What all is in that conspicuously empty tower? Probably more than was expected as usual. Casita be up to something for sure.

A Towerful Mystery

Julieta returned to her rooms after she and Pepa waved to their husbands as they headed into town to get more information about the outside. Agustín was doing as much as he could to prepare for his and Luisa's trip to Bogota. It astounded them all to find out there had been two world wars, and that Colombia was once again embroiled in another civil war. When both Luisa and Isa announced some weeks ago, they still wanted to travel outside the Encanto. See more of the world, see for themselves all the new things they'd heard about from the newcomers, her mother had asked if that was wise considering the political climate on the outside.

It was a valid point, and Agustín knew that, but he worried more that her mother would try interfering and said so. He'd become more vocal with Mamá when he felt she was overstepping. Still, Julieta had to admit to herself that her mother had handled the situation of people being attracted to her Mira better than she could have. Her daughter did not seem to realize it was her they wanted to be close too, but it was only a matter of time until she did. Her mother let Mira, and everyone else know that this would pass and to not be fearful of this change, but certainly not to ignore it. She realized she and Gus were guilty of the thing that they'd worried her mother would do. Letting their fear and anger cloud their judgement.

She wandered about and took in the small things Casita had placed there for her. In the rush to help Bruno she'd not paid a bit of attention to them. She'd seen a few things as they were touring the house and she laid a hand on the neatly stacked journals and books that lined the new bookcase. She'd been gifted those by the Encanto's only medical doctor, her mentor Dr. Jose Garza. He was the closest thing to a father she'd ever know and the man she owed so much of her current knowledge too. The bookcase they were previously stored in, somehow managed to survive the breaking. No, she thought, Casita has always been more than just a house and was probably the most underappreciated member of their family. But it was still Mira's best friend that she had relied on to keep her heart whole. It had carried the weight of their troubles until it could do so no longer. It had not only saved them all from certain death, it also somehow managed to protect those small things they'd most loved, all while tearing itself apart, crumbling under the weight of their dysfunction.

Julieta remembered quite vividly Mira's look of despair as Casita waved goodbye to her, burned out candle in her hand. Now that Casita was revived and the magic that had been both a blessing and a curse returned as well, she and Agustín knew they would need to stay close to Mirabel. So, during the party, Julieta went alone to the room that was meant to be Mirabel's. She found it strange that Mira wanted to stay in the room that had previously been designated as the nursery. She said she liked the view of the Encanto this room afforded her. Or maybe it would have been one change too many.

Either way it would be hers and Julieta asked Casita about the front door and if, perhaps, there was a way to keep tabs on her mother and her expectations. Something tangible that her mother could use and would be obvious to everyone. When Casita showed her the door, Julieta agreed with the house that though her mother had come so far, there was always the chance she could fall back into old habits. Old ways of thinking. Fall back into her perpetual fear of the future. Julieta was also extremely specific as to what it should be. First, no one could know who requested it, though she'd figured her mother would eventually figure it out. Second, be kind to Mamá and help her support Mirabel until her youngest would be able to fully embody that front door. Third, help Mira gain the confidence to use her many talents to heal her still fractured family and most of all, remind Mirabel when needed, that it was not her fault the breaking happened.

Julieta took off her shoes and walked into the small garden of herbs and plants she preferred to use. Julieta always liked walking through here bare footed. So many fond memories of her and her daughters playing and planting in the dirt. Julieta sat on the stone bench placed along the path, closed her eyes, and listened to the blue crowned motmot's breathy hooting as it rested on the branches of an oak tree. The real test, she knew, would be how the townsfolk would react to being limited as to what they could request of them. She hoped that would be respected, though for her, there was always a need for a healer and injuries tended to happen at awkward times.

