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In the village of Encanto, no family was quite as revered as the Madrigals for they had been blessed by a wonderous miracle. From tragedy, they were given a magical house and the children of Alma Madrigal were given the most beautiful gifts. Her daughter Pepa could control the weather through her moods, her son Bruno could see into the future, but perhaps her youngest daughter Juileta had the gift that all of Encanto loved more than anything. For any meal she cooked, whether it was a simple cookie or a full feast, had the miraculous ability to heal all wounds and illnesses.
From age five onward, Juileta had become the village’s doctor.
By the time she was ten, she had saved hundreds of lives. The village never knew a permanent illness or wounds that could kill as long as Juileta’s kept her kitchen running. Of course, that was providing that her cooking was handy for anyone nearby. There was the rarity of someone dying due to being too far away for help to arrive or tragically thinking that they didn’t need to eat Juileta’s cooking when they were quickly dying or losing blood. Colds people could bounce back from, impalement people could not.
But all that aside, everyone in the village and in the Casita enjoyed a bill of clean health, that is until one dark night. Delores Madrigal was seventeen at the time, resting in her room. Delores’ room was tailor-made for a young girl with super hearing. Everything was soundproofed from the inside out and filled with soft plush furniture while gentle running rivers and while perfect atmospheric conditions floated above her. She could have any sound she wanted. Whether it was rumbling thunder that reminded her of her mother’s moods, the sound of rushing water that made her think of her father’s laughter, the rushing of wind which she associated with Camilo, the smallest birds chirping that brought her baby brother Antonio to mind. Each family member had their own unique sound in her bedroom.
For her abuela, the flickering of a candle. For her aunt and uncle? A pot simmering and the sound of a piano playing. Luisa had a gentle tumble of rocks, while Isabella’s sound were the flowers coming into bloom. Mirabel’s sound, a curious one, was of butterfly wings in flight. They were all marvelous sounds. When they made noise, she thought of her family and she knew she was loved. One sound in her bedroom did not play often. In the farthest corner of her room, past where Luisa’s rocks rumbled and Mirabel’s butterflies took flight, was a desert and a waterfall of sand.
She did not travel often to the desert in her room. It was not because she didn’t enjoy the sound or hated the sand but because it made her think of her Tio Bruno. The name Bruno Madrigal was a sore subject in the Madrigal household. Her uncle enjoyed a rather controversial reputation. She knew what everyone said about him. It was impossible not to when she could hear a pin drop from over a mile away. Secrets were useless to keep from Delores. The villagers thought that he cursed them. She could hear their whispers and pleas whenever they went to see Bruno that he would see fit to bless them with a good vision. Alas, none of them did. Bruno rarely had good visions even for his own family.
When she was ten, Delores worked up the courage to ask Bruno for a vision. She had grown up watching her parents bombastic and affectionate romance, listening to her abuela speak so fondly of her Pedro, and stifling giggles as Juileta and Augustin flirted between injuries and meals. Delores wanted a romance like that.
“Please tio Bruno?” she had begged. “Pretty please?”
He had rebuffed her, stating that it wasn’t a good idea, but she had wanted to know more than anything in the world. Her mother may have helped “convince” him to do it and so, under family pressure, gave in. He brought her to his vision cave and told her everything that he saw. She remembered how soothing the sand had been and the look of his face when he told her his vision; how the man of her dreams would be betrothed to another. How hard she had cried when she had gotten the news, but there was no denying the vision. The love of her life was going to spend the rest of his life with another. She ran to her mother with sobbing so loudly that her ears rang. She would never get the romance she wanted.
“BRUNO!” her mama shouted, rain and thunder overhead. “What did you tell mija?!”
Honestly, she felt terrible at how her mother scolded him. She had asked and he had given her what she requested. She forever associated him with falling sand and that awful vision with the sound of falling tears. She cried enough over her broken heart. There was no need for falling sand. And so, the falling sand waterfall was forever stopped. She didn’t want to remember, but Bruno did. He would forever remember how destroyed Delores looked when she was told of her future.
In the following years, after terrible visions and a growing pariah standing in the community, Bruno vanished. His disappearance from the family was not well received. The first time Bruno didn’t arrive for dinner, Alma had a fit. Yes, she was angry, but it was born from worry. Encanto was protected from the dangers of the world, but there were wild animals, bad weather, and if he did make it over the mountains, there was no telling what trouble could befall him. Little did they know that he was in the walls.
