Episode Five: We Don't Talk About Bruno
45 years ago...
Pepa woke to the sound of churchbells ringing in town. The bells were quieter through the night, so she usually slept through them, but now and then, they would catch her in light sleep. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she began to make out the shape of the nursery door, slightly ajar from its frame. She reached over and patted the bed beside hers. Of course, it was empty. The thin blanket had been peeled back and left in an untidy heap. 'Bruno's off raiding the kitchen again', she thought with a roll of her eyes, then she lay her head back on the pillow.
She barely had enough time to close her eyes when she heard a shrill scream from outside.
"BRUNO!" Julieta cried out as she fled towards the door. She reacted so quickly that it seemed to Pepa as though Julieta had left the bed before their brother had made a sound. It would not have surprised Pepa if she had. Triplets were just like that sometimes.
"What's wrong?" Julieta asked, the concern evident in her voice as she ran bare-footed along the tiled balcony. She then let out a sharp gasp.
A faint warm glow began gradually filling the hall, and Pepa heard their mother's voice from the floor below.
"Whatever is the matter?" The light from her candle grew brighter as she travelled quickly up the stairs and then hurried to join her children.
Pepa left the nursery and followed her sister's path toward their brother. When she reached him, he was completely motionless, just staring at the wall. A half-eaten pandebono lay beside him on the tiles. Julieta also looked shocked, and as their mother's candle illuminated the space, Pepa followed their gaze to see what had them so alarmed.
"What on Earth?" their mother said as she reached boldly towards the doorknob of one of the three plain wooden doors that had mysteriously materialised along the wall. When the door would not open, she turned toward her son, "When did this happen? Did you see them appear?"
Bruno shook his head emphatically, "I... I didn't notice them until now..." he answered hastily.
Their mother smiled and crouched down to touch her free hand to Bruno's cheek. "You have nothing to fear of our Casita. I feel our miracle has more secrets to reveal to us yet." She straightened up and once more tried the door to no avail. "I am sure we will find out what these doors are for in good time. But for now, it's way past your bedtime. Come on, all of you. Back to the nursery."
Bruno noticed the bread by his feet and tried to kick it away, not nearly as subtly as he had hoped, and only succeeded in drawing his mother's attention to it. With a wry smile, she added, "and maybe after a good night's rest, we can talk about why we mustn't lie about feeling full because we want to go back outside and play in the sandpit."
Bruno gave a nervous chuckle as Julieta escorted him back to the nursery.
.
"What do you think they are?" Pepa heard her sister whisper into the darkness.
"Well, they're not rooms, that's for sure," replied Bruno triumphantly.
"Why do you say that?"
"There's just a wall there. On the other side is nothing but sky," Bruno explained, a little condescending.
"Walls can be pretty thick though sometimes," huffed Julieta.
"Not so thick you can fit a whole room inside them, silly," he laughed.
They then both giggled at the thought before the room fell silent once more.
.
The following day...
"Casita, can you please open the door?" Pepa asked as she stood before one of the mysterious new doors.
Her request was met with a clattering of tiles, and the door remained tightly sealed. She ran her hand along the edges to feel for a gap. It felt as though it was mere decoration built into the wall itself. Not an actual door at all.
"Have you tried saying 'Open Sesame'?"
Bruno appeared beside Pepa, waving his hand at the door.
"Stop messing around. This is serious," Pepa snorted, shooing him away.
Bruno then continued towards the stairs. "Mamá said we can bake something from her cookbook. Anything we want. If it's good enough, we can make some for the party. Come join us if you like!" he called back playfully before running down the stairs and clearing the last four steps in one leap.
Pepa growled with frustration, and her attention returned to the door. "What are you for?" she whispered, brushing her hand across its surface again.
After a little while, she turned away with a sigh and began following her brother's path towards the stairs. As she did so, she thought there was a faint knock from the door. The sound stopped her in her tracks. She returned to the door and held her breath, waiting for the sound to happen again. After a few moments of silence, she let out her breath with a sigh. She probably just heard one of her siblings drop a large potato or something. Satisfied that it was nothing, Pepa once again made towards the stairs.
*Bang*
This time it was unmistakable. The noise definitely came from the door. Pepa returned to it. She reached out to touch the doorknob, and just as her hand was about to make contact, she was suddenly jolted backwards by a bang so loud that it shook the entire door. It was as though someone, or something, was trapped inside and trying to smash their way out. Shaken and a little frightened, Pepa ran to the stairs, yelling for her mother to come quickly.
.
"You can't hear that?" Pepa asked incredulously as she and her mother stood looking at the door.
"I'm sorry, Pepa, but I'm afraid I can't," her mother replied.
"Maybe you have to be five to hear it?" Pepa suggested.
"But you're not five until tomorrow."
"Okay, so maybe only nearly five-year-olds can hear it."
Pepa then went to the railing and shouted down to the floor below. "Julieta! Bruno! Will you come here, please?"
After a short pause, Julieta came out of the kitchen and stood in the courtyard, looking up at her sister. "What?" she asked with her hands on her hips. She had corn flour in her hair and all over her apron.
Bruno followed closely behind, not wearing an apron but with just as much flour on his clothes and hair.
"It's about the doors!" Pepa ordered with urgency.
"Fine. Give us a second," replied Julieta as she and her brother went to rinse their hands at the fountain.
