15. Luisa part 2

The town was bigger than Mirabel had imagined. There were people everywhere. People who looked like Tio Felix, people who looked like her and Papá, people who looked like Tia Pepa... There were a billion different body types, hair lengths, clothes...

Every single one of them was special and unique, but none of the others seemed to notice. They were busy going about their days, talking with friends, buying food, working on projects. Mirabel felt... small. Like she was lost in a sea.

But Luisa was easy to spot, even when she fell behind after getting distracted. She could always find her bun bouncing above the other heads around her.

Before she knew it, Mirabel was standing at the start of a large pit near the end of the village. Luisa wasted no time jumping into it and looking back up at Mirabel. “Don't come down here!” She called up, and Mirabel gave her a thumbs up.

Luisa looked around, then said, “You can help by...” she spun around in a circle, and Mirabel started feeling awkward. But then Luisa called out, “You can just keep the way clear!”

Mirabel looked at the small cliff Luisa was pointing at, and saw a series of flags. She realized almost immediately what they were for, and then nodded at Luisa.

She clasped her hands over her ears when Luisa, without warning, slammed a fist into the wall of solid rock. Mirabel gasped as Luisa pulled her fist back, and her eyes widened as she saw absolutely no damage done to her knuckles.

“Whoa!” She called out, not noticing a few small figures joining her at the side of the valley. “That was so cool!”

Luisa smiled up at her and said, “Thanks, Mirabel.” She grabbed several medium-sized stones from out of the wall, and threw them to the other side of the mini-canyon she had created. The stones clattered on a pile of their brethren on the other side, and Mirabel felt her mouth drop open.

Mirabel moved to make sure that there was nothing blocking the way in front of Luisa's path. After a few minutes of just staring at her sister/cousin the steady drumming of Luisa working became little more than super loud background noise to her.

She found herself watching Luisa was a fascination she didn't know she could possess. She had witnessed Bruno using his gift, which certainly was strange and magical, but there was something different about Luisa's. She looked strong, indubitably. But... it just surprised her every time she saw her lift something that most certainly could never be lifted.

She kept the path clear from any stray rocks Luisa threw up, but quickly grew a little... bored? No. This was still very interesting... Used to it. That was it. Sort of like how visions weren't... super crazy amazing for Papá anymore. It just seemed normal.

That was when she noticed them.

There were three small children standing next to the dramatic drop down to where Luisa was working. When Mirabel saw them she smiled and waved, but the kids weren't really interested in her. They were too busy watching Luisa work.

Mirabel walked over to join them, leaning a tiny bit over the edge to get a better view of the drop. She hummed a small tune to herself, and froze as she heard a small voice ask, in a rather jittery way, “Who are you?”

She tore her eyes off of Luisa and glanced at the middle child in the group, who was gripping a cup of presumably coffee. She smiled a bit at him and answered, “I'm Mirabel! Mirabel Madrigal. Nice to meet you!”

Remembering the little manners Papá had taught her she shoved her hand out towards the kids. The three of them took a step back simultaneously, and stared in shock at her. “There's another one?” the dark-haired girl asked, sounding surprised. Mirabel nodded slowly, then the other girl asked, “Where have you been? Why haven't we seen you before?”

Mirabel opened her mouth to respond, but she was bombarded by the three of them all asking questions simultaneously.

“Where are you from?”

“Who are your parents?”

“How old are you?”

Mirabel blinked, then took a deep breath to calm herself down. She wished that she had a bunch of wood to knock on, but seeing as there was none that she could easily access she chose to rap a small rhythm on her thigh.

“Okay...” She said, holding her hands up in front of her face. “One question at a time please.” The kids pressed themselves up near her, and she had to breathe rhythmically to not feel overwhelmed. The three of them glanced at each other, and then coffee kid asked, a bit too quickly, “Who are your parents? Can you tell us all about your family?”

Mirabel felt a smile grow wide on her face. “That first part I'm gonna wait on...” she said, quickly sweeping that somewhat awkward question under the rug for now. “The other...” Her smile grew wider, and she said, “It all started when Abuela...”

She was interrupted by the dark-haired girl saying, “Let's go to the mural!” She blinked at the three kids, and was shocked even further by the other girl grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the rest of town.

“Luisa!” she called out, making sure not to let fear sneak into her voice, “I'm going into town with these kids! We'll be at 'the mural'!”

The last words she heard from Luisa were, “Okay! Have fun!”

She was in shock.

