Episode Four: We Don't Talk About Bruno
45 years ago...
Pepa woke to the sound of churchbells ringing in town. The bells were quieter through the night, so she usually slept through them, but now and then, they would catch her in light sleep. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she began to make out the shape of the nursery door, slightly ajar from its frame. She reached over and patted the bed beside hers. Of course, it was empty. The thin blanket had been peeled back and left in an untidy heap. 'Bruno's off raiding the kitchen again', she thought with a roll of her eyes, then she lay her head back on the pillow.
She barely had enough time to close her eyes when she heard a shrill scream from outside.
"BRUNO!" Julieta cried out as she fled towards the door. She reacted so quickly that it seemed to Pepa as though Julieta had left the bed before their brother had made a sound. It wouldn't have surprised Pepa if she had. They were like that sometimes; their mother called it the 'triplet thing'.
"What's wrong?" Julieta asked, the concern evident in her voice as she ran bare-footed along the tiled balcony. She then let out a sharp gasp.
A faint warm glow began gradually filling the hall, and Pepa heard their mother's voice from the floor below.
"Whatever is the matter?" The light from her candle grew brighter as she travelled quickly up the stairs and then hurried to join her children.
Pepa left the nursery and followed her sister's path toward their brother. When she reached him, he was completely motionless, just staring at the wall. A half-eaten pandebono lay beside him on the tiles. Julieta also looked shocked, and as their mother's candle illuminated the space, Pepa followed their gaze to see what had them so alarmed.
"What on Earth?" their mother said as she reached boldly towards the doorknob of one of the three plain wooden doors that had mysteriously materialised along the wall. When the door wouldn't open, she turned toward her son, "When did this happen? Did you see them appear?"
Bruno shook his head emphatically, "I-I only noticed them now."
Their mother smiled and crouched down to touch her free hand to Bruno's cheek. "You have nothing to fear of our Casita. I feel our miracle has more secrets to reveal to us yet." She straightened up and once more tried the door to no avail. "I am sure we will find out what these doors are for in good time. But for now, it's way past your bedtime. Come on, all of you. Back to the nursery."
Bruno noticed the bread by his feet and tried to kick it away, not nearly as subtly as he had hoped, and only succeeded in drawing his mother's attention to it. With a wry smile, she added, "and maybe after a good night's rest, we can talk about why we mustn't lie about feeling full because we want to go back outside and play in the sandpit."
Bruno gave a nervous chuckle as Julieta escorted him back to the nursery.
.
"What do you think they are?" Pepa heard her sister whisper into the darkness.
"Well, they're not rooms, that's for sure," declared Bruno.
"Why do you say that?"
"There's just a wall there. On the other side is nothing but sky," he explained, a little condescending.
"Walls can be pretty thick though sometimes," replied Julieta.
"Not so thick you can fit a whole room inside them, silly."
They then both giggled at the thought before the room fell silent once more.
.
The following day...
"Casita, can you please open the door?" Pepa asked as she stood before one of the mysterious new doors.
Her request was met with a clattering of tiles, and the door remained tightly sealed. She ran her hand along the edges to feel for a gap. It felt as though it was mere decoration built into the wall itself. Not an actual door at all.
"Have you tried saying 'Open Sesame'?"
Bruno appeared beside Pepa, waving his hand at the door.
"Stop messing around. This is serious," Pepa snorted, shooing him away.
Bruno then continued towards the stairs. "Mamá said we can bake something from her cookbook. Anything we want. If it's good enough, we can make some for the party. Come join us if you like!" he called back playfully before running down the stairs and clearing the last four steps in one leap.
Pepa growled with frustration, and her attention returned to the door. "What are you for?" she whispered, brushing her hand across its surface again.
After a little while, she turned away with a sigh and began following her brother's path towards the stairs. As she did so, she thought there was a faint knock from the door. The sound stopped her in her tracks. She returned to the door and held her breath, waiting for the sound to happen again. After a few moments of silence, she let out her breath with a sigh. She probably just heard one of her siblings drop a large potato or something. Satisfied that it was nothing, Pepa once again made towards the stairs.
*Bang*
This time it was unmistakable. The noise definitely came from the door. Pepa returned to it. She reached out to touch the doorknob, and just as her hand was about to make contact, she was suddenly jolted backwards by a bang so loud that it shook the entire door. It was as though someone, or something, was trapped inside and trying to smash their way out. Shaken and a little frightened, Pepa ran to the stairs, yelling for her mother to come quickly.
