Chapter 8
One month after Bruno left
5 years before Encanto
Dolores spent a lot of time up after midnight. It was her favourite time, because she had the casita all to herself, and the world was silent. Sometimes she would hear a couple of animals, or the rare person or two walking around town, but it was easy for her to tune them out.
Dolores was in the kitchen, humming to herself as she cut up avocado and laid it out over the hot plate of Bandeja Paisa she had just prepared.
A twig snapped outside, and Dolores stopped humming. She tuned in to hear more footsteps, her ears picking up on somebody clumsily making their way towards the casita. She stayed very still, trying to listen for more information. The person climbed the fence, pushing their way through the garden. Dolores held her breath. It was an intruder. They were coming closer. Dolores looked down hesitatingly at the cooking knife which was still in her hand. Dolores had never been a fighter, and if it came down to it, she didn't know what she would do.
Dolores tuned in to listen for the rest of the family, but all she heard were the soft sounds of their breathing and snoring. Dolores squeaked, knowing that she was all alone. She listened as the intruder came closer through the garden and approached the other side of the kitchen door where she stood. The doorknob turned, stopped, then rattled. Dolores tensed up in fear.
"Kid!" A familiar voice suddenly whispered. "Kid, it's me. Can you open the door?"
Dolores perked up at the familiar sound of Bruno's voice. Sighing in relief, she placed the knife safely down on the table and she hurried over to unlock the door and swing it open.
Bruno stood there, smiling at her sheepishly. He looked a mess. His hair was matted and tangled with leaves, dirt and twigs. His ruana was muddy and crumpled, a caterpillar crawling over his shoulder. His face was was dirty and gaunt, his skin covered with scratches and bug bites and his eyes were shadowed in dark circles.
"Turns out life on the road wasn't for me, kid." Bruno smiled and shrugged, trying to keep his voice casual. "I mean, the bugs were friendly enough, though they didn't really understand the concept of personal space. And the monkeys... Ugh! Don't get me started on the monkeys. I mean, it wasn't all bad. I got this nice little home situation happening in the end, kind of a leafy tent cabana thing - but anyway then there was this hurricane, and, well..."
Bruno's voice trailed off and he looked up at Dolores, trying to gauge her reaction to the whole situation. Dolores was staring back at him with wide eyes. Bruno chuckled nervously, then he struck a pose, his hands opening out dramatically by his sides.
"Ta-da!" He smiled, before chuckling awkwardly. "Bruno's back."
Dolores squeaked softly in delight, pulling her Tío in through the door and squashing him up into a tight hug. It was sudden and took Bruno by surprise.
"Uhh! Ok, so this is... Good news?" Bruno asked hopefully.
"Im glad you came back." Dolores hummed softly.
Bruno gobbled down the plate of bandeja paisa ravenously while Dolores watched.
"This-" he mumbled, his mouth still full of avocado as he spoke. "Oh this- This's good."
Dolores poured her Tío a glass of Aguapanela, which he gulped down quickly, finishing it in one go before taking a gasp of breath.
"Kid, you wouldn't understand." He explained, wiping his mouth with a napkin before grabbing more food. "Living off the land ain't what it's all cracked up to be, you know..." Bruno shovelled beans into his mouth, trying to continue to talk, but it came out muffled and unintelligible.
"I see." Dolores replied politely, imagining it had been a while since her Tío had spoken with another person.
Dolores poured Bruno another glass and he gulped it down, gasping before continuing to talk.
"I tried to make my own food, but turns out I'm not as good a cook as my sister." He chuckled, before perking up at the thought. "Say, she wouldn't happen to have any of those arepas lying around, would she?
"Mm-hmm." Dolores smiled, going over and grabbing a few to bring back to her Tio. He gobbled them up gratefully, and Dolores watched as the scratches and bites faded from his skin as he did so, the shadows lightening up around his eyes and his face becoming less gaunt.
"Ah... Now that's good food." Bruno sighed and leaned back in his chair, before quickly sitting back up and adding in a panicked tone, "No offence! Your meal was great too!"
Dolores smiled and shrugged.
"So, uh..." Bruno begun carefully. "How do the family feel about.." His voice trailed off, finding it hard to find the right words. "Uh, you know..."
Dolores watched him patiently.
"...Me." Bruno sighed. "How does everyone feel about me?"
"We don't talk about Bruno." Dolores replied, her tone gentle but matter of fact.
Bruno's face fell.
"Oh." He said softly. "Right."
The two of them sat in silence for a while, before Bruno stood up with a sigh, heading for the door.
"Guess I better keep out of everyone's hair then." He said sadly as he walked towards the door. "Don't think Mamá or the others are really gonna appreciate me being here when they wake up... Have a good life, kid."
Bruno opened the kitchen door to try and leave, but the casita immediately shut it again. Bruno tried again, but the casita closed it once more. He tried again but this time the door wouldn't open at all. Bruno turned back to Dolores in exasperation.
"Must be a rusty hinge." Bruno muttered, pushing at the door. "Or maybe the levels are out."
Dolores giggled, watching her Tío struggle again to pull open the door, trying it at different angles.
"You know, you could stay in my room." Dolores spoke up hopefully. "I won't tell anybody."
Bruno's face softened as he turned and looked at his sobrina, feeling deeply grateful for her acceptance and kindness. Then he shook his head.
"No, no, I couldn't possibly." Bruno replied. "You're a growing girl. You're gonna wanna want your own space. You know, for... Hair. And boys... And, uh, probably ponies."
Dolores looked back at him dryly, raising an eyebrow. Bruno smiled back at her apologetically, before changing to a more serious tone.
"What I mean to say is, I don't want to burden you." Bruno sighed. "I don't want to burden anyone. I think what I need to do is just leave, find my own space, and-"
Suddenly, the kitchen wall opened up, the tiles clattering and flipping back to reveal a small area of space which had been hidden behind the kitchen walls. Bruno and Dolores looked in through the hole, then back to eachother.
"That could work." Bruno said in quiet surprise.
As the two of them entered the small room, the casita's walls rebuilt behind them, making the room hidden again, but also pitch black.
"Ah, just needs a little decorating." Bruno spoke up optimistically in the darkness.
Dolores struck a match, the soft glow lighting up a narrow corridor behind Bruno of crawl space, that led away from the room.
"Here goes nothing." Bruno sighed, and the two of them explored.
The corridor led through the house and finished at a dead end. Just as Bruno went to make a joke, the tiles opened up again, just like it had in the kitchen, and light spilled in.
Bruno and Dolores crawled out the hole and found themselves upstairs, close to the door of Dolores' room. Instead of closing the hole this time, the casita simply moved one of the paintings so that it covered the passageway, creating a secret space for Bruno.
Dolores spent a lot of time with her Tío after that, building and renovating and decorating the secret room. It was easy to do, because everyone in the family and town were always out, busy fixing up the town after the hurricane.
There were plenty of tools and materials everywhere that Dolores was able to take without suspicion, and then sneak in through the wall of the casita. The hurricane had also misplaced items from people's homes and the market, and scattered them around the streets. Dolores would help pick them up as part of the town cleanup, but whenever she found something she thought her Tío needed, instead of taking it to the lost and found she would hurry it back up to the casita and quickly slip it through the secret door.
When the room was finally done, Dolores and Bruno sat in his new space, sharing a meal together and laughing at everything they had gotten away with.
