Pepa stared in disbelief after Antonio, this wasn't true, it wasn't true, she refused to believe it, she was not the one who attacked Mirabel, she couldn't be.
"Look, Pepi, I'm sure my rats just made a mistake," Bruno insisted, "They can be drama queens you know?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Pepa agreed, "But it might be a little hard convincing Antonio about that."
"Hey Bruno, Pepa," Agustin suddenly called out, entering the sitting room with a shirt in his hand, "I found the outfit Mirabel was wearing the night of the gift ceremony, do either of you know what could have caused the burn mark."
There was a crash of thunder and Pepa pushed her way past Agustin with a shout, "No, no, no, this isn't happening."
Agustin looked at his brother in law in confusion, "What?"
"My rats just told Antonio that Pepa was the one who attacked Mirabel," Bruno explained, gesturing towards the shirt, "That could be a lightning strike."
…
After Mirabel had left for her doctor's appointment, Isabela had turned to Luisa and Dolores and had informed them that while writing everything down was better than nothing, it wasn't the best solution to Mirabel not being to hear them. Dolores had agreed with them and had gone to the library, where they had found a book about sign language.
They had been pouring over how to move their fingers to form the alphabet when Dolores suddenly let out a squeak.
"Are you okay Lolo?" Isabela asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just," Dolores let out another squeak, "I know who attacked Mirabel," she confessed, "And it's bad, it's really, really bad."
Isabela gave her prima a dirty look, "Don't just sit there, spill already, who do I go teach a lesson to?"
"It's not that simple," Dolores insisted, "I mean, maybe I'm wrong, I mean, I'm just taking what the doctor said and cross referencing what an eyewitness has told Abuela, but…"
Isabela pressed both her hands down on the table, leaning across it, "Who hurt mi hermanita, Prima, I want a name, now," she growled, cacti popping up around her.
Dolores's eyes grew wide as she shook her head quickly, she couldn't say it, she just couldn't, "It was Mama," she finally blurted out.
"Ma… Tia Pepa!" Luisa shouted, causing the librarian to sush them and Dolores to cover her ears, "Tia Pepa," she whispered.
Dolores nodded her head, "Someone on the council noticed Mama yelling at Mirabel, they mentioned that she thundered really loudly, loud enough that they could hear it over the noise of the party."
"Thunder's loud, and your Mama admitted to be upset at Mirabel," Isabela pointed out, "There's no proof…"
"Mirabel's injuries are caused by being in close proximity to an extremely loud noise," Dolores explained, "Like thunder."
"Tia did mention that she yelled at Mirabel at the party," Luisa said softly, rubbing her arm nervously, "That must have been when she…"
"It had to be, that was the last time Mirabel any of us saw her before the accident."
Dolores nodded her head, her lips pressing together thinly as she tilted her head to the side, before swearing, "We have to go," she insisted, jumping up, "Antonio was asking the animals if they knew anything about what happened to Mirabel," she announced, "Tio Bruno's rats saw it. They told him everything."
There was a loud crash of thunder overhead.
"I take it that Tonito just told your Mama," Isabela guessed.
"Yeah," Dolores said, "And Tio Agustin just showed up with Mirabel's blouse, which has a burn mark from where the lightning hit her, and Papa's on the other side of town with his friends right now.."
"You better go and fetch him," Luisa insisted, "Before this gets to bad."
…
Felix glanced up at the thunder and looked over at Casita, where a large black cloud was hanging overhead, was this Pepa being really upset, or just her gift going haywire again?
"Better safe then sorry," he muttered, glancing at his friends, "I have to go," he confessed, gesturing towards the storm cloud, "I'll see you later."
Dolores met him half way, her eyes wide in alarm, "Papi, it was Mami," she announced, "When she yelled at Mira, she…"
Felix grabbed Dolores, pulling her close, "Dolores, calm down, what are you saying?"
Dolores took a shaky breath, "Mirabel's ears where damaged by Mama's thunder. Tio Bruno's pet rats saw it happen, and they told Tonito."
"He told Mama didn't he?" Felix guessed.
"Yeah, quite bluntly told her that she hurt Mirabel and he hated her. He won't have anything to do with her now."
"Ouch," Felix grimaced.
…
Alma stepped out of the meeting with a sigh, only to glance up and notice a large dark cloud hovering over Casita. Great Pepa was upset about something and everybody was going to complain about the weather, she really couldn't handle complaints, she wanted everyone else to be happy after all.
"Mama!" Julieta called out quickly walking up to her, with Mirabel clinging tightly to her, eyes darting everywhere, and lingering a bit too long on the cloud over Casita.
"Yes?" Alma asked, smiling at them, had Mirabel always been this timid or was this just the attack? Why hadn't she paid more attention to her?"
"Dr. Ruiz said that the damage done to Mirabel's ears was caused by being in close proximity of a loud noise… like fireworks or thunder," Julieta insisted.
"According to some eye witnesses, they saw Mirabel with Pepa, and noticed that Pepa had a cloud. They also mentioned hearing thunder, but that could just be a coincidence."