Pepa, strangely enough, told her she wanted to get out to the fields and check to see if the irrigation system that had been built over the last year were doing their job, saying the coffee trees looks a bit limp to her. She also told Julieta about Camilo's offer of an apprenticeship to be a teacher and at first Julieta was surprised but just like her own children, Pepa's were grown as well, aside from Antonio. Camilo had proven himself to be very protective of the charges he'd cared for during the rebuilding. He was more like his father every day. Pepa and Félix had pulled Camilo aside after supper and though there was an initial look of doubt he nodded. She also noticed he did not shift from himself as often as he used to. They were all growing up, fast becoming adults.

She knew Isa's current fascinations were her way of coping with her loss of 'golden child' status as well as her current love/hate relationship with Mamá. Isa had pulled her along during the tour and she showed her how she was going to adjust how she used her Gift to strengthen the plants that were already here, instead of growing new ones. Using the knowledge she'd gained over the past year, to make herself truly useful to the community. The only flowers Isa had grown were the ones she placed on Mirabel's door. Though Julieta could tell, Isa was becoming more used to being herself around everyone, she would slip into her 'Señorita Perfecta' mode when stressed. Still, she worried most for Luisa, as her mother had never truly never addressed or made amends for her treatment of her. This had never set well with her or Gus.

Glancing at the clock she realized it was later than she thought and left her room to go next door to Bruno's. This all by itself had made her far happier than anything. She was about to knock but spotted something that surprised her. Out of curiosity she touched one of the tiny rats that framed the entire image. She wondered if Bruno had noticed. Probably, he'd not have survived being the Encanto's unloved prophet by being unaware of little things happening around him. The little wooden rat squeaked and scampered out of line only to be pulled back by the door. This made her smile and Julieta reached up when she noticed on the images of one of Bruno's hands atop up stretched arms was another. All the doors were so different, much more a reflection of the owner. Bruno's love for his family, furry or otherwise and those he counted as friends was always all encompassing. Always the extreme, all or nothing.

She knocked and the rats vanished from the hands, so she waited. There was a muffled voice from the other side, and Casita opened it to find her brother was sitting by the window painting. She also noted the small empty bottle lying on the windowsill. She stepped in and closed the door.

"Just in time," Bruno said and indicated she should come closer. Julieta did and looked at the painting and the sketch Bruno had pinned to the corner. She placed a hand around his shoulder, just because he was here, within reach and she could, so she gave him a little squeeze. He was still too thin, but his color was better. Hopefully, he'd tell her if the headaches got worse.

"Is this the woman from you vision?" Julieta asked.

"Yes."

"Oh, she does look just like Mamá, thinner maybe?"

Bruno nodded.

There was an additional knock and Pepa stumbled in holding her sides. She was laughing about something as she shut the door and slid down to the floor. "...only count to twenty…"

"You okay, Pep?" Bruno asked setting down his paint brush.

She waved a hand at them, other hand still across her stomach as her laughter subsided and said in between fits, "Sorry, sorry," she said as her localized hail stopped, and she got up. "Just something Tonito said, and it would take too long to explain. So, why did you want to see us?"

Julieta held out a hand and Pepa joined them in examining the face and after a few minutes she asked, "Bruno are you sure this isn't Mamá?"

"When you say it like that…but that isn't why I asked you to come," Bruno said avoiding the question as he moved then from the easel to the desk. He opened the drawer and pulled out several other sketches and waved for them to sit. Handing each a small stack he then sat on the ottoman and waited while they looked through them.

"So many children," Pepa said as a small cloud formed then evaporated as she leafed through her stack. "When did you make these?" she asked as she traded piles with Julieta.

"Last night," Bruno said, "Mamá suggested I draw what I saw since I wasn't able to complete that vision for her and it wasn't because I didn't want to either…something was off. I spent the better part of today thinking about that. Thinking about the first time I'd managed to do a vision without collapsing from exhaustion."

"So, what do you think the problem was?" Julieta asked as she accepted the sketches Pepa was holding. Her sister's cloud had solidified and there were gentle peals of thunder coming from it.

