Breakfast at the Castillos was the complete opposite of breakfast at Casita. Instead of Julieta cooking for eleven, well ten now that Tio Bruno was gone, all the adults were helping. Everyone was doing something rather it was cracking eggs, chopping fruits and vegetables, mixing dough, or making coffee and hot chocolate.
Mirabel watched in amazement as one person cut up a piece of fruit and placed it in a cup and sent the cup down the line so that another type of fruit was added and then another and another, until the cup was full of fruit that was then covered in soda and topped with cream by yet more people. She never knew that so many people could work to make one dish. Her mama always said that too many people in the kitchen just got in each others way. But right her in front of her six people work together to make enough Salpicon de Frutas for thirty people! And they had done it in less time then what it would have taken her mother to make the same dish for them at home.
"You hungry?" a deep voice asked her from behind. It almost sounded like Tio Felix but he was adding chopped tomatoes to a pot while Tia Pepa added scallions, and someone else stirred the whole thing.
"How do they not get in each others way?" Mirabel asked in awe, "There's so many of them?"
"They each have a job to do," the man, who had to be Tio's brother, explained, "When you have to cook for as many as we do, it's easier to divide the work up."
Mirabel nodded as the dishes started to be put in serving bowls and handed to those assigned to take them outside to the serving tables, huevos pericos, arepas, salpicon de frutas, hot chocolate and coffee. It all smelled wonderful.
A sudden loud shout and a bell ringing caught her attention. That was how they had called them all in for cena last night.
Meals at the Castillos were held outside as there wasn't room for them all in the dining room. The occasionally ate outside at home and the set up was similar to that. Food was set up on tables where you dished up, but instead of one table, there were three. One of them was super short, with super short chairs that allowed Mirabel's feet to touch the ground while she ate, even better was that everyone who sat at it were around her and Camilo's age, some were a bit older, the oldest was eight, some a bit younger, the youngest had just turned three, but the babies sat with their parents, and those who were too big for the chairs, like Luisa and Dolores, sat at a different table, that was big like the adults.
At home Abuela would stand up and give a speech about how grateful she was of the new day and tell everyone what they needed to do. That did not happen here. Instead everyone was talking, and no one was telling them to be quiet. It was kind of fun.
…
After breakfast they set up different games that the whole family would enjoy. Mirabel and Luisa followed their cousins around to the different activities. There was bowling, beanbag toss, and horseshoes, as well as a chest of old clothes to get dressed up in and have their picture taken with a brand-new camera from outside Encanto.
Mirabel found it amazing, they snapped the picture and the camera spat out a blace square with a white strip beneath it, and as you held it by the white part the black part disappeared, revealing the picture that they had just took. They then took the pictures over to the arts and crafts table where they were able to make picture frames out of sticks.
As she stuck the last paper flower onto her picture frame, Pepa arrived, "Ninos, Abuelo has a surprise for you over by the kitchen."
At the mention of food, Camilo's stomach growled, "Is it lunch time?" he asked hopefully.
"Not quite, however, your abuelo has set up a ring toss game by the kitchen. If you can get the ring around a bottle of soda, you can have it with your lunch," Pepa announced.
…
Getting the ring over the bottle of soda was harder then Mirabel had thought, she had thrown three rings and didn't even get close to the bottles. Abuelo smiled at her as she pouted as her last ring fell to the ground at his feet.
"Here you go," he said, handing her a soda.
Mirabel shook her head, "I can't have that, I didn't win it," she insisted, "I need to win it."
"Well, let's try one more time, maybe this time you can do it," he offered, handing her a ring.
Mirabel nodded, took it, and threw it. The ring immediately started to fall, obviously going to fall short of the bottles again when Abuelo swooped down, caught the ring in the air and tossed it onto a bottle.
"That doesn't count," Mirabel huffed, "You cheated, you tossed the ring."
"I'm not allowed to toss the ring?" he asked in confusion, "oh okay, let's try one last time," he handed the ring to Mirabel with one hand as he grabbed a bottle of soda with the other, "You'll get the ring over the bottle without my hand tossing it this time," he announced.
Mirabel threw the ring, and Abuelo shot forward with the bottle and speared the ring out of the air with its long neck, "Well would you look at that," he announced, You threw the ring and this bottle jumped up off the table and caught it."
"No it didn't," Mirabel argued, "You were holding it."
"Well that's because this here bottle is a magic bottle, and it has chosen you as it's owner," Abuelo insisted, "When I picked it up, not only would it not let me let it go, it forced my arm to move so that it could catch the ring."
