Shunned (Bruno's Kid)

Oblivious

        Papi stares at each us for a second, another flash of lighting and he turns and runs. Realizing this may be my only chance to talk to my father again, I run after him. "HEY!" Mirabel yells, we through the narrow corridors, struggling to catch up. Mirabel slams into a wall, but quickly recovers. "Stop! STOP!" I yell, we are almost to papi, but he jumps a chasm and it seems far for us to follow. Mirabel looks at me, jumps and shockingly makes it. But the floor below her gives way and she falls, barely catching herself at the last second. She is barely holding on by a finger. Below is a seemingly endless fall. "No-no-- HELP! HELP!" I try to use my gift, but I'm still not ready after what happened in papi's room. "I can't lift you!" I yell, Mirabel looks at the floor above her. "CASITA?! CASITA?!" Nothing happens, Mirabel is slowly slipping. "HELP ME! HELP ME!" I panic as I see Mirabel lose her grip and falls. But her hand is grabbed mid-air, by papi, I let out a sigh of relief. "You're very sweaty." He responds, but before Mirabel can respond the floor underneath papi collapses too. 

        Mirabel quickly grabs onto a loose board and catches papi. They are now both dangling from the pit. As Mirabel looks at papi, a rat pops out from his cloak, she accidentally drops him. "No!" I scream, but, his head pops up, he's fine, they just couldn't see it. Papi looks around, surprised. "Huh." Papi climbs up the wall boards and Mirabel helps him up. I strenuously levitate myself to the other side. Papi makes it to the top and looks at us for a while. "Bye." He says walking off I run after. 

        "What? No." I say catching up,  "Hold on" --Mirabel hurries after us and we follow him through a strange tour of the inside of the walls. "Wait, wait - Ow - why did you take the visions" She says, recovering from hitting her head, I go to ask a question, but Mirabel continues. "What does it mean? Is it why you came back or..." We pass a piece of wood and papi knocks on it. "Knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood." Then he crosses his fingers and holds his breath. "Tio Bruno?" We pass another piece of wood he taps it again. "Knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood." He says, uncrossing his fingers. "You were never supposed to see those visions, no one was- a little salt." He throws salt behind his back, it hits my face first, I scrunch up my face a little. "But-" She stops, the salt hits her face. "Sugar." He tosses sugar on us and keeps walking, we walk past rows of hanging aloe plants. Papi then does a hop skip and a jump over a series of cracks on the ground. "Sana sana, colita de rana." Papi mumbles, I am about to ask a question when we pass an area with a bunch of cracks that have been patched up.

       "Wait, have you been in here patching the cracks?" I ask, papi looks up at all of the patched cracks. "Oh that? No, no, no, no, no, I'm too scared to go near those things .All the patching's done by Hernando." Papi says, I'm very confused. "Who is Hernan-" Mirabel is cut off by my papi in his hood. "I'm Hernando and I'm scared of nothing." Papi says in a deep voice, I think back to when I was a kid and he would do voices for me. "It's actually me. I used to say my real gift was acting." He says, I'm a bit confused. "I'm Jorge, I make the spackle." Papi says in a weird voice, he has a bucket on his head. I giggle a little, Mirabel stares at him. "How long have you been back here?" She asks looking concerned, I lean over. "10 years and some amount of days." I whisper, Mirabel shakes her head as we keep walking. "No way he's been back here this whole time.

        We enter a room filled with weird trinkets and doodads, Mirabel looks at me and I give her my best 'I told you so' look. "You never left." She says slowly and a bit concerned. "Well, I-I left my tower, which was you know, a lotta stairs, and uh in here- eh?" Papi holds up one of tia Julieta's arepas. "Kitchen adjacent. Ooo plus, free entertainment!" He says grabbing a rat and putting its head through an elaboratly painted cardboard cut out. "So whattya like? Whattya guys like? You like sports? Game Shows? Telenovelas?" He asks swapping out the cut outs. "Their love could never be." I look at him a bit concerned, I'm also a little hurt he hasn't said anything to me. "I don't understand."