I Just Don't Know How to—
Bruno, Julieta, and Pepa visited their friend Aya less when the children came along. According to their mother's peers, this was normal for parents. Bruno was not the children's father, but he loved them as if he were. The downside of this was that the children became his excuse to stop getting out of the house altogether. Aya had started giving Bruno mushroom tea when he was about twenty-five, but only five years later, Bruno visited Aya less frequently, so he could be with his three young nieces as much as he could. Without the medicine or his woman's touch, his afflictions kept him in bed like an invisible monster. Julieta assured her brother that his nieces had their parents taking care of them and that he needed to take care of himself, too. It was very good advice, but he very seldom followed it. Bruno tried to visit Aya at least once a month. Aya never attended the gift ceremonies, but the triplets always visited her afterwards to keep her up to date.
Julieta loved watching Bruno come alive when he was looking after the children. Isabela, Dolores, and Luisa loved him, too, and they would be sad when Bruno would be too sick to come out of his room. And then, Camilo and Mirabel were born. Bruno was charmed by them both. Camilo and Mirabel had a lot in common with their uncle. Camilo had a knack for performance while Mirabel was more of an illustrator though they both loved singing like the rest of the family. Bruno sang more when he was with Camilo and Mirabel. He also laughed and joked more. He let them play with his rats. He guided their little hands to teach them how to pet the tiny creatures.
As Bruno had predicted, the Madrigal family's third generation received marvelous gifts of their own. To the triplets' dismay, their mother was only gentler with her grandchildren, but she controlled them all the same. Bruno's melancholy returned at full force when he saw their mother treating Isabela, Dolores, and Luisa almost the same way she had treated him and his sisters.
Julieta's and Pepa's children learned about la bruja del Encanto from their friends. Isabela and Dolores heard the villagers whispering about their beloved uncle, too, and more often than not, Señora Aya's name would come up as well. They never got Bruno to confirm their suspicions that he was romantically involved with the witch, but his denial was about as good as a confession. When they were seven years old, Dolores excitedly told Isabela that she had heard Tío Bruno whispering words of love to Señora Aya in between kisses. Pepa was relieved to have heard her daughter by chance. She made the girls promise to not tell anyone.
When the two girls were ten years old, they began to visit Aya themselves and learned about her craft. On one of these visits, Isabela felt driven to protect her uncle's lover, and she accidentally conjured a hedge of cadushi against unwanted visitors. It was the first time that she had made something other than flowers, and it felt good. Isabela went to Bruno to ask what it meant, and he predicted that her power would grow. Hopeful for an enduring romance of her own, Dolores also went to Bruno for a vision, but the man of her dreams would be betrothed to another.
Pepa tried to explain to little Dolores that the vision didn't necessarily mean that she would stay unmarried like her Tío Bruno. "You are a beautiful, kind, and wonderful girl, and I'd bet there would be many men who would love you as you deserve. You would get to choose the one that loves you the most," Pepa assured her brokenhearted daughter. Dolores grew up striving to be the kindhearted soul that her mother said that she was.
To Julieta's relief, neither Luisa nor Mirabel asked Bruno for any visions. They were both too young to worry themselves about the future. It was enough to play with each other and their uncle and his rats. They laughed as Bruno told them stories about the relationships between his dozens of rats. Julieta and Agustín liked to sit in when they had time. They saw how much Bruno adored their daughters. There was no way they would have foreseen what would happen.
The unthinkable happened: Mirabel's door disappeared, and she was without a gift or a room of her own. After the guests were sent home, Abuela asked Bruno for a vision, but he refused to show it to anyone. This led to the loudest screaming match that there was in years. Julieta was glad that Isabela and Dolores had the presence of mind to herd the younger children into Dolores' soundproof room, where they could all comfort each other. Now Julieta felt the need to mediate between her mother and her brother, but there was little she could do with Bruno and Mamá gesticulating like dueling jaguars. Julieta and Pepa and their husbands could only watch as the chaos ensued.
