Isabel & Luisa

Sitting in what used to be the Candle Room and was now the Casita's library, Luisa sighed as she gazed into the night sky. She wondered where she should go from here. She definitely did not want to go back to the place she was before. Sure, she was 'strong' again and truthfully, she enjoyed working and helping the town. But, chores, chores, and more chores, not so much. There were new things she wanted to try. Things she was eager to learn about. Things she realized she stopped doing because of the workload she had taken on. She was excited when Casita was finally finished. She was looking forward to spending time with the books their family had collected over the years. So full of stories of other places. Places outside the Encanto.

She spotted a shooting star and made a wish for something…different.

Looking over, she noticed Isabela's faraway look. She sat on the balcony rail, looking up at Tío Bruno's tower. Or what was his tower. Luisa really had no idea if he was going to move back up there. She hoped not. Mira had told her about it, she said it was a lot of sand and far too many stairs.

"I still have a hard time believing Mira went up there. But she must have. That girl is nothing if not tenacious. But why would she?"

Luisa cringed inside; she was the one who sent Mira up there to look for that vision in the first place. Mirabel did not even know about it before that. Her thoughts were interrupted when Isabela said, "You know that Tío gave me a vision once."

That was something Luisa had not heard.

"Really?"

"Yes, he said my power would grow and the life of my dreams would be mine someday."

"Wow, I remember everyone saying Tío Bruno's visions were always full of awful stuff."

"Never actually awful, more really obvious stuff that people would ask about and then blame him for the answers. Anyway, in the image he showed me, I did look really happy about something. Which was weird because I was throwing things; my hair was messy, and I was most definitely not behaving perfectly. So, I showed it to Mamá, and she tilted this way and that then stopped and looked at it more closely. She showed it to Papá, and they both smiled and handed it back to me. Mamá told me that it was a wonderful vision and I should remember to be kind to Mirabel. A weird statement since I've always been kind to my sister."

Luisa's jaw dropped, and she stared at her sister. She never understood Isa's treatment of Mirabel. Sometimes she acted just like Abuela, though being perfect with Mira around was no small feat. Still, she said, "I don’t think that's wholly accurate, Isa."

"No?"

"No."

"You're right, so around the same time, Dolores told me how she thought Mariano Guzmán was the most awesomest boy ever, and could I please stay away from him? I agreed, of course, and this was not hard for me since I've never been able to see him as Dolores does. Skip ahead a few years and I find out that Abuela has decided I should marry Mariano. I just did not know how to react to that. Dolores had to know it wasn't my idea…maybe she did, but either way, she wouldn't speak to me for months. I wondered if this was really a part of what Tío Bruno meant. I mean, it broke Doli’s heart, but at the same time, it made Abuela so happy. I just wasn't sure about any of it, and I thought Tío Bruno maybe lied to me."

"I don’t think Tío knows how to lie." Luisa said, remembering their first conversation. "It's good then that Dolores and Mariano got together." Luisa said.

"True, that boy deserved far better than to be stuck in a hopeless marriage with me. I think the part that makes me the saddest is that I would have done it. Done something I couldn’t take back for Abuela and the family." She fell silent for a time, and Luisa shifted in her chair. "Anyhow, back to my story; after the dinner from hell and Casita started cracking, I was content to let Abuela deal with Mirabel and went to my room to sulk and feel sorry for myself." Luisa snorted at this statement and Isabela laughed, "Yeah, not a golden child thing to do. But seriously, Mirabel, it seemed, had once again made a shambles of my life. I thought maybe I'd done something wrong because I was not actually unhappy. I was relieved. I was clearly missing something, and looked at the vision again, if only to convince myself that all that practiced perfection had not been for nothing. Only this time I was lying on my bed. I held it over my head and saw the vision moved a little when I tilted it. I never realized that's what Mamá was doing."

Luisa leaned in a little. "They can move?"

Seeing her disbelief, Isa said, "Yes, I mean think about it, Mamá grew up with Tío. She's probably seen more than a few of his vision tablets. And you know what I saw off to one side and barely visible if you did not get the angle just right?"

Luisa shrugged.

