Julieta finished putting out the dishes of food and Pepa poured the three of them a glass of wine each.
"No husbands, no brother, no kids, no Mamá screaming at me to calm down every five minutes," Pepa listed. She laid back on the blanket, wine in hand.
"Pepa," Julieta said.
"What?"
Catherine hid her smirk by taking a sip of wine.
"This is relaxing," Pepa continued.
"Your gift must be exhausting," Catherine said. "Both of you."
"That's sweet of you to say," Julieta said. "But all I have to do is cook."
"But all the time? I feel like I never see you do anything but eat, cook, and give food out to the village but even then you've got a small fire going beside you in case you need to make more."
"She has a point, Juli," Pepa said. "You work too hard."
"It also mustn't be easy when your every emotion affects the weather," Catherine said.
"Meh."
She sounds like her brother when she does that. "I can imagine how tiring it must be. Have you ever thought of just, letting go? You know, just let yourself feel what you feel?"
"I can't let that happen, the encanto will never recover. I let myself feel what I feel, and suddenly there's a hurricane."
Catherine went back to drinking her wine as Pepa calmed herself down.
"Hm... Catherine?" Julieta said after a momentary silence. "Tell me, what do you think of our Brunito?"
Catherine suddenly felt cornered. Backed into a wall with two weapons of mass destruction aimed at her head.
Pepa laughed and sat up.
"I didn't think it was possible for her to become any more white!"
"Please, don't misunderstand, I just want to know where you two are up to in the future Bruno has seen."
"Oh," Catherine muttered. "Well, I mean... I don't really want to talk about Bruno to his sisters."
"And I don't want to talk about Bruno," Pepa said. "I want to know about cultural differences. I'm curious! The biggest difference between London and Encanto? It was London, right?"
"Right," Catherine said. She took a moment to think. Biggest difference... "The music and want to celebrate everything was a shock. How close you all are to your families..."
"You're not close to your family?" Julieta asked. "Oh! Sorry, I just remembered..."
"Yeah, mine's dead," Catherine said. "But even before we weren't that close. You're not likely to come across a house with three generations living under one roof let's put it that way. Not impossible, I'm sure some people do! But also, not very common. Oh! The men!" Catherine exclaimed. Pepa and Julieta's eyes went wide and they giggle.
"What do you mean?" Julieta asked.
"Men in Colombia are very... intimate to put it delicately. Don't get me wrong, I like it. It's the best time of my life, but ah... it would never happen like that in London. Back home it's 'don't talk about it, don't think about it, certainly don't act upon it'. The only proof there should be of it happening is a married woman's growing stomach. Here it's... well... They're gentleman back home in their own way, but they're also gentlemen here in their own way."
"She just spoke about Bruno without actually talking about Bruno."
"And you're his sisters. Oh my God," Catherine buried her face in her hands and pulled her knees to her chin. The ground can swallow me now, please.
Pepa laughed.
"It's okay, Catherine. We know."
"You know what?"
"We know what you are to our Brunito, it's okay!" Pepa said.
"We've known for longer than you have," Julieta said.
"You... have?" Catherine asked.
"See, twenty-five years ago-"
"And you didn't hear this from us," Pepa quickly added.
"Oh, of course not," Catherine said.
"Twenty-five years ago, Bruno had his first vision of you," Julieta continued. "Our fault really we pushed him to have it."
"We had just seen great futures for us so we wish happiness for our hermano," Pepa said.
So why did their faces look sad?
Julieta and Pepa told Catherine about that first vision all those years ago. How their initial interpretation was wrong... when they spoke about the twins, Catherine's arms went around her stomach.
"Señora, another culture-related question," Pepa said. "What are your views on childbirth out of wedlock?"
"Pepa, that's not exactly appropriate," Julieta said.
"I'm curious!"
"Why?" Catherine asked. "What are yours?"
"The church doesn't look highly upon it. In Encanto, it just doesn't happen," Pepa said.
Doesn't happen? Catherine thought. I can't ask what would happen if it did or they'll figure it out... "Back home... it wasn't looked highly upon either, but it's also less frowned upon these days as it was back when I was born. I guess the wars made people a little bit more accepting of the idea."