There. Right there. On the wall. Was paint. Made to look like her family. She couldn't help but stare at Papá and his sisters. Julieta and Pepa looked so happy. But Papá... Vision times were always the worst! He did say that the town used to really like his visions, but that must have been before they started causing him pain.

“This is your family...” coffee kid said to her, and Mirabel nodded. She placed a tender hand on the rendition of what had to be a five-year-old version of herself, standing at the end of Julieta's girls. She turned back towards him and smiled widely. “Yeah!” she said, placing her hands on her hips.

She took a deep breath, then sang a bit;

“This is our home, we got every generation.”

The kids looked at each other in confusion, then Mirabel coughed into her fist. “Sorry, sorry,” she apologized, holding her hands palms out towards the kids. “What I mean is, this is my family.” she motioned towards the mural, and said, “This is Abuela. She doesn't have a gift, but she's the candle holder. She's the one who brought all of us here.”

She pointed a finger at Pepa, and said, “This is Tia Pepa, her mood effects the weather. If there's weird weather it's probably her when she's upset.”

The kids nodded, the girls sitting down on the ground crosslegged. Mirabel smiled at them, then seemed to notice the bustle of people everywhere. She crossed her fingers and hoped that she wasn't really noticed. She could feel everyone's eyes on him.

“Uh... This is Julieta,” she said, pointing at the woman she mentioned. “Her cooking can heal people. Like, from anything!”

“Yeah!” a new little girl said, sitting down next to the other three kids. “My dad got covered in cactuses the other day, and she made him all better!” Mirabel blinked at the girl, then smiled. “That's so cool!” she said, and then pointed at Bruno's picture. “This is my Papá, Bruno-”

“WE DON'T TALK ABOUT BRUNO!”

Mirabel blinked. Every single adult in the general vicinity had stopped anything and everything they were doing and was staring at Mirabel and her group of, now seven, kids. Mirabel blinked at the people, then licked her lips and said, “Uh... anyway...”

Her eyes watched as everyone went back to their tasks, and she felt her confusion rising. “Papá can look into the future. He ran away with me years ago.”

The kids nodded at her, and Mirabel blinked deeply at them. Hadn't there been seven just a second before? Why was she counting twelve?

“Then I have two Tios,” she said, and continued, “Tio Felix married Pepa, and they had Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio.”

“What can they do!” A boy yelled from the back. Mirabel laughed, and answered, “Well... Dolores can hear a pin drop. She can probably hear us right now!”

The whole group got really quiet instantly. Mirabel tilted her head in confusion, then asked slowly, “Uh... is everything okay?” The kids (why was there fifteen now? Where were all these kids coming from?) nodded, and one of them whispered, “She can hear us...”

Mirabel chuckled. “She can hear us, but it doesn't mean she's paying attention.” Most of the kids breathed sighs of relief, but some of them stayed stiff.

“Anywho...” Mirabel said, rubbing her hands together and continuing. “Camilo can shapeshift.” Several kids gasped, and some others boasted about Camilo shifting to look like them. Mirabel smiled at them and then continued.

“Antonio just got his gift the other day... I heard you were invited to the party.” she said, and the (twenty? Why were there twenty? How many kids are in this village?) kids all nodded. “So what can he do?” Mirabel asked, and was shocked as she heard, “TALK TO ANIMALS!” get yelled from the small crowd in front of her.

She smiled at the kids, then she noticed one little girl with her hand shot straight up. She nodded at the girl who said quickly, “I know what Isabela does.”

Mirabel smiled even wider and said, “What can she do?” The girl fidgeted with her brown braid, then answered shyly, “She can grow flowers. They're so pretty.” All of the other girls in the group nodded, some of them sighing with longing.

They were so cute!

“Yeah!” Mirabel said, and some of the boys rolled their eyes. “And Luisa is super strong!” Mirabel said, pointing at the picture of Luisa. “She can lift up buildings. Buildings! I can't even lift a chair!”

The kids all nodded appreciatively. “She's so cool. She's always working though.” some of the kids said, and Mirabel nodded. “She is really cool...” she said softly, and the kids all stared at her, like they were expecting more.

“Well. That's everyone!” Mirabel said, starting to turn back towards where Luisa was. “Wait!” a little girl said, standing up and grabbing Mirabel's wrist. Mirabel turned to look at her, and the girl said, “What's your gift?”

“Oh,” Mirabel said nonchalantly. “I didn't get one.”

Luisa had done it. She had rerouted the river.

