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“Hey, is anyone hungry?” asked Mirabel, carrying a plate of arepas that Mariano’s mother made.
“Yay! Food!”
The town kids ran to her all at once. Seconds later, all she had was an empty dish. She set it aside, a little disappointed, and then felt someone pulling on the rim of her skirt. The girl looked down.
“Here, I took one for you,” said Antonio, handing his cousin an arepa.
“Oh, thank you.”
Mirabel took a bite and sat down next to the boy on whatever was left of a living room wall. Even with the whole town engaged in the project of rebuilding Casita, the works were progressing at a slow pace. Since morning, they’d been clearing up the place, sweeping the dust, recovering their belongings, and throwing away things broken beyond repair. Luckily, the spirits were high, and the townspeople seemed genuinely happy that they could repay the Madrigals' kindness.
Including the youngest generation that ended up under Mirabel’s care.
“Did you see the last brick I carried?” asked Juancho in his usual overexcited voice. ”It was almost the size of an entire wall!”
Cecilia and Alejandra didn’t want to be worse.
“My brick was bigger than yours!” shouted one of the girls.
“No, mine! Mine!”
“You all did really well,” said Mirabel, beaming at them.
Her praise made the kids run and jump in enthusiasm. Even Antonio joined in for one round. When he came back, Mirabel patted him on the head. She was happy that her shy cousin, who usually kept to himself, was starting to get along with other kids his age.
“Okay, breaktime’s over.” Mirabel got up and stretched her arms. “Time to work.”
The girl was speaking to herself in a kind of motivational self-talk. But apparently her words were enough for the kids to stop fooling around and went after her.
They’d barely resumed cleaning up the living room floor when they heard Camilo. He was shouting from the other side of the house.
“Hey, look what I’ve found!”
Mirabel wanted to ignore him, but the little group she supervised ran to check things out before she could stop them. She had no choice but to follow.
Once she caught up with the children, who found it much easier to run among the crowd, she did not understand what happened. They were not checking out Camilo’s discovery after all. Instead, together with the nearby adults, they constituted a group of onlookers. The girl looked around, and her eyes widened as she took in the scene before her.
On one side, there was Bruno, slumped under his green ruana. In his hands, he was holding bits and pieces of different sizes, all covered in dust. From among them, Mirabel recognized Antonio’s plush jaguar. On the other end, there was her family, all gathered in one place. They were examining things scattered among Casita’s remnants.
“Oh no, no, please don’t look…” muttered Bruno, and Mirabel had only realized where they were all standing.
Under the shattered family portrait, there were pieces of Bruno’s table and his broken armchair. Fresh laundry, although not so clean anymore; an old broom, snapped in half. A smashed rat labyrinth, piles of books, a gramophone with no horn. In short, everything that remained of Bruno’s hideout.
The men helped Camilo remove the splintered wood.
“This looks like a room!” said Agustin with a hint of surprise.
He glanced at Felix, who asked, “What’s the meaning of this?”
Pepa moved the things around with her foot. Everything looked old and worn out.
“It does! But who could possibly –“ She stopped in mid-sentence.
Her head slowly turned to Bruno, who guiltily avoided her gaze. A realization hit her.
“You lived beside the kitchen?!”
The woman sounded furious. Mirabel could almost see a thundercloud forming above her Tia’s head. Bruno slouched even further, trying to make himself smaller.
“Y–Yes, but… You see, it’s just that –“
“How could you? I can’t believe this! My own hermano!”
“But –“
Her brother’s words were drown out by Pepa’s rage. Felix appeared by her side, putting a hand on his wife’s shoulder in order to calm her down.
“Let him talk, Pepi. Let him explain.”
“I’m sure he had his reasons,” said Julieta in a gentle tone.
She made a step forward, smiling encouragingly at Bruno. He attempted to smile back but produced a strange grimace instead.
“He did, didn’t he?” replied Pepa, who was apparently not having it. “Were these reasons good enough to let us cry our eyes out day and night? Or make us wonder for years whether he was still alive? While he was here the whole time? Don’t you realize how messed up this is?”
Julieta opened her mouth, but no words came out. She had nothing more to say.
With a shaky hand, Bruno put on his hood. He dropped several things in the process but made no attempt to collect them. He wished his family let him apologize earlier, when there was still time. He would tell them how guilty he felt about staying away, even though he believed at that time that this had been his only option. But they refused to listen, saying that they were just happy to have him back.
The Madrigals had just welcomed him with open arms. He couldn’t bear to lose them again so soon.
Feeling hounded by the adults, Bruno looked out for help from the kids. The younger generation stood nearby, passively observing the argument. Dolores and Camilo, who knew beforehand about their uncle’s whereabouts, were cool with it. Isabela and Luisa seemed maybe a bit creeped out by him, but at least they didn’t stand against him.
Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Mirabel rushed to Bruno’s side. She stood in-between him and the rest of the family.
“Hey, guys! Stop it, will you? Let Tio speak!”
She was trying to outshout them, but nobody seemed to listen. On the contrary, now they were ganging up on her, as well.
“You knew?” asked Felix in disbelief.
Julieta’s face was full of sadness and worry. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”
“For how long?” Pepa raised her voice even further. “Who else knew?”
Then, everything went quiet. The silence was almost deafening. Mirabel and Bruno turned around, confused.
Behind them appeared Abuela joined by the Guzmans, who she must have been speaking to moments ago. Her expression was grave.
“What is going on?” she asked, putting accent on every syllable. Her tone was harsh as ever.
As on cue, the family members yelled one over another – even Mirabel, who was doing everything to push her message out first. Bruno remained quiet this entire time.
Abuela raised her hand, and they all stopped talking immediately. She moved towards her son. He stepped back.
The whole town held their breaths, watching what came next.
“Abuela, I –“
Mirabel’s voice broke off when Abuela bent to pick up her son’s scattered treasures. The woman looked them through, recognizing his old rat drawings and some old family books.
There was one thing that caught her attention for a little longer. A broken frame with an old family photograph, the last one where they were all together. She remembered throwing it away after Bruno’s disappearance. After she forbade everyone from saying his name. Out of sight, out of mind, Abuela thought back then.
She smiled sadly at the photo, giving it one last look, and placed everything back into Bruno’s hands.
The man glanced from his palms to his mother and back. He was at a loss.
In her grandmother’s footsteps, Mirabel crouched to collect other items. Soon later, everyone was helping Bruno to gather his possessions from under the rubble. Even though some were doing so with more emotions and vocalization than necessary.
“We will talk about this later,” said Abuela firmly. This was like a promise.
After the woman marched away, Mirabel rubbed Bruno’s elbow.
“Come on, Tio. Let’s put all your things in one place.”
He nodded, finally deciding it was safe to remove his hood. There were tears in his eyes.