"Juli, I just had a thought..."
"Did it hurt?" Julieta asked.
Catherine laughed with Julieta as Pepa cracked a thunder before calming down.
"Remember how Bruno acted after that vision twenty-five years ago? How he was so set on never finding love?" Pepa said.
"We are not talking about Bruno with Catherine right here," Julieta said. "I want to talk about something else."
"Fine. Like what?"
"Like the new candle?"
"Which reminds me," Catherine said, moving to sit on her knees. "Surely your gifts should do more than just... what you've always thought them to be. Julieta, have you ever tried doing anything more than healing, with your food?"
"No," Julieta answered. "Why would I?"
"Curiosity. Revenge. Have you ever tried to make someone sick with your food?"
"She made arepas with rat poison once," Pepa said. "That was interesting and is a memory stuck in my mind forever."
"Wait, what?" Catherine asked.
"We were curious if I could still heal with bad ingredients. Bruno and Pepa were my test subjects," Julieta said.
"Mamá didn't let me eat mine, but Bruno got to eat his," Pepa said. "He was fine."
"Clearly," Catherine mumbled. "But even then, Julieta, you cooked the arepas, even with bad ingredients, intending to heal, right?"
"I suppose?" Julieta said.
"Have you ever baked intending to hurt? Made something with the aim to do some serious damage?" Catherine asked.
Dolores inside Casita quietened everyone.
"I wanna hear Tía's answer," she said.
"Tía's answer to what?" Camilo asked.
"Shh!"
Pepa and Catherine both watched Julieta as she thought.
"Why are you two looking at me like that? Of course, I haven't!" Julieta said.
"Okay, fair, but do you think you can?" Catherine asked.
"Why would I want to?"
"Think of all the people who were ever mean to Bruno and Agustín," Pepa said. "Imagine if you could do more to them than just hit them with a rolling pin? I get the satisfaction of hitting them with lightning-"
"So you have harnessed your gift as a weapon," Catherine said.
"When angry, yes."
"Hm... I wonder what else you can do... the candles changed, and some of you feel different. So... what else can you do?"
In Casita, Dolores looked at her hermanitos and primas and she smiled. Isabela had already learnt she could do more than just flor de mayo and roses, and it took some energy to create anything really exotic and foreign.
"Well?" Luisa asked. "What are they saying?"
"What else can we do," Dolores said. "The candles changed, some of us feel stronger. So what else can we do."
"Like, expand our gifts?" Camilo asked.
Suddenly, Mirabel gasped.
"What if you can turn into something other than another person?!" she said and leaned towards Camilo.
"What do you mean, Mira?"
"Exactly that! I mean, what if you can turn into something other than a human. An animal for instance!"
Camilo looked at his hermanito as he thought.
"That would be cool!" Antonio gushed. "I wonder if I'd be able to talk to you or if you could still talk to everyone."
"Hey, this is all just speculation at this point!" Camilo said, suddenly nervous.
"Hm. I wonder if Antonio's gift is kept to just animals, or will he also be able to understand different human languages," Luisa began to ponder.
"Huh?" Antonio said.
"That one will be easier to test than that Catherine thought of Tía's," Dolores muttered.
"What did she think for Tía's?" Camilo asked.
"If she can hurt as easy as she can heal."
"How can we test if I can understand other languages?" Antonio asked.
"Catherine speaks another language."
"This is so cool, guys," Mirabel gushed. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement for her family.
"I can't picture Mamá using her gift for anything other than healing," Isabela mumbled.
"But what if...?"
Camilo looked at the chameleon patterns on his ruana and he wondered if what they were saying was true. Could he turn into an animal?
Dolores flinched and covered her ears, as in El Bar De Noche, her clumsy uncle tripped over someone else and knocked over a light stand.
"Sorry," Agustín mumbled.
Bruno approached quickly to help him stand up.
"Hey, Bad Luck Bruno, I've been meaning to talk to you," Fabían said as he watched them.
"Please, don't call him that, Fabían," Agustín said quickly. "Remember, he's your hermano-"
"Some hermano," Fabían said. His arms crossed and he glared at Bruno. "He tells me a prophecy about my dream. And then disappears a week before opening only to come back ten years later? That's actually what I want to talk to you about, Bad Luck Bruno."