"Tia, Abuela," a soft voice called out as Dolores appeared next to them, causing both of them to jump, having not realized she was there.
"Dolores, what's wrong?"
"Tio Bruno's rats," Dolores began.
"He still has those rats," Abuela asked, "Ay, that boy used to drive me crazy with those."
"Si," Dolores said, "Antonio wanted to help find who hurt Mirabel, so he asked his animal friends if they saw anything, and Tio's rats, they saw… How did Antonio word it? Umm… 'Cloud lady made fire come out of her cloud and hit Dancing Girl'."
"That doesn't make any sense," Alma insisted, "What does that even mean."
"Cloud Lady, which is what the animals call Mama, because of her cloud," Dolores explained, "So Mama made fire come out of her cloud, fire from a cloud, lightning, So Mama made lightning hit Dancing Girl, which from what I could understand from Antonio, is what they call Mirabel, probably because she loves to dance so much."
"Pepa hit Mirabel with lightning," Julieta repeated.
"Yeah, and he told Mama about it. She's locked herself up in her room and won't even let Papa in."
"How do we know that Antonio didn't misunderstood what the rats were saying, or maybe the rats didn't know what they were seeing," Alma insisted, "I doubt that your Mama would really strike Mirabel."
"Tio Agustin found her clothes," Dolores said, "There was a burn mark on the back of her blouse."
"If she was hit by lightning I'll be able to tell," Julieta insisted, "It leaves a very distinct scar. I'll look for it once we get home."
…
Mirabel immediately went to the nursery once she got home, nervous about the dark cloud that still hung in the air above Casita. If Tia Pepa was upset, she wanted to be as far away from it as possible.
Her mother followed her, closing the door behind her as she wrote something on her notebook handing it to Mirabel, "I need to check your back," it read.
Mirabel stared at the written note for a second before asking, "Why?"
"Your father found your outfit you were wearing at Antonio's Gift Ceremony and I want to see if I can't identify what caused the burn marks on your shirt," Julieta insisted, "Unless you want to tell me?"
Mirabel shook her head, "No," she insisted, "I'm not telling you, and you are not looking."
Julieta reached for the notebook again, "It was your Tia wasn't it? You're trying to protect her aren't you."
"It was an accident," Mirabel insisted, "It was an accident, just an accident."
"It might have been an accident but it caused irrepairable damage," Julieta said out loud, before catching herself and writing it down.
"I don't want Tia being hurt," Mirabel confessed, "She didn't mean to, she's never had full control over her gift, you know that."
Julieta nodded, "I do, but you have to understand, Tonito found out it was Tia, and told her. We were all worried sick about what happened to you. Your Tio Bruno got body slammed by Luisa because we thought that someone had attacked you."
Mirabel glanced at her, tapping her ear, "I couldn't understand what you just said," she confessed.
"Right," Julieta said, grabbing the notebook again, "I know that you were trying to protect your Tia's feeling, but you really should have told us the truth. We've all been stressing out the past few days worrying about you."
"What about Tia?" Mirabel asked.
"Leave Tia to me."
…
Alma sat at the head of the table, disturbed to notice that once more the family was no longer together. While Bruno was sat next to Julieta, who was carefully piling food up on his plate, Pepa was no where to be seen.
"Where's Mami?" Camilo asked, looking around in confusion.
Alma's heart dropped, Camilo had been with his friends all day, enjoying his day off, and hadn't learned the truth yet, something she was sure that the others all knew by now.
"She's locked up because she's a bad person," Antonio announced, still upset that his mother had hurt Mirabel.
"Locked up?" Camilo echoed, "What do you mean locked up?" he demanded.
"She hurt Mira!" Antonio growled, "She hurt her, she's a bad person, so she's locked up!"
Camilo glanced at his father, rapidly shapeshifting into his mother, Mirabel and Antonio, before returning to himself with a shake of his head, "Mami's the one who attacked Mirabel?" he asked in alarm, "But why would she want to get rid of the…" he trailed off, "Never mind I can see a motive."
"Mirabel insists that it was an accident, that Mama simply lost control of her gift," Dolores insisted.
"But she could still be trying to protect Tia," Isabela growled, "She shouldn't be protected."
"Two wrongs don't make a right," Agustin insisted, "You can't just attack your tia. Mirabel insists that it was an accident, and based on how Pepa has been acting the past few days, I'll have to believe her."
"If it was an accident why was she locked up?" Camilo demanded.
"She locked herself up," Felix explained, "She won't even let me into the room. She doesn't want to hurt anyone else. She's really upset at the fact that she's the one who hurt her."
"We need to get her out of the room," Alma insisted, "Now that we know what happened to Mirabel we can finally return back to normal."
"We still don't know what's causing the cracking," Dolores pointed out, "And what about Abuelo's warning? To save the Miracle, you must first save the family? Mirabel's safe now, but what about Mama? She's thinking about leaving, you know, Permanently, not into the walls like Tio Bruno did, she's terrified that she's going to hurt someone again. We still need to do more."