I see you, Bruno

Chapter Three

As the sun goes down behind the mountains of Encanto, Mamá gathered her children together because it was time to go down to the village to visit Adella and her niece. Alma was very anxious to see Lucia. Adella had told her weeks ago about her niece's arrival and had described to her a friendly, fun-loving girl who always had a smile on her face.

"Pepa! Julieta! Bruno! Where are you?" she called through the house. "Casita, would you please send her over?" asked Alma. Casita banged the doors in agreement. And then came the indignant cries, "Casita! Leave my shoes!"

"Mamá, I'm coming already!"

"Leave the wool alone, I'm begging you, Casita!"

Alma smirked as she listened to her children try to get ready and complain about it at the same time.

Julieta was the first of the triplets to appear in the hallway. She looked down at the floor in dismay. "It's Pepa's fault we're late".

Alma raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah?"

Julieta was about to say something, but just then Pepa came storming down the stairs. "Don't believe a word she says!" she shouted, "It was all Julieta's fault!"

"Not at all!"

"You bet!"

"Girls!" intervened Alma. "What's the matter with you today? You usually make up."

"They're going crazy, Mamá," said Bruno, who had just arrived. "I told you that weeks ago."

His sisters looked at him indignantly, but his mother began to laugh. "Where you're right ..." she said slowly. "But all right. We have to go, we're already late.", Casita opened the front door for the family and they made their way to Adella's house.

While they were walking through the village, Bruno noticed that Pepa was always eyeing him from the side. She tried to make it inconspicuous, but somehow she didn't succeed that way. Pepa was generally a very noticeable person, largely due to her red hair and the huge cloud that sometimes buzzed around her head, but when she tried to be inconspicuous, she was usually only more noticeable than she already was. That's why it wasn't hard for Bruno to tell that she was watching him. "What's wrong?" he finally asked her.

"Nothing," Pepa looked away again and Bruno shrugged his shoulders. But not thirty seconds later, her eyes darted back to him. "Pepa," he said. "What?"

"Why are you doing this, anyway?"

"What am I doing?"

"You're not stepping on the cracks from the sidewalk. Why?" she shrugged. "I mean, you've been doing it for months now, maybe even years, but why?"

"I don't know," it was like knocking on wood, Bruno didn't know why. He just did it. "It's like a reflex or something."

Pepa shrugged it off, but Bruno started thinking about it. Why did he do something like that? There had to be some reason behind it. It's pointless, really, but Bruno felt like he had to do it. As if something terrible would happen otherwise. Like an attempted avoidance of one of his-

"We're here," Mamá said, snapping Bruno out of his thoughts. They were standing in front of a house, with lots of roses in the front yard. Mamá walked forward to the front door and knocked, while Bruno and his sisters followed her.

From inside there were loud shouts, a thump, and finally, the click of the front door as it opened. "Hello?" someone asked and Bruno recognized the voice immediately.

"Good evening, is Adella there?" asked Mamá.

"Adella!" shouted Lucia over her shoulder. "There's someone here for you!"