Thanks so much to An Undercover Changeling and The Sky At Midnight for their reviews on chapter 1. I hope you'll all enjoy chapter 2!
After Luisa's makeover, as they were getting ready for bed later that night, Dolores became excited. "My first night sleeping without my Gift," she said in a sing-song voice, practically dancing around their room. "I bet it's going to be so restful."
But her cousins all frowned at her cheerfulness. They'd each suspected that Dolores had been a bit relieved to lose her Gift, but to see her so openly excited about it was a surprise.
"I don't know that you should be so happy about losing your Gift, Dolores," Isabela said reproachfully.
Dolores whirled around to face her. "Oh, and why not?" she demanded, suddenly angry. "Do you know how many secrets I've had to keep in my life? Do you know what it was like knowing that Tio Bruno was still alive, that he was still in Casita, but I could never tell anybody?"
She paused to take a deep breath; it seemed that she'd been wanting to say this for years. Isabela looked a bit guilty now, and she started to say I'm sorry, but Dolores cut her off.
"And trying to sleep at night – do you know what that's been like?" she went on. "It was never quiet in Casita – never. Not even in my room. It was never quiet anywhere. Sometimes I hated my Gift. And sometimes I hated Casita, too. It never occurred to anyone that I was living in a house with two married couples, and one of them are my own parents."
For a moment, the other girls didn't understand what she meant. Then Mirabel's mouth fell open, and her eyes went wide with shock behind her glasses. Luisa blushed and looked away, embarrassed. Isabela brought her hand up to her mouth, trying to muffle her giggles. "Dolores, you don't mean... oh my God, but you do... you mean you – you overheard...!"
Dolores just rolled her eyes at Isabela's giggling and went to fetch another blanket from the wardrobe. She didn't find it funny anymore. She had long since stopped feeling embarrassed or amused or anything else over what she heard. She had grown so tired of it. It was exhausting to always hear so much and know so much.
"Tonight, it's just going to be peace and quiet," she said, smiling serenely as she sat down on her bed. "I don't miss my Gift. I'm glad it's gone."
But when she saw how shocked – even betrayed – Isabela and Luisa both looked at this, her words struck her as cruel. She knew how much they missed their Gifts, and Abuela had always drilled it into them that their Gifts were what made them special. She added more gently, "Well... I mean, I know you miss yours. But I'm allowed to feel however I want to about it, aren't I?"
"Of course you are," Mirabel said, with an air of trying to smooth things over.
But a little while later, when Isabela was actually trying to go to bed, she found that it wasn't as restful as she'd expected. Almost as soon as she laid down in bed, she suddenly sprang up again, crossed the room to the window, pushed open the shutters, and leaned outside as if she were listening for something. Her curls moved softly in the night breeze, and her eyes were wide in her brown face.
"Dolores, what's wrong?" Luisa asked from her own bed, confused. She waited, then asked when there was no answer, "Dolores, do you hear something?"
"No!" Dolores said, and the word was almost a shout, which startled all of them. Because of her Gift, Dolores had never so much as raised her voice before. "No, I can't hear anything! Listen – listen, it's too quiet! I-I know I said I didn't miss it..." She gripped the windowsill so tightly that her knuckles went white. "...but I want my Gift back now. I want it back. What if something goes wrong tonight? What if something terrible happens, and I can't hear it?"
As she spoke, Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel got out of their own beds and joined her at the window. All four of them were barefoot, dressed only in their night shifts, as they looked out at the dark, quiet village.
Mirabel put her hand on Dolores's shoulder and tried to sound comforting. "Dolores, calm down. What could go wrong?"
But she was sorry that she asked the question, for as soon as she did, Dolores was ready with answers. "What if someone gets sick?" she replied immediately. "What if there's a fire? What if the river floods? Someone could call for help – someone could be calling me for help right now, only I can't hear them."
Luisa began to chew worriedly on the edge of her thumbnail. "If the river floods, I won't be able to build a new dam," she muttered around her thumb.
Isabela twirled a lock of hair through her fingers nervously. "And if someone gets sick, Mama won't be to able to heal them."
"Someone could be calling me for help right now," Dolores said again, her voice trembling. And then – she wasn't sure how it happened – but the next thing she knew, she was crying like a little girl into Luisa's ample bosom, and Luisa, Isabela, and Mirabel all had their arms around her, and she somehow had her arms around all of them, at the center of a group-hug. She felt Luisa and Isabela's bodies tremble against hers, and she knew that they were probably crying now, too, mourning for their own lost Gifts – but she couldn't actually hear them over her own sobbing. She couldn't actually hear anything anymore.
Dolores's meltdown made them all too anxious to feel tired. So they pulled the quilts and blankets off their beds, and that night, they all slept together in one big makeshift bed on the floor. It was still unnervingly quiet to Dolores, but when she laid down next to her cousins, they made enough noise with their breaths, their heartbeats, and the soft sounds of the blankets shifting that it wasn't as quiet as before. She was still scared that something bad would happen and she wouldn't overhear it in time, but when she curled up against Luisa's bulky body, she felt a little safer. Luisa smoothed down Dolores's hair, and Dolores thought that her big, strong hand was surprisingly gentle... and then she was asleep.
-x-
When Mirabel woke up the next morning, she panicked. Where was she? She tried to sit up, but there was something heavy holding her down, and something soft and dark was across her eyes, almost like a blindfold. She startled and nearly screamed out loud, but then she remembered.
She remembered hugging her cousin and sisters last night, as they cried over their lost Gifts. She remembered all of them falling asleep on a big makeshift bed on the floor of Widow Jimenez's house, and now, she'd woken up sandwiched between her two sisters. Luisa's strong, heavy arm was lying across her, and Isabela's long hair was in Mirabel's face. Mirabel shook her head to get Isabela's hair out of her eyes, but she was careful not rouse anyone.
Mirabel had slept in the nursery in Casita almost every single night of her life, so waking up anywhere else was strange – and a little scary. She could tell from the sunlight angling in through the window that it was late in the morning, and sleeping in was strange, too. In Casita Madrigal, the entire family had always risen early. Julieta was up before dawn every morning to start cooking and tending to anyone in the village who was sick or hurt. It wasn't just Luisa who worked too hard, Mirabel realized, lying on the floor. Most of her family members had used their Gifts too much. Even little Antonio had been spending less time attending school or playing with his friends, and more time tending to any farm animals who were sick or acting strangely. Mirabel's heart suddenly burned with shame over that. She loved Antonio like her own brother, and she wanted to be a better sister to him than she had been to Isabela and Luisa. Until recently, she had never noticed how unhappy her sisters both were. Until recently, Mirabel had thought of them – even referred to them out loud – as Beauty and Braun. As if that was all they were to her. As if they didn't have names. She swore to herself that she would never refer to Isabela and Luisa that way again.
Sleeping in late felt strange... but Mirabel could get used to it. She snuggled back into place between her sisters and closed her eyes again.
