The Lost Miracle

Chapter 3: Bruno Madrigal

"Relax 'Tonio," Bruno stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. "I don't blame you. I miss her too." The boy's uncle walked towards him and reached out for the box. "Can I see?"

"Uh," Antonio stood in confusion. He had never really thought his uncle would miss Mirabel. He had "disappeared" when she was only 5 years old, only to reunite for one day 10 years later. Then, it was her turn to vanish. "...sure." The boy handed the box to his uncle, who happily took it.

"How often do you come up here?" Bruno asked, sifting through the contents of the box.

"Oh, uh..." Antonio hesitated. He couldn't be sure if Bruno was asking out of concern, or if he would tell the family what he had been doing. "This is my first time here..." Bruno gave his nephew a judgemental look. Antonio had many talents. Cooking, dancing, his bond with animals- but not lying. Definitely not lying. The boy sighed and walked to the corner of the room, leaning his back against the wall and sliding down. "I try to limit myself to coming here every 2 weeks. So far it's going pretty well." Bruno walked towards his sobrino and knelt down to his level.

"I'd say I come here about..." he narrowed his eyes and looked up, calculating his trips to the lost Madrigal child's room. "About every other day." Antonio's eyes widened as he looked at his tio in surprise.

"Really!?" He turned towards his uncle. "I-I just didn't think you two were... that close..."

"Well, we were..." Bruno tried to explain. "It's kinda hard to put into words... When she was little, we were really close." The man leaned in close to his nephew. "If I'm honest, Mirabel is my favorite sobrina..." Antonio sat in his place, shocked at the word his uncle used. Is..?

"Mirabel was such a sweet girl, always drawing or making her arts and crafts." He continued "You could give her almost anything, and she'd turn it into a masterpiece..." Bruno looked at the open box in his hands. "I remember, right after her ceremony, before Abuela told me to look into the future, she had punished Mirabel from going outside that day." Antonio furrowed his brows.

"Punished her?" he asked. "It wasn't her fault she didn't get a gift!"

"Abuela..." Bruno tried to explain. "Never exactly had her head on straight... She was angry and confused and worried about our home. She didn't want to risk Mirabel doing something to 'hurt the family' ..." Antonio listened to the story, intrigued by his grandmother's cruelty. "That day, Mirabel and her sisters were supposed to play a game of football with some of the kids in town. When abuela told her she had to stay home, she started crying and got sent to her room.

"She was only 5, so not playing this game was the end of the world to her. No matter what her parents did, she wouldn't stop crying, and it didn't help that Isabela and Luisa had gone without her. Julieta had some work to do in town, so I told her that she and Agustin could go while I stayed and watched Mirabel. They agreed and I uh..." Bruno nervously scratched his head. "Well, I couldn't bear to see my sobrina so sad like that so I just... let her go..."

"Did either of you get in trouble?"

"Nope. She stayed hidden and just watched from afar." Bruno looked up at the butterflies on the wall.

"That was nice of you," Antonio commented. "I'm glad you didn't listen to abuela and let your 5 year old niece sneak out." He joked. Bruno rolled his eyes.

"Yeah... I guess I'm always letting her run away-" The man shut his lips together quickly, not realizing what he was saying. Bruno's eyes went wide, how could he be so careless!?

"You've... done it more than once?" Antonio looked at his uncle, who stared intensely at the ground. "Tio?" Something was... off. When else would Bruno "let Mirabel run away?" The football story happened right before he "left," and he reappeared at the same time that she... "Tio, what are you talking about?" Bruno stood up and began walking towards the door, but Antonio needed an answer. He grabbed his uncle's shoulder and turned him to face him as gently as he could. "Tio, tell me."