Chapter Nine:
"Therefore Mirabel got her magic from her Abuela on Papa's side, and Abuelo on Mama's side," Isabela concluded.
"But..." Alma protested, surprised, "He never told me about that."
"It's quite common for wizards to keep their identities secret from everyone except follow wizards that they are friends with," Tina insisted, "There's a lot of people in the world that will want to take advantage of our magic, and some that would turn violent out of fear of it. It's safer this way. If it wasn't for the fact that you have normalized magic where you live and all have it, I wouldn't be telling you any of this myself."
"Wait," Camilo said, "But if that's true, that means that everyone else here carries the gene, right? I could have a magical child."
"It depends Milo," Mirabel insisted, "The only one's we know for sure carry the gene is me, Tia, Tio, Mama, and Papa. That means that there is a good chance that Isabela and Luisa are carriers."
"What's a carrier?" Antonio asked, giving his favorite prima a confused look.
"When you are born your parents give you something called genes. Magic has two different ones, one says 'You don't have magic' and one says "You have magic' only the one that says 'You don't have magic' is really bossy so it won't let the one that says "You have magic' let you use magic if you have both. Everyone has two of them, and when a Mami and Papi have a baby they each give them one. When someone has one 'You have magic' but can't do magic, they are called a carrier, because they can give that magic to one of their children but can't use it themselves. Like Mama y Papa."
Antonio shrugged, before walking away, no longer interested in what Mirabel had to say.
…
After looking around the school for a little while, as there wasn't as much to see and do as at the college, the family of twelve left, stopping by the other college campus so that Isabela and Luisa could turn in their applications.
The family then stood on the vast green lawn out front to discuss what they wanted to do that day.
"I would like to see if I can't find our old house, or at least where it used to be," Alma insisted.
"That sounds like a great idea," Mirabel said brightly, "But how are we going to find it."
"I grew up here," Alma insisted, "I can find the house… I think."
Mirabel pulled out her map, and spread it out on her lap, smiling slightly as she pointed out a spot on the map, "It will probably be in the Old Town Section, that's the part that was built before the war, "There's a bus, if we hurry we can catch."
…
There was only one bus stop for Old Town, reach opened up to a row of little shops, that looked a lot like Encanto's market place, "Wow, it looks just like home!" Antonio exclaimed eagerly.
Alma chuckled, "That it does, that it does," she admitted.
Mirabel rolled herself over to the rest of the family from where she had been lowered down from the bus at the back, "So," she asked nervously, pulling out her map again, "Where to next."
"I lived on… let's see… I think it was… Amor Street, that was what it was. Pedro always use to joke with me that it was a sign of our commitment to each other to live on Amor street."
"Huh, Amor… Amor," Mirabel muttered, scanning her map, "Huh, there it is," she announced, "according to this map, Amor Street is this way," she announced, wheeling her chair down the sidewalk .
The family followed her, as she turned the corner, went another block before crossing the street, to where a large sign read Historical Amor Street. Underneath it was a plaque that explained that these were some of the few homes that remained standing in this part of town when raiders had chased and killed the inhabitants of this neighborhood.
The whole family was silent as Alma read the family the plaque, her voice quivering as she did so, "That was a terrible day," she admitted, "I lost so many friends and family that day, including Pedro."
"Are you okay Mama?" Julieta asked, gently touching her shoulder.
Alma jumped a little, "Yeah, it just, I remember the last time I stood here, at this very spot, looking back at our home and knowing, even then that I was never going to be able to go back, that I would never be able to provide my children with the life I had hoped for them," Alma gestured down the street, "It's right there, I can see it from here," she announced gently.
"Do you think we can go look at it?" Pepa asked softly as Felix waved a cloud away before anybody noticed it, Tina Rojas warning about people's reactions to magic still fresh in his mind.
"I don't see why not," Alma said firmly, shaking her shoulders slightly, "Come on," she insisted, before leading them down the street a little way and stopping in front of a tiny house, "This is it," she announced.
The door to the house was opened a little bit in there was a sign out front, just like all of the other houses on the street.
Luisa looked over the top of everyone's head and read the plaque out loud to everyone, "La Casa Madrigal," she read, "Alma and Pedro were well liked in the community and always willing to give a helping hand. They had just welcomed their first children into the family, triplets Julieta, Josefina, and Jose, when the attack happened. You can still see the abandoned cradles and Pedro's guitar inside."
"Wait one minute," Camilo said sharply, turning to her mother, "Why is Tia the only one mentioned on the plaque? And who in the world is Josefina and Jose?"