"I don't see how my vision is supposed to change how we're going to treat Mirabel, Mamá! She's still the same girl that we love! She's still Julieta's baby! We will love her just the same! That is all!"
"How dare you insinuate that I don't love Mirabel!"
"I am not insinuating! I am telling you! Isabela can make plants other than flowers, but you don't like it when she makes something beautiful on her own, like succulents! Luisa gets tired, but she's too afraid to tell you because she's seen how you treat her sister! Now Mirabel is no use to you!"
"Use?!"
Julieta wept in Agustín's arms. Her childhood memories were coming back.
"These stupid gifts have always been more important to you than us! Julieta once asked for a day off, and you slapped her! Pepa was fresh out of a breakup, and you forced her to be happy because the community needed sun! I've seen more death and violence than the average soldier, and I get physically sick from it all! If I didn't love you and my sisters, I would have jumped from the top of those stairs years ago!"
Agustín gasped and tightened his hold of Julieta.
"We are talking about Mirabel right now!" Mamá tried to steer the conversation.
"Again, we will not treat her differently! You will not treat her differently! And you will never see that vision! None of you will! I will even leave if that means you will never force me to show it!"
"If you leave this house, you are dead to me!"
"I wish I was dead!"
The room went silent. Julieta's breath halted as Mamá froze in shock and Bruno marched out of the room. Pepa ran after him. "Bruno!" she screeched. "Bruno, stop! Don't go!"
Bruno escaped into his room and slammed his door shut. Pepa screamed his name and pounded the door. Bruno didn't respond. Julieta pleaded with Bruno to let them in. He still didn't respond. Julieta imagined Bruno climbing the stairs high enough that he could no longer hear them.
"We'll talk to him tomorrow, Pepa," said Julieta even as terror enveloped them both like vines. "Our children need us right now."
The following day, Bruno's door went dark. Julieta and Pepa ran to Aya, hoping their brother would be there. "The last time he visited was three days ago," Aya squeaked, alarmed at the looks of fright on the sisters' faces. "Wait, wasn't last night Mirabel's ceremony? What happened?"
Julieta and Pepa told Aya about the door and the fight. Aya's amber eyes widened with mounting horror just as theirs did during the argument. As soon as the story was over, Aya leapt from her seat and ran to Casita. Her black skirt billowing in the breeze, Aya was heedless of the stares of people as she ran through the market and along the main street, followed by the Madrigal sisters.
This was the first time she would ever set foot in the Madrigal home. Aya hesitated at the front door. "No one's home. The kids are at school, and Mamá and our husbands are at work," Julieta explained, leading their friend into the house. The children hadn't seen the door yet. They would be heartbroken when they learn later today that their Tío Bruno was missing. If only Bruno would show himself now. Julieta and Pepa hoped that Aya's voice would bring him to them.
Pepa led Aya upstairs to Bruno's room. The door was still dark. Julieta pushed it open. She and Pepa had used a spatula to force it open, during the night when all the children were asleep. Aya gasped when, instead of a normal bedroom, she found herself at the sandy bottom of a chasm. Seemingly endless stairs wrapped around the cliffs.
Julieta put her hand on Aya's right shoulder. "Bruno's room didn't always look like this. When we first received our gifts, his room used to open right into his vision cave. Now the vision cave and his bedroom area are at the top of the stairs," she explained.
Pepa held Aya's left hand. "Félix and I already climbed to the top last night. There should be a bridge between the cliff and the vision cave. But the bridge is gone."
"And Bruno?" whimpered Aya.
"We're hoping he's on the other side and hiding, but..."
Aya began to hyperventilate. Julieta and Pepa kept her steady but otherwise let her express herself. Aya screamed for Bruno. They held their breath, hoping to hear a response. Nothing.
Aya collapsed to the sandy floor. "I'm sorry I couldn't heal you," she whispered. Her grief burst in a haunting old song:
Va a buscate otro amor
Aharva otras puertas
Aspera otro ardor
Que para mi sos muerta
Adio, adio querida
No quero la vida
Me l'amargastes tu