But first, let's check in on Bruno!
Bruno's door slowly creaked open, and in tiptoed Mirabel. She slid as quietly as she could down the sand dune leading to the bottom of the cavern that made up the interior of Bruno's tower. She could hear his snores echoing from the secluded area that was the actual bedroom part of his bedroom. Carefully, quietly, she scooped a generous amount of sand into the bucket she carried. Rats scurried up to see what she was doing. Mirabel held a finger to her lips as the rodents looked on curiously. She half wished she'd received Antonio's gift for the day so she could tell them exactly what she was up to. As she worked, a grumbling sound came from the direction of Bruno's bed.
"Mmm...no...Maria, don't do it...Don't let them stop you...Tony truly loves you."
Mirabel rolled her eyes, smiling. She wasn't sure where her tío got his "telenovelas," and honestly, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. But it was one of the quirks that made Bruno Bruno, and she loved him for that.
As soon as she was sure she had enough sand, Mirabel made her way back out of Bruno's room. The rats followed her as far as the doorway. She whispered a thanks to them before disappearing. The door latched behind her with a soft click.
Félix was not having a good day.
Happiness was literally his name, and he tried very hard to live up to it. He had done so since he was a child, always bringing optimism and sunshine into his family's home in his own way. Even going through a hurricane and losing most of his childhood home had not soured young Félix's outlook on life, and instead he'd raved about the incredible power of the storm his family had survived and how fascinated he was by it. Always cheerful, always jovial, always happy; that was always Félix.
But today, he didn't feel terribly happy. First Bruno had told him that there wouldn't be time that day for romantic picnics. Then the candle had fallen, and just as Bruno had foretold, everyone's gifts got shuffled. At first, Félix had no idea if he'd gotten a magical power, or how to find out what it was. All he knew was that there were two gifts unaccounted for: Julieta's healing and Bruno's future vision. He prayed he had been overlooked entirely. He could make precisely one simple dish he'd often prepared for himself in childhood, and so would likely be useless in the kitchen and for healing in general. And of all the gifts that were scattered amongst the Madrigals, the one he absolutely did not want, under any circumstances, was future vision. Bruno could keep the responsibility for the future all to himself.
So when Alma had dismissed the family from the dining room, Félix had followed his beloved Pepa, hoping to do what he always did and help her with her gift.
"You got lucky, mi vida," Félix said. "Watching over animals for a day sounds like fun!"
"'Fun' is not how I would describe it," Pepa said, trying to shake off a coati that was clinging to her skirt. "I don't know the first thing about caring for wildlife."
The coati chittered at her.
"No, I'm absolutely certain there's a lot more to it than feeding you," Pepa told the creature. "Pets are a lot like kids, and they'll try to sucker you into getting their way. Well, you're not gonna fool me, buster!"
Félix could've sworn he saw the coati put on its best pout.
"Ay!" Pepa griped. "Don't give me those eyes!"
"We should start by asking Antonio what he does for these guys every day," Félix suggested as he plucked a toucan feather out of his wife's copper curls. "Getting a bunch of pets has made him very responsible for his age, you know."
"If we can find him," Pepa replied. "He didn't go upstairs after the meeting, and I have no idea which way he did go." She sighed. "We'll split up. Please bring him to me if you find him, amor."
Félix gave a mock salute. "Yes ma'am!" When Pepa seemed to ignore him, he reached out to hug her. "Hey, relax, Pepi. You'll have fun, I'm sure of it. Enjoy today! It's something new and different."
Pepa looked at him in exasperation. "What will be fun," she said, "is giving Antonio tomorrow off because it will be up to Bruno to do aaaalllllll of the poop scooping, as payback for making me do it today."
Félix laughed. That sounded like a fitting punishment indeed, and he had no doubt his youngest would be perfectly accommodating.
The couple parted ways. Pepa searched the ground floor, all the while arguing with the coati and various toucans about their meal schedules. Félix decided to check Antonio's room first. Pepa was sure she hadn't seen him head that direction, but Félix figured it wouldn't hurt to look.
He climbed the stairs to the second floor and immediately noticed the way the doors flickered. He found Antonio's door and paused, watching the animal motifs flash to cooking motifs and back again.
"Ah, so that's who our healer and cook is today," Félix said, opening the door to his son's room. Inside was unchanged, save for the tension. The animals surrounding Antonio's treehouse gave nervous grunts and growls. Félix didn't dare step all the way in. He didn't trust Antonio's jaguar without Antonio there to control it. He simply observed that there was no curly haired five-year-old to be found and retreated out the door.
