Episode Two: If the Walls Could Speak
A breathless silence fell upon the Casita. Antonio felt his hands and cheeks tingle as the blood attempted to retreat from his inescapable fate. He glanced around at the gathered witnesses, then up to his glowing door. The pulsating ethereal light, creating a dust cloud of dancing glitter that spilt out into the darkness of the balcony, might have been beautiful had it not been for the terror it elicited. He did not want to be there. Since his cousin's failed gift ceremony, there had been speculation that the miracle had run out of gifts to give, or worse, that the magic was dying. The pressure and anticipation for Antonio to test it again had been evident for as long as he could remember. His entire existence and worth as a person revolved around that gift ceremony.
Antonio felt his bones vibrate as a deep drum began to tap out a solemn beat. Recognising the signal, he started his ascent towards that dreadful door. Each thump of the drum was like a call to his death. Each step felt like he was treading on hot tar. He knew he could not linger too long, yet something sticky and viscous was moulding around his feet and pulling him back. Each step felt heavier and more laborious than the last.
He neared the top of the stairs where his proud family waited. His dad opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words, there came the deep rolling roar of a bear. Startled, Antonio quickly looked toward his brother and sister. Camilo laughed, as though their dad had said something hilarious, and then he started to scratch at his face below his eyes. The scratching became harder and more vigorous and his nails left red tracks on his skin. He continued to claw at his face until the end of a finger slid under the skin. Antonio expected to see blood, muscle and bone as the skin of his brother's face unfurled like the rind of an orange, but instead, a new face emerged. It looked like Camilo, but in place of his light brown, freckled skin was a layer of reptilian scales. His brother continued to laugh as though he were playing the funniest prank. Antonio checked to see if Dolores was alarmed by what their brother was doing. His slender sister looked blankly ahead without blinking before tilting her head towards Antonio as though her eyes were fixed and could not rotate in their sockets. She let out an ear-piercing screech like some great bird calling across a vast rainforest. The sound repeated over and over, each time seeming more shrill than the last. Then Mirabel spoke.
"Antonio..."
He shook awake and was relieved to find himself safe in the nursery. As he sat up, his cousin struck a match and lit the lamp above his bed.
"Another nightmare?" she asked, and Antonio nodded. "The gift ceremony again?"
Antonio nodded once more.
"Wanna talk about it?"
He shook his head.
Mirabel sighed and placed her hand on his. "Hey... You know it's after midnight, right? So it's already your birthday. This time tomorrow, you'll be fast asleep in your awesome new room, and there'll be nothing left to worry about."
When Antonio did not answer, she sighed again and continued, "Look, try to get a little more sleep. Tomorrow will be an amazing day for you. For all of us. You'll see." She blew out the candle and then returned to her bed.
.
That evening...
"You guys can set up over here!"
"Clean your rooms. I don't care how big they are!"
"Anybody seen my tiple?"
Antonio sat on his bed, listening to the chatter from the Casita outside as the family hurried to finish setting up for his gift ceremony. He stared mournfully at Mirabel's side of the nursery. It had become such a familiar sight. Stencilled patterns in cheerful colours like bright pink and yellow sporadically obscured the alphabet letters that ran around the green walls. Many doodles of the family or fantastical made-up creatures were pinned haphazardly around her bed. She had even painstakingly created a colourful checkered pattern on the floorboards by her bed in chalk. It was so perfectly 'Mirabel'. Her personality filled the space, even in her absence. Though he usually went to bed much earlier than she would, Antonio could glance over and see his cousin right there in the room with him. He sure was going to miss her if the ceremony worked. He was going to miss the colour she added to the world.
Several boxes lay on and around Antonio's bed. Five years of memories packed up and ready to be moved to his magical new room. He considered them with a sigh and then turned towards his own wall. In stark contrast to Mirabel's side of the room, the wall beside his bed was completely bare. No scribbles, no stencils, no attempt to personalise the space at all. Just a blank canvas, like Antonio. It had invited him to fill it with expressions of his personality, but he never attempted to. Maybe because he always hoped his time in that room would be temporary, he had not wanted to become too attached. Or perhaps he simply did not yet know himself well enough. His personality did not shine like Mirabel's, so how could he ever hope to fill the room the way she did?
A heavy dread came over Antonio, and his heart started pounding violently. Something was coming. A terrible creature with many eyes and legs was scurrying quickly towards the nursery. Claw-like feet rasping against the tiled floor, he could hear it drawing closer. Soon it would reach out, grab him, and wrap him up in a vile, sticky substance. It would wind him around and around so tightly that he could not move and could barely breathe. Then it would drag him, helpless and defenceless, to whatever fate awaited him. He would watch as the telescopic light of the nursery, Mirabel's light, faded from view and disappeared from his life forever.
