"You're not eating, Brunito." Tía Julieta said. Dolores exchanged a glance with her cousin Isabel while their Tío tried not to hunch over in his seat. "You must be hungry, you also missed breakfast."
"And dinner last night." Dolores's mamá added.
Tío Bruno continued to pick at his arepa.
"Sorry, Juli."
There were different levels of softness in her uncle's voice, Dolores had noticed. Judging by today's, he was only going to finish about half of the food on his plate.
"You need to eat. You're too skinny as it is."
Maybe less, if they kept pestering him.
"He ate something last night, after everyone else was asleep. I heard him in the kitchen." Dolores was only trying to help, but the sudden panic in her tío's eyes immediately made her reconsider.
Abuela eyed her only son. "Have you been sneaking down to the kitchen again, mijo?" She asked-no, demanded, Dolores recognized that tone-and Tío Bruno's heart sputtered in his chest as he stared back at her with wide eyes.
Luisa cleared her throat. "Uh, sorry, that was me."
Every head turned. Lusia stared down at her plate, not from embarrassment, but in an attempt to avoid being caught in such a bold-faced lie. No one could look Abuela in the eye and lie to her, and Luisa in particular had never been good at lying to anyone else either.
Fortunately, Tía Julieta was still trying to figure out exactly how much food her strongest daughter needed to keep her going, and was immediately distracted. Dolores wondered if her prima felt guilty for taking advantage of her mother's concern as the woman started fretting and immediately piling more food on her middle child's plate.
"Did you not get enough food at dinner last night, mija?" She asked, but Luisa shrugged.
"It sneaks up on me sometimes," the girl managed, but both sister and cousin knew she was at her limit. Luisa, like her uncle, was a terrible liar.
It was not entirely a lie; Luisa had, in fact, occasionally sneaked down to the kitchen in the middle of the night after waking up hungry. Last night simply had not been one of those nights.
Dolores had no idea why anyone would think she could possibly confuse her cousin's footsteps for her tío's, but did not point out how ridiculous the very idea was.
She exchanged another glance with Isabel before looking over at her second oldest cousin.
Luisa stared down at her food in silence as she ate. With any luck the adults would think she was just focused and not trying to hide the fact that she was lying (sort of?). Dolores turned to look at her tío.
Tío Bruno, who knew full well that he had been the one in the kitchen last night and not his niece, and who was generally honest to a fault, also stared at his mostly still uneaten food and did not refute anything that had just been said.
It worried Dolores, and both her cousins.
She picked at her own plate, wondering how their parents could be so oblivious to something that even Luisa, who sometimes had trouble picking up on things unless they were explicitly spelled out for her, had noticed.
She knew they thought they were helping. Knew they were worried. It was true, her uncle was too skinny, and missed a lot of meals, and sometimes when he was there still only picked at his food. But it was obvious to her, and her older primas, that scolding him about it only made it worse.
Tío Bruno sighed and stood from the table even though most people at the table were only about halfway through dinner.
"Sorry," he said, taking his plate to the sink. He bolted from the room before anyone could call him back.
Disclaimer: Encanto does not belong to me.
