It surprised Alma just how much they could change in just three weeks. Mirabel's hearing hadn't approved any, but the family had all seemed to master sign language rather quickly, and Mirabel wasn't the only one who was thriving with the new language. So was Dolores.
Dolores no longer was getting headaches as often as before, she wasn't retiring to her room for long periods of time due to the noise and was now contributing a lot more to conversations. Alma had never thought Dolores was quiet, she held conversations just fine, but with sign language, Dolores was a regular chatterbox.
At the moment she was talking to Luisa and Mirabel about her date with Mariano, giving them all the gory details, including signing the poem that he wrote for her to them. The two younger girls were absolutely amazed and kept interrupting with questions.
Alma smiled as she walked past and entered the kitchen, "Seems like Dolores really enjoyed her date with Mariano," she said.
"Yeah," Pepa muttered, waving her cloud away quickly, "She did, I hope she isn't just some rebound relationship for Mariano," she insisted as her cloud returned, this time with lightning crackling in it. Pepa took one look at the cloud, waved it away, and then left the kitchen, no doubt heading back to her room. Even with Mirabel insisting that it was an accident Pepa was scared that she might hurt someone else, and therefore she usually heads to her room if she has a cloud over her head.
"She's still locking herself up in her room every single time that she gets the least bit emotional?" Alma asked, concerned.
"Yeah," Julieta confessed, shaking her head sadly, "She's really upset about what happened," she sighed loudly as she pulled a pan of cookies out of the oven, "I hope for her sake that this Doctor can fix Mirabel's hearing. Pepa's taking this harder than Mirabel is."
"So what are the plans for tomorrow? Her appointment is tomorrow afternoon right?"
"Yes, We'll probably leave right after breakfast and pack a picnic lunch… the problem is… I won't be here to make lunch and I have no idea when I am going to be back, so dinner…"
"I'll take care of meals tomorrow," Alma offered, "You just take Mirabel to her appointment and hopefully we can get some answers."
…
Mirabel stared in awe at the bustling city, strange horseless carriages zoomed around faster than any horse she had ever seen, and the press of people on the strange gray walkways was astounding. She wondered what it sounded like. Back at home, there was always a soft hum of conversation in the marketplace, the laughter of children, and even the sound of at least one song being played on at least one instrument, more often than not it was multiple songs being played on multiple instruments. Encanto loved their music.
Music, she hadn't been able to hear music since the accident three weeks ago, she missed it, but hopefully this doctor that Tia Pepa had found could make it so that she would be able to hear again, that would be nice.
She shifted closer to her mother, reaching over and clasping her hand as if she was a young child, there were more people here than there were in Encanto, and Mirabel didn't want to get separated from her mother, especially since she wouldn't be able to ask for help from anyone.
Her mother lead her through the streets until she came to a building with a large sign. Julieta opened the door and Mirabel slowly stepped in.
The room was large with several places to sit and a table full of thin books with flimsy covers. Julieta quickly lead Mirabel to one of the seats and signed to her to stay there while she went to let them know that they were there.
Mirabel nodded, before glancing through the magazines, picking one up with a girl in her quinceanera dress on the cover, and started to flip through it. She closely examined each elegant dress, noting certain designs on each of them. They all were beautiful, and she was confident that if she wanted to she could easily copy the designs.
After a while her mother tapped her gently on the shoulder and had her follow a woman down a hallway. Soon they were led into a room with a couple of hardback chairs, a stool that had wheels on the bottom of it, a desk, and a strange padded countertop.
The woman, through Julieta, because it appeared that she did not know sign language, had Mirabel step onto a strange square where the woman fiddled with some beads and pressed a small metal bar against the top of her head, before writing something on her clipboard. Then she was asked to jump up onto the counter, where she took her temperature and other vitals. Once more she wrote things down on her clipboard, before saying something to Julieta and leaving.
…
Julieta glanced around the room as the nurse left to fetch the doctor, before glancing at Mirabel, she wasn't sure who was more nervous, her or Mirabel. Please, oh please let the doctor be able to help.
Finally, the door opened and a man who was probably just a little bit younger than Agustin stepped in. Dr. Cardenas stepped in.
"Hola," he said brightly, "What can I do for you?"
Julieta stood up, accepting the greeting, and explained, "I'm Julieta Madrigal, and this is my daughter, Mirabel. About a month ago she was struck by lightning and the thunder damaged her hearing. I'm at a loss on how to help her. I'm hoping to get a better opinion than what I've been given."
He nodded, noting that down, "So you are here for a second opinion?" he asked.