Bruno looked around the room, his fingers twitched as he switched from rubbing his arm, to pulling at his thumbs, back to rubbing his arms and said, "This room is a total reset of what was here at the beginning with some modifications." He gestured to the desk and window. "I also think, my Gift may have been affected similarly. The first time I was able to complete a vision successfully was when I had this," he said and went to the desk again and pulled out the rosary that had caught their attention at Mass. What they hadn't noticed then were the empty strings at the base. "There's a piece missing." He looked at his sisters and smiled his classic Bruno smile, slightly crooked, all teeth, "and since this exists, maybe one of you knows where the rest is?"

"I can help with that," Julieta said then reached into the small pocket she'd sewn into all her aprons and pulled out a small wooden crucifix.

"Have you been carrying that around all this time?" Pepa asked.

"Well, yes, I…I just felt I needed to keep it safe. In case Bruno ever needed it," Julieta said tentatively, holding it out to him.

Bruno picked up the tiny cross and looked at it for a moment. The look of relief on his face helped calm her nervousness as he then placed it and the rosary into his shirt pocket. "Oh, I have a question," Bruno said returning to his seat on the ottoman. "Have either of you been up in the tower?" he asked as he pulled out one last sketch. Both said no, so Bruno turned the page around to show a room full of doors. Each was of a different in size and design. It was a pencil sketch, so all were varying shades of gray and all except one was closed and that one was only slightly ajar.

"The spontys have been coming probably one every few hours, this room has been in the last three, but each time there's a different door that's ajar."

"Which ones?" Julieta asked.

"These," Bruno said and used his pencil to put an 'x' above them.

Pepa took the sketch from him and stood up. She put it on the desk and announced, "We're going up there."

"Not gonna lie, Pep," Bruno said sitting back on the ottoman, "I do not want to."

Pepa turned to him, hands on her hip and said, "We need to find out what's happening with Casita. We haven't been looking at this properly. We all agree this miracle is centered on Mirabel, not Mamá." Julieta and Bruno exchanged looks, both nodded so Pepa continued, "Bruno, you know your spontys always got worse whenever Mama was stressed and Julieta, you said it yourself, something is bothering Mira. Bothering her enough that it is affecting what Casita is manifesting." Julieta sighed and Bruno pulled at a loose thread on his ruana. "Well?" Pepa said as she absently waved away the cloud forming above her.

Both nodded again and got up. They joined Pepa at the door and together they stepped into the hallway. The moon was directly over Casita as they made their way to the stairs leading up to the tower. Bruno came to a halt, and Julieta knew what the frown on his face meant as he waived his sisters to the banister.

He turned away as he fiddled around in his pockets and moved aside to reveal two small piles of salt and indicated they should each take a pile. The sisters swept the grains into their hands and Bruno immediately sprinkled a small amount of what he said was sugar atop it, just in case any had spilled. With a nod he pulled out some salt for himself and the three stood facing one another then with their free hands joined at the center, threw the contents of the other over their left shoulders. Each knocked on the wooden rail five times then finished by rapping Bruno's head saying, 'knock on wood'. Julieta and Pepa laughed a little, but Bruno's face was no longer a mask of anxiety but said,

"Still do not want to go up there, but your right we need to figure this out sooner and not later. Okay, let's go," Bruno said and headed up the stairs. He stopped just short of the door, not wanting to be first so Pepa went past him and boldly opened it to find…nothing. The room was empty. They went in and inspected the walls and Bruno let out a whistle saying, "Guess we're early."

"You forgot about the new stairs," Julieta said pointing to their right. The circular staircase had rails that were joined all the way to the ceiling. Pepa went over and looked up into the darkness. The stairs wound around a thick wooden pole to the upper portion of the tower and Pepa said, "Right, up we go then." She grasped Julieta's hand and Juli held out hers for her brother, who looked tense again but took it and together they started up the winding stairs.

With each step up Pepa knocked gently on the wooden rail. Bruno alternately knocked on the center post and his head. Julieta would have joined in, but both of her hands were occupied by a sibling. As they neared the top there was a small landing and Pepa stopped. There was a faint light ahead and she looked back at them as if questioning if she should move forward. Juli and Bruno both nodded. Pepa squeezed Julieta's hand and took that last five stairs quickly, dragging her siblings after her.

