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“ Muy bien todas, dinner is ready!”
Dinner had always been the most important part of the day for the Madrigals, besides breakfast. It was the time of day when everyone came home from doing their chores and activities, and could just sit down and relax and eat as a family.
And now that Julieta no longer had to make everything by herself, it had become a sort of group activity, with the kids offering their help to her, even Alma offered her cooking wisdom!
They all trickled into the dining room, including Mariano, whom Dolores had invited to dinner. Everyone was here!
Everyone, except…
“Where’s Bruno and Miguel?” Mirabel looked at the two empty seats that would usually house the inseparable two. “They’re usually here by now…”
“I think I last saw them heading to their room,” Julieta said, placing down the last of the rice on the table.
“I can go up and get the-”
“No need, Mirabel, I can do it today,” Alma assured her, slowly getting out of her seat just as her granddaughter was getting out of her seat.
“Oh, are you sure, Abuela? I don’t really mind if-”
“No, I insist, you’ve done enough work today, and you deserve a bit of rest,” Abuela patted Mirabel on the shoulder, putting her back in her seat, and left the dining room.
“¡ Gracias, Abuela!”
“That was nice of her, don’t you think?” Julieta sat down next to Pepa, as she usually did.
“Yeah, it was, but what do you think they’re doing?” Pepa moved some corn onto her plate.
Julieta shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Maybe they’re working on a project? I know Miguel helps out with Bruno’s ‘rat novelas’ sometimes.”
“Maybe! Or maybe they’re upstairs making dulce, dulce amor !” Pepa joked, holding her hands up to her cheek in mock whimsy.
Instead of a small chuckle or a scolding, as Pepa was expecting, she saw the color drain out of Julieta’s face.
“Y-you don’t think they’re actually-”
Just then, their conversation was abruptly cut by the sound of two voices yelling upstairs.
“ B-BRUNO ?”
“ MA, LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY, GET OUT !”
The sound of a door slamming echoed through Casita, and everyone got up from their seat to see what the commotion was.
Walking into the courtyard, they saw Alma descending the stairs, her face white as a sheet.
Agustin was the first to ask; “S-so…everything ok with them?”
“I seem to have walked in on them at a very…delicate time.”
“Ew…” Camilo stuck out his tongue in disgust.
“Mama, it wasn’t what it looked like!” Bruno was at the top of the steps, nothing visibly on him save for a duvet wrapped around him. Seeing the crowd that had gathered, he fell silent and turned a complete shade of beet red.
“ Doña Madrigal, I am so, so sorry-” Miguel entered the scene, wearing Bruno’s ruana backward, stopped upon seeing everyone, and awkwardly waved. “ H-hola everyone…”
“Well, looks like you two lovebirds were having a good time!” Pepa laughed.
“ Papi , why is tío Miguel wearing tío Brunos’ ruana?”
“Hey, buddy, how about we get back to the dining room, huh?” Felix scooped up Antonio into his arms. “That means you too, Camilo.”
“You go on ahead, I want to stay here and see what happens.”
“ Camilo ,” Pepa glared at him.
“Fine.”
“Everyone too young or grossed out by the conversation, come with me!” Agustin announced, and everyone except Julieta and Pepa left the courtyard, leaving just Bruno and Miguel at the top of the steps. Alma stood at the bottom, hand resting on a baluster and the other massaging her forehead.
There was nothing but silence, until Bruno hesitantly broke it.
“M-Mama…?”
“Um…how about you go on up to your room and get dressed, Bruno?” she proposed. “You too, Miguel.”
Bruno sunk his head down in shame, covering his head with a part of the duvet, and slinked back to his room, Miguel following.
“Uh, Miguel?” Miguel stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face the senior Madrigal. “I ask you to please get dressed in the bathroom, if you can?”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t want you two going at it like lovesick teenagers again!”
“ Pepa, sh !” Julieta shushed her with a harsh nudge, while Alma just sighed and rolled her eyes in response.
“ Ah …,” Miguel looked down at the floor, blushing. “W-will do, señora …,” and with that, he walked away.
“I guess we’ll go back to dinner…” Julieta grabbed Pepa by the arm and left the courtyard, leaving Alma alone, who just closed her eyes and continued to massage her temples.
