The days following my last encounter with Bruno proved to be some of the most mentally exhausting days I had experienced in a while. Even though I no longer consider him to be a fiancé, friend, or anything else he used to be to me, I couldn't do it to myself or him to mention to anyone that he came to our house in the middle of the night. I knew if I told my papa or my uncles about it, there would be one less Madrigal in this town and if I told Gloria or my tía Esmerelda it would only be a matter of hours before the whole town knew about it. Also possibly resulting in one less Madrigal (as well as one less family member on my side). I considered telling my mother what happened, but she's a worrier and would not only worry about my thoughts and feelings concerning the situation, but probably question how he got into the garden so easily and how effortlessly someone else may be able to do the same to the house.
So, despite Bruno's puppy dog eyes, "I'm still here", and "I love you" playing over in my head almost day after day, I decided to just grin and bear it. Not let anyone know what happened and just live each day as though it was all normal. I saved my overthinking for when I was alone in my room and at night, but during the day (as far as everyone was concerned) I had recovered from my freak out the week prior. As far as I knew, my whole family decided to pretend it never happened. I even started making myself leave the house (with or without my "security") and go to the shops. I even began visiting with our friends and neighbors, resulting in a few randomly showing up for dinner after I invited them. While my parents didn't mind this and was just happy to see me back to my old self again (at least in their mind), I still received the occasional reminder to let them know if they will be receiving guests to ensure enough of everything is made.
I even started assisting my family in their everyday activities so I could have an excuse to be around them from time to time to drive home the idea everything was back to normal. I would assist Gloria in planting the garden, help tío Samuel and his sons with their tools to get them ready for building, make sure mama's kitchen was stocked with everything that was needed for meals, and anything else that was or was not asked of me.
I was even able to help papa move in a new family a couple houses away from us. While papa talked with the older people of the family about the history of the town and everything it has to offer (no doubt giving free advertisements for the businesses his brothers own), I was able to talk with the other people of the family and learn about them. Their daughter Sofia and her husband are both artists focusing on landscapes while both their sons Carlos and Jhon are both hoping to enter construction. After I told both of them about my tío Samuel and his construction business, Jhon seemed to take a particular interest in the conversation and asked me to put in a good word for him, telling me how he was able to single-handedly rebuild a whole town after a flood wiped it out. Before I was able to invite him over for dinner to allow him to meet my tío, papa laughed as he said his goodbyes to the family and whisked me back to our house. All the while complimenting me on how I've become the social butterfly within the last week.
A week after helping the new family move in, I was in my room nursing a headache that seemed to make its appearance every couple of days now. I tried multiple times that day to take a nap but this only seemed to make the headache worse, so I decided to retire to my room and stay there with my books for the day. On this particular day the sky was bright and beautiful. Perfect for reading and enjoying the sunshine, but not so much for a person trying to get rid of a headache. The windows in my room make it just so that the sunlight hits her pillows just right to either blind her if she's facing toward it or burn the back of her head if she's turned away from the windows. But even with this inconvenience, I still decided it was better than accidently striking out at my family should my headache get the better of me.
Still, while I was laying in bed I heard a tiny knock on my door. I decided to ignore it in hopes they'll move on to someone else. A louder knock soon followed the first one, but I ignored this one as well. "If it's an emergency they can break down my door." I thought before stuffing my face into my pillow.
"Rosa!" I heard my brother Julio yell before hitting my door again.
"Rosa's not home!" I yelled back.
"Then can you help me!" I heard another bang on my door followed by a weak "Ow…"
I let out a tiny groan before getting out of my bed and walking over to the door to open it. "What you need garden gremlin?"
I looked down at my brother rubbing the middle of his forehead where a tiny red bump was slowly forming. "Can you take me to play with a friend?" he asked.
"Sorry Julio, but I'm not feeling too good today." I said, reaching down to ruffle up his hair. "Have you asked anyone else?"
"Everyone." Julio frowned at me. "Gloria isn't here, mama's shopping, tío Joaquín is fishing, cousin Diego is-"
"Alright, I get it." I interrupted my brother, rubbing between my eyes. "But you're a big kid now, you can go by yourself and then have your friend's parent bring you home. Who are you wanting to play with anyway?"
"Antonio Madrigal." Julio said and I immediately felt my head start pounding as soon as I heard the Madrigal name.
"Fantastic…" I thought, "Julio, we need to have a talk."
I gently pulled Julio into my room and sat him on my bed before sitting down beside him. "Now, you know papa doesn't want us talking to the Madrigals, don't you?"
"I know." Julio started looking down at his feet.
"And how much trouble were you just in?" I asked
"But Antonio's fun! He has all these animals, and he talks to them and rides some of them!" Julio started talking about how he met Antonio at the rebuilding ceremony and how the tiny Madrigal showed him his animals. Antonio even supposedly asked his Abuela to help Julio find me, going so far as to make him laugh when he was getting scared of the big crowd. This small fact made my heart skip a beat slightly. But I always knew if something were to happen the Madrigals would return Julio or any of our tiny family members to us safe so I decided not to think on it too much.
