Dolores opened the front door. Mariano was standing on the other side. "Hey," he said. "I know you had to reschedule our dinner. Everyone in town is concerned since the entire family has been kept up in here today. I wanted to ask if you needed anything."
"Hey, baby," Dolores said. "Sorry about canceling last minute. We're having a family emergency. We'll try to get back to helping the community soon. At the moment, there's nothing you can do."
"Family emergency?" Mariano asked.
"Yeah," Dolores answered. "Mami had an accident with her powers."
"Is she okay?" Mariano asked in a concerned voice.
"I don't know," Dolores answered. She thought about it for a moment. In a few weeks, she and Mariano would marry. He's already basically family. It would probably be fine to let him in. "I'll show you."
She led Mariano to Camilo's room. The room was dark. There was only one light on in the entire room. It was coming from the lamp on Camilo's nightstand. Camilo was lying in the bed. Half of his face was covered in bandages.
He was still passed out. He had been for most of the day. "Was this related to Senora Madrigal's accident?" Mariano asked.
Dolores nodded sadly. "Mami has been on edge all week," she sighed. "Yesterday, she went to her room to calm down. Papi wasn't even allowed in the room. Eventually, Camilo was sent to give her lunch. Julieta hoped maybe her food would help with whatever was going on. Papi was in town at the time or he would have been sent. We don't know the details of what happened next. We just heard him scream."
"Tia Julieta tried to heal the burns," Dolores said. "However, it wasn't able to heal well. She could only stop it enough to not kill him. He'll have the burn marks forever."
Isabela entered the darkroom. "I was up all night reading some of mami's books," Isabela explained. "I found some plant-based recipes for creams. These should help stop the burns from getting infected."
Julieta had entered the room. She slowly and gently removed the bandages from Camilo's face. The burns covered up the majority of the left side of his face. The area around his eye was the worst since he was struck there twice.
"We haven't let Antonio back here yet," Dolores explained. "We don't know how he'll react since he's so young. We'll let him back her eventually. Once Camilo's up and moving more. The rats told him what happened. I think. I can only assume since I heard them talking last night."
"How is Senora Madrigal doing?" Mariano asked. He knew Pepa would never hurt one of her kids on purpose. He knew she was tearing herself apart about this.
"No one knows," Dolores explained. "She ran off shortly after. She's even out of earshot."
