Without You: A Story about Pedro Madrigal's Life

Fatherhood

Pedro had a hard time keeping up with everything. Something was always going on in his house. Three children may have sounded easy, but it was anything like that.
     Julieta, being the oldest, liked to scare her siblings. Pepa, "the middle child," had a very hard time controlling her emotions, and young and fragile Bruno cried whenever a flower was stepped on.
     He couldn't keep up, and he knew someday that was going to end up biting him in the back, but right now he had to focus on making them happy. He couldn't stomach any more guilt.
    He spent days in the garden, teaching Bruno about the flowers, and the casita made sure to take care of Pepa. He would walk into the house to find the casita gently tickling her by moving her around the house. The giggle filled his mind with happiness. Just seeing her smile was enough to make his day.
    Julieta stopped scaring the little ones on her own. It seemed to be just a phase, and now, she was the most protective sibling ever. Whenever Pedro tried to remind her that they were triplets and therefore all the same age, it seemed to go in one ear and out the other. She had taken the title of the oldest, even if it was just by 3 minutes.
    Then, it was the thing he had been dreading all year. It was their first Christmas without Alma. His sweet Al that filled his memories like a dark void that took an infinite amount of space up. There was never anyone that could fill that empty gap in his heart like his children. They were as much a gift to him as he was to them. He couldn't imagine his life without any of them, but he did think the same thing about Alma just a few months ago. That latched on the back of his mind like a parasite.
    He shook his head. He could already imagine the wide smiles on all of his children's faces, the ones that warmed his heart. He knew exactly what he was going to get each of them. Julieta, who lit up everytime she got to help her father in the kitchen, would get a book of recipes he could teach her. Pepa would get a sketch pad which was definitely better than the alternative, drawing on the walls, which she had done many times before. Of course, Bruno would get his very first plant, one that he would have to take care of himself.
    Even the casita seemed to agree that these were wonderful gifts for the three of them. Most people would think taking advice from a house might sound psychotic, but for Pedro, that just made him even more confident in his gift giving skills.
    However, what he was not expecting them to do at all, was play in the boxes the gifts were in. They built houses and forts, and he didn't know whether to be upset that they liked the boxes more than the gift or fall to a fit of laughter. "Hey Bruno, come here! You can be the baby."
    Bruno pouted, and he opened his mouth to say something, but the words didn't come out. It was like he didn't know what to say or how to say it. Pedro sighed. It had been like this for a few weeks. Both Pepa and Julieta had already started speaking full sentences, and he was nowhere near that.
    Sometimes it looked like he was about to speak, and Pedro encouraged him the best he could, but nothing came out.
    Nothing else seemed to be wrong with his development other than that. He got so excited when he got to go outside that it warmed Pedro's heart like the warm milk he drank every night, but whenever he asked him anything, he would shut down and get all nervous and twitchy.
    It had been a long week. As much as he tried to hide it, he couldn't help being disappointed. However, he was not at all disappointed in his son. He was disappointed in himself for not being able to do anything about his son's hard time with speaking, but then he saw how Bruno was with his sisters. How he comforted them by just being with them. He was only one years old, yet he seemed to have the wisdom of a man that was twice Pedro's age.
    Pepa and Julieta may have been the two most protective people he had ever met. They were always there for each other and Bruno and had their backs always. Pedro started to notice that kids ran away, scared that Julieta and Pepa might find them, and these kids were up to the age of 10!
    He could only imagine the horrors the one-year-olds had pulled to make the kids cower in fear when in their presence. But that only made him a prouder dad of his three beautiful children

Hey y'all I'm so amazing that I'm failing art. Lol.