Chapter Text
Isabela has been experimenting with what plants she can grow lately. After Casita had been rebuilt, the Madrigal family made an effort to balance out their work and lives more than they did. Isabela gained the time and freedom to be more creative with her gift. Her room now consists of flowery murals along her walls, unique cacti, exotic, and poisonous plants lining the borders, while pollen stained, wild vines are grown everywhere.
She's also been able to spend time with her family more often, especially Mirabel. Isabela and Mirabel both wanted to make up for lost time and mend their previously broken relationship. They tend to spend more time with each other these days than anyone else in the family.
Today Mirabel came to visit her sister in her room. Sitting on the floor is comfortable, it's padded with petals and smelled like orchids in a greenhouse. They play a game where Mirabel asks her to make a specific plant and Isabela grows it.
“Oh! Isa, what about a carrot? Can you grow any vegetables?” Mirabel asks curiously.
“I haven't ever before… But let's see if I can!” Isabela concentrates as small green tendrils slowly emerge from the ground. They puff out, forming little leaves. There's a purple hue at the end of the stems where they all connect. A small bit of a pale tan color starts to form growing into something thin that looks like a root.
“Amazing! It doesn't look like the ones the farmers grow, but that's a wild carrot isn't it? That's awesome!” Mirabel is more excited than her sister and leans down to pick the carrot up. “Should I try eating it? It looks clean.”
“Mirabel, I've never tried to make something edible like this before.” She looks at the carrot Mirabel is holding wide eyed. Her eyes narrow in thought as she says, “I think we should ask Mamá first just to make sure it's safe before eating it.”
“Alright, let's go see if we can find her. I bet she's in the kitchen.” Mirabel stands and petals shift from the movement, Isabela follows as they make their way into the hallway.
Dolores can be seen on the bottom floor making her way outside with a pitcher and two glasses.
“Lola,” Isabela starts to say quietly from the railing looking down, Dolores turns towards their direction. “Is Julieta in the kitchen?”
Not wanting to raise her voice, Dolores just shakes her head and points outside in the direction she was going. Mirabel and Isa make their way down the stairs and out Casita’s doors where they see Dolores pouring a drink for their Mamá and Tía Pepa.
“She's taking a break. I'm working on food prep in the kitchen right now until their break is over.” Dolores tells them as they walk up.
“Oh, thanks Dolores!” Mirabel says as she bounces up to Julieta with carrot in hand. “Mamá! Look what Isabela made! It's a wild carrot, isn't that great? She said she's never made a crop before.” Mirabel hands her the carrot.
“Really? How nice, this could help me out in the kitchen a lot!” Her eyes shine with pride as she looks at her eldest.
“I hope so.” Isabela smiled and continues, “We brought it here since Mirabel wanted to eat it, but I wanted to make sure it was safe first.” Isabel knew a lot about flowers, though her mother was more knowledgeable when it comes to consumable vegetation.
“Hmm,” Julieta looked a bit closer at the plant in her hands, standing up. “This might not actually be a carrot. Here come with me girls.”
Julieta tells Pepa that she'd be back in a minute and her daughters trail behind as she leads them back to the kitchen and in the pantry.
She pulls a plant out and places it next to the other one on the table.
“This is a wild carrot.” She points to the one she just pulled from the pantry. “Dolores finds them occasionally on her perimeter walks around the encanto.” Then she points to the one Isabela grew. “This looks more like poison hemlock. Notice the difference in leaf shape and the reddish purple hue on the base of the stem?”
“Oh yeah I do see that, I’m glad Mirabel didn’t eat it.” Isabela furrowed her brows. “You said ‘poison’ what would’ve happened if this is poison hemlock and she did eat it?”
“I’m just glad she didn’t.” Julieta explained, “Poison hemlock is only dangerous if it’s ingested, but severe negative effects could take hold within 15 minutes. Vomiting, seizures, respiratory failure, most people die if they mistakenly eat it.”
“Man! I could have died.” Mirabel’s eyes were wide. “Sheesh, thank everything you were smart enough to go to Mamá first.” She said looking at her sister.
“With Isabela’s tendency to grow poisonous and generally more dangerous plants these days, you should always come to me first before eating anything she makes.” Juileta sighed. “Last thing I want is to be shoving food down the throat of a convulsing child of mine.”
“Yeah, I-I get it.” Mirabel said.
“That’s why I found you to ask.” Isabela smiled reassuringly. “Now that I know what wild carrots actually look like, maybe I can create a more accurate one.”
“Sure, it’s worth a try.” Juileta said and then Isabela moved her hands. Green tendrils once again started to form and eventually a pretty close copy of the wild carrot was created. “This… hmm.” Julieta brought her hand up to her face in thought. “It looks like a wild carrot, but there’s just a small difference that put me on edge of officially claiming it is one.”
Isabela takes the plant in hand and compares it to the other two. “I see what you mean, the stem and root look the same, but the leaves look more like the poison hemlock I made than the carrot.”
“How is that even possible?” Mirabel asked, “Did you just create like a plant hybrid somehow?”
“I don’t know.” Julieta began, “but you two girls should wash your hands and I’ll take care of these plants. I’ve still got to hang out with my sister now like you two are.” She smiled as her daughters moved to the sink.
“I’ll handle the plants, Tía, you can go on ahead.” Dolores spoke up as they all didn’t notice she was already back in the kitchen working on the prep work.
“Thank you, Dolores.” She said, then looked at her kids. “Again, don’t eat anything that Isabela creates, just in case.”
“Yes, Mamá.” Mirabel agreed and turned toward her sister. “Do you want to go back to your room and make more stuff?”
“Of course!” Isabela and Mirabel excitedly exited the kitchen making their way towards Isabela’s room once more.
Left alone in the kitchen, Dolores finished the prep work she needed to get done before dealing with the, as she heard, poisonous plants. Knowing which one was truly the wild carrot, she puts it back in the pantry, and grabs the other two as she leaves.
Letting Juielta know she finished the prep, she walked to the side of the house where the trash was and put the poison hemlock in. Burying or burning it somewhere would not have been a safe idea so throwing it out in the trash was what she thought was best. What she didn’t know was that her brother’s little friends often snuck ‘gifts’ for him from the trash. Unfortunately the rats don’t understand what poison hemlock is.