"It was Mira.” Isa fell silent again and heaved a sigh, then said, “But at that point I was so angry with her and her earlier antics, I ignored it and did not think of it again until the magic came back. I know now what that vision was showing me, the thing I missed completely, was that she had become all but invisible to me but was still looking up at her big sister with wonder in her eyes, even after seeing my imperfect self...even after…” she frowned and added, “Every time I think about it, I want to go find her and hug her.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I think we all just assumed she was fine, she had no worries, no responsibilities, no expectations from Abuela. I will admit, sometimes, to me at least, it seemed like she was in the way, like she needed constant protection. I don’t think any of us tried very hard to include her in the things we were doing, well, except Mamá.”

“You at least did not treat her like she was a problem that needed fixing.”

“Do not be too hard on yourself, Isa, you had a lot going on. My stress was bad, but you…you had Abuela watching your every move since you were practically a baby.”

“I guess, sometimes, I feel like I should have tried harder.”

“No one’s perfect, Isa, and Mira certainly doesn’t hold it against you. Probably the most forgiving person in this family.”

“I feel like I owe her so much, Luisa. Mira opened my eyes to my potential. I want to do so much more with my Gift. I see now why magic can’t sustain food crops. You've seen what happens to my flowers if I’m not paying attention. After a while, they melt. Now I know there's so much I need to learn about the plants I grow, so I can strengthen them. I feel like I'm sixteen years behind what I should be able to do."

When the magic went away, Isa confided to Luisa that she felt cheated. She had barely come to grips with the fact that she could do so much more with her Gift. So much more than she had been led to believe. Then in less than an hour it was all gone. But that one afternoon had piqued her curiosity. In the aftermath of it all, when they weren't working on rebuilding, Isabela quite literally spent all her spare time studying plants. Free to just be herself, she talked to the farmers, backyard gardeners and any poor soul who had a houseplant about said houseplants. She worked in the fields, so she could see for herself how plants went from seed to dinner. No one ever seemed to mind, since a smile from her older sister was enough to get even the crankiest folk to tell her everything she wanted to know. Isa was Isa and that was that. Luisa was envious but not surprised, she just wished she had a quarter of Isa’s confidence.

It was really getting late, and Luisa let out a massive yawn.

Isabela dropped off the rail and gave her a gentle poke. "Here I am talking your ear off, and you look ready to drop. Wanna go check out our rooms?" she asked.

Luisa started, "That's right, our rooms are back," then she groaned and thought, they were back. "You wanna go first?"

"I can if you'd like," Isabela stood and coaxed Luisa off the wicker chair she had been sitting in. "I was a bit worried about it before," she said as they walked down to the second floor, "but now I'm excruciatingly curious to see if anything's changed."

They took the long way around to see if anyone else had been brave enough to go in. They passed by Dolores’s door and noted it was mostly the same, but her image was changed just a little.

"She’s smiling," Luisa said happily.

"Guess that's what love does to you." Isa said. "She looks so beautiful."

They moved a little further down and saw Camilo's door was also changed. The pair studied it for a bit.

"More grown up?" Isa offered.

Luisa nodded. "He is sixteen now. Did you notice that he did not shape change at all during the party?"

"I did not," Isabela said. "Impressive."

Antonio's door was still blank, so they rounded the corner and noted the nursery door that had always led to Mirabel's room looked the same. Definitely a nicer color than before, though. Isa touched it lightly and a line of jacarandas sprouted where she placed her fingers before moving on. As they came to her door, Isabela barely slowed before grasping the doorknob. She let out a small gasp as the magic washed over her and pushed back into the door. Isa looked at it, smiled and pushed it all the way open then went inside.

Luisa, however, stopped and took it in. The face was the same, but Isa's dress was no longer covered in cute flowers. Instead, there were all sorts of growing things on it, as well as some being faintly represented in the background. Maybe these were the ones Isa was still learning about.

She turned and entered her sister's room and gaped. Isabela's room was enormous. There was a bedroom like area, but the rest was devoted to plants of every size and shape. Some Luisa had never seen before. It kind of felt like Antonio's room had been, but he had a literal jungle for his many animal friends to stay in. There were no animals here, just the soft buzz of insects.

"Tomorrow is going to be so great!" Isa shouted. "Now let's have a look at your room."

Luisa was a little taken aback by Isabela's enthusiasm as her sister grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind her. She marched right up to Luisa's door and released her hand. Luisa stared at it for a moment and looked back at Isa, who was doing her best to keep from opening it herself.

"Mis hijas, getting ready for bed?"

Luisa looked past Isa to see her mother approaching with Mirabel in tow. They both stopped nearby, and Isa said, "Luisa was just about to open hers."