.
"You can't hear that?" Pepa asked incredulously as she and her mother stood looking at the door.
"I'm sorry, Pepa, but I'm afraid I can't," her mother replied.
"Maybe you have to be five to hear it?" Pepa suggested.
"But you're not five until tomorrow."
"Okay, so maybe only nearly five-year-olds can hear it."
Pepa then went to the railing and shouted down to the floor below. "Julieta! Bruno! Will you come here, please?"
After a short pause, Julieta came out of the kitchen and stood in the courtyard, looking up at her sister. "What?" she asked with her hands on her hips. She had corn flour in her hair and all over her apron.
Bruno followed closely behind, not wearing an apron but with just as much flour on his clothes and hair.
"It's about the doors!" Pepa ordered with urgency.
"Fine. Give us a second," replied Julieta as she and her brother went to rinse their hands at the fountain.
After a minute or two, Pepa's siblings arrived at the door. They had cleaned their hands but were still covered in flour.
Their mother let out a pained sigh when she saw them. "What were you doing in there?" she groaned, "I was only gone for a few minutes."
Bruno and Julieta smirked at one another, neither wanting to reveal what they had done or who had started it. Though Pepa was pretty sure she could tell. She usually could.
"Please... we're supposed to be conserving water right now," their mother said dejectedly. "Can't you at least try to stay clean?"
Pepa wanted to get back to the important topic of the doors.
"Listen," she ordered her siblings.
Julieta and Bruno stayed perfectly still, confused but listening very carefully.
"There! Did you hear that?"
Julieta shook her head. "I don't hear anything. Is this a joke? Are you trying to scare Bruno?"
"No, this is serious. I can hear a knocking sound from inside the door." She could feel herself getting frustrated.
Bruno's eyes widened as Pepa turned to him next.
"You can hear it, right Bruno?"
He hesitated, glancing towards his mother and then to Julieta, before finally answering.
"No, Pepa... I can't hear knocking either."
.
That night...
Pepa lay awake while her brother and sister both slept soundly. The banging from the door had continued all evening. Sometimes it would be a light knock, like knuckles against wood. Other times, it was more like a rattle, akin to someone trying the doorknob from inside. Then there would be times when it was a loud thumping sound as if someone was trying to kick through. Pepa could feel the frustration building as she continued to listen to the intrusive noise. Why was it only she who could hear it? Why was it leaving her brother and sister alone? Would it ever stop, or was this just how life would be from now on?
The knocking returned to a gentle rasp, so she took the opportunity to try to get some sleep before it became too loud again.
She must have been starting to drift off, but the thumping returned, shaking her awake. She couldn't stand it any longer. She wanted to scream or break something but didn't want to wake her brother and sister, so she put her pillow over her face to muffle the sound and kicked her feet as she growled into it.
When there was one more bang, Pepa finally snapped. Flinging the pillow across the room, she launched from her bed and stormed from the nursery. She stood on the balcony and, breathing deeply with rage, stared across at the doors on the facing wall through the darkness. A church bell rang out from the town beyond, and as though the chime had been the signal to start, she began marching over to the doors, yelling and screaming along the dimly lit walkway.
"What do you want?! Why won't you just stop? What am I supposed to do?" she screamed.
The bell continued to sound out the hour as she stepped closer to the doors, and rain began to fall into the courtyard below. Julieta and Bruno came out of the nursery, following a little way behind.
When she reached the door on the left—the one the sounds seemed to be coming from, she started kicking and punching it.
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!"
A bright flash, accompanied by a deafening clap, lit up the Casita as a fork of lightning struck the viewing tower. A white stream of electricity ran down the tower, then zigzagged along the wall, past their mother's door and towards the nursery, narrowly missing Bruno and Julieta by inches. They screamed and grabbed onto one another, and the bell sounded again.
At that moment, their mother came rushing from her room, holding the magical candle in her hands for light.
Seeing the candle gave Pepa an idea. After all, that was where the magic originated, so this was undoubtedly the fault of the candle. She snatched it from her mother's hands and started to wave it in front of the door. "Well... do something!" she cried, "What's the point of these stupid doors?!"