"I'm here because I want to consult someone who has more experience with injuries like these. According to the doctor, I took her to when we first notice that she was deaf, both of her Malleus bones are broken. He told us that there wasn't anything that he could do about it."
"Let me take a look," he said grabbing his otoscope, and peered into Mirabel's ear. He hummed to himself before checking the other one, "He's correct," he said, "Did he recommend you come here?"
"No," Julieta said shaking her head, "Mi hermana saw an advertisement for you, and thought that you might be able to help," she looked at him with pleading eyes, "Can you?"
"I think so," he admitted, "There's a surgery that I can perform, to fix her eardrums."
"Surgery!" Julieta asked in concern, she had helped Dr. Ruiz with several surgeries when her food just wasn't enough. It was always extremely painful, and she couldn't imagine her daughter going through that.
"Yes, I'll go in and replace the broken bones with artificial ones and then I'll patch up the eardrum as well."
"I don't know, will it hurt her?"
"She won't feel a thing," Dr. Cardenas insisted, "She'll sleep right through the procedure. Would you like a pamphlet about what to expect with the surgery?" he asked, opening a door in his desk and pulling out a large folded piece of paper.
Julieta nodded taking it, she was quiet for a moment as she skimmed the pamphlet, before she tapped on Mirabel's shoulder.
Mirabel glanced up at her mother when she tapped her shoulder, taking the pamphlet that she handed her, "What's this?" she signed nervously.
"It's a pamphlet about a surgery that can fix your hearing," Julieta explained. Her sign language was chunky and slow, not as fluid as Mirabel's but that didn't stop Mirabel from understanding what was being said.
…
It was getting late, Alma was starting to get worried about Julieta and Mirabel. They had promised to be here in time for Cena but there was no sign of them, and the food was starting to get cold, "Dolores," she said softly, "Can you hear Julieta and Mirabel?"
"I'll try, but it's really hard to tell if it's them or not from far away if they aren't talking, and since I can't hear sign language…" she trailed off, concerned, tipping her head to the side. Suddenly she smiled and her hands flew, forming the words, "Tia just called out to me, they're on their way home now, but we shouldn't worry about waiting for them, they'll eat when they get home."
Alma was not as good at understanding sign language as the rest of the family was, but she was learning, so while she didn't quite understand what she was saying she understood that Julieta was on her way home and something about eating. Probably to go ahead and eat without them.
It wasn't long after they had dished up that Luisa asked, "As Mama said anything about how the appointment went?"
Dolores shook her head, signing, "No, nothing, but she has mentioned that they have good news to share."
"I hope that the Doctor can help her," Antonio insisted, "She hasn't been the same since Mami hurt her."
The wind picked up, and a cloud formed over them as Pepa stood up suddenly, pushed her half-eaten plate of food away, and announced that she wasn't hungry anymore, before hurrying upstairs to her room.
Felix sighed, standing up as well, and grabbed the plate, "Let's try not mentioning how Mami hurt Mirabel, okay," he said softly to Antonio, "How would you feel if someone kept mentioning how you hurt one of your friends by accident?"
"Bad," Antonio admitted, "I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one who you upset," Felix pointed out, "Come on, let's go talk to Mami."
After Antonio and Felix left Casita rattled her tiles in greeting as Julieta and Mirabel arrived home. Mirabel immediately headed to the table, her hands flying eagerly as she talked to her sisters and prima about what had happened. All three responded eagerly as she took a spot between Luisa and Isabela as they both piled food up on her plate.
Julieta glanced around the table, frowning when she noticed who was missing. "Where…" she started but Bruno quickly answered.
"She got upset and left right before you got home," he explained, "Felix went up to try to calm her down. Antonio was sent up to apologize for upsetting her."
"Okay, I guess I'll tell them later, the doctor's visit went great, although we're going to have to make some plans," she admitted, "She's scheduled to have surgery next week that will repair the damage, but we're probably going to have to stay in the city a couple of nights," she explained, "She'll have to have some pre-op stuff done the day before and she has to check in for the surgery very early the next day, and I don't know how long it'll take before she's well enough to return home afterward…"
"Can't Mirabel just eat some of your food Mama?" Isabela suggested.
Julieta shook her head, "She has a doctor's appointment a week after the surgery to check on how she's healing. They might get suspicious if she's completely healed by then, besides there's…" she trailed off, "According to the pamphlet that the doctor gave us explaining the surgery, they'll put a special padding inside of her ear, as she heals the padding dissolves. What if healing her magically prevents the padding from dissolving, or causes more damage? I don't think Mirabel can have my food until she's fully recovered from the surgery."
