There were many times where Bruno could not be found and many times where he wandered off somewhere to be by himself. He had a penchant for long walks when he couldn't sleep. There had been many times where she'd found him wandering Casita in the middle of the night. It must have been on the nights he wasn't comfortable outside of the house. For as long as she could remember he'd always had a bit of trouble sleeping, it seems, and he'd walk around at night instead. He'd gotten in trouble a few times for having left Casita in the middle of the night for a walk when he was much younger. She'd scared him half to death on many occasions.
So, Alma had only rolled her eyes as she watched him make his way out of Casita. She gave a sigh. She was certain that tonight was going to be the night that her hijo would get some sleep. He had been tired enough and definitely had no intention of staying awake. He'd even voiced his tiredness at one point. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep while he was out. It was something that had developed after his return to the family. They were always so afraid that he'd run off again but he was a grown man and had to right to his own independence. She chose to wait on the couch, reading a book, and wait for Bruno to return.
But, the minutes turned into hours and the hours turned into sunrise with no sign of Bruno having returned. She'd been watching the door the whole time and was certain that Casita would have let her know if Bruno came home. He was still out. She patiently waited. He was an adult. She told herself. He was more than capable of taking care of himself and he was fine.
Then Julieta woke up to start on breakfast. Alma's heart started to race but she reassured herself that her son was an adult no matter if she'd always see him as her niño tímido. The adults were always the first ones up and Alma grew more and more worried as she watched person after person walk out of their rooms to start the day and yet Bruno still hadn't returned. Maybe he had managed to sneak his way back in? Even she had to admit that he had the stealth of a panther on a new moon.
She still couldn't believe that he'd spent an entire decade in the house with the family none the wiser. It was quite the feat. There had never been any hint at all over the years that he was there and she had wracked her brain, time and time again, to try and remember any sign she might have ignored. She'd failed him. She'd failed all of her children. She would do better though and Brunito was going to be the hardest challenge. It broke her heart to see all of his compulsions, and anxiety and know that she had done that to him.
She, all of them, were trying harder with him. Felix seemed to be having the easiest time and she couldn't lie about the fact that she was a little angry at the man for that. She knew that she was the one with the most work to do. Their family had been breaking because of her and the expectations she had placed upon all of them. Bruno, her dear Brunito, had no idea how wise he was. When it came to advice Bruno was the man to go to. He understood things that others didn't just as he didn't understand things that others did. He lived in his own little world in a way. He didn't see and experience the world the way that others did and it's what made him hard to understand. Of course, the lack of understanding on their part had been a huge factor in why he had left and all this time she didn't notice how wise he'd become.
Her Brunito had grown up. He'd just grown up so different from his sisters and she had been blind to it. She often wondered what it was like in that head of his. She wondered about how he perceived the world around him. She wondered what it was that he could see that no one else could. She thought of his gift and the many prophecies he'd given, the many things that he had seen. She sighed. He still wasn't back and her brows creased in worry.
She stood and made her way into the kitchen where Julieta, Felix, Agustin, and Pepa were gathered. They were talking away, albeit quietly so as not to disturb the kids. Alma walked in, hoping to see Bruno, and cleared her throat. Immediately the conversation died and all eyes turned to her.
"Has anyone seen Bruno?" She asked Felix sagged.
"Is he hiding again?"
"He left last night. I haven't seen him come back." She said, trying not to display exactly how worried she was.
"He goes on walks all the time." Felix sighed.
"But he's always back before sunrise." Pepa added.
"He's probably in here somewhere." Agustin assured everyone.
"Maybe he just fell asleep on one of the banners again." Julieta gave a huff of laughter.
"Or that tree." Pepa put a hand to her mouth.
"Or the cabinets." Julieta said before turning to open them all before turning back around. "Nope."
"Let's just go look for him." Agustin laughed.
It quickly turned into a no laugh scenario. No matter where they looked no one could find him. It seemed like they had searched for him everywhere. Felix came down out of Bruno's tower, brushing sand off of his shoulders and hair before shaking his head. They checked everywhere in Casita. They went outside and around their yard and still, no Bruno. They moved back into the house, standing in the front room, exposed to the ever rising sun.
"There has to be someplace we haven't checked." Pepa said, eyes wide, snow falling onto her shoulders.
The group started at a loud knock on their door and Alma sprinted forward, not expecting the sight she received when she opened the door. A friend of Alma's was standing at her door holding onto the arm of a very dazed looking Bruno. His eyes flickered between green and his normal brown while his fingers twitched and almost spasmed.