Her mother shouted at her to hand the candle back at once and reached over to grab it, but before she could, the flame grew much larger, and the sparkling light filled the entire walkway. Golden light emanated from the floor below Pepa's feet and then swirled up the walls, spreading like ink on blotting paper. When it reached the doors, they seemed to explode with light, one after another, in rapid succession, causing the whole space to glow brightly. The storm instantly ceased, and the final chime from the church bell rang out for midnight.
Julieta and Bruno arrived at their sister's side, and they all stood in stunned silence. The doors now glowed with the same magical light that shone from the candle, and there was one other change. Each doorknob had turned gold and was emblazoned with a letter; P, B and J. Their initials.
Pepa's mother finally took the candle from her and stood proudly, looking at the doors.
"I think our miracle has a little birthday present for each of you," she beamed.
Pepa stepped forward and went to touch the doorknob with her initial, but her mother gently grabbed her hand to stop her.
"This feels like something that should wait until we can give it proper reverence," she explained. "Why don't you all enjoy your last night together in the nursery? We can open your doors in the morning."
"What? But it's been the longest time already? Can't we just open the doors now?" Pepa protested.
Their mother looked thoughtfully at the doors. After a while, she eventually spoke.
"If we're going to do this, then we need to do it properly," she explained, motioning towards the nursery. Pepa's heart sank, and she let out a heavy sigh. Then her mother continued, "Come on, let's get the three of you ready!"
.
Pepa and her siblings returned to the balcony by the doors, having tidied their hair and changed into the outfits they planned to wear for their birthday celebration. Their mother insisted it was necessary to make the occasion special out of respect for the miracle that had granted them their doors. She had instructed the children to open the doors in birth order, but as Pepa had been the one to activate them, she made a fuss and eventually persuaded her mother to let her go first.
After a few solemn words of reverence from her mother, Pepa touched the candle and reached for the doorknob. Her family all watched in wonder as the magical light of the door transformed before their eyes, revealing a strange motif in its place. The door now had her name at the top and what seemed to be a stylised image of Pepa surrounded by clouds, lightning bolts and a bright sun above her head.
"Is that.. me?" she said, turning to her mother.
"I believe so," her mother replied proudly. "Now go on... Open it. Let's see what's inside."
Pepa turned the doorknob, and at long last, the door opened.
A room manifested around Pepa as she entered. It began as a fairly regular room, with raindrop wallpaper and decorative green panelling, similar to the nursery. The furniture wasn't unlike what she was used to either. Only when she looked up did Pepa realise this was no ordinary room. The walls reached up much higher than the nursery, and at first glance, it didn't appear to have a ceiling. However, upon closer inspection, the ceiling was domed and seemed to be painted to match the sky outside—currently dark and cloudy, with a waning gibbous moon. That was impressive enough, but the most spectacular aspect of the room was what looked like a strange floating cloud suspended from the ceiling on ropes. The cloud had pillows and blankets, suggesting it was meant as a place for Pepa to sleep, and it was accessed by an ornate wooden ladder painted green to match the wood panelling around the bottom of the walls.
Pepa's eyes widened, and she ran towards the ladder and scrambled up to the cloud.
"It's so soft!" she exclaimed, feeling the pillowy fleece against her skin as her body sank a little into the cloud. Hering this, her brother and sister both hurried towards the ladder.
Their mother wore an expression of astonishment as she looked around.
"The miracle has blessed us once again," she proclaimed.
Once Bruno and Julieta had joined their sister, they started bouncing and rolling around on the cloud together. They laughed innocently, not taking in the magnitude of the situation. After all, they already lived in a magical, sentient house, so this didn't seem so extraordinary to them. As Pepa continued to laugh, she noticed a light mist around her hands. Her brother and sister saw it too.
"Pepa, are you... making rain?" asked Julieta with a giggle.
Pepa waved her hands more deliberately and a small cloud formed from the mist. Her brother and sister sat up and watched with amazement as rain began to fall from the tiny cloud.
"Oi... stop that!" Pepa ordered playfully, and it stopped. A beam of sunlight then shimmered around it, lighting up the room. Wondering if it had stopped because she told it to, she tried saying, "rain!" and as she suspected, the light went away, and it rained again.
"Sunshine!" shouted Bruno, apparently noticing what Pepa was doing, but nothing happened. "Aww... it's broken."
Pepa repeated, "Sunshine," and it worked just fine for her.
Their mother then spoke from the doorway.
"Pepa... do that again. Tell it to rain."