He was about to head downstairs to the kitchen, hoping Antonio had figured out his temporary gift and sought the guidance of his tía, when his own bedroom door caught his eye. He walked up to it, expecting to see nothing more than Pepa's image flashing between weather related motifs and those of Antonio's animals. But it switched to a third image. Félix gaped as he saw an illustration of himself—eyes wide open with an hourglass hovering at his chest.
Félix stumbled back from the door, hands held out in front of him. "Oh no! Nonononono! Dios, no!" He couldn't remember feeling this panicked since Pepa's water broke with Dolores. Somewhere nearby he heard voices, and turned to see Alma and Augustín exiting Alma's room, seemingly arguing. Augustín still held the candle and was still a nervous wreck.
The two paused mid-argument to glance up at Félix, who froze a moment, then disappeared into his room, slamming the door behind him. The door paused on the image of Pepa with animals, leaving the other two adults to shrug off their confusion and continue downstairs.
On the other side of the door, Félix was hyperventilating. How could he have ended up with Bruno's gift? It wasn't fair! Why him? Now he was the one responsible for the future!
Félix forced himself to inhale and exhale slowly. Alma had given them explicit instructions to lay low for the day and avoid using their gifts as much as possible. So that was just what Félix was going to do. He made his way to his bed and collapsed on it. Maybe Bruno had the right idea with trying to sleep the day away. It would pass a lot quicker that way.
Félix took some deep, cleansing breaths, stared at the ceiling, and even mentally repeated his wife's mantra. "Clear skies. Clear skies." He felt himself relax and let himself drift off, hoping that by the time he woke up, he'd be able to treat this whole day like some crazy dream.
But what seemed like only moments after he'd successfully drifted into the realm of dreams, something woke him abruptly. A burning sensation started behind his eyes, which snapped open. The moment they did, wind picked up around him. Where was the wind coming from? Félix sat bolt upright as he watched the dust in the room get kicked up by the wind. His eyes burned fiercely, but he felt powerless to reach up to rub them, and they seemed stuck open. He saw flashes of light in the swirling dust; images that were unclear. Was he hallucinating? What was happening? He saw what looked like one of the men in town, glaring at him. Why was he glaring? Was this what Bruno's visions were like?
Félix couldn't stand the burning pain in his eyes any longer. He summoned all his willpower and clamped his eyes shut, then pressed the heels of his hands into them. The wind stopped. Félix sat like that for several minutes, afraid to open his eyes. Finally, he cracked one eye open. All seemed calm. He opened both eyes and slid off the bed, looking around to make sure nothing had gotten knocked out of place. His foot hit something on the floor. He looked down and saw...he didn't know what it was. It wasn't glass, but it was some kind of film. And on it, imprinted in dust, was the image of the glaring man, whose features were unclear but whose anger was unmistakable.
Félix yelped and jumped, stumbling back. He had to get out of there. He had to get to Bruno and beg him to somehow take his gift back. He burst out of his room, clutching his head as it began to pound, and half-stumbled, half-ran in the direction of Bruno's tower, when he nearly collided with two of his nieces.
"Tío Félix?" Mirabel said, concern evident on her face. "Is everything okay?"
"No!" Félix snapped, though he didn't intend to. "Everything is definitely not okay! It's the opposite of okay! I've got Bruno's gift!"
"Oh, well, we knew that. The door..." Mirabel gestured toward Félix's room.
Félix glared at her, blinking a few times as his vision had gone a bit blurry as the pain in his head intensified. He pointed in the direction of Bruno's tower. "Listen, Mira, if anyone can convince your Tío Bruno to get out here and help me, it's you. So would you mind marching up to that tower and telling him he owes me since he's the one who saddled me with this?"
Mirabel exchanged a silent look with Isabela. She turned back to Félix. "I don't think Tío Bruno can help with this one, and I don't think Casita will let us bother him anyway. But we can help you."
"We'd be glad to," Isabela said.
"Help me?" Félix said. "How?"
Mirabel and Isabela smiled. "We have some experience with helping people with their gifts," Isabela said. She gestured toward Mirabel's room. "Come on, we'll show you."
Félix was confused, but would accept any kind of help right now. And he knew Mirabel did have experience with Bruno's visions. "Okay," he said, following the girls into Mirabel's room.
Félix drummed his fingers on his knees as he waited for Mirabel. The girls had cleared out a wide area in Mirabel's spacious room, and Mirabel had used her temporary powers to conjure up and dry out some piles of leaves and twigs, much to Isabela's satisfaction. It seemed the eldest Madrigal grandkid had found a calling as a teacher, and was thoroughly enjoying it. Now Mirabel was off to fetch something she hadn't specified, promising to be back in a few minutes.
"So..." Félix began, "how do you girls plan to help me with this future vision thing?"
