Chapter 1: Antonio's Gift

Mirabel watched from the second floor of Casita as her family prepared for the ceremony that evening. The air itself was alive with anticipation. Family members chatted loudly as they decorated . Tonight, primo Antonio would receive his birthright as a Madrigal, a Gift.

To Mirabel, the laughter was too loud, as if it was trying to make up for something. Her family's conversations were joyful on the surface, but they felt wrong. Like a vain attempt to fill the space, hoping to avoid what wasn't being said. She caught the sideways glances at her dogging every smile. Her gut wrenched, both with fear and hope as she faced the unasked question. 'What if it happened again?'

It was a selfish thought, and she recoiled just thinking it. But, part of her couldn't help but want it. 'No' she chided herself, 'tonight wasn't about her. It was about Antonio. What was fair for him.'

"Mirabel?"

She jolted, but it was just tia Pepa.

Pepa bowled on, too focused on the growing thundercloud to notice Mirabel's reaction, "you wouldn't happen to know where Antonio is, would you? It is coming time to start and I have looked everywhere."

"I have not seen him, Tia, but I can look." Mirabel said, rising.

"Thank you dear." Pepa was already turning shooing the clouds away as fast as they were converging. She stopped, hesitatingly touching Mirabel on the shoulder. Her mouth opened slightly, and Mirabel leaned unconsciously forward, before a slight drizzle began to pour on her aunt's head.

Startled, Pepa pulled away, shaking her head and focusing once more on dispersing the clouds as she hurried down the hall calling for Antonio.

Mirabel waited a moment longer, her hand partially outstretched. She shook herself. She knew where Antonio would be and she had wanted to talk to him before the ceremony. Before everything changed.

As she walked down the hallway, she passed the doors to the rooms of everyone in her family. Brilliant works of art in shimmering gold, they lit up the hall. Each depicted one member of her family doing splendid forms of magic. Their piece of the Madrigal inheritance. Their contribution to the family. She reached the end of the hall and turned into a darker offshoot where a single wooden door opened into a small nursery. Her and Antonio's room. And, if tonight went well , her room alone.

She stopped just outside the door. Drawing in a deep breath she arranged her features. She didn't want Antonio to see her inner turmoil. She wanted to reassure him. So, she smiled softly, and stepped into the room. Humming cheerfully, if hollowly, as she did.

"It is a shame I haven't seen Antonio recently. I have this wonderful gift I was going to give him, but alas, he is nowhere to be found. Guess I will have to keep it to myself."

From underneath the bed there was a rustle of fabric and a soft giggle. Mirabel crossed the room, pulling a colorfully wrapped box from where she had hidden it behind the desk as she walked, and sat on the bed.

The bed rustled again and Mirabel sighed dramatically, lowering the present to the floor carefully. "Oh where could Antonio be."

Two hands appeared, reaching out from the shadows. Mirabel laid the present gently in them, and rolled off the bed to join her cousin below as he giddly unwrapped her gift.
Pulling the last of the paper away, Antonio revealed her home-sewn leopard.

"It is so that when you are in your new room, you have someone to keep you company," she said hugging him close.
"I love it," the excitement in his eyes faded, "what if it doesn't work?"

Mirabel's breath caught as her mind flashed back to the night of her own ceremony. The confusion. The hurt. Her Abuela's hard eyes.
Her cousin pulling away brought her back, and she quickly squeezed him tight once more, "then you will be stuck as my roommate forever." She waited to feel him relax, "but it will work, and you will have a wonderful Gift that you can help the family with. I pinky promise."
He searched her eyes briefly before nodding and taking her pinky. She sighed inwardly, allowing the facade to drop slightly. "It is time though. Abuela would not like it if you were late." She nudged him forward and then followed him from under the bed and out of the room, running head on into Pepa who swept Antonio off in a storm to where the rest of the family was waiting in the courtyard below.
Mirabel went to join them, but jumped when someone grabbed her shoulder from behind. It was her Abuela.
"Yes Abuela?"
"Mirabel, because of what happened last time, perhaps it would be for the best if you hung back, my dear. We need tonight to go smoothly. For the village. For the family."

The breath caught in Mirabel's throat.

"You understand right?"
"Of course, Abuela. I wouldn't want to hurt the family." She choked as the cry came unbidden to her mind, 'wasn't she part of the family?'
Relief flickered across Alma's stern features, "I know my dear." She patted Mirabel's hand gently and then descended the stairs to greet the neighbors and family to the ceremony, leaving Mirabel to stand alone in the shadows of the upper hall.