Pepa did as her mother asked, and the little cloud started to rain again.
"You're making it rain. For real!"
Pepa, Bruno and Julieta climbed down from the cloud and quickly left the room to see for themselves. It was indeed raining around the Casita.
"Stop!" ordered Pepa, and just as their mother said, the rain stopped.
The image on the door, the decorations, the storm that mysteriously started when Pepa was shouting outside; their mother was able to piece it all together.
"Pepa... I think the miracle has blessed you with a magical ability. I think you can control the weather!"
Her brother and sister both looked at each other excitedly and rushed to the other doors, eager to get their own magical abilities.
"This one's mine!" said Julieta, noticing the J on the doorknob.
Their mother instructed her to touch the candle first, as Pepa had done. She did so and then quickly opened her door, impatiently rushing inside without much attention to the image on the door.
Julieta's room reminded Pepa of a cosy cottage like in the fairy tales their mother would read to them before bed. There were three windows along the far wall, the one in the middle being a little larger than the two on either side, and they all had big wooden shutters with butterfly shapes carved out of them. In front of the smaller window on the right was a coffee table surrounded by three chairs. By the window on the left was a sleeping area with three beds, almost identical to the layout of the nursery, except the beds were different sizes—the one in the middle being noticeably wider than the other two. The room also had a small kitchen area with its own sink and stove. Pots, pans and wooden spoons hung from the walls, and the linen and oversized cushions were all brightly coloured embroidered fabrics. The most striking characteristic was the plants. Almost every spare surface had a container with some variety of herb growing in it, and there were still more trailing down from macramé pots suspended from the ceiling and the underside of shelves. The room had an amazingly fresh herbaceous smell.
"So.. what's my magic power then?" Julieta asked, looking around the room for clues.
"I don't know... but Pepa's door has weather symbols on it, so let's look at your door," their mother suggested.
They gathered at the door, but other than a few plants and what looked like a pestle and mortar, it wasn't immediately obvious what her ability could be.
"What do you think it means?" Julieta asked. "There's a lot of herbs. Can I brew magical potions?"
"Like a witch? Or an evil fairy?" asked Bruno mischievously.
"How about I try turning you into a frog and find out?" Julieta teased.
"I'm sure we will know soon enough," their mother assured them. "For now, let's see what Bruno's special room is like."
They assembled outside the final door. Bruno touched the candle and then the doorknob. Once again, the door transformed, but like Julieta's, it didn't offer many clues as to what his ability might be. It had his name and an image that looked vaguely like him, but then just a few swirls and triangles. He briefly glanced at the door, slowly pushed it open and stepped inside. Once the room had fully formed around him, he froze. He was entirely motionless other than the rise and fall of his shoulders as he breathed.
'Oh no!' Pepa thought to herself when she saw the room. She looked to her sister, who, from her expression, seemed to be thinking the same thing.
The room was little more than a big empty chamber with brown sandstone walls. A spiral staircase made of stone reached up to a raised platform, and a short rope bridge led to what appeared to be a cave in the rock. But that was all. There were no windows, furniture, or anything—just a thick carpet of sand covering the floor from wall to wall. The only thing vaguely magical about it was the faint light that gave everything a bluish-white hue as though moonlight spilt in from outside, despite the room being completely sealed.
"Bruno... I..." Pepa entered the room and tried to console him but couldn't find the words.
Her brother turned his head to look at her. His dark green eyes twinkled in the light from the door.
"Oh my god... It's a giant sandpit!" he squealed ecstatically before running forward and throwing himself onto the sand.
xxx
Present day...
"Not you Pepa," came her mother's voice as Pepa was getting up from the table.
Everyone had been instructed to work twice as hard in order to honour the gift they had been given. Of course, the younger family members simply took this at face value; the miracle had granted them a new gift after all, so it was only natural to want to show their gratitude for that. However, Pepa knew that there was more behind her mother's eagerness for the family to prove they were deserving of the miracle. The things Mirabel had been saying the night before had surely rattled her mother to her core. Pepa knew that because she was terrified too. Something had happened many years ago, that they had buried instantly and never discussed again. They had played it down, trivialised it, pretended there was no truth in what they had heard, but now it seemed it was finally catching up to them.
"Mamá, I want to help. Shouldn't we act like nothing's changed?" Pepa protested.