I let out a sigh and dropped my shoulders. "Alright, get your shoes on." I stood up and started to grab my bag and put a few of my things in it. "I'll take you. But don't you mention this to anyone. If someone asks where we were today, I took you with me to run errands. No mention of Antonio or whoever may be bringing him to anyone. Understood?"
Julio excitedly nodded and ran out my room. "If there's such a thing as good karma," I thought as I stuffed the book I was currently reading into my bag "I better start getting it by the wheelbarrow."
After I met Julio at the bottom of the stairs, we made our way to where him and Antonio planned to meet up. I kept my head down and tried to avoid eye contact with anyone to lessen the chances of them tattling on me and my brother. I was also silently praying that Bruno was not the person bringing Antonio to this playdate. He was the last person I wanted to see and knew it would set all the progress I've made up to this point way back.
"Julio!" I heard a high-pitched voice pierce through my brain, reigniting my headache. I looked up and saw Antonio racing toward my brother and I. Not only was Antonio's cousin, Mirabel, following behind him, but there was also a jaguar, a toucan, capybara, and multiple other animals.
"I think our entrance was better." I laughed with my cousin before sending him racing to meet his friend. His immediate attention was captured by the jaguar as his eyes lit up at all the animals around him.
"Hi, Rosa!" Mirabel said, smiling as she left her cousin to walk over to greet me. "Haven't seen you in years. You probably don't even remember me it's been so long, growing up and all."
"Mirabel." I said simply, giving her a small smile back. I pulled my book out of my bag and sat on the ground, making sure I could still see where the boys were while I read. Mirabel sat beside me and started twiddling her thumbs while I read.
"So…you like books now?" she asked, craning her neck slightly to look.
"They occupy time." I responded.
"They do…that they do. What's that one about?" she asked.
"Poetry.". While I didn't harbor any negative feelings toward Mirabel, I was still slightly uncomfortable talking to her for two reasons. The first reason being I wasn't sure if she was like my sister and liked to gossip after everyone is gone, especially given they were once best friends 10 years ago when Mirabel was 5 and Gloria was 6. One little slip up and she now knows something she shouldn't. She tells it to her whole family and then the whole town suddenly knows about how my tía Estrella said the wrong name at her own wedding. Or worse, she tells something to Bruno and then he's back in my garden while I'm faking smiles for a week. The second reason being I truly have no idea what to talk about to someone who I know absolutely nothing about. The only thing I do know about her is that she was not given a gift, but something told me she's had enough of that being brought up.
There was a silence for a short time while both of us watched the boys play with each other and Antonio's animals.
"You have such a great son, Rosa." Mirabel smiled at me, trying to fill the silence that I was enjoying. This made me look up from my book slightly. "Julio definitely has your…ears."
"Julio's my brother." I closed my book and looked over at her. Mirabel's eyes quickly widened as she realized her mistake.
"Oh…that's my mistake. I haven't seen you in years and Gloria-well I should have…" Mirabel started stammering out excuses and I stifled a small laugh. In a strange way, it reminded me of how Bruno used to talk when I called him out on a lie.
"Mirabel, how old do you think I am?" I asked, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow. This caused her to stop talking and start looking around her, giving me another reason to stifle a laugh.
"Well…" Mirabel gave me a nervous smile and throwing her hands around as she spoke. "You know when you don't see someone for years, birthdays get mixed up and you're…you did babysit Gloria and I so you…are old enough to their sister!"
This was enough for me to have an actual laugh. Not a fake or taunting one, but a genuine laugh. This made Mirabel smile back at me, seemingly proud of her answer. "That's a great answer, Mirabel." I said, shaking my head.
"Thanks." Mirabel looked back over at the book that was in my hands. "Could you tell me about some of the poetry in your book?"
This got both of us talking for a while. I talked to Mirabel about some of the poems in my books and she told me about her embroidery and some of the patterns she's made. She even showed me the newest embroidery on her skirt, which was a green rat in honor of her tío Bruno's return. I could tell she knew to not stay on that subject long and quickly moved onto talking about how she learned the craft.
After another hour of us talking, we gathered up the boys (and animals) and went out separate ways. After Julio said his goodbyes, I lifted him up onto my shoulders and carried him back to our house. I could tell he had a great day by how little he was talking and he was leaning very heavy on my neck, letting me know he was ready for a nap before dinner. I bounced him up and down slightly as we walked to make him stay away and save my neck from breaking, but I soon found it was best to just let the sleep happen. I could hear him mumble a few words as he too was trying to fight sleep, but after we reached the house and he was in his bed, sleep had won the battle.