After a minute or two, Pepa's siblings arrived at the door. They had cleaned their hands but were still covered in flour.
Their mother let out a pained sigh when she saw them. "What were you doing in there?" she groaned, "I was only gone for a few minutes."
Bruno and Julieta smirked at one another, neither wanting to reveal what they had done or who had started it. Though Pepa was pretty sure she could tell. She usually could.
"Please... we're supposed to be conserving water right now," their mother said dejectedly. "Can't you at least try to stay clean?"
Pepa wanted to get back to the important topic of the doors.
"Listen," she ordered her siblings.
Julieta and Bruno stayed perfectly still, confused but listening very carefully.
"There! Did you hear that?"
Julieta shook her head. "I don't hear anything. Is this a joke? Are you trying to scare Bruno?"
"No, this is serious. I can hear a knocking sound from inside the door." She could feel herself getting frustrated.
Bruno's eyes widened as Pepa turned to him next.
"You can hear it, right Bruno?"
He hesitated, glancing towards his mother and then to Julieta, before finally answering.
"No, Pepa... I can't hear knocking either."
xxx
Present day...
Mirabel snuck up the back stairs, keeping out of view of Abuela and Isabela as they walked arm in arm towards Isabela's room to prepare for Mariano's proposal. Once they were inside, she quickly ran up the steps to Bruno's tower. Having become used to the mysterious glow from her family members' doors, seeing Tío Bruno's without any light gave Mirabel an uneasy feeling, but it also reminded her why she was there. Although nobody believed her, she had seen the light of the magical doors flicker and dim the previous night, as though they were about to go out too.
It had begun with a tile falling from the roof, followed by a small fissure on a floor tile. The crack had then grown and run along the floor and up the walls. Many more cracks appeared as it made its way to the upper balcony. Mirabel had watched in horror as the cracks ran past each door, causing the light to grow weaker. The cracks had continued to multiply, tearing through the building until they gathered together at one point. Vein-like and sinister, they all stopped below the window where the magical candle stood; the candle that could never go out and Mirabel had never seen so much as flicker. As though being hit by a gust of wind, the sturdy flame had faltered and almost went out.
Feeling her resolve strengthen, Mirabel pushed the door open with a heave and stepped inside. A curious curtain of sand poured down from an hourglass-shaped gateway a few feet in front of her, completely obscuring the other side from view. She reached out and felt it with her hand. It was quite a heavy flow, and she did not feel like walking blindly through it.
"Casita? Can you turn off the sand?" she asked.
There was a clatter of tiles from outside the threshold of the door.
"You can't help in here?"
The tiles began to wave more urgently as the house expressed concern and beckoned her back to its protection.
"I'll be fine," she reassured the Casita. "I need to do this. For you. For Abuela... Maybe a little for me." She took a steadying breath and then began to step through the sand. "Find the vision, save the mira-aah!"
She immediately fell as she stepped into a sheer drop. Ten years of sand had pilled up, obscuring what steps there may have been and breaking her fall. She tumbled a short way and then continued to slide face-down on the mound until she reached the bottom. Spluttering and wiping the sand from her glasses, Mirabel looked up and took in the vast stone canyon for the first time. It was a lot taller than she had imagined.
"Woah!"
A toucan then flew onto a rock beside her, taking her by surprise. She realised it must be Pico, one of Antonio's new friends.
"Oh, hello," she said to the bird, then looked up at the top of the canyon. She had quite the journey ahead of her. "There's a lot of stairs, but at least I'll have a friend..."
xxx
45 years ago...
Pepa lay awake while her brother and sister both slept soundly. The banging from the door had continued all evening. Sometimes it would be a light knock, like knuckles against wood. Other times, it was more like a rattle, akin to someone trying the doorknob from inside. Then there would be times when it was a loud thumping sound as if someone was trying to kick through. Pepa could feel the frustration building as she continued to listen to the intrusive noise. Why was it only she who could hear it? Why was it leaving her brother and sister alone? Would it ever stop, or was this just how life would be from now on?
The knocking returned to a gentle rasp, so she took the opportunity to try to get some sleep before it became too loud again.
She must have been starting to drift off, but the thumping returned, shaking her awake. She could not stand it any longer. She wanted to scream or break something but did not want to wake her brother and sister. She put her pillow over her face to muffle the sound and kicked her feet as she growled into it.
When there was one more bang, Pepa finally snapped. Flinging the pillow across the room, she launched from her bed and stormed from the nursery. She stood on the balcony and, breathing deeply with rage, stared across at the doors on the facing wall through the darkness. A church bell rang out from the town beyond, and as though the chime had been the signal to start, she began marching over to the doors, yelling and screaming along the dimly lit walkway.
"What do you want?! Why won't you just stop? What am I supposed to do?" she screamed. As she stepped closer to the doors, the bell continued to sound out the hour, and rain began to fall into the courtyard below. Julieta and Bruno came out of the nursery and started following a little way behind.
When she reached the door on the left—the one the sounds seemed to be coming from, she started kicking and punching it. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" A bright flash, accompanied by a deafening clap, lit up the Casita as a fork of lightning struck the viewing tower. A white stream of electricity ran down the tower, then zigzagged along the wall, past their mother's door and towards the nursery, narrowly missing Bruno and Julieta by inches. They screamed and grabbed onto one another, and the bell sounded again.
At that moment, their mother came rushing from her room, holding the magical candle in her hands for light.
