Get ready for a new character. I have a feeling you're going to love him ;)


Mirabel could not have made it without her family. The next morning, Julieta and Pepa had a talk with the whole family and while everyone was so saddened that she was struggling so much, they were more than happy to help out anyway they could.

Besides when she'd go to the bathroom or take a shower, there was never a time that Mirabel was alone. The family took 2 hours shifts at night to avoid any one person losing too much sleep. Mirabel didn't really know how they planned it out, but it worked. She'd start the night with someone, two hours later someone else would come in, and two hours later someone else would come in, and that continued until morning. Whoever it was didn't have to stay awake the whole time, but they were awake if Mirabel was and would stay awake with Rosa if she didn't want to sleep. The chair that was pulled into her room was a very comfortable chair and could be slept in, but sometimes, depending on who it was, they just slept in the bed with Mirabel.

During the day was different. Everyone had chores and things to do in town to help out the people of the Encanto, but someone always cleared their schedule to stay with Mirabel. Some days, she had the same person with her all day, while other days, they switched out. Like at night, Mirabel didn't know how they planned it out, but it worked. Every family member, even Dolores and Isabela's husbands, were willing to stay with her and they did. She felt comfortable to have them stay with her. The only ones who didn't stay with her was Antonio and the younger kids. They did spend time at the house, but never alone with Mirabel.

Mirabel had gotten in the habit over the last month to hide her feelings and to not cry in front of anyone. It was a tough habit to break. There were times where she clearly looked like she was ready to break down, but wouldn't let herself. She had gotten so good at hiding it that not everyone could tell if she was hiding it, but her mom, sisters, Dolores, and Pepa could always tell. If one of them were with her, they would tell her to not hold in her feelings and she'd start crying. It was embarrassing and awkward for her at first to be crying in front of everyone, but it soon turned to be comforting. She would apologize for crying so much, but everyone understood. Sometimes, a good cry helped. She also still would panic as nighttime approached, out of habit, but then she'd feel better as someone would go upstairs and stay with her. Just having someone there helped her feel better. Sometimes, she wanted to talk about how she was feeling while other times she enjoyed small talk.

She was finally sleeping better. It took a couple of weeks, but she was finally able to turn her brain off after the nightly feedings, whether Rosa was asleep or not. It also helped that Rosa was giving her longer sleeping stretches at night. With someone always in the room with her, they told her to sleep even if Rosa was wide awake. Mirabel was also eating better. She didn't have any more intrusive thoughts that involved hurting her baby, which she was so thankful for.

This was not an overnight process. She still felt sad most days and that she could barely keep her head above water. It was a very slow process. It wasn't like she woke up one day and suddenly felt better. But the sadness was getting less and less. She finally got to where she didn't panic as nighttime approached. Everyone could slowly see her improve. One thing that really helped as well was getting out of the house a little bit each day. She'd take a walk with Rosa and whoever was with her and soak in the sunshine.

When Rosa was 3 months old, Mirabel thought it might be time to try staying by herself with her again. She wanted to start off small, though. She couldn't handle being by herself at night still, but she wanted to try during the day for an hour. Everyone supported her and said if she thought she was ready, she could do it.

That was a very hard hour and she spent a majority of it worried out of her mind, but she would take deep breaths to calm herself. Rosa's personality was starting to come out. She was the happiest baby Mirabel had ever met. She smiled all the time and was starting to laugh as well. Rosa lit up with every family member, but she got especially excited with Mirabel. She knew who her mama was. Despite her severe anxiety, Mirabel was going to make the best of that hour and she spent it playing with her baby. She bounced Rosa in her lap, who thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world, and she put her on her stomach for tummy time while Mirabel got on her tummy as well laying across from her. Before she knew it, the hour was up and her mom was walking through the door.

Mirabel was sitting on the couch, feeding Rosa, when her mom walked in. "It looks like things went well." said Julieta as she sat down next to her.

"Mhmm," said Mirabel and she looked down at Rosa, who was starting to fall asleep. She ran her hand over her head and then grabbed her hand. "It helps with a happy baby."

Mirabel felt good about it, but still wanted to take it slow. For a week, she tried an hour a day by herself and it kept going well. Then for the next week, she tried two hours at a time and it kept going well. For the next week, she wanted to try also being alone at night. It surprisingly went very well. Rosa would sleep from 10 to 9 every night, only waking once or twice to eat. The extra sleep was helping Mirabel a lot. She wanted someone to stay with her until she fell asleep and then she was fine if they left. When she woke up with Rosa in the night, she had some anxiety, but she took deep breathes to stay calm. If she got too overwhelmed, she'd go get someone to stay with her. It was rare that Rosa wanted to stay up at night, so most of the time, she'd go right back to sleep.

The family was having dinner one evening. The conversation was small talk about how everyone's day had gone. At this point, Mirabel was able to stay alone during the day for half the day and she hadn't gone to get anyone to stay with her at night in a week. Mirabel even felt good enough to start helping out with some of the duties around Encanto. She could honestly say she felt okay. She was still sad sometimes, but not near as often. It was manageable. Rosa was 4 months old and such a perfect little thing. Everyone just adored her. "Mirabel, I wanted to ask you about something."

Mirabel looked up from Rosa in her lap and to her mom. "Okay."

Julieta took a deep breath. "I wanted to ask…if you wanted to do anything for your birthday. It's in 2 days."