"You've been getting stormclouds all morning Pepa. If you go to the farms today they'll know you're worried about something. The gossip will be bad enough as it is. We don't need to add to it."
"But you said yourself that we need to work twice as hard," Pepa said as a cloud appeared above her and immediately thundered. "I can't just do nothing. What if the miracle—"
Her mother raised her hand to stop her speaking. "I think you've proven my point," she said firmly, looking at the cloud. She then signalled with her eyes for Pepa to return to the Casita, and it was clear from her demeanour that any further protest would be futile.
.
Pepa was completely drenched by the time she reached the back stairs. Julieta came out of the kitchen holding a basket of baked goods and called her name.
"Pepa? Everything alright?"
Pepa stopped in her tracks and turned towards her sister. There was a short pause and then she asked. "Do you have a minute?"
Julieta always had time for Pepa, so she beckoned her into the kitchen.
By the time Pepa entered the kitchen, Julieta had already lit the oven and the Casita had moved a stool beside it so Pepa could sit and dry herself off.
Julieta passed her a towel for her hair.
"Woah,' she said, looking at the cloud. "What's happened? I haven't seen you this upset for a long time."
"Mamá says I'm not to go out today."
Julieta pulled up another stool and sat beside her, placing a hand on one of Pepa's folded arms. "You know, there was a time when you'd have done anything for a day off…" she said with a smile.
"Yeah, well I grew up, Julieta. I understand the obligation we have to use our gifts."
The cloud started raining again and the clay oven spat and hissed as droplets of water hit the burning firewood.
"You know what can happen if we dishonour the miracle," she continued. Her anger intensified when another thought entered her mind. "And it wasn't even our fault. Why are we being punished for what he said?"
The concerned look on Julieta's face became a little less sympathetic and she withdrew her hand, clasping it instead with the other one. "Is that really what you think? After all this time, you're still blaming him?"
"Oh come on Julieta. His room changing, our gifts backfiring, the vision in the courtyard, the ceremony failing… it all happened after he offended the miracle. We've been paying for his words ever since, while he's off, God knows where." There was a flash of lightning as she spoke.
Julieta forced a smile, though it was obvious to Pepa that she was hiding her frustration. She stood up swatting the cloud away, then walked towards the drawer they kept the hand towels in.
"I know it's pointless trying to change your mind about our brother, so I'll just say this…" she said, taking the wet towel from Pepa and handing her a dry one. "I seem to recall your gift started to backfire long before he said what he did."
Julieta then picked up the basket of food, then turned towards Pepa. "You loved him once. I wish you could remember how that felt," she said, and then set off for town.
xxx
40 years ago...
Pepa had been outside collecting flowers to decorate the dinner table. When she came back inside the Casita, she heard her mother talking to Julieta and Bruno outside the kitchen.
"I don't see why not," her mother said. "But if it's starting to get dark on your way home, make sure to take a donkey. I want you home for dinner... And stay together."
"Yey!" they both exclaimed.
"Thanks, Mamá!" Julieta said.
"This is going to be awesome!" yelled Bruno.
"What's got you two so excited?" Pepa asked as she approached.
Julieta turned to her, smiling broadly, "Lucas's dad built a boat, and he says he'll take us along the river in it! Agustín's coming too!"
Bruno waved an empty bucket at her. "I'm going to try to catch a fish!" he beamed before lowering the bucket and adding, "Wanna join us?"
"Sure!" Pepa replied without hesitation. A boat trip along the river sounded like a lot of fun.
Their mother cleared her throat.
"Oh Pepa, my dear, I'm sorry, but you can't go," she explained, taking the flowers.
Pepa's heart sank. "Why not? You're letting them go!" she protested.
"I know, but it's a dry season. You're needed on the farms."
"That's not fair!" she yelled. "How come they can have a day off?"
"We have plenty of Julieta's cooking in store, and a vision can wait, but if the crops dry up, or the town runs out of drinking water, the entire community will suffer... and there won't be a river to take a boat on."
Julieta looked sorry for Pepa. "We don't have to go if you don't want us to. We can wait until we can all go."
"What?" Bruno didn't seem to agree with this sentiment.
"No... you just go," Pepa said, feeling completely deflated.
Julieta still looked sad. She glanced at Bruno, then back to Pepa as though feeling torn.
"Well, okay. But we'll do this again the first day off you get," she affirmed, taking her brother's hand. The two of them then set off for their adventure.