It was no surprise that Alma had asked Delores to find him. “Please, nena, can you find my Brunito?”
Delores listened quietly to where in the house her uncle was now. He was hidden within the walls. She heard him praying to not be found. How fast his heart was beating when the near possibility of him being found. He wanted to stay hidden.
“Please don’t find me, please,” he feverishly prayed. “I can’t do this to the family.”
With such an earnest plea, Delores could not betray her tio. So, she lied. The crushing look on her abuela’s face was hard to deal with. However, the sigh of relief that came from Bruno made it all worthwhile. And with that, it sealed her fate as the secret keeper. She kept silent for years and it seemed to work. She would hear Bruno in the walls doing whatever it was he was doing. There wasn’t any harm in it and most of the time, it wasn’t something she thought about.
Now, laying in her room with a salacious romance novel in her hands, her mind was a million miles away from her tio Bruno, the family troubles, and the pressure that came with bearing miracles. That is, until the sand waterfall sprang to life once more.
“Casita?” she called. “Is everything okay?”
The family home chose to not respond to her inquiry. She would learn the truth soon enough. The next morning, just as the entire family was sitting down for breakfast, Delores finally heard it. Bruno was coughing. He wasn’t sitting behind the mural like normal. No, he was somewhere near his tower and he was coughing loudly. She squeaked.
“You hear something?” Camilo asked, keen to learn the latest bit of gossip in the village.
“Nothing much,” Delores lied. “Senor Guzman sneezed. It’s like an explosion!”
“So, like papa, huh?”
“No, children,” Pepa lightly scolded. “Your papa sneezes like an earthquake.”
“Ay!” Felix exclaimed at the sudden shots being fired at him.
It was a solid lie. Yet, Bruno did not stop coughing. When it came to leave the casita, Delores kept a keen ear on her tio. He had moved from the top of his tower back the second story. The wheezing he had was awful. Throughout the entire day, she heard Bruno’s wheezing, his coughing, and then somewhere around two, Delores heard a loud CRACK! Then a heartwrenching THUMP!
It was the distinct sound of a body hitting the floor.
Delores squeaked, but beyond that, she kept her cool. After all, when one could hear everything, one had to have the perfect poker face to accompany all good and bad information. As serene as a flowing river, Delores calmly walked back to the family home. The first stop was the kitchen. She grabbed the first snack that Juileta had made and then bolted to the fake painting on the second floor. As soon as the painting had shut behind her, she shouted, “TIO BRUNO?”
She could hear him struggling to breathe. He was somewhere in the maze of the house, but where?
Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to discover her tio Bruno. She followed the sound of his shallow breathing which led her to a steep drop within the walls of the Casita. There were broken boards, recently split in half and somewhere in the bottom of the misty pit was Bruno. He was groaning and barely moving.
“Tio Bruno?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
Without much of an answer, Delores had no choice but to shimmy down through to the small pit. Through the cracks of light, she saw him. It had been many years since she had seen him, not heard him. Bruno was thin and gaunt and the second Delores put her hand to his forehead, she recoiled. He was hot to the touch. Quickly she brought out the arepa and pushed it to his mouth.
“Tio Bruno, you need to eat.”
He opened his eyes to her. She was shocked at how vivid his eyes were. Had they always been that green?
“...no, not hungry...”
“Tia Juileta made it,” she insisted. “You’ll feel better.”
He shook his head. “No, I...I don’t deserve...can’t do it..”
“Tio Bruno,” Delores begged. “Please, just a bite. I-”
Before she could finish her sentence, she heard her abuela calling for her. She was coming back to the Casita.
“Eat it or I’ll tell abuela!” she threatened.
To his credit, Bruno did take a nibble of his sister’s cooking. He was healed instantly. Delores, now confident that her tio wasn’t going to die in the Casita’s walls bolted back to the painting. Just as it was safe to go out, she found herself face to face with her abuela.
“Where have you been?” Alma questioned. “I needed you in the village.”
“Oh, well, my ears started hurting and tia Juileta was already busy helping everyone else and I didn’t want to take the meals meant to heal everyone else, so I came back home to grab a quick snack.” She held up the partially eaten arepa as proof.
“Good girl,” her abuela kissed her forehead. “Thinking of others and taking care of your gift, very good!”
“Thank you, abuela.”
They walked back to the village together with Alma none the wiser and Delores stony faced as she heard Bruno shuffle back through the house, doing his best not to cry.