"Really," Mirabel asked in amazement, grabbing the bottle, "A magic bottle? What does it do?"
"Well, I believe I read about them once," Abuelo said, "It holds all your wishes and dreams and keep them safe until they come true."
"Wow," Mirabel exclaimed, eyes widening in amazement, "That's awesome!" she announced, hugging the bottle to her before running off, "Tia Tio, guess what, guess what!" she shouted as she raced over to where Pepa and Felix were helping set out the food for lunch.
Pepa smiled at the girl, "What is it?" she asked.
"I won a magic bottle," Mirabel announced, holding out her soda, "Abuelo picked it up, and then it made him move his arm so that it could catch my ring," her eyes danced with excitement, "Abuelo told me that it can keep all my wishes and dreams safe for me."
Pepa gave Felix a look that told him just how much she not only loved him, but his family. A family that filled their children, and sobrinas when they came, with wonder, feeding their imaginations, allowing them to be the children they were, not the stifling expectations of the Madrigal family.
Felix returned the look as he scooped Mirabel up onto his shoulders, letting her know that he felt the same way.
…
The rest of the weekend flew past with several different games and activities that the whole family enjoyed, unfortunately, like all good things, it ended as the sun started to set on Sunday evening. Children called out to their cousins as the parents tried to talk over them to plan the gathering for the next month. Then Pepa turned toward the crowd of children and shouted clearly, "Milo, Luisa, Mira, Dolores, it's time to go!"
Mira and Camilo paused in their game of tag, sighing loudly as they waved good bye and rushed over to Camilo's parents.
"Did you have a good time?" Felix asked, glancing at his sobrinas, both who nodded their head eagerly.
"I can't wait to show Mami my magic bottle," Mirabel announced, holding up the glass bottle that she had kept safe since she had got it.
Pepa smiled, at least Mirabel seemed to have forgotten about her mother's recent distance from her. Hopefully, fingers crossed, Julieta would no longer be as stressed as she had been when she had left, and would be able to return to mothering her sobrinas, all three of them, once the two weeks were done.
The walk home was rather quiet, but not because no one was talkative, Mirabel had seemed to have master sign language over the weekend and was eagerly talking to Camilo and Dolores, Luisa was trying to keep up with them, and would sometimes interrupt to ask what a sign meant.
Soon enough Casita came into view, and the children ran forward, Felix leaned into Pepa before signing, "Do you think that they figured out Mirabel's sleeping arrangement?"
"I have no idea, I think Mama is so fixated on sending her away that she isn't going to do anything about it, and Julieta won't do more than put the furniture back into the nursery."
"Maybe we can turn that storage room between Camilo's and Dolores's rooms into a bedroom for her."
"I don't want to step on any toes, Mirabel is Julieta's daughter, she and Agustin should be the ones to figure out her sleeping arrangement."
…
Julieta was waiting for Pepa as soon as she stepped out of the nursery after tucking Camilo and Mirabel into bed, both of them exhausted from their weekend of late nights and busy days. Luisa and Dolores were both in their rooms, unwinding the way they preferred to.
"Thanks for taking the girls for the weekend," Julieta said quickly, before she lost her nerves, "And I'm sorry that Isabela was so bad."
"I hope you didn't have to deal with her," Pepa offered, "I left her with Mama, that's the punishment all of my children get if they get into fist fights with one of their cousins."
"No, Mama took care of her," Julieta said with a shake of her hand, "But that doesn't matter, Agustin will make sure that Luisa and Isabela get up for school," she announced.
"Are you sure?" Pepa asked, "I offered two weeks, and I'm more then willing to give you more time."
"I don't need more time," Julieta insisted, "I'm fine really, I just needed a small break. I'm fine now, besides, Mama promised to lighten my load a little bit, so I'll have a little bit more time to spend with the girls. Gracias, though, for taking them this weekend, it really helped a lot, and it sounds like they had fun."
"It was fun having them, and they aren't any trouble, I'm more then willing to keep them longer if you want."
Julieta shook her head, "I'm their madre, I can take care of them. It isn't hard, especially since they'll be at school for a large part of the day."
Pepa frowned at that statement, Mirabel wasn't supposed to start school until the next school year. She was about to open her mouth to ask her about that, but Julieta had already left, heading to her room for the night.
"What about Mirabel, she isn't in school yet," she asked, although Julieta couldn't hear her over her thundering cloud.
"Pepa, do something about that cloud, now!" her mother shouted.