Seeing the candle gave Pepa an idea. After all, that was where the magic originated, so this was undoubtedly the fault of the candle. She snatched it from her mother's hands and started to wave it in front of the door. "Well... do something!" she cried, "What's the point of these stupid doors?!"
Her mother shouted at her to hand the candle back at once and reached over to grab it, but before she could, the flame grew much larger, and the sparkling light filled the entire walkway. Golden light emanated from the floor below Pepa's feet and then swirled up the walls, spreading like ink on blotting paper. When it reached the doors, they seemed to explode with light, one after another, in rapid succession, causing the whole space to glow brightly. The storm instantly ceased, and the final chime from the church bell rang out for midnight.
Julieta and Bruno arrived at their sister's side, and they all stood in stunned silence. The doors now glowed with the same magical light that shone from the candle, and there was one other change. Each doorknob had turned gold and was emblazoned with a letter; P, B and J. Their initials.
Pepa's mother finally took the candle from her and stood proudly, looking at the doors.
"I think our miracle has a little birthday present for each of you," she beamed.
Pepa stepped forward and went to touch the doorknob with her initial, but her mother gently grabbed her hand to stop her.
"This feels like something that should wait until we can give it proper reverence," she explained. "Why don't you all enjoy your last night together in the nursery? We can open your doors in the morning."
"What? But it's been the longest time already? Can't we just open the doors now?" Pepa protested.
Their mother looked thoughtfully at the doors. After a while, she eventually spoke.
"If we're going to do this, then we need to do it properly," she explained, motioning towards the nursery. Pepa's heart sank, and she let out a heavy sigh. Then her mother continued, "Come on, let's get the three of you ready!"
.
Pepa and her siblings returned to the balcony by the doors, having tidied their hair and changed into the outfits they planned to wear for their birthday celebration. Their mother insisted it was necessary to make the occasion special out of respect for the miracle that had granted them their doors. She had instructed the children to open the doors in birth order, but as Pepa had been the one to activate them, she made a fuss and eventually persuaded her mother to let her go first.
After a few solemn words of reverence from her mother, Pepa touched the candle and reached for the doorknob. Her family all watched in wonder as the magical light of the door transformed before their eyes, revealing a strange motif in its place. The door now had her name at the top and what seemed to be a stylised image of Pepa surrounded by clouds, lightning bolts and a bright sun above her head.
"Is that.. me?" she said, turning to her mother.
"I believe so," her mother replied proudly. "Now go on... Open it. Let's see what's inside."
Pepa turned the doorknob, and at long last, the door opened.
A room manifested around Pepa as she entered. It began as a fairly regular room, with raindrop wallpaper and decorative green panelling, similar to the nursery. The furniture was not unlike what she was used to in the nursery either. Only when she looked up did Pepa realise this was no ordinary room. The walls reached up much higher than the nursery, and at first glance, it did not appear to have a ceiling. However, upon closer inspection, the ceiling was domed and seemed to be painted to match the sky outside—currently dark and cloudy, with a waning gibbous moon. That was impressive enough, but the most spectacular aspect of the room was what looked like a strange floating cloud suspended from the ceiling on ropes. The cloud had pillows and blankets, suggesting it was meant as a place for Pepa to sleep, and it was accessed by an ornate wooden ladder painted green to match the wood panelling around the bottom of the walls.
Pepa's eyes widened, and she ran towards the ladder and scrambled up to the cloud.
"It's so soft!" she exclaimed, feeling the pillowy fleece against her skin as her body sank a little into the cloud. Her brother and sister both hurried towards the ladder.
Their mother wore an expression of astonishment as she looked around.
"The miracle has blessed us once again," she proclaimed.
Once Bruno and Julieta had joined their sister, they started bouncing and rolling around on the cloud together. They laughed innocently, not taking in the magnitude of the situation, in the way that young children just accept what is in front of them without judgement. After all, they already lived in a magical, sentient house, so this did not seem so extraordinary to them. As Pepa continued to laugh, she noticed a light mist around her hands. Her brother and sister saw it too.
"Pepa, are you... making rain?" asked Julieta with a giggle.
Pepa waved her arms more deliberately and a small cloud formed from the mist. Her brother and sister sat up and watched with amazement as rain began to fall from the tiny cloud.
"Oi... stop that!" Pepa ordered playfully, and it stopped. A beam of sunlight then shimmered around it, lighting up the room. Wondering if it had stopped because she told it to, she tried saying, "rain!" and as she suspected, the light went away, and it rained again.
"Sunshine!" shouted Bruno, apparently noticing what Pepa was doing, but nothing happened. "Aww... it's broken."
Pepa repeated "sunshine," and it worked just fine for her.
Their mother then spoke from the doorway.
"Pepa... do that again. Tell it to rain."
Pepa did as her mother asked, and the little cloud started to rain again.
"You're making it rain. For real!" their mother called out excitedly.
Pepa, Bruno and Julieta climbed down from the cloud and quickly left the room to see for themselves. It was indeed raining around the Casita.
"Stop!" ordered Pepa, and just as their mother said, the rain stopped.
The image on the door, the decorations, the storm that mysteriously started when Pepa was shouting outside; their mother was able to piece it all together.
"Pepa... I think the miracle has blessed you with a magical ability. I think you can control the weather!"
Her brother and sister both looked at each other excitedly and rushed to the other doors, eager to get their own magical abilities.
