The family of twelve was walking towards the zoo when Dolores suddenly stopped, covering her ears with her hands, "I don't know if we want to go any further," she insisted, "I'm hearing this really loud clanking sound and screaming, lots and lots of screaming."
"I don't hear anything," Camilo protested, tipping his head to one side.
"Of course, you don't, Camilo," Dolores snapped, "No one else can hear it, just me, it's pretty far away, but it's coming from the direction that we're heading."
"You're probably hearing that," Mirabel insisted, gesturing vaguely to a billboard they were walking past.
"'Grand Adventure Amusement Park, Come Have an Adventure,'" Camilo read out loud, "Hey, this week's the grand opening, cool."
"No, no, no!" Antonio announced, stomping his foot with each no, "We are going to the Zoo, and that's final!"
Abuela chuckled, "Of course, we are going to the zoo now, we'll see about going to the Amusement Park later, it really depends on how much it will cost us."
…
The Zoo was huge, with large exhibits featuring animals from all over the world. Antonio's eyes were as wide as saucers as they stopped by the large map just inside the entrance.
"There's so many different animals, how in the world are we going to be able to choose where to start!"
Mirabel chuckled as she wheeled herself forward, "Well, Tonito, the big thing to remember is that you are here," she insisted, pointing to a dot on the map, "There are three paths leading from the entrance, you can either go to the primate house and see the monkeys, or you can go see the penguins, or the reptiles."
"Reptiles," Luisa asked nervously, "You mean like snakes and stuff?"
Mirabel nodded her head, "Yes, Luisa, snakes are reptiles, glad to know that I'm not the only one who paid attention in school."
"I don't really like snakes," Luisa confessed, "They kind of freak me out."
"They can't get to you," Mirabel insisted, "They are in cages."
Luisa shuddered, "I'm not risking it," she insisted.
"Don't worry Luisa, you don't have to see the snakes if you don't want to," Antonio said softly, "We'll start over by the monkeys," he turned to his mother, "Can I talk to them?" he asked softly.
"Only if you talk softly," Pepa said, with a soft smile, "We don't want to upset anyone."
…
There were two large gorillas sitting in the sun right next to the fence. Antonio smiled widely as he raced forward, "Hello, I'm Antonio, what're your names?" he asked politely.
One of them grunted softly, and Antonio nodded, "This is Mara, and that's Koko," he announced, "They're friends and they like the sun."
The other gorilla grunted, looking at Antonio sharply, Mirabel could see the surprise in her face.
"I can speak to animals," Antonio explained, "It's my magical gift."
Koko grunted again.
"I can see what I can do," Antonio said, "But I can't make any promises, I'm just a little kid, and I don't work here."
"What did they say, Antonio," Felix asked.
"They want me to ask the nice humans that bring them food and take care of them when they are sick for new toys," Antonio announced, "They're bored of the old ones."
"Who's bored," a new voice asked as a woman in khakis and a button-down shirt approached them with a large round ball in her arms.
"Koko and Mara," Antonio explained, "They want new toys to play with."
The woman nodded, "How do you know that?"
"They told me."
"Oh, they told you they wanted new toys huh, well then I guess it is their lucky day. We just got this for them."
Antonio looked at the ball, "You got them a ball?"
"The ball is hollow inside and is stuffed with fruits and other treats for them," the woman said, "They'll have to figure out how to get the treats out of the ball themselves."
"Oh cool, a treat ball, I bet Parce will like one of those."
"Parce?"
"Yeah, my pet jaguar," Antonio said with a shrug, "He's just a big kitty cat."
"Wow," the woman said with a laugh, "What a wonderful imagination you have," she insisted, before carefully entering the enclosure, tossing the ball over to the gorillas, who happily pounced on it.
Alma turned to her youngest grandchild, "Antonio, we discussed this before we got here, we can't let others know about our gifts. You shouldn't have told her about yours."
"Oh, lighten up Mama," Pepa insisted, a small cloud forming over her head, "She thought that he was just telling a little tale, it's fine."
"Pepa, your cloud," Alma hissed.
"Oh for crying out loud," Pepa exclaimed, waving her hand through the cloud, "You knew perfectly well that I have a hard time controlling my cloud."
"You're fifty years old, you are plenty old enough to control it," Abuela snapped back.
"Well excuse me for having emotions," Pepa snapped back.
Abuela opened her mouth about to argue back when Dolores stepped between the two older women, holding her hands over her ears, "You need to stop, you're upsetting Mirabel," she insisted, nodding to her prima.
Mirabel had her eyes screwed shut, her hands clamped over her ears as her dress changed colors constantly and her breathing hitched in her throat.
Julieta immediately crouched down next to the wheelchair, "Hey, Mira, it's okay, breathe with me, it's okay."
Mirabel took a couple of deep breaths before her dress finally settled back to blue with the white bow knot collar. She slowly cracked open an eye, before finally telling her mother, "I'm alright."
