A Slow Burning Candle *Main story completed, additional scenes to be added*

Chapter 19: Another Vision

The next morning, when Bruno didn't show up to breakfast, Julieta handed Mirabel a plate and asked her to take it up to him, "You're his favorite, mija, please ask him to eat something."

Mirabel knocked on his door, "Tío Bruno?"

"Sí?" His voice was tinged with defeat.

"Mamá made you some food, can I come in?"

"Sure." The sand fall in the hourglass archway stopped and revealed him sitting in his chair, watching his pet rats play with a few of the homemade toys that Antonio had fashioned for them – on their request.

She walked through, shaking her head at how easy it was to move about now that casita could work in the room again. Saved her and the food from being covered in sand at least.

"Thank you," He got up, taking the dish from her and went back to his chair. She watched as he broke up a bit of the bread, crumbled it up, and handed it over to the rats.

"She wants you to eat something."

"I will."

The room was different now that he was home. Cavernous emptiness was gone, compacted back to its original size, with only a single round circle of stairs to the vision cave. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at it – everything always had to be the hard way for her,

Bruno chuckled, noticing her frustration, "Sorry, I know you had to climb a lot of stairs."

"And jump a chasm! You had like, an entire chasm here."

"To be fair, there was a bridge," He thought a moment, "Back in the day." He picked at his food and took a bite.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes."

"I know what little they've told me, but what happened between you and Maestra Estrada?"

He sighed, Mirabel was a bit young for all this, but that clearly hadn't stopped any of his relatives from filling her in, "She showed up awhile before you had your gift ceremony. I don't know what happened, but I just fell for her right away, and she wasn't scared of me. We started to spend a lot of time together, talking and reading books. I liked her and she liked me back, but Abuela had a rule that female teachers couldn't marry, so we had to be secret about it if she didn't want to get fired."

"That's unfair."

He nodded, "We thought the same thing, but I was sure that if she lost her job and married me, she'd regret it forever." Taking a drink of water, he continued, "Abuela told me to end it, and I had a vision that I thought was about Luz, and I broke it off with her right before your ceremony."

"Then you went into the wall." Mirabel finished the story.

"Yeah."

"Have you tried," She pointed upwards, "Having another vision? Maybe about her?"

"I'm still nervous about it." Shrugging, he finally tucked into his food while Mirabel stared at him.

"Oh c'mon!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him up from his chair, "Now that we know what to do, it can't be all bad, right?"

Bruno fumbled the plate, managing to toss it onto a nearby table without spilling too much while his niece dragged him up the stairs.

Once in the room, he sat across from her, uneasy, "I'm not entirely on board with you being here for this."

"Why? I can help you look for the clues."

"Just, if I tell you to close your eyes, close them." He warned her, as he held out his hands for her to take.