not for profit.
Chapter 25
The Party
In preparation for Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno's three day birthday fiesta, the Madrigals stopped working on the house and instead worked on birthday preparations and presents. Agustín and Félix were made aware of the existence of Team Grandkids and their master plan of making presents for Bruno, and then sworn to secrecy. All of November 3rd was a mad rush to finish the rat costumes and the stage props and backdrops.
Now it was November 4th, the day before Julieta's birthday celebration. This was to be followed by Pepa on the 6th and Bruno on the 7th.
Bruno was increasingly nervous at being underfoot during the process of ramping up for his sisters' parties. Half the town was at the Guzmán house. Eventually, he hid upstairs in bed. Mirabel felt sorry for him, and when he didn't come down for lunch, she brought him a tray of food. Her Mamá and Pepa nominated her because of how good she'd been with Bruno so far. She didn't miss that they were treating her like the adult and Bruno like the child, which was ironic, considering she was the one who had been forced to live in the Nursery, but she jumped at the chance to protect Bruno from the poking and prodding of the rest of the family. She couldn't trust them to be sensitive enough.
"Tio Bruno, I've got lunch for you," she called outside the guest bedroom door.
Bruno opened the door, let her in, and closed the door. "S-sorry, the noise, it's just…so many people – I'm not ready."
"That's okay!" Mirabel waited for him to be seated on the chair by the window and then set the tray on his lap. "You have a lot in common with Dolores, huh? And she did always know you were there. So I guess she's the favorite?"
Bruno cringed. "I don't have favorites. H-Honest."
"It's okay if you do," Mirabel said. "It was just an observation." She could tell she'd accidentally made him uncomfortable, so she switched topics. "Are you excited for your birthday?"
Bruno's hands shook as he used his knife and fork to cut his enchilada. "I'm not sure that a birthday right now is such a great idea."
"I'm sure Señora Guzmán will let us use her house for the party."
"That's not really the point." Bruno looked away, out the window.
Mirabel sat down on the floor next to his chair and looked up at him. "Then what is the point?"
"Mirabel…I know you're trying to do something nice for me. You-You probably feel bad because I spent ten years celebrating my birthday in the walls."
"Yep."
"But it's not like I didn't celebrate them."
Mirabel gave him a look. "You were in the wall. How…?"
Bruno gestured with his knife and fork. "I mean, I was there, I could follow the party from inside the secret passages and hear the music. I just didn't let you know I was there."
"Tio, that's depressing."
"No, no, it really wasn't, d-depressing, for me." Bruno halted, set his knife and fork down on the tray, and gestured with both hands. "I mean, I know I was gone and that was depressing for everyone, especially Juli and Pepi, and m-maybe for Mamá –"
"You couldn't eat anything. How can you call it celebrating your birthday without cake?"
"Oh, no, I never went without cake. Dolores would steal a piece of cake and set it inside the painting, and I would come get it."
"That's somehow even sadder."
"Sorry. Sorry!" Bruno cringed. "Anyway, I was thinking, what's the big deal? There's no big deal. So I'm a year older. Who isn't? I mean, I'll be 51 years old. What's so special about that?"
"Tio…you're special. We're celebrating you, not your age."
Bruno looked at her with the same sad, wary surprise as when she had told him that she wanted to make her family proud, just once. "I'll agree to celebrate my birthday as long as I'm not singled out. If we hold a separate day just for my birthday, well, that's asking for trouble, because – because if the town knows a certain day is my birthday, then – I-I mean, what used to happen is that – well – on my celebration day, n-no one would show up…"
It was Mirabel's turn to cringe. "Yikes. Like my birthdays. Never mind, we'll lump you in with Mamá and Tia Pepa."
"I'll talk to your mamá, and she can talk to Pepa," Bruno said.
"Okay, fine," Mirabel said, unfazed. "However you wanna do it. But I'm not going to let you wiggle out of this. It's your birthday. You get a say in it."
