Chapter Text
Casita couldn’t contain its joy at getting to shelter its beloved Madrigal family again. Its tiles and shutters clicking, Casita danced with the people celebrating within. This evening felt like fifty years ago, when Casita materialized from the golden embers of the magic candle. The difference was, while Casita’s revival was just as unexpected as it had been the first time, its welcome dance was greeted with joy.
Casita eagerly dragged the entire community into itself. Come, celebrate with me! Casita had missed them so much. Clearly, they had missed Casita, too. Casita was good as new—its colors just as vibrant as ever. But things were different now, in more ways than one. Casita was back, and so was Bruno. Excited to see all twelve Madrigals together, Casita tossed them all in a giant pile as it brought a camera to take a brand-new family picture.
The party raged well into the night, but not too late. Everybody was tired from finishing building Casita with their own hands. Casita was eager to let the family into their rooms. Most of the bedrooms remained the same as before. But some rooms changed, including the doors.
Alma’s room was still a replica of the house that she had shared with Pedro. Their house in the city had been a humble two-bed one-bath home. Alma had renovated her babies’ original nursery into a library and study for herself when the triplets moved into the bigger nursery across the courtyard from Alma’s room.
Julieta’s room and door stayed the same. Like her mother’s room, it was a functional house on its own. Its walls and fixtures a gentle duck egg blue color, Julieta’s room was a two-bed one-bath unit, with the second bedroom functioning as a ward. Since Julieta’s youth, the second bedroom’s most frequent occupant was Bruno, whom Julieta treated for his migraines and melancholy. The two bedrooms had a Jack and Jill bathroom between them. There was a fully stocked kitchenette and perfectly organized cabinets. As a child, Julieta learned to cook here. While Julieta now did most of her cooking in the main kitchen, her personal kitchenette was convenient for serving sick or injured family members. This way, Julieta did not have to go up and down the stairs just to make and serve healing food, especially for those that stayed in the second bedroom for her to keep an eye on.
Unlike her mother’s and sister’s rooms, Pepa’s room was undoubtedly magical. Beyond her glowing door was a tall atrium. Overhead, there was a raincloud-shaped chandelier, which lit up the room with dancing bits of refracted light from crystal raindrops. The ceiling reflected the weather outside as well as the weather inside Pepa. On a good day, the room was awash with golden sunlight. The unit had three levels. The bottom was a sitting area for Pepa and visitors. The second was a reading nook with a shelf filled with Pepa’s favorite books. The top level was the bedroom that Pepa shared with Félix. The custard yellow wallpaper was adorned with a rain pattern. The décor was meteorology equipment such as anemometers and weathervanes, which were useful for Pepa to measure her own emotions. After Casita’s death and resurrection, Pepa was allowed to let go of her emotions. Her family and the Encanto learned that Pepa’s bad moods never lasted too long and didn’t need to be controlled in the first place. The Encanto’s climate started to resemble that of the rest of the country.
Bruno’s room changed the most. As before, the door opens into a small antechamber with an hourglass-shaped doorway and a wall of falling sand separating the antechamber from the main room. Casita had been unable to control the sandfall for Mirabel because Bruno had not been there. Now, the sandfall parted like a curtain for Bruno and welcome visitors. Intruders would have sand poured onto them, but it wouldn’t necessarily stop them. The sand landed and flowed in canals surrounding the massive circular vision cave. The stairs were gone. It was dark in there, lit only with shards of vision glass mounted to the walls like mosaics as well as bioluminescent mushrooms guiding the path. Bruno had a lever to open and close an oculus at the top of the dome ceiling. In the first year of his return, Bruno decorated the ceiling with a circular rat maze with bamboo and modeled after the labyrinth at the Chartres Cathedral. True to his private and secretive nature, the bedroom was separated from the vision cave with a massive circular door. The bedroom had the same dimensions as the vision cave, so Bruno had plenty of space for himself. Of course, he shared the space with a large mischief of rats. He had a large round bed, a reading nook, a play area for the rats, a cluttered writing desk, a cabinet with a mirror door, and a small altar decorated with holy icons. Rather than an oculus, the bedroom had a square window with a view of the Encanto.
The room closest to Bruno’s was Luisa’s. Before, Luisa’s room had two distinct chambers. There was the gym area where Luisa honed her gift and a secret amusement park where she let loose where no one would think to look. With Luisa being more honest with herself, Casita brought the two chambers together into a playground just for Luisa. Antonio loved hanging out in there, and Luisa loved playing with her youngest cousin. They both enjoyed climbing the jungle gym. In the corner was a massive canvas tent offering Luisa choices between sleeping bags, hammocks, or a bed to sleep in, depending on her mood. The tent was strewn with soft rugs and pillows and stuffed toys. Instead of a punching bag, Luisa had a large roly-poly doll with cartoon features.