"Shut the front door," Pepa said as they came to a halt. The floor looked like the wooded path behind Casita, and it stretched into an unlit area. All three crossed themselves as they walked. The silence was the thing that was most unnerving. The light they'd seen was coming from the ceiling over just one of the many doors that lined the walls, just like in Bruno's sketch but none were open. They walked closer to it and Bruno tried the knob. The door was locked. He let out a sigh and out of habit, knocked on the wooden surface. All three jumped back when there was an answering knock. "Time to go," Pepa whispered, her cloud gathering more substance by the second and all three, took another step back when the doorknob jiggled.

No longer curious, down the stairs and out of the tower they went just in time to see Félix and Agustín returning from town. Julieta waved to Agustín to come up and he in turn tugged at Félix's shirt. Félix looked up and seeing Pepa's roiling cloud knew something was up. They joined them in Bruno's room and shut the door behind them. Both sat in shocked silence as they recounted their impromptu adventure. They were going to have to make the tower off limits until they could figure out what was happening up there. Julieta asked Casita to please keep the entry to the tower locked until then. Casita clattered some tiles near the door and Julieta paused before she answered, "Yes please and thank you."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm exhausted," Julieta said rising from her chair. "We can talk about this in the morning and get Mamá's thoughts."

Earlier that Evening…

Alma was happy, genuinely happy. As her family dispersed throughout Casita, Alma decided she would go to the tower. It was the one place they'd not stopped during the house tour. She'd often come here during the reconstruction; it was a place she could be alone to think about how she would correct some of the damage she'd inflicted. She knew she would not be able to fix everything, but she knew she had to try. Most nights she was here alone, but there were times when she'd see Mirabel's secret excursions to Casita as it was being rebuilt. How that child loved this house, Alma thought, which was why she did not resist the rebuilding to match the old footprint of Casita. With every stone laid, Mirabel opened up to her how much she'd missed her smile. It wasn't that Alma never smiled; it was that she stopped sharing those smiles with Mirabel. Something that underscored how her fear caused her to disregard what she'd unconsciously started doing when Mirabel was passed over by the miracle.

Alma felt that now familiar stab of guilt but pushed it down. She needed to work harder on how to help Luisa. Her nieta's dream of going to school and becoming a vet was something Alma wanted more than anything to make possible. Now that Casita was revived perhaps a way could be found and help her better repair that relationship. She knew Agustin and Felix had gone into town after dinner to check on the state of things outside the Encanto. But getting to Bogota was not going to be as simple as going to the next town and getting on a bus. She'd spoken at length with several of the people that had come to the Encanto as she had, as traumatized refugees. They said the roads were not safe, patrolled by both the Colombian army and those that opposed them. Neither side was above random violence against civilians, especially women and children if they thought it would gain them some advantage. While there was likely some exaggeration, probably not enough to warrant risking that. She had, however, found a group of young men that were willing to 'keep an eye' on the river. This information had only been shared with the village council but now that Casita was finished she'd meant to involve her children at the upcoming meeting.

At the base of the tower stairs, she stopped and looked up at the door. She couldn't even remember what she and Bruno had argued about that day she had Casita banish him here. So many foolish decisions made in moments of anger and fear. She climbed the stairs and went in; the first level was empty of everything. No furniture, no boxes, none of the items that had been stored there before the move in. She moved on to the spiral staircase as Casita lit the way. Reaching the top, she looked at the floor with wonder. It resembled the path behind Casita. She'd taken the children back there many times so the darkness at the end did not concern her but decided it would be better to wait until morning to investigate it. Perhaps it would lead them to the people in Bruno's vision.

Casita cast a light to the wall furthest from her and she spied a random door and thought, here she was at the top of an empty tower in a magical house and of course there was another unknown door. Alma moved closer, eyeing the door there with no small amount of suspicion. "What is this Casita?"