"But it's not just my..." Bruno wilted at her grin.
"Let's talk to Mamá together," Mirabel said. "When you're finished eating, we'll go downstairs, and she'll be in the kitchen, and while we wash your plate you can tell her."
"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" Bruno sighed and ate a bite of his enchilada.
"Nope," Mirabel said cheerfully.
Bruno dragged out the process of eating an enchilada as long as he could, prompting Mirabel to groan and flop down on the floor and declare that he was torturing her. But he did finish, and she jumped up and got behind him and herded him out the door. He allowed her to escort him to the kitchen, where Julieta was predictably doing chores. Luisa, Camilo, and Dolores were also present.
"Is it the noise?" Dolores asked softly.
Bruno nodded. "I-It's a little better now."
"Mamá took the party committee outside," Dolores said.
Julieta took Bruno's plate and cutlery from him.
"W-Wait, I can wash it myself," Bruno protested.
"I've already got wet hands," Julieta said.
"Tio Bruno has an awesome idea for how to do your birthdays this year!" Mirabel practically had to shove her uncle to keep him from leaving.
"I was thinking..." Bruno trailed off. "Never mind."
"No, finish," Julieta said. She washed the plate and handed it to Camilo, who rinsed it and handed it off to Dolores, who dried it. Then Luisa put the plate away.
"It's not important," Bruno said.
"Tio," Mirabel protested.
Bruno looked away and rubbed his upper arm. "I want to celebrate our birthdays together."
"Together?"
Bruno glanced at his sister. "I know, I know. As kids we wanted to set ourselves apart. And Pepa threw a fit at how much it sucked to have to share her birthday when everyone else in the village got their own...and that was that." He let out an awkward laugh. "But now..."
"He just wants one birthday celebration," Mirabel said. "That's not a big deal, right?"
"No, of course not." Julieta hugged her brother. "Anything you want. I'm sure that Pepa has long since gotten over her feelings about sharing birthday celebrations with us. We're adult women now. We have children of our own."
"Pepa never gets over anything."
"I'll make sure it's all arranged," Julieta said soothingly.
Bruno patted her back with a doubtful expression. "Maybe it would be better if I were Hernando for a while." He tugged his hood down. "I am not afraid of Pepa. I am afraid of nothing!"
Camilo looked at Bruno skeptically. "Are you sure? Because being afraid of Mamá is called wisdom."
"Camilo," Dolores murmured, frowning at her brother.
"What? I'm scared of her. Especially when I want something."
Dolores clicked her tongue. "He doesn't need to know that."
Julieta frowned. "Now, I know my sister can be a little difficult sometimes, but she's family. There is no reason to ever be scared of her." She hugged Dolores and then Camilo. "She loves you. Okay?"
Bruno raised his hood. "I'm going to hide until it's safe to come out." He dashed upstairs so quickly and so quietly there was not a chance of stopping him.
Julieta dried her hands and walked outside to talk to the party planning committee. True to her word, she arranged it all, and convinced Pepa not to pester Bruno for an explanation. The party was set for the 6th to give everyone more time to make food and stockpile alcohol for the adults.
xxx
On the evening of November 6th, la casa Guzmán was filled to bursting with partygoers, and the party extended out onto the street. There was so much wine flowing, so much laughter and music and good food, that everyone was tipsy before the cake could even be served. Mirabel was thrilled to see Bruno eating more than usual, and talking and laughing for once. He toasted his sisters, and they toasted him in return.
In a speech for the town, Abuela had said, "I am so proud of all of my children." At least for now, that seemed to set the right tone for the townspeople, and no one was objecting to Bruno or trying to start something unpleasant.
Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno took center stage after the cake, and everyone gathered around to watch them open their presents. The presents from the town came first. All of them received new clothes, from multiple different people, so that they all had several sets of clothes now. They would no longer have to borrow from the townspeople. Bruno received a bottle of wine, which for some reason Mirabel couldn't fathom made her uncle uncomfortable.