Pepa was seething with anger at the unfairness of the situation. She never asked for her gift; it was thrust upon her, yet it was dictating everything about her life. She and her siblings knew better than to complain about their gifts, however. Their mother would always come down hard on them if they dared protest to doing their part 'for the Encanto'. So Pepa knew it was pointless trying to argue. She would be going to the farms just like she did every day for three months straight every dry season. Whether she liked it or not.
"Pepa, are you trying to be clever?" her mother growled.
Her words caused Pepa to snap out of the haze she had drifted into. She looked up, and there was a rain cloud over her head.
"What have I told you about making clouds in the house?"
"But I'm not doing this," Pepa replied, honestly. She tried to will the cloud away, but it just got bigger and started raining. "I swear Mamá... this isn't me."
The sky outside darkened, almost enough to be night despite it being late morning. There was a sudden flash of lightning, and balls of ice the size of marbles started to fall from the sky, hitting the courtyard of the Casita so hard that they bounced several feet on impact.
"What's happening?" cried Pepa.
Her mother dragged her under the arches to shelter from the hailstones, but Pepa immediately thought about her brother and sister, who were outside, presumably being pelted by the solid lumps of ice. She wriggled free of her mother's grip, grabbed a large umbrella from beside the door and fled from the Casita, ignoring her mother's calls to come back.
Once Pepa was outside, the hail seemed to get heavier, and the wind blew the stones directly into her face. They were now at least an inch in diameter and seemed to be getting larger by the minute. All she could think about was her siblings, though, and how they could be getting hurt. The worse the storm became, the more she worried for them. Pepa tried to put the umbrella up, but it broke instantly. She knew she had to get to Julieta and Bruno, so she kept fighting through the hail, trying to protect her face with her arms. The stones bit at her skin like shards of glass, but still, she refused to go back. She needed to know her brother and sister were safe.
She didn't get far along the road before she spotted her siblings. They were screaming and running back towards the Casita. Bruno had taken off his ruana and was holding it over his and Julieta's head to protect them from the barrage of hailstones. When Pepa reached them, he cried out to her hurriedly.
"Quick, get under, get under!"
Pepa did as he asked and helped to hold onto the ruana. The three of them huddled together tightly as they pushed their way back to the Casita.
"What's going on, Pepa?" Bruno asked as they ran. "Why's it raining rocks?"
"I don't know... I'm not doing this," Pepa replied earnestly.
They reached the path leading to the Casita, and the moment they stepped on the stones, the house picked them up and pulled them along, bringing them quickly into the protection of its walls. They were dragged to the arches where their mother was still sheltering. The tiles from the roof above had reorganised themselves to hang down further and prevent more of the hail from reaching inside. Once the children were safe with their mother, the Casita lifted the floor tiles and wrapped them around the front of the arches as though sheltering them in its arms.
They sat together on wooden benches, Julieta and Bruno sharing one, and Pepa on her own. Their mother handed them blankets that the Casita had managed to transport carefully from upstairs, and they wrapped themselves in them. Julieta and Bruno were clearly shaken, and Pepa felt terrible. She didn't know how to stop the storm, but she felt sure it had to be something to do with her gift. Although they did get rain showers even during the so-called 'dry season', storms like that were unheard of.
"Are you hurt?" she asked her brother and sister with concern as hail, now the size of fists, continued to crash into the courtyard, and thunder rattled overhead.
"We're okay," replied Julieta, still huddling beside her brother.
"What are those?" Bruno asked. "Is that hail?"
"It is," answered their mother, "but it's unusually large." She turned to Pepa. "This has got to be you. Can't you stop it?"
"Don't you think I'm trying, Mamá?" she said, getting increasingly upset. A cloud then formed above her head again, as it had earlier.
Her brother noticed it first. "There's a cloud!" he yelled, drawing Pepa's attention to himself.
"Bruno... Where's your bucket?" she asked, realising he had come home without it.
"I couldn't carry it... I had to leave it on the roadside."
That upset Pepa even further. She started to cry, and rain drizzled onto her from the cloud.
"I'm so sorry... I didn't mean for this to happen," she sobbed.
Her brother wrinkled his nose. "It's only a bucket."