Isabela shrugged. "Well, Mirabel knows Tío Bruno's ritual, and I'll be helping you focus your power."
Félix looked at her, puzzled. "How's that?"
Isabela smiled brightly. "You'll see soon enough, Tío, but let's just say that Mirabel and I switched gifts today."
Now Félix was really confused. "Wait up, switched gifts? But Mira..."
The door opened and Mirabel practically skipped inside, panting and grinning as if she'd just accomplished some sort of forbidden mission. "Got it!" she cried triumphantly, holding her bucket aloft. "Sand. Plenty of it for the ritual."
Félix watched as his youngest niece poured the sand out around the ritual area, outlining a circle. Once the ring was complete and the bucket was empty, Mirabel joined the other two. She pulled out a handful of salt, handing it to Félix.
"I actually don't know how much of this ritual is necessary to get a coherent vision and how much of it is just Tío Bruno being superstitious and anxious," she admitted. "But I'm not really gonna take the chance of messing this up, because I really don't wanna have to start all over."
Félix gave a half-hearted chuckle and accepted the salt. "You and me both," he said, flinging the salt over one shoulder in a perfect imitation of his brother-in-law.
Mirabel struck a match and lit the largest pile of leaves in the center. She then used a twig to light each of four smaller piles, sitting back when she was done. "Okay, Tío, the next part is on you. You just gotta...tap into that magic, and when you're ready, we'll join hands."
Wind began to stir around them. As the sand began to move with the breeze, Félix felt a buzz at the base of his torso, welling upward. The burning sensation returned to his eyes and he clenched them shut for a moment. Something compelled him to open them again, and he looked at his nieces. Mirabel nodded at him and Isabela, then held out her hands. The other two took hers, then each other's.
As soon as Félix's hand connected with Isabela's, he felt a warm, buzzing sensation that was very much like his own. It seemed to join with his and had a sort of calming effect on it. The intensity of the sensation didn't decrease, but it felt focused and directed somehow. His eyes still felt hot, and he could perceive some sort of glow ringing his field of vision, but the pain had diminished. And suddenly he had the confidence to look up as the sand whipped around them in a wind dome.
Images appeared in the blowing sand. They showed family members dealing with their unusual circumstances. Isabela appeared to be having a conversation with a soaking wet Mariano, whose personal cloud still thundered. Antonio appeared before them, Julieta behind him, guiding his hands as he cooked some arepas on the stove. Pepa then appeared, speaking to a rabbit, and they heard her voice:
"Please don't look at me like that! I wish I didn't have to do this! I really do!"
Then there was another man. He had a prominent gut and a carefree grin. Félix suddenly realized that this was the man he'd seen in his first vision. The image was clear now. This was Osvaldo. His grin changed to a grimace, and Félix saw himself trying to reason with the man. The image then shifted to one of Osvaldo in clear pain, clutching his right side. Julieta was there, appearing to scold him. Then the town surgeon appeared, and Osvaldo was laid out on a table in front of him.
That wasn't a good sign. The town surgeon didn't get much business, usually dealing with births, end of life care and emergency surgery. While Julieta's cooking cured most illnesses and injuries, it had its limits. It worked on most acute cases, and was especially useful for health maintenance, as all of the Madrigals had personally experienced. Even Bruno, who had lived as a recluse for a decade, looked younger than his true age due to surviving off of Julieta's magical food. But even her food could not cure bad habits or, as Mirabel and Augustín could attest, bad eyesight. And sometimes it ceased to prevent consequences of bad habit.
It seemed Osvaldo would learn that soon enough. But it would be a pity if he had to learn while the surgeon was out of town. The man wasn't expected back for a few more days yet.
"That's an important event," Mirabel said, nodding toward the image of Osvaldo about to go under the knife. "We need to record that."
Using Isabela's magic as a crutch of sorts, Félix focused on the image. "How do I..." But before he could finish his question, the wind ceased, the sand fell, and the vision coalesced into a glass tablet, which dropped neatly into Félix's hands as he reached for it.
"Wow," Isabela whispered, in awe at the experience. She studied her hands a moment, flexing her fingers.
Félix stared at the tablet in his hands.
"Yup, you made that," Mirabel said, nudging her tío.
"So what am I supposed to do with it?"
"Well, you have to warn him," Isabela said. "He needs to know that he has to seek out a doctor. He'll need surgery soon, and that means that it's serious enough that Mamá's food won't help him."
"You want me to tell him that?" Félix said, incredulous. "You want me to make him need surgery? No no no, I'm not saying anything!" He tossed the tablet aside, then crossed his arms childishly.
"Tío, if you don't say anything, he won't know to act," Mirabel said. "He needs to seek out our surgeon, before whatever happens to him becomes a life threatening emergency."