"Just found him wandering out by the treeline. It's no problem my nieto sleepwalks too." She grinned and walked off with a cheerful wave.
He blinked as his eyes continued to flash. Alma hadn't seen him like this before. She grabbed him by the arm and he looked at her like he didn't recognize her or anything around him. She pulled him into the house and he paid everyone no mind, head twitching every now and then as his eyes continued to flicker. She spoke to him softly but he didn't seem to understand. He just turned his head this way and that as if he was looking for something.
"Hermanito?" Pepa ran forward and the winds picked up at seeing his flickering empty gaze. "Bruno?"
He didn't answer, he didn't even acknowledge them. In fact he just sat down cross legged on the floor, continuing to look around like he was searching for something, something that wasn't them.
"If this some kind of vision?" Julieta ran out of the room at her husbands words as the man kneeled in front of his brother in law and snapped his fingers in the man's face.
"I've never seen anything like this before." Alma said but then she thought back. "No, no I think I have. I've seen him walking around at night, we all have. He's been doing it since he was a child."
"Maybe he's dreaming?" Felix questioned, crouching down and squinting at Bruno's flickering irises. "Aren't you not supposed to wake up sleepwalkers?"
"I'm not sure if this is sleepwalking." Julieta said, coming back into the room with one of the empanadas she'd made for breakfast.
She broke off a small piece and managed to, though his dazed state, get him to eat it and nothing changed.
"Okay that's it!" Pepa said before stepping forward, grabbing her brother by the shoulders and shaking him. "Wake up!"
He hadn't even acknowledged the fact that she'd been shaking him.
"Is something wrong?" Mirabel's sleepy voice sounded out behind them and the group scrambled, trying to think of a way to keep her from seeing her tío like this.
"Mirabel, why don't you go set the table." Julieta was quick to stand but not fast enough.
"Tío Bruno?" She called his name and took a few steps forward.
"Mirabel." Julieta called as she moved closer, standing a few feet again despite her family all talking and telling her to just go set the table and let them worry about this. There was a great deal of noise that Mirabel could hardly hear her own voice.
"Bruno?" She said quietly and his head suddenly snapped up, irises a solid emerald as he stared up at her intensely.
"Do you want to know why you weren't given a gift?" His voice, and question, cut through everything like a knife.
It was his voice but it was as if he was both speaking and whispering at the same time.
"W-what?" She said kneeling in front of him noticing that he still seemed out of it.
"Do you want to know why you weren't given a gift?" He said, like a record on repeat.
She nodded.
"It was the miracle. It needed someone. Someone free of its' magic, someone….pure. Untainted by the learnings and burdens of a gift. You like to fix things. You like to make things right. That's why it chose you. The miracle must stand for someone and, one day, it will stand for you." He said without a single change in his rather blank expression, like he felt nothing at all.
Then he blinked hard and when they opened they were his average brown and he looked around in confusion.
"W-What happened?" He stuttered.
Everyone was...crying.
"Ah….w-what did I-I d-do?"
Everyone lunged forward and wrapped their arms around him.
"Wh-what's going on? I-I went to bed and-and now…"
"You pretty much spent the entire night wandering around in a daze, then you got led home, and after that you pretty much said that Mirabel is the heir to the throne." Felix was the first one to rediscover his voice.
"What?"
"Why don't you go to bed." Alma said, grabbing an arm to guide him up off the floor.
"N-no wait." He spun around to look at Felix. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"Look, I don't know what it was. Neither of us and apparently you don't either." Felix said, grabbing him by the arm and tugging him toward the stairs. "You've been out all night, voluntarily or not. You need some real rest."
Felix tugged a stuttering and pitifully confused Bruno all the way to his room while the rest of the family tried to collect themselves before the kids woke up.
"I-I guess he was looking for you." Alma said, brows creased.
"That was not sleepwalking." Agustin choked, trying to stop the tears.
Oh yes. Alma thought to herself. Bruno was going to be a hard job indeed. She'd focused so hard on his gift and yet still managed to miss everything else. What kind of a vision was that? It had to be a vision. She really began to understand that she didn't know her son at all and, now, she wondered if she ever did. There was almost nothing but questions surrounding her Brunito but by all the stars above, she would find the answers to those questions.
After all, he'd just answered the one question that had plagued his mamá the most. He deserved the same thing in return.
She'd work harder. For him. For her children and grandchildren.
She'd work harder for Pedro and turn this family into something that he would have wanted and she knew that she could never do that without Mirabel and Bruno, the ones who's been cast aside were the most vital people in the fixing of their family.
For Pedro.