"I don't understand," Alma announced the moment that Mirabel passed out and Pedro returned to her side, "If Mirabel has a gift, why did her door fade away when she was five?"
Pedro didn't answer right away as Isabela picked up Mirabel with way too much ease, that wasn't good, he hadn't realized that she was underweight, that was going to hamper her recovery.
The Reverend stepped forward, "Well, that was something else," he admitted, no doubt unsure what to think about someone who had been dead for half a century showing up. He shook himself slightly then clapped his hands loudly, as if to drive away evil spirits by doing so, "Shall we get started? It's Esperanza Alma Felicia, right?" he asked, as he reached out to take the baby from Bruno.
Instead Bruno turned with Panzy on his shoulder, his free hand swing out and slapping the man as hard as he possibly could, "No!" he exclaimed, "Why in the world would I name my daughter after that monster? Her name is Esperanza Alba Felicia, Alba not Alma, Alba. Don't you dare go trying to name her Alma," he snarled.
Alma sniffed, "Honestly I don't know what his problem is," she insisted, "I did the best I could raising him and his sisters by myself, and this is the thanks I get, being called a monster. I thought I raised him better than that."
"That's funny, your parents said the same thing when talking about you the other day," Pedro announced, "Oh good, the reverend's figured out how to say her name," he added nodding to the scene that they were watching. The reverend was just finishing up the christening.
Bruno stepped forward and grabbed Panzy from the Reverend with a dirty look to signify that he really truly didn't trust him at all.
"So what now?" Pepa asked, "At our children's christenings Mama had every last minute planned out to the second. Afterwards everyone seems to play pass the baby to everyone but the parents until they started fussing."
"Well, that's not going to happen," Julieta insisted, "This is a private affair, and we're the only ones that are invited."
"Look," Isabela said, "Mirabel may be way too light for her age, but she's still getting heavy, can we please take her home and put her to bed?"
…
The Madrigal family returned to Casita to finish the party, Julieta had made a few party foods which were set up against one side of the room, and everyone was mingling and talking about what had happened at the church.
It was a happy festive mood even if the food wasn't as fancy as what Alma would have allowed for such an occasion, but they didn't have anyone there to impress. Which in and of itself was really sad, everybody loves a Christening, and a cute baby, even if the so-called father wasn't really a father at all.
"You do remember that I can hear your thoughts, right?" Pedro asked, giving Alma a look, "I thought seeing this would help you realize where you went wrong, but I obviously was mistaken. Maybe trying to change you isn't going to work."
"I don't need to change, honestly I don't know what your problem is."
"My problem is, you don't see what the problem is, that's the problem, do you notice how relaxed everyone is? Can't you see that every last one of those smiles are genuine smiles, not the fake ones that they always wore around you? Why can't you see how much happier they are since they left you?"
Alma opened her mouth to argue, but for once in her life, nothing came out.
…
The party, if you could call the family gathering that, was in full swing, despite the fact that it was officially getting late. Antonio was enjoying not only having a playmate within the family, but one that was younger then him. He and Sofia had found a box of toys that Agustin's father had left for his great grandchildren to play with when they visited.
Antonio had tried to play Sofia, he had wanted to be a good primo to her. Just like Mirabel had been to him. At first it had been fun. They were getting along great and it was fun having someone closer to his age to play with. They were both building with some blocks, still playing even though it was technically past their bedtimes. Antonio's tower was tall and impressive. Sofia was closely watching him, and was doing what he did. Antonio placed a triangle block on top of his tower. Sofia glanced around, there had only been one triangle shaped block. Huffing, she reached over and snatched the block from his tower.
"Hey," he snapped, "I'm using that," he yelled, grabbing it back.
"No, me," Sofia insisted, refusing to let go of the prize.
"I had it first!"
"No, me!"
"Mine!"
"Mine!"
Antonio gave the block a final tug, yanking it out of Sofia's hand and sending her stumbling back into her tower of blocks, knocking them over.
Sofia glared at her ruined tower, grabbed one of the blocks and threw it at Antonio, who dodged it, causing it to hit his tower of blocks knocking it down. Sofia let out an angry scream and picked up another block, pulled back and… she was lifted up into the air, "Sofia Mirabel Rivera-Madrigal, we do not throw blocks!" Luisa's strong voice cut through the air.
"We don't take toys from others either," Antonio's mother said sternly behind him.
"Yeah Sofia, we don't take toys from others," he echoed, "You were really naughty."
"I was actually talking to you, young man, I saw you take that block from Sofia," Pepa announced, a cloud rumbling over her head.
"But Mami, she took it from me," Antonio pointed out.
"Two wrongs don't make a right Tonito," Pepa insisted, "Sofia's only three, she doesn't know better, you're five, you should. What you should have done was tell her parents what was going on and asked them to help."
Sofia was still crying, sniffling loudly before her jaw split open in a wide yawn.
"I think a large part of the problem is that it is past bedtime, and they are both overly tired," Luisa offered, "They need to pick up the blocks and say good night to everyone," Luisa shifted, her face burning red, suddenly realizing that she was telling her tia how to parent when her oldest was older then she was, "I mean, that is, if you think that that's a…"
Pepa shook her head, a look of amusement on her face, "You are a hundred percent correct, Antonio, you and Sofia need to pick up these blocks and then say good night."
"But I'm not tired," Antonio protested.
"Me no sleep!"
"Too bad it's bedtime."
"But what about the party?" Antonio demanded.
"It's already starting to break up," Isabela announced, walking up to them, Hector following behind her loyally, "I'm headed back to my place," she announced, "Seeing as I haven't found the prank Abuelo mentioned to Camilo, I have a feeling that it might have something to do with my room, and of course he probably did it while shifted as me, so no one noticed," Isabela rolled her eyes fondly, "I'll see you all sometime tomorrow," she insisted.