And just in time, like they had planned it or something, Mirabel showed up, looking a little sad. Luisa walked over to her and asked, “Hey Mira, what's wrong?”

Mirabel looked into Luisa's eyes, then said in a quiet voice, “The kids were asking about the family. I told them everything of course, they liked that a lot. But then I got to the end and when I said I didn't have a gift... they asked if I thought that something was wrong with me.”

Luisa felt her heart sink into her stomach. She reached a hand out towards her sister, and said, “Mirabel... I'm so sor-”

“No! It's not that that's upsetting me.” Mirabel said, shaking her head. She smiled at Luisa and said, “Papá always told me that I was special, gift or no gift. I'm the real gift!” Luisa felt her breath catch in her throat.

Would Luisa be special if she didn't have her gift? What would her family say if she just lost it? Would they be.. as supporting as Tio Bruno seemed to be? Could it be that... Luisa was feeling... jealous? Why was she jealous?

“No. What I'm upset about is what the villagers were saying about Papá,” Mirabel said, not knowing Luisa's thoughts. She had her arms crossed over her chest, and said with a sniff, “What on earth did he do to them?”

Memories of Tio Bruno from before he left came back to Luisa. He'd been in the house most of the time. He never went into town. No one came to visit him, or ask for prophecies. People would only speak about him in hushed whispers. She had no idea what he had done.

“Beats me,” Luisa answered truthfully, and Mirabel huffed in disappointment. Just before either of them could say anything else Luisa saw a man walking toward them.

“Luisa!” he called out, and Mirabel spun around to see the man. “Yes sir!” Luisa said, and the man asked, “Can you move the courthouse? It's in the way of the crops this year.”

With a smile Luisa proclaimed, “Of course! Be right there.” Mirabel followed her as she began to go after the man. Mirabel stared at her, and Luisa felt... a twinge.

No! Not the twinge! Last she had felt the twinge had been... last night. When she couldn't sleep. When she got the twinge she felt... weak. She can't feel weak right now!

“Luisa, are you okay?” Mirabel asked, and Luisa wanted to just brush her off. But before she could open her mouth she heard a woman say, “Luisa, can you fix the school house?” Automatically she responded with, “Will do.”

Mirabel opened her mouth, but Luisa wasn't paying attention. Another voice asked, “Luisa! Can you fix the-”

“Luisa can you-?”

“Oh! Luisa! Get the-”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa get the thing!”

“Luisa! Serve us!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa!”

“Luisa! You need to stop saying yes!” Luisa finally actually heard a voice. She had just been nodding and promising herself out for too long. She looked at Mirabel who was grabbing her hands and pulling her away from the building she was about to pick up.

She blinked at Mirabel, then said, “Uh... What are you talking about? I don't always say-”

“If they asked you to get them the moon would you try?” Mirabel asked, and Luisa found herself confused at whether or not she was being serious. Mirabel's face was serious, but her inflections showed that she was sort of joking.

“Luisa?” Mirabel asked, and Luisa nodded. “Luisa, I think you're taking on too much-”

“If I can't do what they need, if I'm too weak, who am I?!” Luisa asked/yelled. She reeled back for a moment, then covered up her slip up by saying quickly, “Sorry, that slipped out. I mean. I'm here to serve the community-”

Mirabel crossed her arms, then asked in the most serious voice Luisa had ever heard, “Did Abuela tell you that?”

She blinked at Mirabel, who sighed loudly. “Sorry... Sorry... I've just... The vibes are all...” She pushed past Luisa and rapped her knuckles against the wooden doorframe of the courthouse. “Knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood.” she droned, and then glanced back at Luisa.

That was... That was... Tio Bruno's thing.

Mirabel was... His now. And she always would be.

Luisa felt tears building up in her eyes. The next thing she knew she had arms wrapped around her waist. “I think you're carrying waaaayyy too much-”

Luisa picked Mirabel up and squeezed her. She hadn't had a hug in... uh... it had been... she could have sworn... It had been way too long.

“Thank you Mirabel.” Luisa said, giving her a big squeeze. Mirabel choked out a small, “You're welcome.” and then Luisa put her back down, regretting letting go instantly.

“Hey Mira... If you... uh... Want to be... cousins...” It hurt Luisa to even think it, but she knew that it would mean the world to Mirabel. “Then... I'm cool with just being cousins... I'll try not to talk to you like you're my sister.”

Mirabel was frozen still. Then she threw her arms back around Luisa.

Hugs were nice. She'd need more of these.