Next came the gifts from family, and Mirabel was bouncing on her feet with impatience to get to Bruno's presents from her and the other grandkids. Julieta and Pepa received jewelry from their husbands, and Bruno received from his brothers-in-law a rosary and a silver cross on a necklace. Mirabel gave her mother and her aunt a woven hair ornament, Pepa a lightning bolt and Julieta a butterfly. Isabela gifted some of the pottery she had made. Dolores and Camilo did small botanical paintings. Luisa had, at some point, hand-crafted a chair for her mother, surprising everyone. "Because you deserve to get off your feet instead of standing in the kitchen all day," Luisa explained. Julieta hugged her middle daughter with tears in her eyes. Luisa's gift for Pepa was a waterproof ruana complete with hood. "It's too sad for you to rain on yourself," Luisa said. "We're getting our Gifts back, and when we do, I want you to stay dry." Pepa flushed, but she didn't seem displeased.
Mirabel grinned. "Okay, now for the finale!" She and the other grandkids pulled Bruno's presents to the forefront. "For Tio Bruno!"
"What is all this? When…?" Bruno looked amazed.
"Unwrap them," Mirabel urged.
Bruno started with the smaller box, which contained the rat clothes. He seemed to immediately understand what they were, because he cried and laughed at the same time. "These are incredible." His eyebrows raised. "Oh. That's what you wanted to borrow a friend for."
Antonio giggled. "I like Peanut's company, but we also needed someone to try these on to make sure they worked!"
"Open these now," Camilo said, pushing forward the stack of other boxes.
Bruno opened the wooden backdrops first. "These are incredible. Did you do these?"
Camilo beamed with pride. "Me, and Dolores, and Luisa."
Finally, Bruno opened the stage props. It included a little table and chairs for an indoor scene and a little church for an outdoor scene. "These are so beautiful…" He touched the little chair gently. Then he looked at all the grandkids with warmth. "Thank you. These presents are amazing. You are all amazing."
They swarmed him with hugs, led by Mirabel and Antonio.
After the presents were securely sequestered away and the wrapping paper and boxes cleared or returned to their original owners, Félix declared, "Time for dancing!" Everyone took to the courtyard, including Bruno, and Mirabel was not surprised to see that Bruno was an exquisite dancer. He'd been so graceful while running away from her inside Casita's walls that it just made sense.
Mirabel found Camilo and high-fived him. "Birthday success!" She grinned.
Camilo was taken aback, but then grinned in return. He briefly hugged her. "You should make more plans. This worked out great. Did you see tio's face?"
"Every moment," Mirabel said. "I wish we'd had a camera."
"Yeah."
Isabela came over and danced with Bruno, and watching them, Mirabel suddenly realized that their styles were the same. Wait. Tio Bruno taught Isabela how to dance like that, didn't he? Tingles raced across her arms as it hit home again that an integral piece of their family story had been missing as long as Bruno was hidden in the walls.
The next two hours were a blur. Mirabel laughed and danced and ate party food and drank two glasses of wine. She was in such a good mood that she even managed to convince her Papá to dance with her. "Come on, you wallflower!" Agustín lasted for a few minutes and then retreated again. "I better not push my luck. I'm going to stop on a high note instead of waiting to trip and fall in front of everyone."
Mirabel had a third glass of wine, even though she knew she really shouldn't, and after that, the party was even more of a blur. She found herself dancing with Bruno instead of Isabela, her sister having moved on to solo dancing. Bruno laughed and changed his style to match Mirabel's more wild, unrestrained one.
"Go, Bruno!" Félix cheered.
Afterwards, Mirabel and Bruno got arepas together, and Félix approached with yet more wine.
"Another drink!" Félix grinned, obviously tipsy himself.
"Please, don't," Bruno said.