"Bye bye," Sofia said, flapping a hand at her while the other one migrated closer and closer to her mouth.
…
Isabela opened the back door to her boarding house, slipping inside quietly. Several of the other young women her age that were renting rooms were in the common room talking, unable to see her and Hector through the door leading from the kitchen to the living room.
"She's weird," one of them admitted, "I mean, who in the world would turn down a proposal from Mariano Guzman?"
Isabela froze frowning, they were talking about her. She was the only one that Mariano had proposed to, so far, she knew that it was only a matter of time before he proposed to Dolores, now that he got Abuelo's blessing.
"That's not even the weirdest thing about her," another insisted, "She's plumb loco, and you know it. I mean she packs that plant of hers everywhere and calls it her son, who does that?"
"Let's not forget the fact that she willingly gave up her giant magical room to live here," the first one said again, "I mean why in the world would she do that."
"Well, according to Julieta, they moved out because Senora Madrigal was abusing Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel. Isabela herself said that she rented a room so that she could give Mirabel her own room," the last one said.
"Mirabel," the first one snorted, "She's just as plumb loco as Isabela, did you know that she honestly believes that she's the head of the Madrigal family? Her? She's so desperate to be anything else but useless that she apparently stole the Miracle candle from Senora Madrigal and then killed her when she tried to get it back. Of course their mother claims that she's still alive… but still."
Isabela was seeing red, it was one thing for them to mock her and call her loco, but to insult Mirabel, after everything that she had been through. She didn't even notice that she had summoned vines and stepped into the living room until she heard a shout of surprise and saw three young women trying to keep their skirts up over themselves as they dangled upside down from vines.
"Isabela?" one of them gasped.
"I don't care what you think of me," Isabela growled, "Maybe I have gone plumb loco, I don't care. But insulting my hermanita and Mama is unacceptable! You have no idea how hard it has been for them, for all of us, to make the decisions that we've been making this past month," the vines shook them violently as Hector growled up at them, "If I ever over hear you talking like that again, I can guarantee that it will be the last thing that you will ever do."
The vines retreated, dropping the three onto the floor, "Get out of my sight before I show you just how trastornada I truly am."
They scrambled to their feet fleeing up the stairs to their bedrooms. Isabela shook her head, "I have a feeling I might regret doing that," she admitted to Hector, "Come on, let's go up to our room shall we?"
Hector barked in agreement and started to jump up the stairs, Isabela smiled, scooping him up, his little legs weren't meant for climbing after all, and headed up to her room, well aware of the nervous looks coming from the cracks of the other doors.
She sat Hector down as she reached her door. The door swung open allowing Isabela to look inside. "Camillo!" she screeched. Her room looked like a miniature of her room in Casita, there were rose bushes everywhere, her topiary statues of herself in different poses lined one wall, and her bed was somehow suspended from the ceiling.
Isabela shook her head, amused, as she let herself in, Hector following at her heels, sniffing at all the bright colored flowers, "He decorated my room, to remind me of my old one," she announced, shaking her head, "This must have taken hours to have done," she figured, " He must have gone into my room to have gotten my topiaries."
She quickly unwound the rope from a hook in the wall, lowering her bed easily. Unfortunately, she didn't have a high enough ceiling to sleep with her bed suspended. That and she didn't trust the rope that Camilo used to support her weight as well.
When the bed finally came into view she let out a cry of surprise, there sitting in the middle of her bed was a stuffed cat that Mirabel had made for her quinceanera. It was a soft green with roses embroidered all over it. She picked it up, sniffing it, instead of stuffing, Mirabel had used dried petals to fill it, and it still smelled like roses.
Mirabel had been so proud of herself, making the cat that smelled like flowers, she remembered quite well how she had beamed with excitement as she had opened it, and how it had quickly faded away when Abuela had chided her for giving her a stuffed animal and how it was not an appropriate gift to give to someone her age. She had followed Abuela's lead, back then, laughing at her for giving her such a childish gift on the day she became an adult. Secretly she had loved the stuffed animal, and when Abuela instructed her to put it on the compost heap, she had hidden it away. Then, a few months ago, she had arrived home to find her missing from her hiding spot.
There was a note next to Rosita, Isa picked it up in confusion, "Isa, I found this in the compost pile a few months ago, but don't worry Mama helped me clean it up. Sorry I haven't returned it, at the time I wasn't sure if you or Abuela was the one who put it there. Now I know that you would never hurt Mirabel by discarding one of her presents like that. Hope you like your room. Your favorite Primo, Camilo."
Isabela looked at the note in alarm, she rotated Rosita's hiding place, and had just assumed that she couldn't remember where she was. This note meant that Alma not only went into her room without permission but went through her things as well, removing things that she didn't approve of! What other things had she assumed that she had mislaid that had really been gotten rid of by that monster.
"If Alma survives her blast from the miracle, I'll strangle her myself," Isabela announced, gently hugging Rosita to her, she had to be careful with her or she'll crush the petals inside her, "Or maybe I'll see if bamboo really can grow through a person."
She pressed a kiss to Rosita's head and set her on the bed, where she immediately started to glow.
"What the…" Isabela demanded, as the cat started to move, next to her Hector started to growl.
"Mrrow!" Rosita cried out, leaping into Isabela's arms and climbing up them.
"Arrof, Arrof," Hector cried out, trying to jump up on her as well.
"No, down boy, Rosita's your sister… No Rosita, you're fine, Hector won't hurt you," she sighed loudly, "Dolores, Dolores," she said loudly, activating her prima's gift, "My gift just made Camilo's little prank come to life! I now have a cat using me as a tree to get away from Hector! Tell that brother of yours that he better run."