"Please, don't call me that," Bruno mumbled.
"Your prophecy. The one you gave me about this pub. Do you remember what you said to me?"
"No... sorry..." A lie.
"Really? You don't remember seeing my El Bar De Noche go up in flames? That's what you told me would happen."
"I'm glad it hasn't happened yet."
"Yet? What do you mean yet?" Fabían yelled. Félix ran over. "What are you going to do? What have you done to my pub? To the life of the village? What are you going to do, eh, Bad Luck Bruno?"
"Hermanito, calm down. Bruno isn't going to do anything," Félix said.
"It's Bad Luck Bruno! This bar is doomed because of him! He'll ruin it! Burn it to the ground-"
"I don't make things happen," Bruno said.
"You do! How many people are you going to kill when you burn my place to the ground, Bruno? Huh? We should just get rid of you now while we can to protect everyone!"
"You're not going to lay a hand on Bruno," Agustín said and put himself between the men.
"What are you going to do about it? Fall over the air and break something else?" Fabían asked a few people laughed. "Good, maybe I can use it to-"
"Fabían, enough," Félix finally said. Loud enough to cut off his hermanito. No one had ever seen the ball of sunshine Félix be so furious before. Well... his hermanito had but that was it.
Félix said nothing else as he turned to his brothers.
"Let's go," he said.
"You're leaving? Let them leave, you're mi hermano!" Fabían argued.
"I don't expect you to understand, hermanito. You don't have a family. Happy birthday."
Félix made sure to walk behind Agustín and Bruno out of El Bar De Noche and the men began to make their way back to Casita.
The men were silent as they walked. Only to stop when they were passing the field and a crack of thunder pulled their attention.
"Guys... Lo siento," Félix muttered. "I forget sometimes how much the village-"
"Hey, don't worry about it," Agustín said and put an arm around his shoulders. "I'm used to it."
"It's definitely been a reminder of why I don't go out," Bruno mumbled. "But it's okay, Félix. It could have gotten worse."
"Yeah, it could have," Félix said. "Lo siento. Mi hermanito... I don't know why he's like that-"
"Again, hermano, don't worry about it. You can't control him about as much as I can't control my hermanos," Agustín said and sighed. "All three of them were there and not one of them said anything to me."
"Oscar, Pablo and Ramíro were there?" Bruno asked. "I didn't see them."
"They kept their distance. Now, guys, I propose, we go that way," Agustín said and pointed towards the field.
The men all looked in the direction of where the thunder had come from, gone already. They all knew that if they followed the sound, they'd find Pepa, Julieta and Catherine.
"Pepa will be mad," Félix said.
"Julieta said only to find them if it was an emergency," Bruno said.
"Well, we just had a really bad experience so... I need Julieta," Agustín said before he let go of Félix and began walking towards the field.
As terrified as he was of his hermanas, Bruno did really want to see Catherine after what happened, so he followed Agustín. Félix couldn't let them die alone so followed them. The women only looked at them and smiled when they approached.
"Done already?" Julieta asked as Agustín pulled her into his arms.
"We left early," Félix said. He kissed Pepa before sitting beside her.
Catherine extended an arm to Bruno and he tucked himself into her embrace.
"Did something happen?" Catherine asked.
None of them answered. Pepa began to form a cloud.
"Did something happen?" Pepa asked.
"Fabían just gave us a lovely reminder as to why Bruno and Agustín aren't the village's most liked people," Félix said. "I'll talk to him in the morning."
"What did they do?" Catherine asked.
"Don't worry about it," Agustín said.
"Nothing you can do about it, really," Bruno added.
"What did he do?" Pepa asked, her cloud getting darker and beginning to thunder.
"Pepa, it's okay. I'm okay. He didn't even really do anything, just a few nasty words. I'm used to it."
"Bruno," Catherine tightened her arms around Bruno. He let himself nuzzle into her chest. He felt safe and happy there.
Julieta suddenly gasped, scaring all of them and Pepa's lightning nearly hit Bruno.
