Chapter Text
Julieta
One night after everyone else has headed upstairs, I decide to sit up for a while in the kitchen. Moonlight streams in through the window, and I have a nice steaming cup of camomile tea in my hands.
'What's your favourite food, Casita?' I ask.
She opens her shutters and nudges the big bag of masarepa on the counter, making it dance a bit without spilling.
'Arepas?' I say, surprised. She clanks a tile. Si.
'Why's that?' It's too fast to keep up with what she's trying to say, but then she gently nudges my hand with a counter tile. I think I understand the gist of it.
She's always been Mirabel's special friend, and I'm grateful for that. Sure, Mira has a wealth of human friends from all walks of life, but Casita will always be the best one of all. She loves Mira so much and tried so hard to show us how important she was.
I do regret it took us so long to understand what she meant, but I'm glad that we worked it out eventually. Mira bears no ill will toward any of us, we wouldn't blame her if she did.
Even when she was a baby, we saw something special in the way Casita behaved around her.
We might've heard her crying but by the time we ran into the nursery, we'd see her settling with Casita rocking her cradle gently and clicking her tiles like her own version of a lullaby.
She always helps Mirabel with her shoes in the morning and opens doors for her if she's carrying a lot, it's very sweet.
'How many would you like?' I ask Casita, opening the bag of masarepa. She waves her shutters 4 times.
'De nada.'
I can't really believe I'm doing this, making 4 arepas for a house, but I'll go with it. I suppose she's had some of the stale ones before, when we've thrown them away.
'Does Mirabel know?'
Casita clatters excitedly at the mention of Mirabel, and makes the tiles outside her room clatter too.
Once they're done, I put the fresh and hot arepas on the countertop and she happily takes three, nudging the last one toward me.
'Oh! Gracias.' I take a bite out of it and close my eyes in satisfaction.
A lovely snack to end the day. I guess arepas are where it's mostly been for me, Mirabel even mentioned it in her beautiful little song as the only item of food in her lyrics about me, my signature dish as it were. Sure, there are other things I think I make better, but I don't mind this being the one I'm associated with the most.
In the grand scheme of things, everything I make has that extra special ingredient, my recipes of love.