Chapter Text
(Antonio POV)
Today’s busy. Really busy. Abuela gave everyone a long list of things to do today because tomorrow’s Christmas and there’s so much to do! I almost didn’t get to finish breakfast before Abuela told me to go get my toucan friends so they could put up the decorations. It took me a loooooooong time to get the toucans to come with me. They don’t like to listen to me if Pico isn’t there. He’s the boss of the toucans and he says words that I’ve only heard mamí say when she’s really mad and she covers my ears so she thinks I can’t hear. Camilo told me not to say them because mamí would put a bar of soap in my mouth if I did because they’re naughty words. I couldn’t find Pico this morning, so I had to go looking for him, and that took a looooooooong time too. But I found him with Luisa and the donkeys! I think he forgets that Luisa doesn’t know what he says because he kept squawking at her and she didn’t say anything back, but when he talks to me, I hear words not squawks. Maybe he’s just being funny and squawking at Luisa. I don’t know. But I finally found him and we got the toucans to go to the house right before lunchtime to help hang decorations. I was riding on Parce to go back to the house when a little bird flew over to me and landed on my arm.
“Little chick, little chick!” the bird said. The animals always have nicknames for me and call me little, but I’m 5, I’m not little.
“Hi, what’s your name?” I asked.
“I’m Tweet!”
“Hi, Tweet! What’s wrong?”
“The girl with the nest on her head doesn’t look too good.”
The girl with the nest on her head is Dolores. Her hair looks like a nest to the birds, so they try to sit in it. Camilo thought he could try and get one to lay an egg in there, but Dolores found out and chased Camilo with a shoe. It was funny.
“Is mi hermana okay?”
“She’s by the man with the fluffy head and keeps making weird noises.”
“She’s with papá? Can you take me to them?”
“All of you?”
I looked at the toucans in the trees. “Pico, can you take them to the house and help Mirabel with decorations? Do whatever she says.”
“Who’s Mirabel?” Pico asked.
For a second, I didn’t remember his nickname for Mirabel, but then I remembered. “Happy girl!”
“Okay!” Pico said before flying away with the other toucans. I looked down at Parce.
“Come on Parce, let’s go find Dolores.”
Tweet led me and Parce to a really quiet part between houses far away from the plaza. When we got there, I told Parce to wait and said bye to Tweet before I walked over. Dolores was sitting on a box with her hands over her ears. She was squeaking a lot. She only does that when her Gift hurts her ears. Papá was sitting on the ground next to her and had a hand on her knee. He saw me and waved at me to go away, but I wanted to help, so I walked up really quietly.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered. That was too loud for Dolores. She squeaked really loud and tried covering her ears more. So I climbed onto her lap and hugged her. I did that before and she said it helped, but she didn’t hug me back. She even started crying a little. After a little bit, papá pulled me onto his lap.
“Tu hermana is really hurting, Toñito,” he whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “She needs quiet and something different to focus on, but I don’t know what that is.”
I looked at him and was about to say something, but papá put his finger over my mouth. His hands are so big, his finger went from my chin to the top of my nose. It was funny but I didn’t laugh because it would hurt Dolores’s ears. So I just ran back to Parce because I came up with an idea.
“Parce, let’s go to Perla,” I said. Parce started running really fast like he always does when he goes to see Perla. We got to the edge of the jungle behind Casita where Parce and Perla live. He used to live with me, but now he comes to Casita in the mornings to spend time with me. When we got there, we heard a low growl.
“Who is it?” a voice said from her hiding place I helped her build.
“Perla, it’s us!” I said back.
“Oh, hello, cub. Do you have my husband with you?”
“Yep!”
“Then you may come in, but be quiet. The little cubs are sleeping.”
I rode Parce through a bunch of ivy and saw Perla laying down with three month-old cubs cuddled into her side. “Friend, I would like to greet my family,” Parce said. I got off his back and watched him nuzzle Perla and the cubs for a little bit.
“Why have you brought my husband back to me so early in the day?” Perla asked.
“Well, mi hermana is hurting in town, and she needs something to help her calm down, and I remembered how holding one of the cubs was really nice, so I was hoping you would let her hold one.”
“You want me to allow one of my children to go into town and be held by a human I do not trust? No. They can hardly open their eyes. Find another way to help your sister.”
“But she’s hurting really bad and she’s crying. I don’t like when my family cries.”
“Cub, these little ones are much smaller than you. They are not safe out there.”
“Perla, this is the quiet girl you met last month,” Parce said. “She helped build our shelter. I saw her pain. She needs help, and I believe the sound of one of our little ones will soothe her. I will make sure our cub is safe.” Perla hesitated. “Love, we owe our lives to my friend’s family. We have been protected from hunters many times by them. The quiet girl is kind and loving. I won’t see her hurting.”
There was quiet for a second, then I remembered that I didn’t say something important. “Please?”
After a second, Perla looked at me. “Parce will carry the cub. You will go slowly back to her. No one other than you or your sister touches the cub. When she is better, the cub comes right back. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Good. Take the one on the right, he just finished eating and will not be awake for some time.”
Parce nuzzled Perla again before picking up the cub with his mouth and allowing me to climb on his back. The first time I saw Parce carry a cub, I thought he was biting him, but now I know it’s the only way he can. The cub was so cute, he was still sleeping while we went back to Dolores, which took foreeeeeeeeeeever, but we needed to go slow.
After a while, we made it back to Dolores and papá. They were still there. Dolores hadn’t moved. She was crying. I don’t like when Dolores cries. I got off Parce, took the little cub from him, and set the cub on Dolores’s lap. I don’t think she noticed he was there, so I took her hand and helped her pet him. She looked at me, then the cub, then me again.
“Is-is this one of Perla’s?” she whispered. She was still crying.
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “I told her you were sad, and holding a cub made me feel good, so she let me bring you one.”
Dolores looked back at the cub. “It’s so soft.” She started petting it, and it started making a little noise papá calls huffing. Parce said that jaguars can’t purr, so they do that instead. It was really cute, and Dolores stopped crying. She leaned lack, closed her eyes, and listened. After a few minutes, she started snoring, so Papá touched her arm and she woke up.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You fell asleep,” Papá said.
“Oh. The heartbeat and the noises grounded me.” She looked at me. “Gracias, Toñito. You helped so much.”
“De nada.”
“Why don’t you let Parce take his niño home, and we’ll go take a nap.”
I was tired. Besides, even big boys need naps sometimes. “Okay!” I made sure to give Parce a hug before he left with the cub. “Thank you for helping.”
“Anytime, my friend,” he said before he took the cub and left. When he left, Dolores picked me up from behind.
“Whoa!”
“Pá, we’re going home,” she said.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Papá asked.
“No, I’ll be okay. I have the world’s best baby brother with me.”
I was about to say I was a big boy, but she poked my tummy and made me giggle and I forgot. We went home and walked up to Dolores’s room, but we stopped when we saw Mirabel trying to tell the toucans to not put the decorations on tío Agustín while laughing really hard. Dolores and I looked at each other.
“They got this.”