"The hourglass!" Julieta said and grabbed Bruno's ruana, she pointed to the hourglass pattern.
"What?" Bruno asked.
"What happens if we turn the hourglass upside down?" Julieta asked.
"What?"
"We were talking about how a few of you have felt stronger since the candle attuned to Mirabel," Catherine explained. "So we wondered what else you could do with your gifts."
"Bruno, what happens, if we turn the hourglass? Have the sands of time run in the other direction?" Julieta continued.
Bruno moved away from Catherine to look at his sister.
"What, and see... the past?" Bruno asked.
"Exactly!"
"Why are you so excited about this?"
"You're not?" Julieta asked. "What if you can see more than the future? Try it, Brunito!"
"What... here?" Bruno asked.
"Why not?"
"I don't have any leaves to burn, no sand to turn to glass and-"
"Oh, just try, Bruno!" Pepa moaned and leaned into her husband. "It's a big open space that you need and if your eyes hurt we've got plenty of food here."
Bruno suddenly felt a lot of pressure as Pepa, Julieta and their husbands watched him. He looked at Catherine only to see her looking up at the cloudless sky above them.
"Mi alma, what do you think?" Bruno asked.
She turned her blue eyes to Bruno and smiled softly.
"I think it's an interesting theory," Catherine said and let her fingers run through his beard. "But I also think you shouldn't let your sisters pressure you to use your gift. If you don't want to, don't, simple as that."
Bruno kissed her without really thinking of their audience. He then quickly turned, pulled up his hood and closed his eyes to focus.
What happens... when we turn the hourglass...
Bruno tried to think of a memory he wanted to see, wanted Catherine to see. Sitting with his hermanas a memory sprung to mind from a very long time ago. Bruno took a deep breath in, he could smell Julieta's arepas. He smiled.
Bruno didn't notice the wind beginning to move around them. Picking up the dirt and loose debris.
"Bruno!" Catherine gasped when images began forming in the dirt.
"Julieta!" the voice of a young boy, muffled, distorted, cried out. "Are they done yet? I'm hungry!"
"That's Bruno's voice," Julieta said.
"Back when we were kids!" Pepa added.
Bruno's glowing eyes opened and the image in the dirt and debris became clearer.
A young Pepa and Bruno stood close to a young Julieta. They couldn't have been older than six, maybe even five. Julieta was cooking.
"They're ready!" Young Julieta said.
The image changed to Bruno and Pepa sitting excitedly at the table.
"I made normal arepas as well in case these don't work."
"Normal?" Catherine asked.
"Oh! We just told you this story, Catherine," Julieta said and laughed.
Pepa laughed and Bruno smiled when there was a scream from within the vision and a woman ran up and snatched the second plated arepa from young Julieta. She was a beautiful young woman, with plaited hair.
"Don't eat those!" The woman cried.
"Mamá!" Julieta and Pepa exclaimed, tears in their eyes.
"Poisoned arepas?" Catherine guessed.
"Mamá, I wanted to try that one!" Young Pepa whined. Félix chuckled.
"We wanted to see if my gift would work with bad ingredients..." Young Julieta's voice drifted as the vision of the past faded away.
Catherine looked back to Bruno. He was covering his eyes.
"Bruno? Mi amor, are you okay?" Catherine asked.
Bruno looked at her, he had a huge, silly grin, his green eyes glittering with excitement.
Catherine felt herself melt in his eyes.
"I saw the past!" he said.
Pepa and Julieta laughed.
"You did," Catherine said.
Bruno pulled Catherine to him, kissing her in his new excitement. A new thrill. A new aspect to the gift he's had his whole life he never knew he had. He pulled her onto his lap and though she felt embarrassed at their audience, she followed suit, not wanting to ruin his good mood.
"I saw the past," Bruno repeated.
Catherine giggled.
"I'm so proud of you," she whispered.
"I saw the past."
Catherine was laughing at how cute Bruno was being. Bruno, a fifty-year-old man. Was being so adorable Catherine couldn't stop smiling, holding his head, his lips, to hers.
~~
VISION AND MEMORY INSPIRED BY IG@Kinschi_draws FAN COMIC.