3. Anxiety

Isabela woke up the day after her sister's birthday feeling... strange.

She, of course, had been sad when Mirabel didn't get a gift, and she had hugged her little sister for as long as Mirabel and their mother would let her, but she had been ushered to bed at her usual time.

She wondered how Mirabel was doing.

Using her gift to bring herself down to the floor and off of her bed she quickly slipped into her everyday clothes, wanting to check on her little sister as soon as possible. She made her way out of her room, finishing up brushing her hair quickly so she wouldn't be seen as a slob.

She ran into Dolores on the other side of the nursery. Dolores's hair was all frizzy, and she looked like she hadn't had the chance to pull it back into her usual bun.

The cousins stared at each other for a minute, then Isabela said, “Do you want to check on Mirabel too?”

Her cousin nodded, and the two of them moved to stand on either side of the door. Isabela was the one to knock, and they waited patiently for her sister to open the door. But Mirabel didn't answer.

Isabela knocked again, louder this time. After a minute or two Dolores pressed her ear against the door and said in her soft 'secret time' voice, “She's not in there Isa. I don't hear anyone.”

She was in their mom's room. Of course. Isabela would be there if something like what happened to her sister had been done to her. She made eye contact with her cousin once again, and they both silently agreed to check in Julieta's room.

The two of them made their way to their new destination, unknowingly taking the same steps as their Abuela did the night before. When they reached Julieta's door Isabela didn't even bother to knock before opening it and stepping inside.

Julieta's room smelled like cinnamon, and it was warmer than most of the casita. Isabela and Dolores made their way to Julieta's bedroom, and this time Isabela knocked on the door. 

A moment later her groggy father answered the door. He looked down at the two eleven year olds and said in a sleepy voice, “Hello Isabela, Dolores. What is it?”

The two girls shifted nervously under his loving gaze, then Isabela asked, “Can we see Mirabel?” Agustin's eyes softened, a sad look in them, and he answered, “Of course Isabela. She should be in the nur-”

“She's not in the nursery tío Agustin.” Dolores said, hands clasped behind her back. “We thought she was with you and tía Julieta.” Agustin gave her a confused look, then said, “She... 's not here.”

His wife was beside him a moment later, looking even more tired then Agustin. She smiled a bit at her daughter and niece before placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. “What is it?” she asked, directing her question towards Isabela and Dolores.

“We're looking for Mirabel.” Dolores answered, and Isabella nodded. Julieta stiffened ever so slightly, but she said in a somewhat hopeful voice, “She's probably in the dining room. If she's not in the nursery that is.”

“She's not.” Dolores said, then she added, “In fact... I don't hear her anywhere. Just like... tío Bruno... last night...” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I can hear everyone else but... Bruno and Mirabel...”

To everyone's surprise Julieta's hand flew to her niece's shoulder. Dolores looked scared, and she didn't open her eyes when her aunt made contact with her. “Tía Julieta..." she said shakily, looking up at her aunt's loving face. "Do you know where they are.”

Julieta's heart felt like it was being torn in two again. But she must not let them know. If she told them that they ran away last night then her family would pressure her to tell them why. She couldn't make her and her brother's incredible sacrifice meaningless. So instead she started her deception. The biggest lie she would ever tell in her life.

“No. I don't know where Mirabel is then. And you say that Bruno is missing too?”

Within the next twenty minutes the entire house was awake, and all of them were searching for the two members of the family. Abuela alerted the townsfolk to the little girl's disappearance, but neglected to add the connection with her uncle. Bruno was the exact opposite of popular among the people, and none of them wanted to risk their search being interrupted by arguments over the man's usefulness to the town.

Mainly because none of them wanted to deal with his lack of any.

So the people went out around town, calling for Mirabel to come home. Julieta felt her heart seize up whenever she called for her daughter. The pain of the recent events pulled tightly on her heart, and she was deeply grateful that no one minded when she told her family she wanted to lie down at home undisturbed for a while.

Sitting down at home alone made her feel strange. Part of her missed her daughter and brother, but the majority of her wanted them to be far, far away, safe from... whatever future had scared Bruno enough to take not only himself but his niece away.

The house was quiet. Oh-so-quiet. It hadn't been this quiet in her life since...

Since before Pepa married Felix.

Well, really since the three of them had gotten their gifts. She hadn't had a true quiet moment like this in over thirty years.