For the first time in possibly ever, everyone at the Madrigal home ate their food in total silence, the sounds of chewing and forks and knives clinking plates were all that could be heard.
Bruno never came back down from his room, and Miguel was momentarily seen attempting to come down the stairs, this time in his own clothes, before deciding against it and running back up the steps.
Alma didn’t even touch her fork, too lost in thought over what had just happened.
The sight she saw was very…well, to be frank, it wasn’t like she hadn’t walked in on her kids in compromising positions before.
But…she never walked in on Bruno like that, no, never. And she had certainly never seen two men in a position like that.
Alma had long ago accepted the fact of her son’s sexuality. She had made the effort to understand what it meant, how people like that lived their lives, etcetera. She didn’t love her son any less. Quite the contrary, in fact. His being able to trust her with this information, after so many years of the trust between them being broken, made Alma feel extremely honored, and made her love him even more.
So, why should this incident make her see him any differently? If anything, before Bruno had seen her in the doorway, for that brief moment before she announced her presence with her gasp, Bruno looked happy! So, shouldn’t she be happy that he found someone to be happy with?
Then, she remembered the look on Bruno’s face when she told him to go get dressed. Like he was a child that had been told off…like he had done something wrong.
“ He doesn’t think I’m mad at him, am I ?” she asked herself. Perhaps he misinterpreted her shock as a disappointment? If he did, Bruno must be too afraid to come down, too afraid to come face to face with her.
“Um…Abuela?”
“Hm?” Abuela was kicked out of her thoughts by Luisa, and she could see all eyes were now upon her.
“You…you haven’t touched your food yet.”
“Oh, yes, yes you’re right, my apologies,” she quickly said, picking up her knife and fork.
Knock knock knock
“Um…come in?”
Alma walked into her son’s bedroom, momentarily having flashbacks of the scene earlier, before quickly burying it back down. Thankfully, this time, Bruno was clothed, in a nice red button-up and brown pants, and was sitting on the bed, whittling a block of wood with a knife.
“Mamá…nice to see you here?”
“ Hola, Bruno…Do you mind if I talk to you?”
Bruno looked confused and mildly taken aback, before offering her a seat next to him, which she accepted.
The two sat in silence for a moment, before Alma cleared her throat.
“So, may I ask if you know where Miguel went?”
“Oh, uh, he left. Casita helped him find the way to the back door, cause he was a bit too embarrassed to walk past everyone.”
“I see…”
“B-but me and him are fine, i-if that’s what you came up to ask.”
“I’m glad to hear you two are okay, but that’s not why I came up here.”
Bruno looked at his mother with raised eyebrows.
Alma turned her body around to fully face him.
“I want to apologize, Bruno.”
Bruno, now fully taken aback, put down his knife and block.
“I-I’m gonna regret asking this, but why are you apologizing?”
“It’s clear that I made you feel ashamed about…what you were doing with Miguel, and I came up here to tell you that you don’t need to be ashamed about it. It’s…While the church may frown upon it, it’s still a natural human thing.”
Bruno was now looking at his mother as if she had sprouted two heads.
“Are you trying to give me ‘the talk’ when I’m in my mid-fifties?”
“W-well when you put it like that, it sounds silly,” Alma tried to explain. “B-but I’m just– I’m simply trying to tell you that, this is not my first time walking in on something like this. I mean, I’ve walked in on Julieta and Agustin-”
“Okay, okay-”
“And it was shocking to see, because, well, I never had known you to be that flexible before-”
“OKAY, OKAY!” Bruno covered his ears and shook his head. “I don’t need to hear about that, I’d very much like to sleep tonight.”
Alma chuckled, before slowly taking Bruno’s hands away, holding them in hers.
“Just…just please know that I love you no matter what, okay?”
Bruno gave his signature awkward smile and nodded.
“I appreciate that, Mami, I really do. Thank you…Thank you for apologizing. Could you do something for me though?”
“What might that be?”
“Please, please, remember to knock next time.”
Alma laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.
“I’ll be sure to, I promise.”
Alma got up and waved Bruno goodbye, closing the door behind her.
Bruno flopped backward onto the bed, letting a long pained groan.
“At least she’s trying…”