"What are you waiting for, tío Bruno?"

"For Osvaldo to bring me the hoes that I ordered to prepare the land for…"

"No… What are you waiting for to ask her out?"

"Her? Who are you talking about?"

"Who have you been looking at without blinking for more than ten minutes?"

"I just find it endearing to see how she gets along with the town's children."

"You haven't stopped looking at her not even for answering me…"

He was right… I needed to learn to dissemble a bit.

"You know, I also get along with the kids in town and you don't look at me like that."

"You are a child too, it is not the same. Besides, what girls want from you is something else than getting along."

"Yes… It's exhausting being so popular, you know? I feel more comfortable getting lost in the fields with the animals."

"I get it."

"And how did you manage to deal with it, tío? How did you get women off your back without offending them?"

"Oh, no, no, no. I understood you about the animals, not about the girls. They were afraid of me; they never came near me…"

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It was easier to me that way: I was afraid of them too."

Antonio laughed and I laughed with him assuming that that was the most logical reaction I could expect.

"Tomorrow is her birthday," Antonio remarked almost in a whisper.

"I know."

"And she turns twenty-one."

"I know."

"She's gonna be of age…"

"I know…"

"You know? She's always been super good to me. She has always taken care of me and supported me. And I want to do the same for her."

"I'm sure she knows she can count on you."

"She loves you."

I looked at that eleven-year-old boy who seemed to want to teach me a life lesson hoping to find the words to evade him, but what I found in his gaze was the sincerity and purity of a child who I couldn't try to fool.

"I know. I don't understand why, but I know it."

"And you love her."

"Sometimes things are not as simple as that, Antonio."

"Ask my sister if someone you love reciprocates you is something simple."

"Nothing gets past you, huh?"

"I want Mirabel to be happy, tío, and for that, she needs you. I think it's about time you get up the nerve."

And leaving that barman's advice in the air, the youngest of my nephews climbed on the back of his friend the jaguar and trotted out of town.

Kids… They are all the unconsciousness and wisdom of the universe mixed in equal parts and packaged in size to go. But, I knew, it was not a question of nerve.

"Happy birthday, Mirabel!"

One more year, the whole family gathered around the table, celebrating the birth of the woman who had changed my life.

"Thanks, family," Mirabel answered, getting up a little excited at the effusiveness of everyone. "This year… like all the previous ones, I thank God for the wonderful family I have. I love you all madly and you all have an irreplaceable place in my heart. I'm finally twenty-one years old, and you can't believe how long I've waited until here, but the last few years have helped me to understand myself better, to know myself, to know who I am and what I want, and to give myself to caring for and serving our community without losing sight of my personal goals."

Everyone looked at Mirabel with pride and joy; with that emotion mixed with melancholy to see how the little ones cease to be. But, what I felt was something different… I felt that something dangerous was about to happen. I didn't know where Mirabel was going with that speech, but wherever it went, I didn't like it.

"This year… there is something I need you all to know. There's something that…"

Mirabel turned her head toward me and smiled decisively. Oh no…

"There is something I need to tell you."

"Mirabel… wait…"

"I am now officially a woman and I'm not going to wait another single day. I've waited long enough."

"What is it, Mirabel?" Abuela asked letting her tone sound slightly less festive and more alarmed.

Mirabel looked at Abuela and pursed her lips. It was clear that she was working up the courage for what she was about to do. Maybe, she was mentally saying goodbye to her beloved Abuela. Then, while I looked at her between admiration and terror, she turned her eyes to me and let out a huge gasp of air.

"Bruno Madrigal, I'm in love with you."

She did it. She said it in front of Abuela, in front of the whole family… After all, I hadn't been able to protect her.

Mixed with the beats of my own heart pounding loudly in my ears, I heard Pepa let out a gasp of surprise and Luisa and Abuela dropping their forks on the plates all at once. To the rest, it gave the feeling that it didn't take them that much by surprise.

"I loved you from the beginning, I still love you now, and I will always love you. And it doesn't matter how many times you tell me that this can't be and that I have to get over you and find someone who can make me happy: that's not gonna happen. I… I only want you. So if you love me too, will you marry me?"

My eyes widened, Abuela jumped up, and the general murmur finally made its appearance.

There was nothing I wanted more at that moment than to validate all her courage, hold her hand and give us the opportunity to be happy together. But unfortunately, no matter how much it hurt both of us, no matter how much damage it might do to our relationship, I couldn't do that to her.