Casita waggled the shutters and Alma wondered, how Casita could not know what it was or the source. It was just here when they woke up. Alma was not used to Casita not telling her what she wanted to know. It irked her some but she reminded herself this was not the same Casita as before. The door itself looked much like the door that led to her room downstairs, minus the knocker. She reached out and gently grasped the doorknob, as she did several more doors appeared on the walls and Alma pulled her hand back.

She looked at all the other doors. They were not like the ones downstairs they were just ordinary doors. But they were all so different, and oddly familiar to her. "Casita can you lock this?" Alma heard the sound of a deadbolt falling into place as she backed away. "The others as well please." She heard the locks and wondered what it was she done to trigger it. With the doors secured she decided tomorrow would be soon enough to figure it out and left the tower.

On her way to her room, she ran into Isabela who was coming out of hers with a pot filled with some soil. She was about to set it on the floor but saw Alma and asked if she didn't mind taking it to Mirabel's room. Alma nodded and Isa placed it in her hands and immediately turned and disappeared back into her room. Alma sighed and shifted the heavy pot to get a better grip on it.

Making it to Mira's door she thumped the pot into it and heard Mira's muffled 'Come in' and Casita opened the door for her. She almost lost her grip on it, but Luisa immediately went to her and took it saying, "Let me get that for you, Abuela."

"Thank you, Luisa, Isabela asked me to bring this over. I did not realize it was so heavy when I agreed. Do you mind if I sit for a moment?"

"Course not," Mirabel said, "Your room too."

Alma nodded and sat on one of the chairs nearest the door. She glanced over and noted the door to her room was missing. Another mystery for tomorrow she thought. It had been an eventful day and Alma closed her eyes for just a moment. She started out of her sleep when someone nudged her. Mirabel was there and smiled at her. Alma smiled back and seeing the open door, got up. "Goodnight, nietas," she said quietly.

"Goodnight Abuela," Mirabel said just as quietly. There was no response from Isabela or Luisa, so much work to do, Alma thought and went into her room. She quietly closed the door and went to her bed and sat down. Casita had placed her bed near the only window and Alma looked out at the starry sky as she opened her locket. "Ay Pedro, help me find the strength to make things right for our grandchildren, help me find ways to undo the harm I've caused," she said then kissed it. She got ready for bed, climbed in, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Alma woke from a dreamless sleep when she heard a thump. She got out of bed and pulled on her robe. Everything was quiet. But now that she was up, she decided she need to use the bathroom. She reached for the knob but stopped when she heard a series of knocks. Similar to the way Bruno did, it was a habit that he'd surely never lose. Curious she knocked back and thought she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. She went to turn the knob and realized the door was locked. Could it be?

"Casita, does this door lead to the tower?"

There was an affirmative answer. At least she knew now why the door had gone missing earlier.

"Why?"

Again, Casita indicated it didn't know.

Alma placed a hand on the door and thought of Mirabel's room, she tightened her grip on her robe with one hand and turned the knob. It was not locked now. She slowly opened it and peered out. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw her nietas sound asleep. Mira had given up her bed to her sisters and was sleeping on the sofa. They must have been up late since Mirabel was still wearing her glasses, so Alma went over and gently removed them, placing them on the table that was next to the sofa.

Alma turned to leave Mira's room and looked again at the door leading to the hallway. Casita would only say that it had been asked for, but not by whom. Well, that could only mean one of her children, most likely Julieta. It was a beautiful representation though and she found it was also helping her to manage her anxiety about the miracle being reborn. What she needed to do and how she should help Mirabel better represent her whole family. She reached out and ran a hand along the top of the jacaranda's leaves, and she noticed the beginnings of the flower buds amongst them. She heard Mirabel talking softly in her sleep but couldn't quite make out what she was saying. Alma left the room then and looking at the other side. Isa's flowers were still as beautiful as when she created them for her sister. This was unusual as previously they would only last for six hours or so and Alma realized just how much she'd been holding them all back. She sighed to herself and went down to the bathroom.