Chapter 26: Home Reprise 2

Everybody heard orders from the police to quarantine until they solve this "strange illness" that has overtaken many teenagers and adults. Many families were content in staying in their homes because they wanted to be safe from those mad people.

But not all families were feeling the same. Many mothers in the East Side had notified the police that their teenage and preteen children were missing.

"My son Luca is gone!" Daniela Paguro cried. "I can't find him anywhere!"

"I can't find my Mei!" Ming Lee sobbed. "Please help me find my daughter!"

"Ladies, please calm down!" Officer Jenkins said. "I will find all your children as soon as I can."

"You better be doing your job or else I'll report you to the mayor!" Ming Lee snapped.

"Oh boy…," Officer Randall Jenkins sighed. 'Finding the mayor's son and the kids is not going to be easy!'

The Madrigals and the Riveras had been searching for the love potion and their children for hours. Exhausted from their endless search, they decided to head home and try again tomorrow (without the police catching them). When the adults came home to check on Mama Coco and the toddlers, they were horrified to learn from Mariano's mother that Mariano and the other teenagers had been gone for hours! Only Antonio, Manny, and Benny were safely snuggled up in their beds.

The Rivera and the Madrigal mothers along with Mariano's mother went to notify the police immediately.

"Ladies, please," Officer Calhoun assured them. "Calm yourselves. McBrayer and I will find the love potion and your missing children." Her partner (and secretly, her husband) nodded as well.

"Do you promise?" Luisa asked, sniffling. She was dabbing her eyes with her husband's handkerchief.

"Yes, we do," Calhoun and McBrayer smiled assuredly. "Now please go back home and stay indoors at all times, until we can find them and clear up this mysterious plague."

Alma entered into the Rivera hacienda followed by the other mothers.

Mariano's mother had gone back to her own house.

The women found their husbands in the drawing room, waiting for them.

"Well, what happened?" Franco asked his wife. He stood up from his big comfy green chair. "What did the police say?"

Elena nodded, too sad to speak. She tried to hold everything together, but her insides crumbled up like water breaking through a dam. "Oh, I can't believe our son went out into the unknown! What if something terrible happens to him? I still remember how he almost died from being beaten by those ruthless, vicious, and violent thugs!"

"He's a grown man, he can defend himself!" Franco assured her.

"What about my son?" Enrique asked, firmly. "My son ran off and he is nowhere to be found!"

"I hope Miguel is with Héctor!" Luisa worried, looking out at the window. "I wish he didn't have to leave."

"Why did he have to go and follow my brother?" Enrique complained. "I told him many times to not go in that rough area and did he listen to me? No!"

"Lord, please let Miguel be safe and sound," Luisa prayed. "Please let him be safe and sound."

"You two aren't the only ones that lost a child," Agustin said, sadly.

"Our daughters are gone," Julieta sniffled, in a breaking voice.

"Now I know what that feels like," Luisa said to Julieta. "To lose a child." Her best friend put her arm around her shoulder with a sad smile.

"What could have happened to Camillo and Dolores?" Felix lamented.

"And where did Abel and Rosa go?" Berto bemoaned.

"This is not what I had in mind when I told Abel to look after everyone," Carmen grumbled.

Pepa sniffled and blew her nose into her tissues. Her cloud of rain hovered over the house.

"Pepa, get rid of your cloud!" Alma snapped. I could hear raindrops over the hacienda!"

"Oh, do you think I can help it, Mamá?" her second eldest daughter cried. "My babies are missing!"

"Yes!" Felix added in Alma's direction, hugging his wife. His warm and strong arms soothed her, letting up the storm.

"You're lucky that the police didn't suspect my cloud!"

"I have a feeling that I should be blamed for this," Mamá Coco spoke in her shaky voice. Guilt was consuming her like a snake wrapping its coils around a mouse.

"No!" The other adults felt their hearts sinking. It hurt them to think that the elderly lady was blaming herself.