Isabela’s room evolved with her gift. From a sickeningly pink garden of flowers and topiaries of herself, it turned into a dark but vibrant jungle that was no less beautiful but decidedly more dangerous. But for the safety of her family and other guests, Isabela grew poisonous plants in an area sealed with a wrought iron gate and fence. She had a pond with giant water lilies. She still grew flowers, mostly a wide assortment of orchid species and creeping plants. There were hundreds of cacti and succulents. Beyond the pond, there was a patch reserved for carnivorous plants. The one thing that stayed the same was her bed, suspended from the high ceiling with thick vines.
Their gifts didn’t change much, so Camilo’s, Dolores’, and Antonio’s rooms didn’t change at all.
Camilo’s room resembled an actor’s dressing room at first glance, complete with a small bathroom and a dresser fully stocked with cosmetics and a labyrinthine walk-in closet of costumes as well as Camilo’s own clothes and personal belongings. But a second door led to a hallway to a theater seating up to a hundred audience members. Camilo rarely used the theater, preferring to perform in the inner courtyard in the open air and sunlight.
Antonio’s was still a massive jungle where his animal friends visited him from their actual home in the mountains. He had multiple hammocks in there, for himself and for guests, which were most frequently Mirabel and Camilo. Antonio had built a stone trail toward the one hammock that he had claimed as his. He didn’t need nightlights because there were always fireflies and bioluminescent fungi comforting him at bedtime.
Dolores’ room looked quite like a normal bedroom, like Abuela’s and Julieta’s. But with the window or door closed, it was entirely soundproof. To reduce the ensuing tinnitus, Dolores had a couple of record players and a variety of gentle music instruments to soothe her. She had music boxes, singing bowls, harps, zithers, and a few drone instruments originating from India. Dolores’ favorite object in the room was a cylinder phonograph, which would produce a soothing white noise if she put in a cylinder with no music recorded into it. She sometimes slept over at Antonio’s room for the crickets or in Bruno’s room for the falling sand, which were almost as good as the drones in her room.
Alas, Casita still wasn’t able to give Mirabel her own room. Mirabel did not hold this against Casita; she was only glad to have her old friend back. As a compromise, Casita made the nursery slightly bigger to accommodate Mirabel’s needlework projects. Casita also did not remove the second bed in the nursery. The spare bed made the nursery perfect for daytime naps for anyone who needed it. Because the family knew that it wouldn’t be very long before Dolores and Mariano would marry and have babies, Mirabel’s padres and tíos started making plans to build an entirely new room on top of the nursery. “If Casita couldn’t make Mirabel a room, we’ll build a room for her,” the adults decided, which warmed Mirabel’s heart. Construction was delayed for a year while the family was adjusting to their new dynamics and changes to their workload. Mirabel didn’t mind; the anticipation of finally having her own space was about as good as having it already. After all, there was no need to hurry as Mariano and Dolores had decided to “take it slow.” Mirabel had even started referring to the nursery as “my room.” The new room would cover nearly the whole wing to give Mirabel space for a closet, an activity area, a closet, and a bathroom. The room would be dominated with a lovely teal color broken with pink and green accents. Mirabel would leave her childhood drawings in the nursery, so she could decorate her teal walls with new artwork and knickknacks of her own. Her bamboo wood floor would be decorated with colorful rugs. Her bed would have a wrought iron frame, painted black with gold butterflies.
To everyone’s surprise, Casita tolerated having a portion of its roof torn off to build a new space on top. It proved to everyone that Mirabel was Casita’s favorite. For Casita’s comfort and relief, the family and their neighbors who would help in the construction would work as quickly as they could.
Downstairs, besides the courtyard, the large, shared bathroom, and the kitchen and dining room, there was a large sala across the courtyard from the kitchen. Both the sala and cocina had access to the wine cellar under the house. The sala functioned as a mini library and music room, too, so Luisa no longer had to carry the piano around. Through the back door from the kitchen, there was the enormous back garden where the family grew fruits, vegetables, and nuts. The backyard was also where they washed and hung laundry, with a drain leading to the nearest stream.
Finally, at the roof of the house, they had a water tank. When the triplets were children, Pepa used to fill it with rainwater. When Luisa got her gift, she took the task of physically carrying the tank to the nearby lake to fill it and then carry it back. This chore helped to make Luisa become stronger as a child. After the reconstruction, Luisa and Pepa took turns filling the water tank. They filled the water tank every three days.
The residents of the Encanto omitted the hollow walls from the construction, so when Casita was revived, it didn’t bring back the spaces in the walls either. There would be no holes or passageways behind the painting beside Dolores’ door or the family tree in the dining room. Even if the walls were broken, there would be no secret passageways to find. Casita felt sturdier that way. Besides, Casita would rather not remind Bruno of his ordeal by keeping the space.