"Mirabel…"

I also got up feeling how my ridiculously small ankles threatened to break under the pressure of my trembling legs, so I took her hand for the last time and, trying to convey all the respect and love I felt for her, I kissed her fingers; I kissed the sacred place where her ring would have gone; I kissed that corner that would never be mine.

"Mirabel, I love you; of course I love you."

The murmuring suddenly died away, and an expectant silence spread across the valley. Silence only broken by Pepa's voice.

"Of course… How had I not noticed? If they are meant for each other…"

Mirabel squeezed my hand with her mouth ajar, ignoring everything around her other than my presence, waiting for my answer with the fear of whose life depends on the feat.

"Bruno," Abuela said in a stern voice as if calling me to sanity without actually saying anything else.

"I'm sorry, mamá. I know this is not what you would expect of me, but I love her. And not like my niece," I said full of guilt turning toward Agustín at that time. "I love her as a woman."

Agustín clung to Julieta's hand and looked at me with his back straight and tense, his jaw clenched, and a terrifying gleam in his eyes.

"I love her so much that I would give her my life without thinking twice."

Mirabel smiled softly at my words and my soul ached more than ever.

"And that's why… my answer is no. I… I'm sorry."

I squeezed her hand one last time and carefully released it.

I expected tears, sorrow, or disappointment in her eyes, but what she gave me was a tremendous expression of rage.

"Bruno," she began to speak with a much softer tone than what her face reflected that she was feeling. "I'm not a child anymore."

"I know. You haven't been a child to me for a long time now."

I couldn't believe I was saying all these things in front of the family, but truth be told, I was relieved to know that, at least, I didn't have to hide anymore.

"But you will always be my niece, Mirabel. That's not going to change no matter how much we want it to; and I will always be so many years older than you that you don't have enough fingers on your whole body to count them. No matter how miraculous Julieta's arepas are, I'll always be too old for you. I cannot marry you, the Church would not accept it and I am not willing to have an extramarital affair with you: I will not dishonor you that way. And I… I can't give you a family… What can I give you?"

"I don't care if the Church doesn't accept it. If it can't be before God, we'll invent our own ceremony, but I want to be united with you."

"What is it that you don't understand?! That marriage would be invalid! You couldn't be a mother without becoming the talk of the town! I don't want you to go through that again! This is not going to be solved by rebuilding ties with the family! That burden would be with you forever!"

"But I don…"

"Besides… I wouldn't have the chance to see you grow old. I… I can't do that to you, can't you see? No… I couldn't look you in the eye again."

"Bruno, I'm aware the path is not easy, but together we can make it work, I can feel it!"

"No, Mirabel, we can't. You have to make your life without me. I'm sure there is someone in… this world… who will know how to make you happy. That's what you deserve."

"That's what you want?!" she answered finally discharging the rage that was obviously flowing through her system in the tone of her voice while the discreet sobs of Julieta and Isabela could be heard in the background and a dense gray cloud of Pepa began to accompany the feeling of the scene with her bitter rain. "That I marry anyone else?! That I get into his bed?!"

"Mirabel, stop."

"That he makes me his?!"

"Please."

"You want me to give birth to his children?!"

"Enough…"

I was at my limit.

"Do you really want to see me share all that with him?!"

"No! I don't want that, okay?! I want you to be MY wife, I want you to have MY children, I want to be 30 years younger and raise them with you! I want you not to be my niece! I want to be able to proudly shout that I love you instead of hiding as a rat scared of hurting you. I want... I want... I want to make you happy, that's all I want… but, that… that's not going to happen: that's not our fate."

My ruana weighed from the tears made rain that I carried with it; it weighed almost as much as my heart, almost as that embroidered em on my chest.

Abuela replaced her shawl, squared her back, and left the table.

"Mamá…" Julieta called her.

"I need to be alone."

"But, mamá…"

"I said alone."

Julieta let our mother go with a taciturn face, Mirabel followed her steps with her gaze, and her eyes were filled with sorrow making me realize that all that crazy thing had come to an end.

"If… if you'll excuse me…" I said moving away little by little without daring to put my eyes back on Mirabel's. "I have to… whatever. I have to go."

"Bruno!"

I didn't even slow my steps; I couldn't take it anymore. But, of course, that wasn't going to stop Mirabel.

She followed me at a run, catching up to me shortly after I rounded the corner of the house and yanking at my clothes until I fell.

"Mirabel!"

"Show me."

"Huh? What do you want me to show you?"

"You've seen it, right? Our fate. Show it to me. Help me to do the right thing."