Julieta always wanted a big family.
She always wanted to have at least three kids, thinking it was the perfect number for siblings. That way if you were mad at one sibling, you still had the other one to work with.
But that didn't happen.
She had Isabela and then Luisa, and then she was pregnant around the same time as Pepa...
Pepa's baby boy was fine. A beautiful charming baby boy.
But Julieta's baby never saw the light of day.
She was in her room, mourning the loss of a life that never really started.
Mama had given her and Agustin a two week mourning period about the baby, knowing how hard something like this was. But she was firm on the fact that it was two weeks. After that, the town needed their healer.
Isabela grew flowers for her mama to make her smile but it didn't work.
Luisa snuggled but it still didn't work.
How could Julieta ever feel happy again after what happened?
She was the healer, she healed everyone. But her baby died in the one place they were supposed to be safe.
One night, Julieta finally emerged from the room. It was late, no one was awake.
Not even her brother, who was famous for being an insomnia.
Tiles shuffled.
"Why couldn't you have protected my baby." She whispered.
She fixed tear filled eyes on the windowsill, where the candle rested.
Tears were replaced with anger.
"You have done so much! But the one thing I needed you to do, you just...!"
Julieta wanted to run to the candle and throw it on the ground.
She wanted to destroy the miracle that took her baby from her...
She wanted to...
She didn't know what she wanted to do.
Julieta finally decided what to do next.
Collapse to her knees and cry into her nightgown.
She thought she didn't have anymore tears after crying for so long but grief was a vicious thing. It never truly left.
Tiles shuffled around her and the candle glowed.
Isabela hadn't been sleeping well since her baby sibling had died before she had a chance to see them.
She loved being a big sister to Luisa and couldn't wait to be a big sister again.
But...
She hadn't even seen the baby. Only Mama and Papa did, and they never named it.
She didn't even know if the baby was a boy or a girl.
What really scared her was the idea that someone could turn her mother that defeated, that sorrowful...
She wanted to fix it.
So when she heard her Mama actually leave her room, the six year old left her own room, giving up on fitful rest, to try and have a slumber party with her mother.
Instead she saw her mother collapsed in a heap, crying.
She saw magic glow,
She saw it form a small shape in front of Mama.
Isabela gasped, feet rooted to the spot.
She was a Madrigal. Even at age six, magic did not phase her.
But the candle had never done something like this before!
Once the glow died down, there was a soft baby cry.
Mama snapped out of it in time to see the glow of the magic die away, forming a small baby with almost non existent curls, crying and naked.
Isabela's hands flew to her mouth and she ran to her room.
She got the feeling she wasn't supposed to have seen that.
"Julieta!" Agustin's voice carried.
She heard a light crash but she barely acknowledged, holding tightly to the infant as if in a daze.
"Julieta!" Relief in his voice was palpable.
"Mi amor don't scare me like t...Julieta..." His voice got serious when she turned, revealing the baby suckling at her breast.
"Who's baby is that?"
"Ours." Julieta said.
Agustin blinked at the baby. "Julieta..." His voice softened. "Our baby..."
"Is right here."
Julieta had been happy for the first time in weeks.
He didn't want to take that away from her.
But he didn't know where this baby came from.
Julieta would never tell.
He'd have to find out for himself.