It was deafening. She was used to the bustle of the Madrigal life. She was used to hearing children, and adults, everywhere. She was used to being surrounded by her family. She was used to them all being happy.

But now...

Something had changed.

She tried to remember when this uncertain feeling had started, and then a memory of when she and her siblings were thirteen flashed in her mind.

Bruno, receiving an impromptu vision in the middle of the town, prophesying the accidental near death of Seňor Torpe.

She remembered the look of pure shock and horror on everyone's faces. But the one that stood out the most was her own mother's. Her eyes wide, as a small child began to cry. Seňor Torpe's wife grabbing her husband's arm and claiming that such things were absurd. That Bruno shouldn't try to scare people like that.

She remembered when Seňor Torpe fell off of the roof the next month Bruno was the one put to blame.

That was when their mother started working extra hard to keep the three of them in the town's good graces. Julieta didn't have to try, but Bruno and Pepa...

Dios mio, poor Pepa.

When she was young and generally content the weather was fine. She would make it rain only when need arose or something drastic happened. But once she was fourteen and she began to mature into an adult... Her anxiety, and her need to preform, outgrew her control over her power.

Thankfully that was when she met her husband. Somehow Felix helped her control her powers. And even though Pepa still didn't have complete control over her gift Felix could almost always be counted on to help her calm down.

But whenever she was around Bruno her gift seemed to go nuts. Julieta felt that her sister wasn't entirely over her 'ruined' wedding. All Bruno would have to do now was say one wrong word to make Pepa's clouds go off and storms start to brew.

Bruno. Bruno was blamed for everything. But... maybe that was because no on knew who he was.

The rest of the family never saw him playing with the kids. They never saw his weird little quirks like Julieta did, whenever she could sneak a peek to check on her hermano and see what he was doing throughout the day.

They never saw the terror in his eyes whenever he was overcome with a vision full of sorrow.

They wouldn't see was why she had trusted him with her daughter. Her family would never understand why she would never say anything bad about him behind his back. Her familiy would never know that that was why she hoped that they didn't find him. They wouldn't know why he needed to get away from all of them. For Mirabel, and for himself. HIs soul.

Julieta could heal bodies. But she couldn't heal souls.

Not like Mirabel could.

Mirabel. Her tiny gift of her own. Her darling little girl. Julieta felt new tears build up in her eyes. She had only been gone for a few hours, but Julieta felt like it had been an eternity. Because she knew, if all went according to plan, it might be an eternity before she saw her again.

She hoped she'd see her again.

Mirabel woke up before the sun did.

It was weird, being awake before the sky. The stars weren't visible anymore, but it was still really dark all around her. She was wrapped in her tío's green ruana, and it took her little mind a minute to figure out why she had been sleeping on grass with her uncle.

She had to go away. She was in danger and she wasn't safe at casita anymore. She hadn't been given a door. But tío Bruno was going to find her a room. He was taking away so she could be safe. They were going on an adventure.

She looked at her tío and smiled. His mouth was hanging open and he was fast asleep. She snuggled against him and hoped that he didn't mind her using his ruana.

The moment she got comfortable he stirred, and a strange green light filled the forest floor.

Mirabel looked up in shock and saw her uncle's eyes open, his irises glowing green instead of his usual brown. She had never seen him like this, but thankfully she didn't have long to worry as the light seemed to immediately fail. The moment the forest was dark again she was jostled off of her new spot as Bruno sat straight up, keeping his eyes shut. 

He breathed heavily for a moment, then said in a serious voice that sort of scared Mirabel, “We need to go.”

Feeling confused Mirabel tilted her head to one side, then yelped a bit as her uncle stood up, offsetting her and nearly making her fall over. She watched as Bruno grabbed the two bags they had brought and slung them over his shoulder.

“Why are we going? Can't we eat?” Mirabel asked, getting to her feet and tripping in her hurry to catch up to her uncle. Bruno glanced at her, then grabbed a mantecada from the top of the bag of goods. Stopping for a second he turned and handed Mirabel the cake, then grabbed something at random for himself.

Having a hungry kid around was going to be good for his perpetual scrawniness. His mother might finally stop pressuring him to eat more.

As the two of them walked he found himself outpacing his niece, who was traveling with much shorter legs. He slowed his pace and was surprised to feel a small hand enter his own, thumping against the bags.