Mirabel's heart started pounding hard. She suddenly got sad and very anxious. Birthdays were hard for her, but her own birthday was something she didn't even want to think about. She honestly didn't realize it was already almost her birthday. She had been so focused on getting better that it snuck up on her. "I, uh…I don't…I don't know."

"If you want to do nothing, we can do nothing. It can be a normal day. Or we can do something. It's whatever you want."

"If we did anything, I just want it to be family. And no gifts. Okay, let's move on from this conversation."

Julieta nodded and everyone moved on.

Mirabel thought a lot about it, but finally decided she still just wanted family there and she told her mom yes to a cake and candles, but she didn't want anyone to sing to her. They all agreed and said they would do whatever she needed. Mirabel still thought about Javi. Not as frequently as she used to, but he still crossed her mind from time to time. It was impossible to completely erase him from her mind when she had her daughter, who resembled her dad. Despite looking like Javi, Mirabel didn't think of Javi every time she looked at her daughter. She just thought of her daughter. She dreaded the day she'd have to tell her why her dad wasn't in her life. She was just thankful that Rosa was so little and it would be years before she had to tell her. She still hated how things ended with him, but she was so thankful to have her beautiful, amazing daughter with her.

Mirabel survived her party, which wasn't really even a party. She had a cake and candles that was brought out after dinner. Instead of dwelling on the past and why her last birthday party was so horrible, she looked at her baby and reminded herself how lucky she was to have such a wonderful daughter. As horrible as Javi was, at least he gave her Rosa.

That night, as she was rocking Rosa to sleep, she looked up at her mom. She was feeling very anxious with it being her birthday and she asked her mom to sit with her until she got Rosa to sleep. Her mom was more than happy to do it. "Thank you for today, Mama. I appreciate it so much."

"Of course." Julieta touched Mirabel's shoulder. "I'm so proud of you, Mira. This has been a very hard year for you, but you've survived it. You are so strong and you can handle anything that comes your way."

"I couldn't have done it without my family."

"We all love you and Rosa so much." She looked down at her granddaughter asleep in her daughter's arms. She leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Mirabel smiled at her mom and then she laid Rosa down in her bassinet. She turned and gave her mom a huge hug.

"I love you, too, Mom."

She was happy to put 21 behind her. She was excited to see what 22 had in store.


6 months later

"Can this line move any faster?"

Max rolled his eyes. "I do not control the speed at which this line moves. Also, I should be the one to complain. I'm being forced to carry you on my back." His 13-year-old brother Diego had a very clear broken ankle and they were in line to get healed by Julieta. They didn't know Julieta or really understood how it worked, but they knew she could heal people with a bite of her food.

Once they finally got to the front of the line, Julieta smiled at them. "Hello, boys."

"Hello, ma'am." said Max. "My brother broke his ankle and…I hear you have the power to heal?"

"I sure do." She grabbed a piece of food and handed it to Diego. He ate it right up and immediately his foot was healed up. He jumped off of Max's back and stood up.

"Thank you so much." he said.

"That's what I'm here for you."

Just then, Antonio ran up and asked Julieta if he could help her in anyway. She told him she had it handled and he should go and play. He turned to Diego and said, "Hi. I'm Antonio. What's your name?"

"Diego,"

"Hi Diego. Do you want to go play?"

Diego looked at Max. "Can I go play with him?"

"Uhh…" Max looked around a little nervous, not having any clue as to who this boy was, but thought he must have been related to Julieta somehow. "Sure, as long as it's okay with you?" He was looking at Julieta.

"Fine by me,"

"Okay, yes, but be home soon." said Max.

"Okay!" The boys ran off.

"He seems sweet." said Julieta with a smile.

"He is, but he's also a mess."

"Aren't they all?"

"Is Antonio your son?"

Julieta shook her head. "No, he's my nephew."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm Maximo, by the way. I don't go by that name, so everyone usually just calls me Max. My brother, Diego, and I just moved here a few weeks ago." There was no one else in line behind him, so he figured it was okay to stay and introduce himself.

"Hi Max. I'm Julieta. It's nice to meet you." They shook hands. "What brought you here?"

Max suddenly got sad. He nervously ran his hand through his blond hair. "My, uh…my parents passed away last month, but my grandparents live here. I'm 24, so we didn't have to move away, but we had no other family around. My grandparents are always talking about this place and I thought it would be good for a fresh start."

"Well, welcome. It's a great place to live." She smiled at Max sympathetically. "I'm sorry about your parents. My dad died on the day my brother, sister, and I were born. We're triplets."

"Yeah, my grandparents gave me a rundown on the Madrigal family and how the Encanto came to be when we first got here. I'm so sorry. That had to be hard on all of you and especially your mom."

Julieta nodded and sighed shakily. "It was tough, but we've made it through." She cleared her throat. "Well, anyway, I need to get going. I'm almost out of food and I need to be ready for another line."

"Really? There's no one here."

"You'd be surprised by how quickly a line can form." She gathered up all of her things and then turned to Max. "Welcome to the Encanto. I'm here all the time and always willing to help, but please, tell your brother to be careful."

Max laughed. "I will. Thank you, ma'am."

She nodded and walked off.

Max walked off as well and managed to find Diego and Antonio playing. He smiled at the sight. He heard that the Madrigals were a large family. He had only met 2 of the family members so far and they seemed very nice, so he hoped to get to know the rest of the family sometime soon.