Bruno and the Candle

Tomorrow's my 21st birthday, me and my sister's. But it's not as much celebrating our 21 years of life but celebrating 16 years of having 'a gift that never stops giving'.

The three of us, Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno (that's me), spend all our time using and controlling our gifts. We use them to help our community. Or keep it from falling apart.

Julieta's gift is to heal with her food, so she's always cooking, and always feeding the hurt and sick. The line never seems to end, she always has to make more. I help her out sometimes, but on her own, she barely gets enough sleep.

Pepa's emotions control the weather around her, so she must control them. She has to be constantly happy when she's in town so the sun can shine through, but not so happy to cause rain. Happy rain is for when she's watering fields. Pepa can make it rain with her anger too, but that's a thunderstorm. She's not allowed to water with anger anymore since the lightning set fire to the field a few times. So now Pepa has to be either in a controlled state of happiness or alone in her room. Not the easiest philosophy to live by.

My gift is to see the future, but my visions tend to be terrible premonitions. My job is to tell what bad things are going to happen and get people the help they need. I do that, but more often than not, the people blame me for 'making bad things happen'. Ever heard of "don't shoot the messenger"? I didn't do anything, I just saw what happens!

The worst is that my mom is always disappointed in me. When I tell of ill fate, Mama sighs, "Ay Brunito, why must it always be bad with you?" If something awful happens that I didn't foretell, she's all like "Bruno Madrigal! Why did you not warn us of this?!"

I'm just... I'm just tired of never being enough. I'm tired of watching people get hurt over and over again when it means nothing. Julieta heals it with an arepa and everyone's happy again. But heaven forbid a fire, death, or even weight gain. "Bruno, why do you do this to us?" "Bruno, you should of told us sooner" "Bruno, you ruined my life!"

I'm tired of having to see my sisters struggle. Julieta works all day and well into the night making food to heal the people. I'd say she functions on about five hours of sleep and a lot of coffee. And Pepa, our most social of social butterflies, is stuck alone in her room because people avoid her and her storms. She has a crush on Felix but can't even talk to him because she's afraid of making a tornado and blowing him away- in a bad way. She blizzards every time she talks about it.

It would just be easier if we didn't have the gifts.

So that's why I'm here tonight, in the candle room.

Mama's Candle is what gave us our Miracle. It made the Encanto. It's what gave us our gifts. As long as it burns bright, the magic stays strong. If I blow it out, then our 'gifts' will leave too.

I know it's selfish. My conscience won't leave me alone. People won't know the future, healing won't happen as fast, and they'll have to do a lot more work to grow food. But then my sisters will be happier. They'll be able to have real lives. Do things for themselves for a change; take that break, get that guy. The people of the Encanto should learn to take care of themselves anyway.

I'm taking our future in my own hands. I'm taking the candle and snuffing it out as a birthday present for me and my sisters

The clock struck 12. Today's the day.

I sung to myself, "Happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to Julieta and Pepa and Bruno. Happy birthday to you"

I made my wish, and I blew out the candle.