Chapter Two: The Quake
Bruno had always assumed that if any of the kids were to find him, or break into his room, it would be Dolores, with her super hearing,she knew that he was in the walls, just not how to get in them herself, or Camillo, who always found a way to get into the strangest of circumstances. Mirabel finding him had been disorientating to say the least. He had sent his rats to grab the prophecy, hoping that everyone would just forget about it. He had not expected his niece to follow them through the picture, or chase after him when he left, all the way to his room.
That conversation could have gone better, he reasoned. She asked about the vision, and Bruno had tried to be as honest about what it was he saw, how he didn't understand what the vision was about. That it was a mystery. Then Mirabel had asked the question.
"Am I hurting the Familia? Tio, I need to know, if I'm hurting the family, I'll leave, protect them."
And he… he should have stopped right there, pulled her into his arms, and hugged her, whispering into her ear that none of this was her fault that she loved her familia and would never hurt them. Instead, he pushed her out of the door, telling her that it was a mystery, a dud of a vision, and that he wished that he could have seen more. After that he had sunk down into his worn out chair, and closed his eyes.
"Why can't you just have another vision, you know, see more?"
Bruno's eyes flew open and stared at the little boy standing there with his hands full of rats.
"The rats told me everything," Antonio announced, undisturbed at all to have learned that his missing Tio was hiding in the walls, and have been since before he was born, "Don't eat those," he added, turning his attention to a jaguar who was about to snap up a couple of rats.
How in the world had he not noticed a freaking jaguar entering his room?
"I wish I could, but Casita is cracking up pretty badly, and destroying my vision cave. I need a wide open space to have a vision."
"Oh," the five year old said, "I know, you can use my room!"
…
Antonio's room was perfect, flat, wide open space, and they hadn't ran into anyone also. Bruno gulped, he hadn't summoned a vision since Mirabell's fifth birthday and that was almost ten years ago now, or was it just over ten years ago now. It was hard to tell, sometimes living in the walls, what day it was, and he couldn't quite remember if Mirabel's birthday was before or after Antonio's. They hadn't had her Quinceneara yet, that he knew for sure, but her and Antonio's birthdays were pretty stacked up on top of each other, a gift ceremony could not wait, a quinceanera could.
"Uh," a little voice called out, as Antonio tugged on his poncho, "Tio Bruno," he said, holding something up, "Mirabel made this for me when I got my gift, here, for the nerves."
Bruno blinked, accepting the stuffed jaguar, Mirabel certainly was good at sewing, and thinking of Mirabel, he needed to do this vision, learn more and then help Mirabel save the Miracle.
He poured out a vision circle, set up the piles of herbs, and quickly tossed a pinch of salt over his shoulder to counteract any bad luck looming over him for using his powers. He would have knocked on a tree trunk too, for an extra layer of protection, but they were too far outside of the circle for him to reach. He slowly took a deep breath and lit the piles of herbs.
The wind picked up, the sand was blown everywhere, and in the wind images formed, the house falling about, the door nearly crushing who he now knows was Antonio and being rescued by Felix, and Mirabel just standing there. This was all the same thing as before. The candle sputtered and shrunk before going out, then everything changed, he was out in the village, cracks running across the road, up the walls, chunks of fencing toppled over, and the main barn door shagged on broken hinges. Then he was in the forest, trees toppling all around him, and up in front of him was Mirabel, trying to escape the falling trees, suddenly she stumbled forward falling onto the ground hard, her glasses flying off as well, and a tree crashing down on top of her.
Bruno broke the vision, grabbing the green slate as it formed, there it was, Mirabel, her glasses broken next to her, pinned down by a large tree. This was bad, this was really, really, bad. Julieta was going to hate him.
…
"Look I don't care what you do for Cena," Julieta insisted, "All I'm saying is that I have to look for Mirabel, she's out there all on her own."
"Mirabel's leaving was for the best of the family," Abuela argued, "If she hadn't left on her own free will I would have forced her to go."
"You would have What?!"
"Luisa is losing her power because of her, Camilo's powers are out of control because of her, Casita is cracking because of her. Bruno left because of her."
"I did not leave because of Mirabel," a new voice filtered down from the upstairs balcony, causing Julieta to whip around and crane her head up, to see her brother standing on the top of the stairs, Antonio standing right next to him, riding his Jaguar.
Her brother took a step down, Casita turning into a slide for him as he did, causing him to slide to a stop right in front of Abuela, "I left because of you," he announced, jabbing a finger into his mother's chest as he spoke, "I knew what you would think, how you would react. You would push Mirabel out of the family, to preserve the miracle. So I left, to protect Mirabel from you."
"Oh, so Mirabel was more important than the Familia?"