"Come on, it's a party," Félix said. "When are you going to cut loose like this again?"
Bruno batted Félix's hand away before it could land on his shoulder. "I said, don't."
The music stopped and everyone stared.
The blood drained from Mirabel's face, and she glanced around. The festive atmosphere had been punctured so easily.
Bruno vomited and fell to his knees in front of a rapt audience.
"¡Dios mío!" Mirabel helped Bruno up. "Okay, tio, I'll get you to the bathroom, and you're gonna be fine." She draped his arm around her shoulders and supported him with an arm around his waist. "Nothing to see here. Seriously, stop staring. He just had too much to drink. He hasn't had a drink in ten years."
"You got him drunk?" Agustín said accusingly to Félix.
Félix offered an elegant, rueful shrug. "I thought he could use some loosening up. I had no idea he couldn't hold it."
"You should have thought," Pepa said.
Mirabel ignored these exchanges and got Bruno upstairs and into the bathroom. "You're going to have to take off your ruana." She helped Bruno struggle out of it.
Bruno got to his knees and vomited into the toilet. "Don't look...Go back to the party. You're missing it."
"What? What kind of sobrina would I be if I did that?"
"One who wouldn't be missing a party?"
Mirabel sat down. "A bad one."
"Oh, no, I don't think it's a bad party. It's lovely. It's just too much for me after all this time."
"I meant I would be a bad sobrina."
"No, you wouldn't!" He puked again. This time not as much came out.
Mirabel rubbed her tio's back. "Hey. Te amo, okay?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you have to see me like this." He was shaking, sweaty.
"This is Tio Félix's fault," Mirabel said sternly.
"Don't blame him." Bruno was a little ashen, but he had stopped puking. "He wasn't thinking. You wouldn't remember this or have any reason to know, but I-I was – I used to be a pretty heavy drinker. At Pepa's wedding, I only made a mess of it the way I did because I was already drunk. Drunk, before the nuptials. I was a disgrace."
"No, you were hurting, and didn't know what else to do to dull the pain." Mirabel hugged him.
"And here I am, getting comforted by my sobrina, 51 years old, relying on someone who is 15. That's 51 backwards. This is backwards." He heaved, but nothing came out, not even bile. He lay down on the bathroom floor with an expression of misery. "Go back to the party."
Mirabel snorted. "No." She rolled him onto his side. "I'm staying with you."
"You don't have to do this."
"What if I want to?"
"You want to be up here, in a bathroom that smells like vomit, taking care of your pathetic tio, instead of enjoying the party downstairs?"
"Yep. I'm a family weirdo, like you." Mirabel sat and leaned against the cupboard under the sink. She gave Bruno a crooked smile.
"I don't buy that. I don't think you're weird at all."
"It would feel too weird for me to ignore that you're up here, suffering, while we're all having a good time. The family ignored you, even before you left, and it's not right. I'm not going to add to it. We should all be up here checking on you, but we're not. It's just me."
"They're at the party," Bruno protested. "It's very difficult to get away without the whole town getting worried, and – and no one should be worrying about me, because I'm – well, and they might be a little afraid of me – not Julieta or Pepa, but – and I don't want to make a scene."
"Is this how it is? You needing something or being in trouble or being unwell is the same thing as making a scene?"
Bruno shrugged and looked away. "You wouldn't understand, I guess."
"No, just like I don't understand being told the same thing all my life. My needs and wants and concerns are not the same thing as making trouble. I refuse to believe that. Even Mamá has a limit to how much she'll handle, and then it's, 'Go to bed. Things will be better tomorrow.' Tomorrow never comes, not unless people listen and actually care and actually help. There is no such thing as tomorrow without love. Or hope. Or help."
Tears welled up in Bruno's eyes. "I don't deserve you. I don't know how you're so wise, but you are."