"This one's mine!" said Julieta, noticing the J on the doorknob. Their mother instructed her to touch the candle first, as Pepa had done. She did so and then quickly opened her door, impatiently rushing inside without much attention to the image on the door.
Julieta's room reminded Pepa of a cosy cottage like in the fairy tales their mother would read to them before bed. There were three windows along the far wall, the one in the middle being a little larger than the two on either side, and they all had big wooden shutters with butterfly shapes carved out of them. In front of the smaller window on the right was a coffee table surrounded by three chairs. By the window on the left was a sleeping area with three beds, almost identical to the layout of the nursery, except the beds were different sizes—the one in the middle being noticeably wider than the other two. The room also had a small kitchen area with its own sink and stove. Pots, pans and wooden spoons hung from the walls, and the linen and oversized cushions were all brightly coloured embroidered fabrics. The most striking characteristic was the plants. Almost every spare surface had a container with some variety of herb growing in it, and there were still more trailing down from macramé pots suspended from the ceiling and the underside of shelves. The room had an amazingly fresh herbaceous smell.
"So.. what's my magic power then?" Julieta asked, looking around the room for clues.
"I don't know... but Pepa's door has weather symbols on it, so let's look at your door," their mother suggested.
They gathered at the door, but other than a few plants and what looked like a pestle and mortar, it was not immediately obvious what her ability could be.
"What do you think it means?" Julieta asked, "There's a lot of herbs. Can I brew magical potions?"
"Like a witch? Or an evil fairy?" asked Bruno mischievously.
"How about I try turning you into a frog and find out?" Julieta teased.
"I'm sure we will know soon enough," their mother assured them. "For now, let's see what Bruno's special room is like."
They assembled outside the final door. Bruno touched the candle and then the doorknob. Once again, the door transformed, but like Julieta's, it did not offer many clues as to what his ability might be. It had his name and an image that looked vaguely like him, but then just a few swirls and triangles. He briefly glanced at the door, slowly pushed it open and stepped inside. Once the room had fully formed around him, he froze. He was entirely motionless other than the rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed.
'Oh no!' Pepa thought to herself when she saw the room. She looked to her sister, who, from her expression, seemed to be thinking the same thing.
The room was little more than a big empty chamber with brown sandstone walls. A spiral staircase made of stone reached up to a raised platform, and a short rope bridge led to what appeared to be a cave in the rock. But that was all. There were no windows, furniture, or anything—just a thick carpet of sand covering the floor from wall to wall. The only thing vaguely magical about it was the faint light that gave everything a bluish-white hue as though moonlight spilt in from outside, despite the room being completely sealed.
"Bruno... I..." Pepa entered the room and tried to console him but could not find the words.
Her brother turned his head to look at her. His dark green eyes twinkled in the light from the door.
"Oh my god... It's a giant sandpit!" he squealed ecstatically before running forward and throwing himself onto the sand.
xxx
Present day...
Mirabel's heart sank when she finally made it to the top of the stairs. The entrance to what she assumed to be Bruno's temple was right in front of her. There was only one problem; it was on the wrong side of a gap that looked like a bridge once spanned it. Pico had not accompanied her on the climb as she had hoped. Instead, he had flown up without her and perched impatiently on the opposite side of the gap.
There was no going back. Mirabel found a loose post from the railing with a suitable length of rope attached. With a keen throw, she managed to hook it onto a boulder on the other side, creating a swing. She glanced down at the potential fall and considered how long she would have to contemplate her imminent death before she hit the ground. Shaking the grim thought from her mind, Mirabel steeled herself, gripping the rope firmly with both hands and then pushed off from the edge. With a mighty swing, she touched down on the other side.
Feeling an odd mixture of exhaustion and adrenaline, Mirabel made eye contact with the toucan and then peered through the entranceway to the dusty, miserable-looking corridor inside. Although clearly abandoned, Mirabel struggled to imagine it had ever felt homely or inviting. She got the impression that Tío Bruno had not appreciated visitors very much.
She tentatively entered the corridor with Pico close behind her. Three ghoulish carvings of her uncle peered at her from the wall giving her an uneasy feeling as though disapproving of her being there. She jumped as a loud clang startled her from behind, echoing around the corridor. The toucan had knocked over an earthenware pot. Stepping backwards, Mirabel bumped into another pot, sending it tumbling off a ledge. Three rats leapt out, spooking her once again. The rats ran up one of the carvings of Bruno, then disappeared into the open mouth and nostrils. Mirabel noticed that while there were eyes on the other two images, this one looked as though they had been scratched out. She shuddered, and as she turned to Pico, he flew away in fear. Some plucky animal sidekick he turned out to be, she thought to herself.
The only way forward seemed to be through a large round door at the end of the corridor. It was slightly open, waving sinisterly in the breeze as though beckoning her in. She pushed it open with a creak and entered the dark chamber beyond. In the light that poured in from the open door, Mirabel could make out that she was in a strange, round room. It seemed like a cave, except it was too perfect a dome to be naturally formed. A stylised sunburst pattern adorned the stone floor, swirling outwards, anticlockwise from a large central circle filled with sand. The design was mirrored on the ceiling, and several large, identically shaped stones stood around the room's outer edge at equal intervals. There did not appear to be any other exit besides the single, round door. It was a dead end and completely empty.
