Chapter Text
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The day after Casita collapsed
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It had been almost 3 hours since the entire town had shown up to help. They were making good progress already, sorting the rubble into piles. Alma was doing what she always does, directing, telling everyone where to focus their efforts and deciding which of her family’s possessions went into the keep pile and which were not salvageable.
She was having trouble paying attention, distracted by her own feelings of guilt, not just about her recent realizations about her family but also guilt over needing other people’s help. The Madrigals were meant to serve the community, not the other way around. On top of everything else it was embarrassing, she worried that people already suspected what had happened, that they lost their miracle because her family had unresolved personal issues.
Then she noticed Camilo and the Martínez family’s youngest son doing something near Bruno’s horse. Mateo Martínez is one member of the little gang of boys who often distract Camilo from his responsibilities. Alma had never discouraged the friendship though because most of them come from good families, the Martínezes in particular, they are the only source of horses in the encanto, a connection to that family might be useful. She had even been considering the Martínez twins as possible matches for Camilo, even though they are a little older than him, he might appreciate becoming related to his good friend by marrying his sister.
Then Mateo Martínez tried to lead the horse away but Alma stopped him by calling out, “Hold on a moment young man, where are you going with that horse?”
As soon as she reached them he told her politely, “One of my family’s horses escaped, I’m just taking her home.”
She shook her head, “You must be mistaken, this horse belongs to my son, he brought it from outside the encanto when he returned.”
The boy examined the horse carefully and then turned back to her, looking confused “I don’t know what to tell you, this is my family’s missing horse, I recognize her.”
She looked the horse over again as she thought, this seemed to be the horse Bruno was riding earlier. She motioned for the boys to follow her and began heading back inside, “I’m sure Bruno will be able to clear this up.”
It only took a moment to find him, Bruno and Pepa were standing off to the side, huddled together looking at a picture frame Pepa was holding. Alma heard her saying, “This one replaced that one after Mamá told us to…” then she looked up and noticed Alma approaching.
Bruno seemed like he wanted to hide behind his sister without looking like he was trying to hide, he stared intently at Alma’s shoes. She gestured to Camilo’s friend, “Bruno, can you please explain to this young man where you got your horse.”
He glanced up at her face and looked at her blankly for a moment, “Horse?” A sudden look of realization crossed his face, “Right, I took a horse! I need to get her back to her owners.”
Now Alma was confused, “It’s not your horse?”
He shook his head, almost more enthusiastically than the situation really called for, then for seemingly no reason he flinched and admitted sheepishly, “When I realized you had gone after Mirabel I wanted to find her first so I kinda… stole a horse…”
On reflex she frowned disapprovingly, her son should know better than to steal, she raised him better than that. He reacted like he was bracing himself for a slap, Pepa scowled at her but she already felt guilty enough. Maybe this was what Mirabel meant when she said, “Bruno left because you only saw the worst in him.” If she wants to keep Bruno from leaving again she has to do better, she tried to imagine what Bruno was thinking when he stole that horse.
He had just returned to the encanto only to discover his niece was missing, he didn’t know who to ask for help. Alma tried her best to give her son a reassuring smile as she admitted, “I suppose, it’s understandable that in an emergency situation, you felt it was necessary to… commandeer a horse.” He looked at her in wide eyed disbelief. She turned to the Martínez’s son, “Let your family know I will be apologizing to them in person.”
He smiled and told her simply, “They won’t mind, if a Madrigal needs to borrow one of our horses then it’s the least we can do after everything you have done for us over the years.” He walked away before Alma could say anything, Camilo gave Bruno a strange look before following his friend.
Alma was stunned, he had said it like it was obvious, the Madrigals had done a lot for them and they were returning the favor but the people of the encanto didn’t owe the Madrigals anything, helping the community was their way of earning the miracle. Right? She looked around again at everyone helping them sort through the rubble.
Her thoughts were interrupted by her son’s voice behind her, “Mirabel’s not in this one either.” She turned to see him looking at a framed photo in his hands.
Pepa looked between the one she was holding and the one Bruno was holding, “She’s camera shy.” She explained, but she had a strange look on her face, like concern and suspicion.
“Camera shy…” Alma was taken aback by the quiet fury and resentment in her son’s voice. Then he glanced up at her and it seemed to melt away, he leaned into his sister, shyly and hugged the photo to his chest, “Let’s go put these in the keep pile.”
Pepa looked even more concerned but lead him away with a hand on his back. Alma thought back to a few hours ago when she saw her son again for the first time, “I don’t care what you think of me but if you’re too stubborn to…” when she has a chance to be alone with her son she will have to talk to him about why he left and why he came back, she owes him a lot of apologies but she suspects there are things she won’t know to apologize for unless he tells her.