"Mirabel is Familia," Bruno said, "She's not just some nina with a bad prophecy hanging over her head, she's a Madrigal just like the rest of us."
The ground beneath them shuddered and cracked. Abuela glanced up at the candle, it was burning extremely low, the flame flickering as it fought to keep burning, cracks were spreading up the wall onto the windowsill.
"You didn't care that Mirabel was your granddaughter, all you cared about is the fact that she didn't get a gift. Just like you didn't care that I was your son, no matter what I did, what I tried, I was never good enough for you…" Bruno paused, glancing at his sister and the other children who were staring at him in shock. Their missing tio had returned and was now yelling at Abuela, two things that they never thought was ever going to happen, that was when it hit him, "None of us are ever going to be good enough. Pepa…" Bruno moved slightly so that he was pointing at his redheaded sister, "has to bottle up all of her emotions, she has to restrict what she hears and sees so that she doesn't cause an unwanted rainstorm. Julieta…" switching to his oldest sister, "Is worried about what is going to happen the first time that someone dies under her watch, she can't make anyone immortal, just like I can't control the future, but the villagers aren't going to see it that way. And from past experience you're going to side with the villagers," Bruno announced, before pointing to Isabela and Luisa, "And the grandkids, you don't treat any of them any better, I mean come on, I've been watching this family from inside the wall for the past ten years and even I can tell that they are miserable. Isabela is marrying a guy she isn't interested in at all because she doesn't want to disappoint you, because she sees the way you treat Mirabel, and doesn't want to be like her. They all do! Why does Luisa need to move the church to a new location every week? Why is it her responsibility to round up the donkeys everytime they get out? Has it ever occured to you that her gift might be failing because it's being overworked? And why is that? Because she wants you to see that she is contributing to the community that she's doing her job…"
Bruno stopped to take a breath, not noticing until that moment that the cracking was getting worse, chunks of wall were falling, "I can't control the future but I can see it," he muttered more to himself than anyone else as the ground shook violently beneath them as Casita started to push them out of the house.
"The Miracle!" Isabela shouted, Bruno turned to look at it, the candle was now just a stub, almost burned out completely. Isabela suddenly swung out over his head, trying to get to the candle, only for her vines to vanish in midair, dropping her to the ground. Camilo was running along the upper floor, dodging falling debris as Felix quickly moved Antonio out of the way of a falling door, his vision, this was just like his vision, it was coming true, this was what he saw, and then he was shoved out the door with the others as the whole house simply collapsed in on itself.
As Bruno regained his footing, with a little help from Julieta, something green slipped out from his poncho, Julieta grabbed it before it hit the ground.
"Nice save," Bruno said nervously, chuckling slightly, he joked when he was nervous and he told terrible jokes, like the looks like rain joke at Pepa's wedding.
Julieta glanced at the picture in the frame, "When did you have this vision?"
"Right before I interrupted your argument with Mama," Bruno confessed, "I was coming downstairs to ask for your help, when I heard Mama…" he trailed off, "When Casita fell it caused a lot of damage to town and around us."
"And my gift is gone," Julieta muttered, "If anybody is hurt, I won't be able to heal them," she stared at the image in her hand, "I can't heal Mirabel."
"Antonio sent his animals out, but now that his gift is gone…" Bruno sighed, "Bad Luck Bruno strikes again," he muttered, reaching over to the still standing door frame and knocked his knuckles against it, "Knock, knock, knock, knock on wood," he muttered, ending it by rapping himself on his head.
Hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him away from the pillar and into a hug, "You said it yourself, you can't change the future, just see it, come on, we need to tell the others and start a search going."
Bruno found himself being dragged across the uneven ground as Julieta called out for their mother, who was talking to Rev. Perez, who no doubt was wondering why the family had not come running after the earthquake.
"There's nothing much we can do," Alma told the reverend, shaking her head slightly, "The candle went out, the miracle is gone, our gifts gone, our home gone, everything is gone."
"Mama, Pepa, come quick," Julieta shouted, racing up to them, "Bruno had a vision right before we lost our gifts."
Rev. Perez took a step back when Julieta showed up dragging a bedraggled man behind her, "Bruno…" he said slowly, touching his wig unconsciously, "It's… good… to see you."
Bruno nodded, handing his mother the green slate he held, "Mirabel's in trouble, she was hurt during the quake."
Alma's face paled, "And no one knows where she is…" she muttered, "And Dolores won't be able to hear, and Antonio can't send out his animals, how are we going to find her."
"We'll just have to search the woods ourselves," Julieta stated, "If we spread out…"
"I'll go back to the Village and recruit help," Rev. Perez insisted, "The more looking the faster we can find her."
"Thank you," Julieta said, reaching over and squeezing the Revenant's hand.