Mirabel contemplated her surroundings, searching her mind for a logical way forward, when a strong gust suddenly blew into the chamber, and the door slammed shut as though another door had been opened somewhere. Mirabel was plunged into darkness. She paused, trying to steady her breathing as she processed what had happened. Stepping around slowly and tentatively, she noticed a strange green glow beneath her feet. It offered just enough light for her to realise she was standing in the circular pit of sand at the centre of the room. A constellation of green lights glowed from beneath the sand. Mirabel crouched down and began to sweep the sand away, revealing what looked like a luminous shard of broken glass. Luisa had been right; Mirabel would know the vision when she found it.
"What's hurting the magic?" she whispered to herself as she examined the shard in the darkness. She dug up a nearby piece and held it to the first. They fit together perfectly. She quickly reached for another shard and pressed it in place against the other two. The light shifted as she tilted the joined pieces revealing an alarming image.
"Me?" she gasped.
A thin stream of sand poured down from above, snapping Mirabel's attention back to the room as the cave began to creak and moan, and bits of stone tumbled down around her. The ceiling was threatening to collapse, but she had not come this far to leave without discovering what was in Bruno's vision. She started to snatch up the remaining shards as quickly as possible, throwing them into her bag. The sound of cracking stone continued, and more and more sand poured in from above as though the room was buried under tonnes of sand pressing down from above. The ceiling finally gave way, part of it collapsing completely as an avalanche of sand tumbled in.
The rapidly flowing sand threatened to bury Mirabel alive in that cave. She hurried to the door but, glancing back, noticed she had missed a shard. It was too important to leave behind, so rather recklessly, she dashed over and grabbed that last piece of the puzzle as the sand began to reach the door. She raced back and pushed her weight against the door while more and more sand fell around her. Mirabel could feel the weight of the sand pressing on her body from all directions, constricting her breathing and making any movement considerably more laborious. She banged on the door, but it would not budge. Panicking now, she struggled to free her legs but could not move them at all. It was beginning to look like she might not make it out of that room.
The sand had reached her shoulders, but she was not ready to give up. Her brain went into overdrive, firing out hundreds of thoughts per second as it scrambled for a solution. Only then did it occur to Mirabel to try the handle. In her panic, she had forgotten it even had one. She grabbed it and tried to push it down, but it was stiff, and she did not have her full strength. She used both hands and leaned as much weight into it as possible. Finally, the door flung open, and Mirabel poured out along with several tonnes of sand.
xxx
40 years ago...
Pepa had been outside collecting flowers to decorate the dinner table. When she came back inside the Casita, she heard her mother talking to Julieta and Bruno outside the kitchen.
"I don't see why not," her mother said. "But if it's starting to get dark on your way home, make sure to take a donkey. I want you home for dinner... And stay together."
"Yey!" they both exclaimed.
"Thanks, Mamá!" Julieta said.
"This is going to be awesome!" yelled Bruno.
"What's got you two so excited?" Pepa asked as she approached.
Julieta turned to her, smiling broadly, "Lucas's dad built a boat, and he says he'll take us along the river in it! Agustín's coming too!"
Bruno waved an empty bucket at her, "I'm going to try to catch a fish!" he beamed before lowering the bucket and adding, "Wanna join us?"
"Sure!" Pepa replied without hesitation. A boat trip along the river sounded like a lot of fun.
Their mother cleared her throat.
"Oh Pepa, my dear, I'm sorry, but you can't go," she explained, taking the flowers.
Pepa's heart sank, "Why not? You're letting them go!" she protested.
"I know, but it's a dry season. You're needed on the farms."
"That's not fair!" she yelled. "How come they can have a day off?"
"We have plenty of Julieta's cooking in store, and a vision can wait, but if the crops dry up, or the town runs out of drinking water, the entire community will suffer... and there won't be a river to take a boat on."
Julieta looked sorry for Pepa. "We don't have to go if you don't want us to. We can wait until we can all go."
"What?" Bruno did not seem to agree with this sentiment.
"No... you just go," Pepa said, feeling completely deflated.
Julieta still looked sad. She glanced at her brother and then back to Pepa as though feeling torn.
"Well, okay. But we'll do this again the first day off you get," she affirmed, taking her brother's hand. The two of them then set off for their adventure.
Pepa was seething with anger at the unfairness of the situation. She never asked for her gift; it was thrust upon her, yet it was dictating everything about her life. She and her siblings knew better than to complain about their gifts, however. Their mother would always come down hard on them if they dared protest to doing their part 'for the Encanto'. So Pepa knew it was pointless trying to argue. She would be going to the farms just like she did every day for three months straight every dry season. Whether she liked it or not.
"Pepa, are you trying to be clever?" her mother growled.
Her words caused Pepa to snap out of the haze she had drifted into. She looked up, and there was a rain cloud over her head.
"What have I told you about making clouds in the house?"
"But I'm not doing this," Pepa replied, honestly. She tried to will the cloud away, but it just got bigger and started raining. "I swear Mamá... this isn't me."
The sky outside darkened. It was almost dark enough to be night despite it being late morning. There was a sudden flash of lightning, and balls of ice the size of marbles started to fall from the sky, hitting the courtyard of the Casita so hard that they bounced several feet on impact.
"What's happening?" cried Pepa.
Her mother dragged her under the arches to shelter from the hailstones, but Pepa immediately thought about her brother and sister, who were outside, presumably being pelted by the solid lumps of ice. She wriggled free of her mother's grip, grabbed a large umbrella from beside the door and fled from the Casita, ignoring her mother's calls to come back.