Closer and closer, the footsteps came until he could hear heavy breathing behind the door. He quickly looked around the room for an escape. Then, as though drawn by the warmth of Mirabel's light, he hurried toward her bed and hid beneath it, tucking himself behind the drape of her pink blanket, which obscured him from view like a curtain.
The door creaked open, and Antonio held his breath. A pair of feet appeared at the doorway. They took a few steps into the room and then stopped still. There was the sound of laboured breathing and then a deep growl, like the rumble of thunder, before the feet turned and left the nursery. The door clicked shut, and Antonio let out his breath with a gasp.
"Pepa, you have a cloud!" he heard Abuela's voice from across the balcony outside.
"I know, Mamá, but now I can't find Antonio! What do you want from me?!" replied his mom.
The nursery door opened again, and this time it was not a scurrying monster crawling straight out of his nightmares but a creature too fantastical to describe.
Antonio was a rather timid child. His mom once said there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who crave company and thrive in lively environments with lots of people. That type of individual will quickly become lethargic or even depressed if left on their own for too long. Then there are those that prefer quieter pursuits. They need time alone with their thoughts. Although they enjoy the company of others, if they do not get enough time alone to rest and recharge, they can become stressed and anxious. His mom said that members of their family tended to lean more towards the latter kind, with the exception of his brother. Camilo got his more outgoing nature from their dad. Antonio's dark skin and tightly curled hair may have come from his dad's Caribbean heritage, but that was where their similarities ended. He certainly got his disposition from his mom's side of the family, although it was particularly extreme in his case. His mom had explained that even the quieter kind of people need to make time for socialising or else risk becoming overly shy and withdrawn. It is all about balance. Antonio had been having difficulty finding that balance though. He had a few friends, but the only person he could comfortably talk to was his fifteen-year-old cousin, Mirabel.
To cope with his shyness, Antonio would often imagine that the people in his life were animals. Some were easy. His sister, Dolores, for example, was a sleek and silent ocelot, picking its way daintily through dense foliage. Freezing here and there, alerted by a sudden sound, then sniffing the air before slinking off, unseen amongst the leaves. He did not see his brother as a chameleon, despite the chameleon motif on his orange ruana that swished as he leapt around. Chameleons are slow, placid and somewhat dopey animals. Camilo was not like that at all. To Antonio, a squirrel monkey better captured his brother's essence. Playful, lively and sharp. Leaping from branch to branch with supernatural agility. Stopping still for just a moment to observe the world through deep, brown eyes, revealing a glimpse of its true intellect for just a second, before playfully zipping off again, almost flying through the trees without wings.
Others were not so easy. His mom could be a different animal, depending on her mood. Sometimes she was a dainty deer, on edge and easily startled. At other times she was an eagle, carefully observing the world from afar, throwing an angry frown for a misdeed her children felt sure they could sneak past her notice. Most often, she was a jaguar. Beautiful and soft, with a sleek coat of copper-gold, yet wild, sharp and unpredictable. The female jaguar is a fiercely devoted mother to her cubs, and that was primarily the feeling Antonio would get from his mom. Emotional, unpredictable, but with a heart filled with love that burns brighter than the sun itself.
Then there was Mirabel. She was impossible to define at all. She had the curiosity of an anteater, snuffling through the undergrowth and noticing details that most people would miss. She was also colourful, making the world brighter just by existing, like a toucan or a butterfly. She was smart like a caoti, loveable like a tapir, headstrong like a chigüiro. The best Antonio could come up with was that Mirabel was a curious, loveable, smart chigüiro with the head of a tapir, tail of an anteater, wings of a toucan and the vibrant colours of a butterfly.
From his vantage point beneath the bed, Antonio could see the bottom of Mirabel's teal skirt swish as she moved across the room. She had embellished her skirt with colourful hand-sewn images representing her family members' gifts. Although Antonio did not have one yet, she had not missed him out. Instead, she had embroidered jaguars to symbolise his love of animals.
The mattress above him dipped as Mirabel sat down heavily with a sigh. She reached over, slid open the drawer beneath the window seat, and pulled something out.
"Everyone's looking for you," she sang. Antonio realised he was busted but did not reply. She waved a brightly coloured box under the bed and continued, "This present will self-destruct if you don't take it in three, two, one..."