Mirabel scooted up to him and wrapped her arm around him. "Wise, or sad? Because it makes me really sad to have seen this side of my family. I love my family, but my family hasn't loved me. Mamá and Papá told me to ignore what everyone else was doing, how everyone else was acting, putting it all on me, instead of doing anything to stop what was happening to me. I was supposed to ignore it instead of anyone stopping what they were doing. I got told, 'You can't control other people, you can control your attitude, and there's no reason to walk around with a sour face. You've got an amazing family, and an amazing house, and you're an amazing person, so there's no reason to be sad."
"I'm sorry," Bruno muttered. "They shouldn't have said that. Even after that speech didn't work on me, they still said it to you." He hugged her in return. "You're not at that party because you hate the parties, right?"
Mirabel sighed. "I'm sorry, I feel so guilty, especially about Tonito's party, but yes, I do hate the parties. I want to celebrate and I want to act like everything is fine, and things are trying to get better, and I'm trying to hang on, but I'm afraid that if we get the Miracle back, then everyone will go back to acting the way they did before." She rested her head on Bruno's shoulder. "Tio…will you stay? Or…if you get your Gift back and it's horrible…will you take me with you?" Tears rolled down her cheeks. "I hate to desert Antonio, I don't want to, but the same thing that happened to tear me and Camilo apart happened again: Antonio got a Gift, and I didn't, so no matter how sweet he is right now, he's going to grow up without me and leave me in the Nursery. Until the next kid. Dolores and Mariano will have five kids together, and they'll all end up being my roommates. I'll be the crazy cousin living in the Nursery with them. If I don't get out of here…"
"Breathe," Bruno whispered, and he stroked her hair. "Things're different. I don't think we can go back to the way it was. And on our blueprint, of our new house, you have a room. A beautiful room, all your own."
Mirabel bawled. She clung to Bruno and only now realized that she was very, very drunk herself. For the first time she could remember, someone let her cry, and it seemed fitting that it was Tio Bruno. And Dolores didn't have super hearing anymore, so she couldn't rush over to well-meaningly shush her. "Maybe it's too hard. I want the Miracle to come back, and I don't. Because I don't want to be denied a door again."
A knock sounded at the door, and then Mariano's concerned voice came. "Are you okay?"
"Miercoles," Mirabel hissed. She wiped her tears and stood. "Yes, we're fine," she called back in her best optimistic tone. She'd learned it from her mother, after all, and had a lifetime to perfect it. Say you're fine, and someday you will be, her mother had said after her door had disappeared. Mirabel knew with sudden, drunken clarity that while the words had been meant as encouragement, they were actually cuttingly cruel. All of Mirabel's "fines" had cut her off from the rest of the family and any possible conversation of how much pain she was in.
Still, that didn't mean she wanted comforting from Mariano.
Bruno stumbled to his feet, wrapped an arm around Mirabel, and called, "We're coming out." He marched over and opened the door. "I'm going to lie down."
"And I'm going to make sure he makes it okay," Mirabel said, supporting Bruno physically as her tio swayed on his feet.
"Do you need help?" Mariano asked.
"Nope." Mirabel smiled brightly.
Mariano seemed puzzled. "If you're sure…"
"Yep. Come on, tio. Bed's this way." Mirabel dragged Bruno, stumbling a little herself, making it to the guest bedroom as quickly as she could and shutting them in, locking the door. She breathed a sigh of relief. "I can't wait to have our own house again."
Bruno collapsed face down on the bed. "Nngh," he agreed.
Mirabel was so tired that she didn't think twice. "Share," she groaned. She put her glasses on the nightstand and crawled into bed with her tio, slipping off her shoes.
"N'kay," Bruno mumbled. He shifted with her help. His arm ended up across her back as she snuggled in tightly, and she pushed him onto his side in case he vomited in his sleep, a horrible fate she'd learned about from watching her mother act as the town's healer for so long.
Then Mirabel passed out, vertigo making her feel as if she were spinning down through the floor.