"That would be your Mama and Tio," Alma announced, "I liked the names Josefina and Jose, but your abuelo wanted Pepa and Bruno. For your mother it was easy, we'll name her Josefina and call her Pepa, but Jose and Bruno, oh, we had trouble coming up with a compromise for that one," she admitted, "He was the first one to give… as long as he kept his choice as a middle name..." Alma sighed, "After… everything… when everything calmed down enough to christen them, I swapped the names around, Bruno Jose, instead of Jose Bruno, he was the only son we were ever going to have and it was only right for Pedro to name him."
"So Mama's real name is Josefina?" Camilo asked, "How in the world did I not know that."
Felix chuckled, "Camilo, if it makes you feel better, I didn't know that her name was really Josefina until our wedding."
Bruno burst out laughing, "Oh my that was great, the ceremony had just started and the Priest, of course, used their full names, and Felix got so confused, and was like "Who's Josefina?" and Pepa, Pepa… She…." it was anybody's guess at what Pepa had done to finding out that her new husband didn't know what her full name was because Bruno just dissolved into laughter at that.
Julieta and Pepa gave their brother a weird look, "You have a really weird sense of humor, hermano," Pepa confessed, "All I did was tell him that it was me."
"No you didn't Mi Sol," Felix insisted, "You told me, 'That's me you freaking Idiot' while slapping me on the arm with your bouquet."
"Still don't understand why he's laughing so hard about it?" Pepa confessed, as she opened the gate to let everyone into the house.
"I think it's a coping mechanism," Dolores confessed as the family filed through the front door. The house had, like the plaque outside had suggested, been set up like a museum, ropes stopping people from entering the bedroom, where a bed was freshly made and three cradles had lined the wall."
"It kind of looks like your room back home," Mirabel announced, "At least, I think it looks like your room back home, it's been a while since I've actually been in there."
"Si, my room at home looks very much like this one, I guess Casita wanted me to have something familiar while the world around me was changing," Alma said, softly caressing the guitar that was leaned up in a corner, ignoring the sign that said don't touch.
"I wonder who's responsible for maintaining the homes, it's obvious that nobody lives in this area," Mirabel questioned, "I mean I can understand why, after what happened that night, but I wonder if we tell them that you're Alma Madrigal if they will let you take some of these personal belongings back to Encanto."
"I don't know," Alma said, moving forward to glance at what looked like a guest book on a stand near the window that Pedro had been looking out of when he saw the raiders. She kind of flipped through the pages slightly, looking at everyone that had visited her home. Most of them were just names and numbers, but suddenly she let out a gasp as she took a step backwards, her hand covering her mouth in surprise.
"Mama, what's wrong," Julieta asked, steadying her and guiding her to the couch, ignoring the please don't sit sign, after all, the couch technically belonged to them. If it hadn't been for that faithful night, this was were she and her siblings would have grown up. They might have even had had younger siblings.
"It's, it's..." Alma couldn't seem to be able to form a coherent sentence, "Ana."
"Ana?" Camilo repeated, "Who the heck is Ana," he demanded, going over to the book, "Ana Lopez-Martinez and family," he read slowly, before shaking his head, "I don't understand."
"Abuelo wasn't the only family member you lost that night, was he?" Mirabel suddenly asked, leaning forward in her chair, "You said that you lost lots of friends and family that night, including Abuelo. That means you lost..."
"My sister, Ana," Alma confessed, "We weren't really close. Long story short, my parents didn't approve of Pedro, and Ana sided with them. They didn't come to the wedding, and I doubted that they would have showed up for the triplets' Christening if it had happened here."
"That actually answers a few questions I've had for years," Agustin suddenly announced, "It was common knowledge that you didn't really like me, but you still let me marry Juli."
"It was either let Julieta marry you, or lose her," Alma said, "I didn't want to lose her, and I'm glad that I made the choice that I did, because you make her happy, and you are a valuable member of this family now."
Isabela opened her mouth, no doubt about to ask why she had allowed their mother to marry someone that she didn't approve of, but was going to force her into marrying someone she didn't. Mirabel, however, beat her to the punch.
"You know, I think I know a way to get a hold of her if you are interested," she announced excitedly, "Who knows, maybe she'll be happy to see you like Abuelo was happy to see Papa."
"How do we do that?" Isabela asked, curious.
"We need to find a phone booth," Mirabel insisted, "I think we passed one a little while ago."