Antonio reached out and snatched the box. He placed it on the floor before him and pondered at it. It was a perfectly 'Mirabel' present. The box had been decorated with stencilled animals and lovingly tied with coloured yarn. Antonio loved presents, and he usually loved birthdays. This was no ordinary birthday, however. Mirabel crawled under the bed beside him but he could not bring himself to look at her.
"Nervous?" she asked.
Antonio nodded.
"You have nothing to worry about. You're gonna get your gift and open that door... and it's gonna be the coolest ever. I know it."
There was no way she could know that. Abuela's descendants had all received magical gifts on their fifth birthday. Then one day, the ceremony did not work. That was all anyone could say for sure.
"What if it doesn't work?" he finally said.
"Well, in that impossible scenario, you'd stay in here in the nursery with me. Forever... And I'd get you all to myself." She pretended to nip him, and he could not contain a giggle.
"I wish you could have a door," he whispered.
Mirabel seemed to think for a moment and then said with a smile carved from love itself, "You know what? You don't have to worry about me, 'cause I have an amazing family, and an amazing house, and an amazing you." She pulled the present closer to Antonio and added, "But alas, I am going to miss having the world's best roomie."
Antonio untied the yarn, removed the lid and peered inside. A warmth spread through his body as he lifted out the perfect gift; a hand-made stuffed jaguar, his favourite animal of all. No matter what his new room would be like, he would always have a little reminder of Mirabel by his bed.
.
A little later...
There was no delaying it and certainly no avoiding it. The moment everyone had been waiting five long years for had finally arrived. Antonio waited nervously behind a curtain of flowers that his cousin, Isabela, had created. He could hear Abuela addressing the crowd on the other side, but all he could focus on was the violent thumping in his chest. The curtains suddenly lifted to the sound of applause, and the Casita created a path of red tiles to mark his ascent towards the unformed door that glistened with golden light on the balcony. The overhead lamps turned towards him like spotlights, engulfing him in blinding white light that obscured the rest of the courtyard from view. It felt every bit as horrific as the nightmares he had been haunted by in the months leading up to his birthday. The applause died, and he felt a wall of expectant faces turn toward him, but Antonio could not move his limbs. He was completely frozen to the spot.
He felt a tile lift below his feet as the Casita urged him to begin his journey towards the temporary staircase and up to his new door. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do. Abuela ensured he had it memorised and rehearsed, but the muscles in his legs refused to budge. He turned towards Mirabel, who had been waiting with him, tucked out of sight by Abuelo's stairs. Then he reached a hand towards the brightest light in the entire Casita, inviting her to walk him to his door.
"I can't..." she whispered, apologising with her eyes.
"I need you," he begged. His mom had been right. Everybody needs company sometimes, and he could not face this alone.
The awkward silence continued, and then Mirabel stepped forward and took his hand. There were low murmurs as people glanced around at one another, or Abuela, to see if it was all part of the ceremony. Antonio did not care about their reactions. This was his moment, and if he could not escape it, he was at least doing it his way.
"Come on. Let's get you to your door."
They walked together along the path that the Casita had laid out and then continued up the stairs to where Abuela waited; the magical candle grasped in front of her with both hands. Behind her, Antonio's dad had a tight hold of his mom as she did her best to keep it together. When they reached the balcony, Mirabel stepped aside, and Abuela leaned down and held out the candle.
"Will you use your gift to honour our miracle? Will you serve this community and strengthen our home?"
Antonio touched the candle with both hands and nodded. Then with a deep breath, he finally reached for the doorknob.
The moment his hand made contact, the doorknob burst with glittering golden light that travelled up the door, and he felt a warm sensation pass through his body. Before he could process what had happened, a toucan flew onto his arm and started chittering.
Hi there!
Antonio gazed at the toucan with confusion. Was it talking?
Pretty cool, eh? You do understand me, right?
"Uh-huh, uh-huh, I understand you!"
Mind if one or two friends come?
"Of course they can come!"
A chorus of bird cries erupted overhead, and Antonio watched as a few more than 'one or two' of the toucan's friends flew into the Casita. Many more animals jumped in through the open windows, running between people's feet as they made their way towards Antonio's door. Tapirs, Chigüiros, coatis, toucans and hummingbirds all encircled Antonio, patiently watching as the magic finally settled on the door, revealing an image carved in light. A young boy surrounded by animals.
"We have a new gift!" Abuela cried out with elation, as cheers and fireworks shook the Casita, and people clambered up the stairs to witness the magic for themselves.