"I'm not going to be responsible for giving him a life threatening emergency at all!"
"If you don't say anything, you will be!"
"What's wrong, Tío?" Isabela asked, trying to break up the argument before it escalated. "It's just the future. It's likely to happen no matter what we do."
Félix gestured toward the tablet in exasperation. "If I tell him his fate, that seals it. And boom! I cause the future to happen. And he'll get upset with me, and he'll have every reason to be!"
Mirabel's palm met her forehead while Isabela just gaped at him.
"You...really, honestly think Tío Bruno causes the future, don't you?" Mirabel said. "All he can do is see into the future. He can't change it. He doesn't cause it. It just is."
"He caused it today!" Félix said, throwing his arms out wide. "Look what's happened to us! We ended up like this because he knocked the candle down!" He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look, don't get me wrong, I love him dearly, but he needs to learn how to keep these things to himself."
"That won't stop them," Isabela said. "Running from the future won't prevent it anymore than running from the past will change it."
"'One often meets one's destiny on the road one takes to avoid it,'" Mirabel quoted dramatically. She smirked at the curious looks she received. "Read that in one of Pa's books. Look, I know Tío Bruno 'caused the future' to happen today, but it still would've happened one way or another. And today's an exception rather than the rule. Remember what he said about Tía Pepa and your wedding? He was just teasing. She's the one who caused the rain to happen. Maybe...maybe a lot of the future is caused by people trying to avoid it, or freaking out about it, and triggering it themselves. Maybe all Bruno is actually seeing in those cases are self-fulfilling prophecies."
"And sometimes they just have interpretations we don't understand," Isabela added. "Like how he told me when I was little that my power would grow and I would take hold of the life of my dreams. That came true after Mirabel and I had a fight. It was completely unexpected."
"And his prophecy about me being at the center of our house breaking," Mirabel said. "That one had, like, three different interpretations at least, and they all ended up being true because of how I was pursuing them."
Félix looked between his nieces, contemplating their words. Maybe they were right; maybe he'd been too hard on Bruno about his gift. He could certainly appreciate the burden of it now. He picked up the tablet and studied it a moment before resigning himself to his own fate. "Okay okay okay, let's go find Osvaldo and tell him to get his butt to the doctor."
As they exited Mirabel's room, Félix turned to Isabela. "So that thing you were doing, helping me to focus my magic...that's normally Mirabel's magic?"
"Amazing, isn't it?" Isabela said. "She basically has the most important gift in the family for that reason."
Mirabel blushed. "I'm just supporting my family."
As the trio made their way downstairs, Isabela noticed Dolores and Mariano sitting in the courtyard. Mariano was sobbing, and was drenched in rain to match, while Dolores tried to comfort him. Isabela frowned in concern.
"Why don't you two go ahead and find Osvaldo? I'm gonna see if I can help these two."
Félix nodded. "Good luck," he said genuinely. He knew full well how hard it could be calming Pepa down when she was in the middle of a weather episode. While he loved the challenge, others in the family struggled with it. And he certainly was not about to try the tricks he used on his wife on his daughter's boyfriend.
So while Isabela turned her attention to her cousin and ex, Félix and Mirabel went out to find Osvaldo and warn him of his impending surgery.
It went exactly as Félix had foreseen. Osvaldo did not appreciate being told he couldn't keep treating chronic appendicitis with Julieta's arepas. What's more, Félix and Mirabel were neither Camilo nor his student Antonio. Without a prepared cover story, the truth about that morning's candle problems came out. And Osvaldo was a gossip. The man was not known for his tact, and Mirabel could certainly attest to that. Despite all of that, they were successful in getting Osvaldo to make a phone call. The surgeon would cut his trip short and be back in town before the day was out to examine his patient.
Their next task was to ask Julieta to head down to Osvaldo's place and keep an eye on him. Of course, she would have to take Antonio. First, however, she laid out lunch, buffet style. Mirabel and Félix filled their plates, prepared one for Augustín, and joined him in the courtyard.
"I tell you what," Félix said as he took a bite of his food, "I swear I'll never give Bruno a hard time about his gift ever again."
"That's what he claimed," Dolores said as she, Mariano and Isabela joined them. Mariano was in a much better mood, though a cloud still hung over his head as he was still nervous about his powers.
Augustín held the candle in one hand while he tried to eat as gracefully as possible with the other. Mirabel conjured up a table of branches for him. He gave her a grateful smile. "So, if you all could bring me up to speed on what's been happening all day, I'd appreciate it."
That started a cacophony of chatter. Which ended abruptly when, from somewhere not too far distant, they heard Camilo scream, "Would you people please shut up?!"