Once Pepa was outside, the hail seemed to get heavier, and the wind blew the stones directly into her face. They were now at least an inch in diameter and seemed to be getting larger by the minute. All she could think about was her siblings, though, and how they could be getting hurt. The worse the storm became, the more she worried for them. Pepa tried to put the umbrella up, but it broke instantly. She knew she had to get to Julieta and Bruno, so she kept fighting through the hail, trying to protect her face with her arms. The stones bit at her skin like hundreds of tiny needles, but still, she refused to go back. She needed to know her brother and sister were safe.
She did not get far along the road before she spotted her siblings. They were screaming and running back towards the Casita. Bruno had taken off his ruana and was holding it over his and Julieta's head to protect them from the barrage of hailstones. When Pepa reached them, he cried out to her hurriedly.
"Quick, get under.. get under..."
Pepa did as he asked and helped to hold onto the ruana. The three of them huddled together tightly as they pushed their way back to the Casita.
"What's going on, Pepa?" Bruno asked as they ran. "Why's it raining rocks?"
"I don't know... I'm not doing this," Pepa replied earnestly.
They reached the path leading to the Casita, and the moment they stepped on the stones, the house picked them up and pulled them along, bringing them quickly into the protection of its walls. They were dragged to the arches where their mother was still sheltering. The tiles from the roof above had reorganised themselves to hang down further and prevent more of the hail from reaching inside. Once the children were safe with their mother, the Casita lifted the floor tiles and wrapped them around the front of the arches as though sheltering them in its arms.
They sat together on wooden benches, Julieta and Bruno sharing one, and Pepa on her own. Their mother handed them blankets that the Casita had managed to transport carefully from upstairs, and they wrapped themselves in them. Julieta and Bruno were clearly shaken, and Pepa felt terrible. She did not know how to stop the storm, but she felt sure it had to be something to do with her gift. Although they did get rain showers even during the so-called 'dry season', storms like that were unheard of.
"Are you hurt?" she asked her brother and sister with concern as hail, now the size of fists, continued to crash into the courtyard, and thunder rattled overhead.
"We're okay," replied Julieta, still huddling beside her brother.
"What are those?" Bruno asked. "Is that hail?"
"It is," answered their mother, "but it's unusually large." She turned to Pepa. "This has got to be you. Can't you stop it?"
"Don't you think I'm trying, Mamá?" she said, getting increasingly upset. A cloud then formed above her head again, as it had earlier.
Her brother noticed it first. "There's a cloud!" he yelled, drawing Pepa's attention to himself.
"Bruno... Where's your bucket?" she asked, realising he had come home without it.
"I couldn't carry it... I had to leave it on the roadside."
That upset Pepa even further. She started to cry, and rain drizzled onto her from the cloud.
"I'm so sorry... I didn't mean for this to happen," she sobbed.
Her brother wrinkled his nose. "It's only a bucket."
It was not the bucket that bothered her. What bothered her was that Bruno had left it to protect his sister from the hailstones. Hailstones that were Pepa's fault. They should have almost reached the river by then. Instead, they had been frightened and were now stuck inside the Casita. All because of her. She cried harder, and the little cloud started to rain heavier, soaking her blanket. The hailstones outside sounded larger still.
"Pepa, I think it's your mood," her mother suddenly suggested. "You need to calm down."
On hearing this and as though sharing one mind, Pepa's brother and sister both picked up their blankets and moved over to her. They squeezed themselves onto the bench on either side of her and, undeterred by the pouring cloud, draped their own blankets around all three of them. Bruno rested his head on her shoulder, and Julieta started playing with her braid. They just did what came naturally when they wanted to cheer one another up, but it meant a lot to Pepa. She had caused something dreadful, but her brother and sister loved her just the same. She felt a tremendous, soothing warmth inside, and the cloud dissipated almost instantly.
After a few minutes, the storm died down, and the hail changed to rain. The Casita finally returned to its regular structure, and they could leave the arches at last. Pepa stood up, wrapped the damp blanket around her shoulders and headed to the front door.
"Where are you going?" Bruno called after her.
"I'm going to get your bucket back," she replied, frankly, and then left the Casita.
xxx
Present day...
With the shards of the vision tucked away in her bag, Mirabel quickly fled from the tower. She noticed Isabela's door was open, so she took the long way back to the nursery to avoid being spotted. Her attention was transfixed on the mysterious shards in her bag as she hurried past her cousin's doors. She briefly peered in, checking they were really there and it had not been some terrible dream.
Her heart skipped, and she came to an abrupt halt as she felt something large slam into her shoulder.
"Where are you coming from in such a hurry?" Abuela said, dusting herself off. She then noticed something. "What's that in your hair?"
Before Mirabel could answer, Luisa came running up Abuelo's stairs in a panic.
"My gift!.. I'm losing my gift!" she sobbed.
"What?" Abuela looked alarmed.
"Mirabel and I were having this little talk about me carrying too much," Luisa began hurriedly, and Abuela threw an accusatory glance at Mirabel. "...So I tried not to carry so much, but I realised it was putting me behind, and I knew I was gonna let everyone down and felt really bad. So I was grabbing all the donkeys, but then when I went to throw the donkeys in the barn, they were... ...heavy!" She started to wail again and ran to her room, slamming the door behind her.