Mirabel tried to listen to the story her Grandmother told of her Abuelo's sacrifice. The words of gratitude for her strong family, and the ability that the magical candle has blessed them with to serve their community. Her Abuela's love for her family and excitement to pass the tradition on to her younger cousin. But the pressure in her ears pounded and her heart burned.
She sank to the floor. Her breaths came in short, scraping bursts. Her eyes strained, tears clouding her vision as she watched Antonio begin to climb the stairs toward where Abuela waited with the candle.
Her mind raced, bringing her back all those years ago. She couldn't look away, couldn't breathe. She was the one climbing the stairs. So small, surrounded by so many unknown faces. Searching until she found her mother smiling at her, strengthening her. She flashed forward to stand before her Abuela, tiny hands reaching out to touch the shining candle. Abuela gleamed down on her as she ushered little Mirabel to what was to be her door. So much excitement. So overwhelmingly nervous. The thought in her head over and over again, 'would her power make her family proud? Could she live up to the Madrigal name?'

She touched the hard grained wood, shimmering with the magical candlelight. She felt the magic pouring through her and into the door. For a second brilliant designs swirled around her, before they faded and fizzled. She felt again the horror and confusion. Was this what was supposed to happen? She turned to her grandmother, scared, only to see the same fear reflected back at her from her Abuela's deep eyes. Fear that turned to stone when they rested their great weight on her.
Mirabel had cried for hours that night, wondering what she had down wrong. 'Was she not a Madrigal?' She had screamed into her pillow. Below she heard her uncle and grandmother shouting, before silence had at last fallen in the dead of the night.
She didn't ask where her uncle was the next day. She didn't talk for a long time. She had let her family down. And though no one said it, she could see it every time her grandmother looked at her that they were both wondering the same thing, why was she not good enough for the blessing. Why could she not support the family with a Gift?

Cheers recalled her to the party before her. The candlelight was burning brightly as magic whizzed through the air around Antonio to alight upon his door, whose image was now coming into focus. The magic had worked. Antonio had a Gift.
Antonio was a Madrigal. The Candle still worked. It was her. Grief and joy tore through her body. Her stomach wrenched and she pulled herself deeper into the shadowy hall.

And into the arms of her mother, "I know, sweetheart, I know." Her mother held her as she sobbed.
Below the people paraded into Antonio's new magical room, leaving only her and her mother.
"Is it something I did? What is wrong with me?" The questions sprang from Mirabel's gut before she could stop herself.
"No, baby, nothing is wrong with you. You are my precious child."

It wasn't enough. Guilt washed through her, followed by rage. Shame. Sorrow. Jealousy. And finally, emptiness as her sobs quieted. Her mother rocked her, humming softly. "Mirabel, you are a gift to this family. You are a gift to me. I wish I could heal your heart. Please come and join us."

"I... I can't. Not yet."
"I understand. I am going to go congratulate little Antonio. Will you be alright?"

Mirabel nodded, burying the twinge of resentment and hugging her mother one final time before letting go.
From afar her Grandmother's voice called everyone for a family picture. Mirabel looked on from the side, not wishing to mar the memory. She then walked the empty courtyard for a bit, trying to tune out the sounds of the party behind her.
She caught sight of the candle, sitting in its usual place now in a high up window. Her resentment climbed once more, and at last she screamed at it, "am I not good enough for you?"
Within herself she felt something give. As if there had been a great pressure between two opposing forces and one just collapsed allowing for the other to flood forward momentarily.
Crash!
A single shingle had fallen to shatter at her feet. She leapt back, aghast, when, to her increasing horror, cracks began to emanate from beneath her feet. Widening, they splintered off to break the cobblestone around her, before marring their way up the walls, toward the candle. Grasping, withered claws to snuff out the shimmering light.
"No! I didn't mean it!" Terrified she raced toward Antonio's room.
"Abuela! Abuela! It's Casita! She is cracking! Help!"

The party fell dead quiet as she tore through the room to stop breathless at Abuela's feet.
"Show me."

People streamed after them as she led everyone to the courtyard where the cracks had been. Only, everything was fine. The tension within her had returned, filling the space where fear had been moments before.
Her Abuela gazed at her, disappointment radiated from her dark eyes, "you should be ashamed of yourself. Trying to undermine your cousin's special day." She hissed before turning toward the concerned neighbors, "the magic is strong! Please everyone, return to the party! For little Antonio!"

Cheers went up for her little cousin, as Mirabel found herself once more on the outside, alone, looking in.