It wasn't the bucket that bothered her. What bothered her was that Bruno had left it to protect his sister from the hailstones. Hailstones that were Pepa's fault. They should have almost reached the river by now. Instead, they had been frightened and were stuck inside the Casita. All because of her. She cried harder, and the little cloud started to rain heavier, soaking her blanket. The hailstones outside sounded larger still.
"Pepa, I think it's your mood," her mother suddenly suggested. "You need to calm down."
On hearing this and as though sharing one mind, Pepa's brother and sister both picked up their blankets and moved over to her. They squeezed themselves onto the bench on either side of her and, undeterred by the pouring cloud, draped their own blankets around all three of them. Bruno rested his head on her shoulder, and Julieta started playing with her braid. They just did what came naturally when they wanted to cheer one another up, but it meant a lot to Pepa. She had caused something dreadful, but her brother and sister loved her just the same. She felt a tremendous, soothing warmth inside, and the cloud dissipated almost instantly.
After a few minutes, the storm died down, and the hail changed to rain. The Casita finally returned to its regular structure, and they could leave the arches at last. Pepa stood up, wrapped the damp blanket around her shoulders and headed to the front door.
"Where are you going?" Bruno called after her.
"I'm going to get your bucket back," she replied, frankly, and then left the Casita.
xxx
Present day...
If Pepa couldn't join her family members in using their gifts, she thought she may as well make herself as useful as possible at home. Félix and Agustín had attended to their usual duties, cleaning the Casita, sorting laundry and changing any spent candles. Mirabel usually helped them with these jobs, but she had instead followed Luisa into town and nobody had seen her since. The Casita needed to be spotless for the Guzmáns, so Félix and Agustín had been frustrated by Mirabel's absence. Pepa's offer to help was therefore gratefully accepted.
Once all the obvious jobs had been completed, Pepa decided to finish transferring the rest of Antonio's belonging to his new room. The Guzmáns were sure to want a private tour of Mariano's future home after all.
She collected the basket they'd used to take a few essentials to Antonio's room the night before and made her way along the balcony, passing her husband on the way, who was doing some last-minute dusting of anything they might have missed.
She hesitated as she balanced the basket on her hip and went to open the nursery door. She could hear someone on the other side; Mirabel had returned after all. A cloud appeared as Pepa felt the anger rising. Just as she had started to burst in, ready to ask her niece what she was playing at, she heard something that knocked the wind out of her, setting off a rumble of thunder above her. She could have sworn she heard the name 'Bruno'.
xxx
24 years ago...
"This is a disaster. I told them I needed peach flowers to go with my dress. These are orange. They look ridiculous," Pepa cried out in a panic. It was the morning of her wedding day, and Julieta was in her room helping her to do her hair and makeup. The flowers had just been delivered, and Pepa was mortified to discover they were not exactly as she had expected.
"But you suit orange anyway," Julieta reassured her. "How about I add some to your hair? Come on. You're getting a cloud."
Before Pepa could answer, there was a knock at her door.
"Who is it?" she called out anxiously, in case it was Félix.
"It's just me," came the voice of her brother.
Relieved, she told him to come in.
She was a little horrified when she saw that he was in his regular clothes, looking just as untidy as ever.
"You are going to get changed, right?" she asked, worried that something else would go wrong.
"Of course I am," Bruno replied, rolling his eyes with a chuckle. "I just came to wish you luck before I head up my tower." He glanced up as he spoke and noticed the cloud. "Is everything okay?"
Pepa sighed and swatted the cloud away. "It's just my stupid flowers. They sent the wrong colour."
"And they're just as lovely," Julieta cut in.
"But now they don't match the trim on my dress. I needed peach."
"Isn't that pink though?" Bruno asked, trying to be helpful. Julieta frantically signalled to shut up, so he quickly added, "Well, they're just flowers. You still look beautiful."
Pepa smiled at this. "Aww, thanks Bruno." She then remembered something. "Hey, have you had the vision yet?"
"No, not yet.." he replied. "Though even if I had, I wouldn't tell you. It's meant to be a surprise."
"I knew it! You have! Go on, tell me something. Just one thing. Please," Pepa pushed, excited to hear what he had to say about her future with Félix.
"But I honestly haven't had it yet. I told you, I'm on my way to the tower now. You'll just have to be patient."
Pepa could usually tell when her brother was lying. Maybe it was her nerves clouding her judgement, but she was unsure this time.
"It's just... I could really use some positive words right now. A wedding's stressful at the best of times. Even without my... well, you know..."