"It wasn't your fault, Mamacita," Abuelita smiled, sadly. "You had no idea."

"If it was me, I would have thought they were going to the drugstore, too, " Berto piped up. He was trying to cheer up his grandma.

"Gracias mijo," Mamá Coco chucked, sadly. "But I feel so sad that they're gone. Who knows where they could be?"

"Papá?" A small little voice said.

The adults turned around to see Benny, Manny, and Antonio coming down the stairs.

"Antonito!" Felix gasped. "Why are you and the twins awake?"

"Where's Dolores and Camilo?" Antonio asked.

"Where's Abel?" Manny piped up.

"Where's Rosa?" Benny added.

"When is Miggy coming home?" Manny asked.

"When is Mirabel coming home?" Julieta whispered to herself.

Alma was close enough to hear her eldest daughter talking softly. And the mention of her granddaughter's name struck her heart like a knife.

It took a while for the boys' parents to calm them down.

"They'll be back, mijo," Felix whispered, hugging Antonio. "They'll be back."

"We don't know when," Berto continued, hugging Manny.

"But they will be home someday," Carmen finished, holding Benny in her arms. "The police will find them."

"The police promised to find them," Pepa added.

"Promises, promises," Alma grumbled. "Oh what hope is there?" she raised her voice. "Why do you listen to them? Have the police done anything for us? Had any of our mayors been there for us? They can't find our children! Have they ever tried to find the last missing people? No! None of them; not one!"

Before anyone could say anything to console her, the old woman angrily stormed upstairs into the guest bedroom. She slammed the door.

"¡Buenas Noches!" Mamá Coco called, thinking that her guest was going to bed.

'Why do I keep losing my family?' Alma thought. The matriarch of la familia de Madrigals, sat on a red sofa, back slouched and downcast eyes. Her locket rested on her chest. She opened her locket and glanced at the family photo, the same copy that her son and granddaughter have. 'First I lost my son, then my granddaughter, and now the other children are gone forever.'

Her eyes landed on her only son in the photograph. 'Bruno, why did you leave me? What did I do to make you upset? Was this because I was too controlling in the studio?' She recalled the many fights she and her son had. He had criticized her for putting too much pressure on him, his sisters, and the grandchildren. Her son had wanted to make new changes to the studio. What changes did he want to make? Perhaps it was him wanting to be a director or having Mirabel play the leading role. Or was it adding new people to the studio like that loose woman? In all her years of show business, Ernestina's audition was the worst the old lady woman had ever seen! If those were the changes that her son wanted to make for the studio, she would not allow it!

She couldn't bear any mistakes. She's afraid that one mistake will go wrong and the powers will be secretly reviewed on film. If someone points it out, she could simply explain that it was trick photography. But if someone from outside of the family were to see her family's gifts, what excuse could she give them? That loose woman who had auditioned for them, may or may not have seen their gifts. If she did, someone would have told her, right? Still, she went into a state of panic and blamed everything on her only son.

"Why can't there be any changes?" Bruno challenged.

"Because I said so!" Alma shouted. "You try to bring danger to this family by bringing that hussy in!"

"How is that so? I only brought her in because she wanted to be an actress!"

"Ernestina could have seen our gifts!"

"You don't know that!" Her son breathed a sigh and cooled off. "Mamá, it doesn't have to be her or other potential candidates. But can we make other changes? Like maybe giving Mirabel or Dolores a leading role while Isabella can take a break. And I can direct while Camillo plays the villain. I even wrote a script for our new movie!"

He gave her the script but she gave nothing more than a quick read of the first two pages. "No, no, no, NO!" she yelled. "Are you insane!? Isabella playing a forest fairy!? Her powers will be exposed! Mirabel playing the lead!? She's not pretty enough for the camera! And Camillo is too silly to be the villain! This script is horrible and I refuse any changes!" She threw the script back at his face, leaving a dent. "This is worse than seeing that hussy's audition!"