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112 days after Casita collapsed
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Alma entered the dining room of the house she was temporarily living in while they built their new casita. Bruno was sitting at the table, sorting the family photos they had managed to save into piles and reframing the ones that were damaged.
She approached him cautiously, the two of them had made a lot of progress in the last few months but they still had a long way to go. It seemed he was having one of his good days where he didn’t flinch away from her because he just gestured at one of the stacks and explained, “All the door ceremony photos are fine.”
She sat down next to him and nodded, he finished framing the photo he was currently working on and then flipped it over to look at it, it was the family photo they had taken when Antonio got his Gift. It was a good one, the whole family posing to show off their Gifts.
Bruno pointed out, “Mirabel’s not in this photo.” He didn’t sound angry, just a little sad but she still flinched, she hadn’t noticed. He said in the same tone, “She told everyone she didn’t like seeing herself in pictures…” Alma looked down at her hands, unsure what to say, “I’m surprised they believed her… I mean, I said the same thing… after you asked me not to be in family photos anymore but Mirabel’s different. You think they would have realized you asked her to stay out of the way…”
“I’m sorry…” Bruno was still looking at the photo, not her. She tried to explain, “It wasn’t because I didn’t love you… or Mirabel, I have always loved you both. I had preconceived notions about what our family should look like and when you didn’t fit my idea of the perfect family I thought the photos would look better without you but that was wrong of me, you weren’t ruining the photos by being in them.”
He didn’t say anything or look at her, he set the photo down and picked up another, “Oh! Mirabel’s in this one!” He turned it towards her, off to one side Luisa was hugging Mirabel, “When was this taken?”
She had to think for a moment before she remembered, “Luisa insisted, it was her birthday and she wanted a picture with her sister.”
He shrugged, “Could be worse, at least there isn’t a scruffy, unmarried, weirdo uncle in the photo making the family look bad.”
She snapped at him, annoyed, “That’s not what I said.”
He deflated, “Sorry Mamá, sorry, I didn’t mean… I was trying to make a joke, deflate the tension. I didn’t realize how mean that sounded. I really got to stop making jokes…”
It was her turn to deflate, her son had been angry at her when he first came back, especially about the way she had treated Mirabel but he wasn’t a vengeful or resentful person. He had quickly forgiven her when she realized just how badly she had messed up. It was unfair of her to jump to the conclusion that he had intended his words to be cruel.
“No, I’m sorry.” Then she reluctantly admitted, “You’re right, that’s not what I said when I asked you to stay out of family photos but that is essentially what I meant. I just worded it in a way that sounded nicer.”
“It’s ok…” he forgave her too easily, she isn’t sure what she did to deserve a son like him.
“I suppose that’s what I’m good at, wording things so they sound nicer than they really are.” He looked at her, worried. “But you are good at wording things in a way that is just the plain truth. If I had realized sooner what a valuable skill that is we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
He stared at her in wide eyed disbelief, “I don’t know if skill is the right word.” Then he went back to sorting photos and said quietly, “Look on the bright side, it really could have been a lot worse. Losing our miracle early wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Mirabel didn’t die when Casita collapsed, Isabela didn’t marry Mariano, we all…”
She interrupted, “No, I meant what do you mean by early? Are you saying it was inevitable that we would lose the miracle?”
He stared at her in confusion, “You’re not immortal Mamá…”
She still didn’t understand, they both just stared at each other blankly for a long moment before something seemed to occur to Bruno, “You never realized? The miracle came from you… we would have lost it when we lost you… we just ended up losing it a couple decades early.”
Then he flinched, almost violently, and knocked on the table 6 times then once on his head while muttering, “Knock on wood.” He explained, “Not a prophecy… I never looked that far ahead, I don’t actually know how long you’ll live, just my best guess, you’ll live a long life.” Then he did the knocking thing again.
Alma has never spent too much time thinking about what will happen after she is gone. She is starting to come to terms with the fact that seems to be one of her biggest problems, when she finds something upsetting she avoids thinking or talking about it. The few times she had though she assumed the miracle would continue for generations to come, Julieta would be the next head of the family, then Isabela, then Isabela’s oldest daughter…
Something about what Bruno is saying doesn’t sound right either, Alma has the strangest feeling that both of them are missing something obvious but she can’t for the life of her figure out what. She picked up a photo… Mirabel wasn’t in this one either, when the new casita is finished and they hang up the family photos she will have to arrange them so that the ones with Mirabel and Bruno are more prominently displayed then the others.