Antonio pushed open the door and tentatively entered his room with his new animal friends close behind him. He looked around excitedly as the room started to materialise, slowly revealing what began as a typical kid's bedroom. The materialisation then picked up speed as the magic burst ahead of him, sparkling and twinkling. It rippled outwards in all directions like an explosion of vibrant green and golden light, building the scene molecule by molecule. Antonio barely noticed the stone floor beneath him, or the many ferns and young saplings of wild cashew, or rubber trees with their broad, waxy leaves growing up around the border of the expansive space. Instead, his eyes had fixed in front of him, where a tall, wide-spreading ceiba tree dominated the area. Had it not been for the magic distorting the space, the tree would surely not have fit inside the Casita.
Despite being one of the tallest buildings in the Encanto, Antonio imagined that the Casita would be dwarfed next to the tree. The gnarled trunk was as wide as three donkeys standing nose to tail, and Antonio's whole family would have struggled to reach around it hand to hand. Branches sprouted up from near the base and some of the lower ones appeared severed. Freshwater trickled out from the hollow openings into a clear pool, feeding the tree's roots and keeping its leaves lush. The squat trunk abruptly split into many thick branches that grew out from a bowl-like base, like a hand with many fingers. A mossy platform rested in the 'palm' of this hand, creating a sizeable living space. The fingers then sprouted into a canopy of leaves, reaching upwards and outwards in all directions. Broad, round steps spiralled lazily around the trunk as though growing out of it like flat mushrooms. The steps came up to the palm-like platform and then continued to wind towards smaller ones higher up. The tree appeared to be an elaborate tree-fort with many living areas dotted about its canopy. Strings of lamps were strewn throughout the upper branches creating a warm and inviting light that shone through the leaves so that the area glowed with a mixture of gold and green. There were hammocks to sleep in, natural water slides, and swing-like vines. There were other smaller trees, with one being connected to the main tree by a rope bridge. Antonio felt giddy with excitement. His room was a rainforest adventure playground!
Watch out. Coming through!
Antonio turned when he heard a deep growl, accompanied by a gentle voice in his head. A jaguar came running towards him with its tongue out as his family and guests moved aside to let it through.
Hop on! The jaguar called out as it reached Antonio and scooped him up with its head, flinging him onto its back. Antonio, right? You can call me Parce. Hey, wanna see the view from the top?
Parce then took Antonio on a tour of his new room, leaping up the steps, winding around and through the canopy to the highest point, and then launching him onto the spring-like hammocks. All the onlookers could do was whoop and cheer as they watched Antonio fly around his fantastical new room.
.
A little later...
The atmosphere in the Casita was electric following the successful ceremony. Everyone had gathered in Antonio's new room, using the main platform as a dancefloor and spilling out into other parts of the tree-fort. His entire family had become more outgoing, like that second kind of person. Even Abuela was letting her fun-side show as she laughed, danced and even cracked a few jokes. The relief was immeasurable, and everyone seemed to feel it. Now that he could speak to animals, Antonio was finding it much easier to talk to people too. Rather than the one-word answers and short sentences he would usually communicate with, he answered questions completely, adding details and opinions and even asking questions of his own to keep the conversation going.
Antonio was dancing cheerfully with his family, copying his dad's moves, and feeling fully immersed in the moment, when the music started to trail off. He looked up and saw Mirabel yelling something at Abuela.
"The house is in danger!" she repeated as the music ceased altogether. "The tiles were falling, and there were cracks everywhere and... the candle almost went out..."
Abuela looked horrified, then with a sideways glance at the stunned crowd, she whispered stoically, "Show me," and followed Mirabel from the room.
Antonio glanced to his parents for reassurance but saw his dad was comforting his mom. That was not a good sign. Most of the family and guests followed Abuela from the room to see what was happening, but his parents stayed back. If his mom got a cloud, people would suspect something was wrong. The family had a reputation to uphold, so they needed to play down the situation. Whatever the situation even was.
Whispers and murmurs began to channel back into the room like ripples on a pool.
"There's nothing there."
"Has the kid been drinking?"
"I think someone's cracked, but it's not the house."
"'House in danger' indeed..."
Everyone returned to Antonio's room, keen to get back to celebrating. That was, except for Mirabel and Tía Julieta. His cousin had seemingly cut her hand, so she was in the kitchen with her mom.
Antonio listened to his mom and dad as they speculated that Mirabel was probably acting out. The gift ceremony was undoubtedly hard for her after all. Antonio did not buy that. He knew his cousin loved him and would never deliberately sabotage his night. He could not have known then that although they were doing an excellent job of hiding it, every member of his family had been deeply rattled by Mirabel's outburst. The mention of the cracks and the candle almost going out had resurrected deeply buried memories. An old wound had been picked at. A wound that had been ignored, covered over and forgotten. It had continued to fester and putrefy over time, spreading and growing beneath the surface. What began long ago as a tiny cut had fractured, and eventually, it had broken completely. Since then, no one had spoken about it. They pretended to themselves that everything was okay, but they always suspected that it would resurface eventually. Wounds left untreated never heal, and emotions buried alive never die.