"Fine!" Bruno yelled, pulling the script off his face. He gasped for air so his face would puff up. Afterward, he threw his script across the floor. Papers spilled everywhere around them. "If you won't let me do whatever I want, then I'll run away to Hollywood! At least nobody won't boss me around! Unlike the people in this crummy old town!"

"If you leave this house and this town, you are dead to me!" the old lady spat.

"I wish I was dead!" Bruno growled at her.

That was the last conversation she ever had with him. He didn't speak to her again for the next day or so. Bruno just went to his bedroom and wrote more scripts. He only left because he felt he had to tell his best friend something. He came home very late that night, and the next day he was gone.

Alma glanced at the photo where her son stood. 'Bruno, why did you leave? Why? Was it because of me? Had I known that you would leave, I would have apologized! I didn't mean all these terrible things that I said!'

Then she moved her eyes onto her youngest granddaughter. 'Oh, Maribel. I'm so sorry I'm sorry I didn't appreciate you when you were here. Now I'd do anything to have you back here. If only I could hold you in my arms like a hen holds her chicks.'

When her granddaughter had run away, she called the police, beseeching them to find her.

The police had gone out and searched her whereabouts. She had hoped that the little girl was probably hiding in a bush somewhere or at one of her friend's houses. But days went by, and the police returned with the sad news that they could not find her. They believed her to be dead because they couldn't find her body. But she, Juietta, and Agustin refused to believe that Mirabel was dead. They refused to take the police's advice to "forget about her and move on." It was not a surprise, they had said the same thing to her when they couldn't find her son. Those police officers who refused to keep on searching were fired by the new mayor who had brought in his new police crew. The new police had done their best to find her. But when they couldn't, they declared the disappearance of the Mirabel Madrigal girl a cold case. Their other case of the missing Bruno Madrigal was also moved to a category of cold cases, as well.

Alma looked up toward the ceiling, wondering what to do. 'O Lord, what have I done? What have I done? It hurts my heart to hear my family miss my son and my granddaughter, but they will never come back, never. I wish they would. I miss them too.'

"Home is not a place"

"An address you memorize"

"It's more than Mexico"

"Or Columbia"

"It's where you never feel lonely"

"Whenever you're alone"

"That's how you know you are home"

Alma recalled how she and Pedro used to be so happy. A home in Santa Cecilia, Mexico, away from Columbia and their parents. She got angry at thinking about how her critical parents used to always pressure her into being the "perfect daughter." Money and status were all they cared about. Meanwhile, Pedro was an outcast among a family of people who had been blessed with gifts. He was blamed by his parents for his "lack of faith" for not having a gift. No matter how faithful Pedro tried to be, he couldn't develop his spiritual gift and was still mistreated by his family.

Two souls who needed love were unloved and unwanted.

Then Alma and Pedro met in the town square during a holiday. They caught each other's glances and met by the water fountain. There, they talked for hours until he escorted her back home. Neither of their families liked each other thus the couple eloped to Mexico. Their new home on Santa Cecilia was peaceful and friendly. Their children laughed and ran around in the courtyard while they had lunches with Elena and Franco Rivera. Life was perfect.

Then came the revolution and all that changed. People were fighting everywhere so often that it was no longer safe for families to live.

Fleeing to California was hard, they lost several people who the soldiers shot. Pedro lost his life protecting his family. Alma had to start all over in California. But nothing was ever the same.

"How I wish that I could feel that"

"Once more, Right now"

The old lady looked at her family photo again. It took all her strength not to crumble when she saw Bruno and Mirabel.

"How I wish that you could find it again"

"Home is like a smile"

"You see in a photograph"

"No matter what you do It's not supposed to change"

"I really need you to be here"

"Because you want to be"

"Back on the ground"

"No more racing around"

"Here, safe and sound"

"With me.

"I have failed, Pedro," Alma sobbed. "I've failed our children." She put her face in her hands as tears cascaded from her tear ducts.