Bruno looked thoughtful, then said, "I think you're putting way too much pressure on yourself. You and Félix are all that matter today. This wedding's about the love you share and the long and happy life you're going to spend together. It's not about the flowers, or the weather, or any other trivial detail. If your flowers are orange, then fine, let them be orange. And if it's going to rain, it's going to rain..."
"What do you mean 'it's going to rain'?" Pepa asked suspiciously, feeling a little panic building in her stomach.
She didn't know why Bruno would say that on such an important day. He should have known better than most people that once she started to worry about losing control of her gift, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. He had quite possibly single-handedly ruined her day with one sentence before it had even started.
Bruno looked surprised by her question.
"I didn't say it's going to rain... but even if it does, that's actually a—"
"Julieta, what did he just say?"
"Oh dear. Please leave me out of this."
"No, Julieta, tell her... I didn't say that," Bruno pleaded.
"But you kinda did though..."
Pepa felt droplets of water fall on her newly styled hair and freshly made-up face, and she lost it. Before she knew what was happening, she had picked up a hairbrush from the dressing table beside her and launched it at her brother's face.
"Get out!" she screamed.
Bruno managed to duck in time not to be hit by the brush, but he looked utterly shocked in the moments that followed. Pepa didn't care. She was furious that her own brother could be so thoughtless on such an important day. She had absolutely intended for the brush to hit him, and she knew if he didn't get out of her sight in the next few seconds, she would try to hurt him again.
"Okay, I'm going..." He seemed to realise what she was thinking and quickly left the room.
xxx
10 years ago...
Pepa sat bolt upright from her sleep. Something was wrong with her sister. She slid from the cloud, and Félix stirred with a snore but didn't wake. Once out of her room, she could hear Julieta's pained cries from the hallway by the front door, so she hurried down to her.
"What's happened? Are you hurt?" she asked when she reached her.
Julieta's eyes were red, and her cheeks soaked with tears.
"It's Bruno.. he's left..." she sobbed. "He means to leave the Encanto."
"Left?" Pepa repeated. "That coward? Oh come on, he won't last a day out there. Trust me, if I know our brother... and I do... he'll be back inside this house before the week is out." She sat on the floor beside Julieta and put her arm around her, pulling her in for a hug.
"You didn't see his face. If you'd seen him, you'd know. He has no intention of returning," Julieta said before crying again. "You know how it works, Pepa. How many people have ever left the Encanto and returned? Even if he does change his mind, he'll never find his way home."
"What's going on? Why's Mamá crying?"
Julieta's middle daughter appeared on the stairs.
"Luisa, darling. Go back to bed," Julieta said, trying to mask her sadness.
"Did something happen to Tío Bruno?" Luisa asked, clearly concerned.
"Please, back to bed... We can talk about this in the morning," Julieta insisted
Luisa did as she was told and returned to her room. Their mother then came down the stairs with a look of horror.
"Has something happened? The candle... I saw it dim again," she said, her voice cracking.
Pepa sat upright. "She says Bruno is leaving the Encanto."
"He's left?" her mother breathed. There was a flash of terror in her eyes that was quickly replaced with rage. "Then he's betrayed his family. That wretched man couldn't even help us when we needed him most. He would rather leave than have just one vision.."
"Mamá, he said he had the vision," Julieta insisted.
"And you believed him?" her mother retorted. "I know you always saw the best in him, Julieta, but trust me, it wasn't always there."
"He was telling the truth!"
"So tell me, where is this vision he claims to have had?"
"He said he destroyed it."
Their mother sneered, "Oh, he did, did he? How convenient."
Pepa then interjected. "It does seem a bit suspicious that there's no evidence of it," she said, reluctantly agreeing with her mother.
Their mother then walked towards the stairs. She placed a hand on the bannister, then said, over her shoulder, "I don't ever want to hear his name again. Do you understand? From this day on, I only have two children." She then headed back towards her room.
"Fine by me," Pepa agreed.
Pepa turned to her sister and saw that she was still crying. Although she didn't share her sadness, she could feel her pain.
"Come on, Julieta, let's go back to bed," she suggested, taking her hands and helping her to her feet. "It's been a stressful day, and you need your rest."
Julieta looked pleadingly at Pepa. "You didn't mean that, did you? You won't really just forget about Bruno like that?"
Pepa paused and inhaled deeply before saying, "Forget about who?"