Luisa looked back at the glowing door and felt that eye twitch and took a deep breath. Mirabel must have noticed because she said, "Before that, Isa, can you show me your room? It's probably the prettiest of all."

Isa was about to say something and noticed her mother looking at her in that way that said, yes, you should go. Isabela let out a soft sigh and said to Mirabel, "You're gonna flip." And the pair went a little further down the hall. Luisa watched as Mirabel's eyes went wide as she stepped into Isa's room. There was a small click as the door shut behind them.

Looking back at her mother, she said, "It's pretty impressive in there Mamá, you should go take a look."

"I would prefer to see yours first, Luisa. Isa's...well, I can see it another time. Probably when I will have to go save Mira from Isa's newfound zeal."

Luisa let out a small laugh. Did her mother just make a joke?

"Good, a smile from mi pequeña niña. Are you ready?" she asked and put a gentle hand on her arm and gave it a little squeeze.

"Yes," Luisa decided. She put out her hand, grasped the knob and turned it. She did just as Isa had done and let out a small gasp as the magic swept through her. It was different from the first time. It felt warm and so much friendlier? She did not look at the image, since she assumed it would be the same as before. Nothing about her Gift had changed, she was just really strong Luisa again.

Expecting to see the hard stony surfaces of her previous room, she was surprised, first by the flooring. It looked soft and fluffy? Like a layer of clouds had been laid out for her to walk on. She stepped tentatively forward and found they were weirdly solid clouds. Every step pushed the mist a little further. Luisa was fascinated by this. This was something out of a dream. She moved further in and part of the cloud coalesced into a bed. It looked to be the softest bed ever. Colors bled into the mist from the bottom up. Furniture manifested out of the walls, all in a myriad of pastels. Every shelf held several books and a plushie or two.

A garden path meandered away from the bedroom to an archway that led out to an area full of different exercise equipment. She heard her mother's soft gasp of astonishment and looked back at her. She was smiling. Luisa realized she was too as she sat on the now fully formed bed, glancing at the archway she felt a moment of panic.

"What's troubling you, mija?"

"Mamá, you don’t think I'm going to have to… you know… do as much?"

"No, no one expects that of you anymore. You just need to set clear boundaries and stick to them. Gift or no Gift, you've done enough for ten lifetimes. You have your whole life in front of you to work, Luisa, if that is what you want. But Daughter, you also need to enjoy the rest you've earned. We are all here to help."

Luisa nodded and hoped that was true.

"I also brought you something," her mother said as she sat on the bed next to her. She reached into one of the many pockets of her apron and pulled 'it' out.

Tears immediately sprung into Luisa's eyes as she gently took the small, somewhat battered, dusty green box from her mother. "Mamá, I thought it was lost for sure. Where did you find this?"

"I did not. Your father brought that to me. Books were not the only thing they found when they were clearing the debris of Casita. He was saving it for a special occasion and set it aside. He found it again this morning and gave it to me to give to his little Lulu."

Luisa stroked the lid of the box. She had gotten it as a present from Tío Bruno the day of her Gift ceremony. This was always one of her favorite things from those days. She lifted the lid and read the little card inside.

'Hernando The Brave

Guardian of Luisa

Strongest of The Madrigals'

Tío had really nice handwriting. She lifted out the small green hooded doll and smiled at the memories that flickered in her head. She and Hernando went on many a grand adventure as she better learned how to handle her Gift. That is, until her chore list left her no time to do anything else except chores. But the little man always had a place of prominence on her bedside table, until seeing him reminded her of all the things she wanted to do but would probably not be able to. That was when she put him back into his box and she thought, her future.

There was more she wanted to ask, but she was exhausted. As if sensing her tiredness, her mother rose and stepped lightly across the cloudy floor. "Good night, Luisa. I think it's past time for me to collect Mira from Isa. I will see you in the morning."

"Good night, Mamá," Luisa said and lay back, holding up the doll. Maybe the future would be fine. "Welcome home, Hernando, I've missed you."

Julieta closed the door and smiled as she looked at Luisa's image. It was similar, but she could see that it was somewhat out of focus. Luisa was still unsure of who she wanted to be. And that was okay. Always the most dependable and sensitive of her children, she determined she would keep an eye on that.

As she walked toward Isabela's room, she heard the muffled sound of raised voices through the door. "Dios Mio, these two will be the death of me someday." She said to herself and then knocked on the door, hard. The voices went silent, and Julieta opened the door, what she saw caused her to burst out laughing.