Triggered by Mirabel's outburst, each member of Antonio's family had started remembering. They began reliving the past in vivid detail, considering their part in the events that led to the break in the family. That was all except one. While the others dwelled on the past, one family member was planted firmly in the here and now. She was not looking backwards and asking 'why' or 'what if'. She was focused on that point in time where the future transitions instantly to the past. That elusive point where moments flash rapidly by, one after another, to create a stroboscopic moving impression of what truly is. The present, just an illusion, was the only point in time Mirabel had any influence over. So while others pondered over the part they had played in creating the cracks, Mirabel had made it her mission to repair them.
.
The following day...
Move it! You're going too slow.
Go around me if you're in such a hurry.
What? You know we can't do that. 'Single file! Hug a Wall! Straight there, straight back!' That's the rules.
Says who?
Says Captain José XV.
Well he's not here is he..?
Yes I am!
Oh sorry Captain... I didn't see you there, on account of my red eyes...
And Skinny-José-With-the-Ripped-Ear is right; 'Single file! Hug a Wall! Straight there, straight back!' That's the rules. Do you want to be spotted? Now come on while the family is distracted... Quick, quick everyone. You too Red-Eyed-José. Stop holding up the line.
Well if you wouldn't put me behind Stinky-José, maybe I'd use my sense of smell to navigate...
It's a straight line! You can't manage a straight line? Hug a bloomin' wall!
Antonio sat at the little writing desk behind his door, writing Thank-You letters for the many birthday presents he had received the previous day. One of the more curious things he had noticed about his new gift was that even when animals were relatively far away, he could hear their voices clearly in his mind. Abuela had been delighted about this, as the ability to communicate information back and forth over a distance opened up more applications of his gift. The downside was that he could not tell what direction the speaking was coming from unless he could see the animal or hear its cries. All he could say for sure was that whoever was speaking they were an animal of some kind.
Having satisfied himself that the talking was not from inside his room, he pushed open his door and looked up and down the balcony. He could not see any animals, so he waited in the doorway for a few minutes. Eventually, the voices returned.
Blasted! There's one of them up here. Now what are we going to do?
Which one?
I can't tell
What's it doing?
Just standing on its hind legs like they all do.
I say we run for it.
No... it'll spot us. What if they block the way? Eh? What then?
What do you mean?
Well, he'll die if he can't get food.
Well then we'll eat the soft bits first. I bet there's lots of jelly in those big juicy eyes!
Antonio realised that whoever was speaking would not come out of hiding until he was out of sight. So he went back inside his room, leaving the door open just the tiniest bit.
I think it's gone!
Come on, pick up your food and let's go... run, run, run...
Fat Gus! You there?
'Course I'm here... what took you so long?
No time... Just wedge it open will you.
Antonio poked his head around the door but could still not see where the voices were coming from. That was until he turned his head towards his brother and sister's doors. Scurrying up the stairs and then jumping one at a time towards the wall by Dolores's room was a long line of rats, each holding an item of leftover food from Antonio's party.
"Wait!" he called out, running along the balcony as the last few rats made the leap towards the wall.
By the time he got there, they were gone. He could see nothing but a painting on the wall, so he reached out and tugged at it. It swung open to reveal an opening behind. That had to be where the rats had been going.
"I know you're in there!" he said. "What are you up to?"
He heard squeaking from inside.
You idiots! Did you forget? The kid can hear us now!
"Yes, I can! So tell me everything or else I'm telling the family! We'll brick this up... right now."
No!
A rat appeared at the gap in the wall. Please don't! I am Captain José XV, direct descendent of José the Dead. Though that wasn't always his name. Big One has been my family's loyal friend for generations. Fifteen to be exact. We must take him food. He needs to eat.
"Who's 'Big One'? Is he a human? Is there a man in the walls?"
Well, erm... There's not, not a man in the walls...
Antonio could not believe what he was hearing. The family needed to know at once.
"Abuela! Abuela!" he started shouting in a panic. "There's someone hiding in the..."
He heard a swoosh of cloth behind him, followed immediately by the sound of sandaled feet landing on the tiles. Before Antonio had time to react, a hand clasped his mouth, and he was dragged backwards.
