The Mask I Wear

On Tio Bruno (PT1)

            Mirabel doesn't even need to glance over her shoulder to know the second she left her Abuela she became invisible to her once more. Invisible until she decided Mirabel was causing problems, being a distraction, ruining the things that the family worked so hard for. The one thought on her mind now being that she was going to help her mother Julieta, she was given permission from Abuela, so she better go fast if she wants to be of any use.

Suddenly Mirabel was pulled into a side room, a hand covering her mouth and muffling her surprised yelp. With wide eyes she met her Tio Felix and Tia Pepa's eyes. "Mirabel! Sobrina! What were you doing in Bruno's room?" Pepa hissed lowly.

"What- but- I wasn't-" Mirabel tried to come up with something to tell them, denying that she had gone into his room, but she wasn't as good with words as Dolores.

"Oh, don't even try that." Pepa scoffed with a rolled eye, waving her hand at her appearance. "For one, you have sand embedded into your hair." Felix spoke up too, reaching out he ruffled her curly hair and she heard as much as felt the sand shaking loose. Mirabel's lips thinned as she bit them. Nervously she twiddled her fingers together.

The married couple were silent, waiting for her. When she did not answer it was Felix who spoke up first, "Mira, tell us why you went up to Bruno's room. Did you just want to know about your tio?" he asked gently.

Pepa shushed him. "We don't talk about bruno." she hissed the words.

"But mi cielo," he started, "No! We don't talk about Bruno!" she insisted, "Mama's rule. Remember?" Mirabel blinked at how sad her tia looked. She had never seen Pepa look so forlorn. Even when she was making it rain for the town's farmers, she had never looked so broken. How much of her rainstorms were for show? Did she have some level of control over them?

"Tia?" she whispered, reaching out her hand to touch Pepa's shoulder gently. "Tia?" she repeated, questioning her with just the one word. Are you okay? What do you mean by "mama's rule"? Tell me about Tio Bruno?

She had never felt very connected to her Tia Pepa, always wondering if she disliked her, but as her Tia met her gaze with watery eyes, she realized her Tia didn't hate her, she just struggled. With her gift, her emotions were never truly allowed to be her own. She had to be happy to give the people the fair weather they wanted, she had to be sad or angry to give them the rainstorms to water the plants. She could never have an emotion that wasn't dictated to her by Abuela. Her sharp gaze and aloof attitude? Just a natural baseline to help keep the sun shining and dark clouds at bay. Her emotions were stunted, dimmed and beaten down until she could barely feel anything at all. She was doing her best, but her best wasn't good enough when she couldn't even express how much she cared. Pepa's shoulders shook as she fought for the precarious control she had before. "Breathe cielo." Felix told her, "Breathe."

They all shared a look once Pepa had righted herself, standing straight and tall once more. That was quite close. The clouds had already begun to form above her head. With the strenuous control she'd practiced and exercised over her gift, Pepa's control was still iffy at best.

Clearing her throat lightly she narrowed her eyes appraisingly at Mirabel. "So, you want to know about your Tio? About Bruno?" she cocked her head, contemplating while Felix and Mirabel looked at her, in uneasy silence. "Fine." she gestured to sit. "But you cannot tell Mama we've spoken to you about Bruno. It's not allowed." she made her look in her eyes, "You must promise me you shall not breathe a word."

Swallowing her fear, Mirabel squirmed and nodded before whispering, "Yes, I promise Tia."

"Bruno sees the future." she started, and Mirabel raised an eyebrow questioningly, she already knew this part. "He saw the future and people blamed him when the bad ones would come true while praising him when the good ones would come true." Felix took her hands in his gently to help soothe his wife. "You know the story. Ours? Right sobrina?" At Mirabel's nod, she continued. "It was our wedding day. There were no clouds in the sky."

"No clouds allowed!" Felix repeated after her, almost a rehearsed motion.

"Then when Bruno came in, he was wearing this mischievous grin." she recounted only for Felix to follow again, "Thunder!" He roared quietly. Felix loved telling stories and the dramatics were perfect for him.

"Are you telling the story? Or am I?" she turned up her nose, waving a hand at him, with a pout on her lips.

"I'm sorry, mi vida, go on." he bowed his head, but gave her a grin seeing he hadn't upset her, only amused her when she gave him a sly smirk of her own, looking back over her shoulder.

"Now, here's the part where it gets different. The story you know is the one Mama wanted us to tell. When Bruno came to me, he told me it looked like rain. Now, he was just doing what brothers do. He was trying to crack a joke, make me let it out and let it go, make me feel less nervous. That is when the hurricane started, and I couldn't get it to stop." she leaned into Felix. "No matter how much I tried, how blissfully happy I became when we went through our wedding ceremony, it still didn't stop. It was like, once it started, I had lost all control over it."

"Why would Abuela not want you to tell the truth about Tio Bruno? Why would she want him to be treated like that?" Mirabel asked softly, seeing her Tia and Tio in new lights.

"I don't know Mirabel. I've tried to understand, and I just don't." Pepa hung her head. "I don't." she whimpered and sniffed in a smaller voice than Mirabel thought possible, "I miss my brother. I miss Bruno."

"I think it's best if you go and finish helping your Mama." Felix told her, gently. "Remember Mira, not a word." he raised a finger to his lips which she mimicked. "Not a word." she repeated, and left, seeing his satisfied face turning back to help her Tia finish reigning herself back in, putting the pieces back together.

It would not do to have her broken on the day Abuela has arranged for Isabela's engagement, no it would not do at all.

Someone on one of my other stories - Rechazar - told me that "mi cielo" means "my heaven" in Spanish and I just loved the idea that Felix would call Pepa that.

(Update to my note: I have been informed that "mi cielo" can mean both "my heaven" and "my sky"!)