"What just happened?" Camilo asked, glancing at his sister in confusion
"Mirabel had a panic attack because Mami and Abuela were arguing," Dolores explained, "and that affected her magic."
"Why did their arguing trigger a panic attack?" Luisa asked, "Something usually triggers a panic attack."
Mirabel shrugged, "Tia and Abuela had an argument once when I was in the room, and well..." she trailed off, "I don't want to talk about it," she insisted, "At least not here, we're gathering a crowd."
…
"Goodbye," Antonio said happily, waving a hand at the tigers as the family left their exhibit behind, "Where to next?" he asked, bouncing happily on his feet as he skipped in front of the family.
"Well," Abuela said, pulling out the map they had grabbed at the entrance and looking at it, "It looks like we're headed towards the Reptile house."
"I'm not doing the snakes," Luisa insisted, "Please, don't make me do this."
"You can stay outside if you want to, Luisa," Julieta said, "I'll stay with you, I'm not a big fan of snakes either."
They weren't the only ones waiting outside of the reptile house, an older man, around Abuela's age, was sitting on the bench next to the door as a couple of kids around Antonio's age played in the open field next to it.
Julieta glanced at the bench and then at the children playing, before deciding that the elder man was no threat to her and her daughter, "Those your grandkids?" she asked softly as she sat down next to him.
"Two of them," he said with a chuckle, "I have at least eight."
"At least?" Luisa asked, sitting down next to her mother, "Don't you know how many you have?"
"Luisa," Julieta gasped, "You've been spending way too much time with your sisters, you're the one that's supposed to have good manners."
"Sorry," Luisa muttered, her face turning bright red as the older man chuckled.
"No, she has a point, I don't know how many grandchildren I have for sure because I don't even know if my son is alive or not."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Luisa said softly.
"Agustin was quite the explorer, always loved the outdoors, even though the outdoors didn't like him. Allergic to bee stings and other bug bites. Always swelled up like a balloon, and clumsy like no one I'd ever met before or after him either. He told me once about twenty-five years ago that he wanted to explore the world, and a couple of weeks later he simply disappeared, with no calls, no letters, nothing. I like to think that he found some remote village and fell in love, started his own family. The other possibility is more realistic and probable… that something happened to him and he..." he trailed off, Luisa however spoke up again.
"Did you say, Agustin?" Luisa asked, her face draining of color.
"Yes, Agustin, that's my son's name, Agustin Rojas, why?"
If Julieta had been drinking anything, she would have probably done a spit take, "Agustin Rojas?" she repeated, and at his nod, she burst out laughing, "I know an Agustin Rojas, he showed up in our rural town about twenty-five years ago."
"Do you know what happened to him?"
"Yes, he's happily married and has three hijas."
"Are you a friend of his?" Senor Rojas asked.
"You can say that," Julieta said with a soft chuckle, "I'm his esposa, and this is our hija, Luisa."
"Uh..." Luisa slowly, "It's nice to meet you Abuelo."
The door behind them opened as a group of people filed out. The two kids stopped running around, "Mami!" they yelled, racing forward and throwing their arms around two of the older women.
Senor Rojas smiled widely, standing up, "Julieta, these are my hijas Valentina, Maria, and Carla. Girls, this is Julieta, your cunada."
Valentina gave her father a weird look, "Pa, are you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, you might have walked past your brother while you were in there though."
"Agustin?" Maria asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Abuelo was telling us about your brother, and well, he was describing Pa, so when he confirmed the name we just knew," Luisa said with a shrug as a wheelchair mysteriously went barreling past, a little boy sitting on the occupant's lap had his hands up as he shouted with glee. The other occupant in the wheelchair shouted, "Pa tripped!"
"Only your father," Julieta muttered, shaking her head, "The brakes Mirabel, use the brakes!"
Bruno walked up next to her with a laugh, "You missed an epic wipe out sis, I don't know how your esposo managed to trip like that and push the wheelchair that hard. He just looked over at you, gasped loudly, said 'Pa?' and went down hard."
"Senor, this is my hermanito Bruno," Julieta said, glaring at him, "Who obviously wants to get on my bad side? Is Aggie okay Bruno?"
"Aggie?" Carla snorted, "I haven't seen Agustin since I was a kid, but I am so calling him that."
"No, you are not calling me that," a new voice called out as Felix arrived, helping Agustin to the bench, "Honestly Juli, I'm fine, just a twisted ankle."
Julieta rolled her eyes, "What about Mirabel and Antonio?"
"Again! Tio do that again!"
"Antonio's fine," Felix said with a laugh as he scooped up the five-year-old.
"Yeah, Pa's not allowed to push me anymore," Mirabel said dryly, "So why did you say Pa right before you sent us flying?"
"This is your Abuelo?" Agustin said uncertainly, pointing to his father.
"You don't sound really sure about that Pa," Isabela said with a smirk, emerging from the reptile house, "So what did I miss?"