Abuela turned to Mirabel. "What did you do? What did you say to her?"
"Nothing. I... I don't..."
The church bells began to ring out, reminding Abuela she had somewhere to be. "Ach, I have to go get the Guzmáns for Isabela's engagement." She patted her hair to check it was still perfectly styled, then made to leave. "Stay away from Luisa until I can talk to her. Tonight we can't have any more problems." When she reached the stairs, she turned back towards Mirabel and warned, "And whatever you're doing... Stop doing it!"
Once alone on the balcony, Mirabel could hear crying coming from Luisa's room. She was alarmed to see that the light from her door was flickering as though threatening to go out. It was just as she had seen the night before, and any doubts she had were gone. The magic was in danger, and she was determined to do something about it.
She hurried to the nursery, closed the door and removed some shards from her bag. She placed them on the sewing table and began to ponder at them.
"Why am I in your vision Bruno?"
The door then burst open with a flash of lightning. Mirabel jumped and grabbed the shards, hiding them behind her back.
"Tía, jeez." she gasped.
Tía Pepa looked completely frazzled as she stood in the doorway holding a large wooden box in both hands. A thundering cloud hung over her head.
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to..." She entered and placed the box on a chest of drawers. Then, noticing the cloud, she shooed it out of the room and closed the door behind it. "I just wanted to get the last of Toñito's things, and then I heard..," she started whispering. "The name we do not speak." There was a rumble of thunder as a new cloud formed. "Great, now I'm thundering. And a thunder will lead to a drizzle, and a drizzle will lead to a sprinkle..." Her anxiety was palpable, and she started trying to soothe herself. "Clear skies, clear skies... Clear skies..."
Mirabel knew that Tía Pepa was one of the family members who were most vehement about avoiding any mention of Bruno, but time was running out, and Mirabel needed answers.
"Uh, Tía Pepa? If Bru..." The cloud returned and started raining at the mention of his name. "If he had a vision about someone, what would it mean for them?"
"We don't talk about Bruno." Tía Pepa said through gritted teeth as she wrung the rain out of a piece of Antonio's clothing.
"I know, it's just... Hypothetically, if he saw you..."
"Mirabel, please. We need to get ready for the Guzmáns."
"I just want to know if it was generally positive, or like less positive, or..."
The door burst open again, and this time it was Tío Félix making a dramatic entrance.
"It was a nightmare!" he yelled.
Mirabel was relieved to have someone willing to talk about it, so she quickly turned to him as Pepa tried to intervene. "Félix!"
"Ey, she needs to know, Pepi. She needs to know."
"We don't talk about Bruno," Tía Pepa warned, but he ignored her and continued talking.
"He would see something terrible, and then... crack-ba-boom! It would happen!"
That was not what Mirabel wanted to hear, but she pressed on. "What if you didn't understand what he saw?"
"Then you'd better figure it out," Tío Félix replied darkly. "Because it was coming for you!"
Tía Pepa tried one last time to put a stop to the conversation. "We don't talk about Bruno!" she insisted sternly. She then paused and looked conflicted for a moment. Finally, as though her mouth was moving independently of her thoughts, she added;
"But..."
xxx
24 years ago...
"This is a disaster. I told them I needed peach flowers to go with my dress. These are orange. They look ridiculous," Pepa cried out in a panic. It was the morning of her wedding day, and Julieta was in her room helping her to do her hair and makeup. The flowers had just been delivered, and Pepa was mortified to discover the flowers were not exactly as she had expected.
"But you suit orange anyway," Julieta reassured her. "How about I add some to your hair? Come on. You're getting a cloud."
Before Pepa could answer, there was a knock at her door. "Who is it?" she called out anxiously, in case it was Félix.
"It's just me," came the voice of her brother.
Relieved, she told him to come in.
She was a little horrified when she saw that he was in his regular clothes, looking just as untidy as ever.
"You are going to get changed, right?" she asked, worried that something else would go wrong.
"Of course I am," Bruno replied, rolling his eyes with a chuckle. "I just came to wish you luck before I head up my tower." He glanced up as he spoke and noticed the cloud. "Is everything okay?"
Pepa sighed and swatted the cloud away. "It's just my stupid flowers. They sent the wrong colour."
"And they're just as lovely," Julieta cut in.
"But now they don't match the trim on my dress. I needed peach."
"Isn't that pink though?" Bruno asked, trying to be helpful. Julieta frantically signalled to shut up, so he quickly added, "Well, they're just flowers. You still look beautiful."
Pepa smiled at this. "Aww, thanks Bruno." She then remembered something. "Hey, have you had the vision yet?"
"No, not yet.." he replied. "Though even if I had, I wouldn't tell you. It's meant to be a surprise."
"I knew it! You have! Go on, tell me something. Just one thing. Please," Pepa pushed, excited to hear what he had to say about her future with Félix.
"But I honestly haven't had it yet. I told you, I'm on my way to the tower now. You'll just have to be patient."
Pepa could usually tell when her brother was lying. Maybe it was her nerves clouding her judgement, but she was unsure this time.
"It's just... I could really use some positive words right now. A wedding is stressful at the best of times. Even without my... well, you know..."
Bruno seemed to think for a moment, and then he said, "I think you're putting way too much pressure on yourself, Pepa. You and Félix are all that matter today. This wedding's about the love you share and the long and happy life you're going to spend together. It's not about the flowers, or the weather, or any other trivial detail. If your flowers are orange, then fine, let them be orange. If it's going to rain, it's going to rain."