“Why do we have to go so early?” Mirabel asked when she was done with her makeshift breakfast.

Bruno glanced down at her, before staring at the point he was making for in the distance. “I had a mini vision. We've got to get farther away from the house or they'll find us.”

“They?” Mirabel asked, nearly tripping on some of the underbrush. “Who's they?”

Bruno wanted to tell her that it was their family, but he knew that that would make Mirabel feel worse. “The people who want to find us...”

Now Mirabel didn't feel worse, she only felt more confused. “Why are they after us?” she added on to her previous question, and Bruno struggled to find an appropriate answer. “Well...” he contemplated lying to his niece, but knew that that action might cause terrible repercussions in the future. “Here's a deal.” he said, averting the question altogether. “I'll tell you when you're older.”

Mirabel pouted her bottom lip. “I am older. I'm five years old!” When Bruno glanced at her he saw a proud look on his nieces face. 

Thank goodness. This was the perfect way to distract his niece. Within secondds he had a retort for her, one that seemed to shock her and knock her initial question out of her mind, “And I'm forty." he said, grinning a bit, "When you're my age I'll tell you.” WIth his eyes focused ahead of him he couldn't watch as Mirabel's eyes widened, but he felt her little hand grip his tighter. “Wow..." she said in a whisper, "You're older than the sun.”

“Excuse me?” Bruno asked, blinking in confusion. Was he older than the sun? He seemed to remember it always being there...

“Yeah. Dolores said that the sun is seventeen!” she grinned up at her uncle, who could clearly remember seventeen years before then.

The sun was definitely far older than that.

“Are you sure she meant the sun? And not a son?” Bruno asked, and felt a tiny bit content as he heard a tiny “oh” sound from his left. Mirabel seemed to think that his explanation was logical, and chose to keep trudging along in silence.

After about ten minutes of awkward silence Mirabel asked, “How old is mamá then?” Bruno smiled, and knew that he was going to blow his niece's mind with this one. He glanced at her for a moment and said with absolute certainty, “Forty.”

“But you're forty.”

“Yes I am.”

“Then how is she forty?” Mirabel seemed stumped by his answer. Then she gave him a sly glare and asked, “What about tía Pepa?”

Bruno's grin widened further. He took a second to answer her, putting up the fingers of his free hand one after another in a sequence then putting them down again, only to repeat his previous action. Like he had to count to know the answer. “Oh,"  about forty.”

Mirabel was absolutely stumped by his words. “But... I'm not eleven like Isabela, or nine like Luisa. I'm five...”

Something seemed to click in her mind, and it was her turn to grin. “Like Camilo!” She said, a little too loudly for Bruno's liking. “You're all cousins!”

“Nope.” Bruno said, liking this game more and more. “We're triplets.”

Mirabel was hopelessly lost. She thought that she had figured it out all on her own. She walked in silence and annoyance for a few minutes, then she remembered what her Abuela had said about her babies. She had had triplets. Mamá, tía Pepa, and tío Bruno.

“Did you all get your gift on the same day?” Mirabel asked, then felt the sting of her lack of gift. Bruno's hand tensed under hers, and she had to look up to see his answer. A short nod.

“I wish I could have gotten a gift,” she mumbled, scuffling her feet as she walked. Bruno glanced at her, then said, “I do too Mariposa.”

If she had they wouldn't be here. Wouldn't be running... up the mountain?

The ground started to slope upwards, and the mountain loomed above them. The sky had brightened, but it was still dark amongst the trees. Was he really going to take them out of the Encanto? Was he really going to leave the only home he (and Mirabel) had ever known?

He glanced down at his niece, with a sad expression on her face at the thought of her lost gift. He stopped in his tracks and knelt down in front of her. He felt awkward about being the one to make big decisions like this. That had been a role reserved for his mamá and his sisters. But now he had to step up, he was the sole caretaker of his niece. His precious Mariposa. 

“Mirabel, it's going to be okay." he said, wishing himself to believe it. "I'll figure out what's going on with the magic. I'm going to take care of you okay?” He smiled sadly at her, the weight of what he was saying getting lost on him in the moment.

She smiled back a bit, then she looked up at the mountain in front of her. “Whoa. Are we climbing those?” she asked, half terrified, half really excited. Bruno nodded, and Mirabel's eyes widened. “I hope we have enough wakeyness to get up there.” she said, and Bruno chuckled.

“I hope so too.”