How Times Change

La Boda Perfecta:

 It had been a while since Bruno had taken off his poncho mainly because he considered it 'work clothes' and spent most of his time at, well, 'work': stationed reluctantly in his prophecy cave surrounded by more stars than there were grains of sand, waiting for the next unsuspecting couple or bravely foolish children to waltz or creep in in the hope they could discover some dark truth or light future.

It never was what they hoped it was, and since the village began to put the pieces together and talk to each other about the visions they had seen, realizing the pattern of negative events, Bruno had been spending an increased amount of time alone in his cave.

Today though, Bruno had removed the poncho in lue of an altogether exciting event, and, as his mother had saltily pointed out over last night's dinner, everything had to be perfect. No mistakes could be made, not when the fate of the future generations of the Madrigals were at stake.

But pepa had chosen a good husband. Felix acted younger than he was, and was louder than he was smart but kind at heart and had a genuine desire to put good into the world. Hansom, brave and artistic- Felix Garcia, the funniest man in the village (only later rivaled by his own son).

Bruno struck several half hearted poses reflected in the glass of some shattered prophecies he had in an awkward pile, watching the way the robes creased at his limbs and his hair cascaded flopping onto his shoulders with a weirdly comic bounce.

He sighed, an excused, soggy sigh and rubbed the purple bags that had long since saged under his eyes.

Seeing a figure in the corner of his view he flipped round suddenly, to see the eldest of his sisters (if only by a few minutes) smiling at him from the entrance.

Julieta, sporting a long patterned skirt and the most intricate hair design Bruno could imagine, held her hands out, beaming.

They embraced quickly, her wrapping her arms around him and squeezing playfully.

'You look very handsome.' She remarked, pulling away but still holding his hands affectionately.

'Y-you look.. I mean..' He stumbled.

'Thank you'

He let her run her thumb over his palm, her noticing a short but deep cut under his thumb as he winced at her touch.

'Where did you get it from?'

'Oh that, it's umm nothing. Just people... you know'

She raised an eyebrow, reaching a hand into her pocket.

'People?'

'Just um. I did the whole vision, they weren't...happy' He laughed nervously, watching as she held out a piece of warm spongy bread.

'This is supposed to be for emergencies. So, what happened?'

'The Marin's. They are having a baby, so they asked, i- they asked if- if it was going to be healthy.'

'Oh.'

'NO, no no. It's not dead, that is it's not going to die just, it won't have...' Bruno began to rummage through the pile of glass shards of prophecies, unable to explain what he saw, handing one with a slightly bloodied edge to his sister who took it gently. It depicted a young child, smiling widely at his parents, swinging himself back and forth in his cot, using his legs to rock him.

'I don't-' She answered, seeing only a loving, soon-to-be memory that the Margins should be happy to look forward to until Bruno stuck his finger onto the shard, pointing just below the baby's shoulder. His arm was cut off at the elbow so his right arm held no hand, just half a limb.

'She threw the vision.' Bruno confirmed, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

'People: they can be stupid, they can be wonderful. We just have to put up with one so we can gst the other.' Julieta comforted, pushing a curl of hair out of his eye. 'Let's get to that wedding, you know pepa, she'll make a hurricane unless everythings perfect.'

Julieta and Bruno made their way out of the cave and down onto the first step of the thousands leading finally into the casita, asking each other about all the trivial things that normal people would talk about as the sandy step neatly carried them both down at a gentle speed.

They both blinked in the bright sun that shone onto the cobbles and felt a slight breeze nip at their ankles: pepa must be happy- a good sign.

Most people in the village were already gathered in their best clothes around the church, trying to fit themselves onto the pews and silence their children before the ceremony. If this was anything like the last wedding (Julieta's) then it WOULD go perfectly, maybe even more than perfect.

So, as Julieta pulled away from Bruno, her excuse being that her husband was waiting on the front row, Bruno actually managed to convince himself that everything WOULD go perfectly.

No mistakes. He thought. No mistakes.

Bruno nodded politely to a few people, but not much else as he made his way through the church's obscenely huge wooden doors and into its enjoying stone main chamber. The congregated villagers were only just beginning to settle, giving him time to give luck to his sister before taking his sweet and pretending he didn't exist for the rest of the day. He stumbled quickly across the front podium and into a smaller doorway at the back, pushing up tight uneven staircase and to the smallest room, just above the rest of the service.

He noticed it had an equal... rustic door and even more uneven cobbly flooring that was mostly hidden by the amount of pepa's clothing that was strewn over it as her head appeared from the top the dressing frame.

'Bruno.' She remarked.

'Yes, i came to-' He thrust his hands in front of him giving forceful thumbs ups. 'Wish you good luck.'

'Thank you. If all goes to plan..'

'Oh, i-i'm sure it will.'

'Are you?' Pepa was immediately hopeful that Bruno did know that he had taken the time to actually look and see how today would go.

'Oh. OHH. No sorry. I'm sorry.' There was a short silence. 'I could if yo-'

'No.' She insisted and an even longer silence began.

'You should go, it's almost time for the ceremony.'

'Yes, yes of course.' Bruno agreed somewhat reluctantly, edging his way out of the room, with a small wave.

'And be careful.' He joked. 'It looks like rain.'