"What do you mean 'it's going to rain'?" Pepa asked suspiciously, feeling a little panic building in her stomach.
She did not know why Bruno would say that on such an important day. He should have known better than most people that once she started to worry about losing control of her gift, she would not be able to stop herself. He had quite possibly single-handedly ruined her day with one sentence before it had even started.
Bruno looked surprised by her question.
"I didn't say it's going to rain... but even if it does, that's actually a—"
"Julieta, what did he just say?"
"Oh dear. Please leave me out of this."
"No, Julieta, tell her... I didn't say that," Bruno pleaded.
"But you kinda did though..."
Pepa felt droplets of water fall on her newly styled hair and freshly made-up face, and she lost it. Before she knew what was happening, she had picked up a hairbrush from the dressing table beside her and launched it at her brother's face.
"Get out!" she screamed.
Bruno managed to duck in time not to be hit by the brush, but he looked utterly shocked in the moments that followed. Pepa did not care. She was furious that her own brother could be so thoughtless on such an important day. She had absolutely intended for the brush to hit him, and she knew if he did not get out of her sight in the next few seconds, she would try to hurt him again.
"Okay, I'm going..." He seemed to realise what she was thinking and quickly left the room.
xxx
Present day...
Mirabel stared in horror at the completed vision on the chest of drawers in front of her. Her perfect likeness stared blankly through her from within the green glass. Behind her, the Casita was covered in deep cracks that all seemed to start from her.
"Miraboo. Got your party pants on? 'Cause I do..." Her dad came dancing into the room, and his jaw dropped as his eyes fixed instantly on the vision.
Mirabel desperately tried to think of a convincing excuse, but she was smart enough to know that there was only one explanation.
"I... broke into Bruno's tower. I found his last vision; the family's in trouble, the magic is dying, the house is breaking, Luisa's gift is fading, and I think it's all because of... me..."
Her dad did not respond but just kept staring at the vision.
"Pa?"
"We say nothing," he eventually said, picking up the pieces one by one and shoving them in his pockets while he spoke. "Abuela wants tonight to be perfect. 'Til the Guzmans leave, you did not break into Bruno's tower, the magic is not dying, the house is not breaking, Luisa's gift is not fading. No one will know. Just act normal. No one has to know."
There came a familiar squeak from outside, and they both looked up. Through the open door, they could see Dolores on the balcony across the courtyard. She looked startled.
"I know," she whispered before hurrying away.
xxx
10 years ago...
Pepa sat bolt upright from her sleep. Something was wrong with her sister. She slid from the cloud, and Félix stirred with a snore but did not wake.
Once out of her room, Pepa could hear Julieta's pained cries from the hallway by the front door. She hurried down to her.
"What's happened? Are you hurt?" she asked when she reached her.
Julieta's eyes were red, and her cheeks soaked with tears.
"It's Bruno.. he's left..." she sobbed. "He means to leave the Encanto."
"Left?" Pepa repeated. "That coward? Oh come on, he won't last a day out there. Trust me, if I know our brother... and I do... he'll be back inside this house before the week is out." She sat on the floor beside Julieta and put her arm around her, pulling her in for a hug.
"You didn't see his face. If you'd seen him, you'd know. He has no intention of returning," Julieta said before crying again. "You know how it works, Pepa. How many people have ever left the Encanto and returned? Even if he does change his mind, he'll never find his way home."
"What's going on? Why's Mamá crying?"
Julieta's middle daughter appeared on the stairs.
"Luisa, darling. Go back to bed," Julieta said, trying to mask her sadness.
"Did something happen to Tío Bruno?" Luisa asked, clearly concerned.
"Please, back to bed... We can talk about this in the morning," Julieta insisted
Luisa did as she was told and returned to her room. Their mother then came down the stairs with a look of horror.
"Has something happened? The candle... I saw it dim again," she said, her voice cracking.
Pepa sat upright. "She says Bruno is leaving the Encanto."
"He's left?" her mother breathed. There was a flash of terror in her eyes that was quickly replaced with rage. "Then he's betrayed his family. That wretched man couldn't even help us when we needed him most. He would rather leave than have just one vision.."
"Mamá, he said he had the vision," Julieta insisted.
"And you believed him?" her mother retorted. "I know you always saw the best in him, Julieta, but trust me, it wasn't always there."
"He was telling the truth!"
"So tell me, where is this vision he claims to have had?"
"He said he destroyed it."
Their mother sneered, "Oh, he did, did he? How convenient."
Pepa then interjected. "It does seem a bit suspicious that there's no evidence of it," she said, reluctantly agreeing with her mother.
Their mother then walked towards the stairs. She placed a hand on the bannister, then said, over her shoulder, "I don't ever want to hear his name again. Do you understand? From this day on, I only have two children." She then headed back towards her room.
"Fine by me," Pepa agreed.
Pepa turned to her sister and saw that she was still crying. Although she did not share her sadness, she could feel her pain.
"Come on, Julieta, let's go back to bed," she suggested, taking her hands and helping her to her feet. "It's been a stressful day, and you need your rest."
Julieta looked pleadingly at Pepa. "You didn't mean that, did you? You won't really just forget about Bruno like that?"
Pepa paused and inhaled deeply before saying, "Forget about who?"
