The Lost Miracle

Chapter 27: In the Eye of the Storm

"What is going on here?" Alma asked. Antonio puffed his cheeks and narrowed his eyes. The rain outside began falling harder

"Abuela, I-"

"Tonito..." She began. "You used to be such a sweet boy. You were kind and caring, even the animals loved you.'' The rest of the family began to gather around, gawking at the unbelievable sight. The bisabuela had gotten up out of bed after so many days of resting for what? To scold her grandchild? The rain pushed onto the roof of the casa. "But now you're being self-centered. You are making the same mistakes I made."

"I-uh-" Antonio stuttered for a moment. "I am not like you!"

"You are." Alma said calmly. Her eyebrows furrowed as tears began forming beneath the lids of her eyes. "I hurt the people I loved because of my own wretched sadness. My grief was a poison that spread through almost this entire family." Her voice remained calm but shaky as she stepped towards her grandson. She hobbled towards him while Antonio struggled to keep his scowl. "Doing that was the greatest mistake of my life, please don't make the same one."

"I'm not doing anything to this family!" Antonio shouted.

"Exactly." Alma said. "You don't speak to anyone except Luisa or some animals. You've never visited me while I was stuck in my bed." she was now a mere foot away from Antonio. Her voice was just above a whisper. "You're hurting us by shutting yourself out. Please," she raised her hand to his cheek, it trembled before-

The slam of the front door echoed throughout the house. The entire family looked towards it curiously.

"Was that Alejandro?" Carmen asked.

"Where's Mirabel?" Julieta asked, ignoring the girl. Everyone looked around the room, then the adults spread around the house looking for the girl, until they all came to the petrifying conclusion.

Mirabel was out there in the storm.

•••

Mirabel knew the second she saw Abuela that she had to get out. Her heart raced at the sight of her, the thumping of it in her ears was too deafening for her to listen to the fight between her primo and abuela. She slipped through the front door and walked down the muddy path down the hill. Before entering the rest of town she stopped. She looked at her cousin's children, who each glared at the rain for ruining their plans to sneak food. She looked at the townspeople, who rushed inside to escape the downpour. She looked at the donkeys who easily walked out of the open gate and around town. She walked towards the gate and saw the problem with it.

There was no lock. All this time, Osvaldo Orozco Ortiz- who she thought of as the most annoying man in the village- had never given the gate a damn lock. There was only a rock sitting in front of the gate doors. A rock that with enough strength, could be moved. The gate was insignificant. To be completely honest with herself, she hated Osvaldo for the things he had said to her as a child and now, she had hated him for his stupidity. But, after what- or, who she had just seen, she needed to get her mind off of it. She needed a distraction. She snuck back to the casa for some tools and got to work.

•••

The rain was lightening up and Osvaldo was sure that his donkey had escaped again. He sighed as he shrugged on his peanut shell colored ruana. He winced at the sun peeking from behind the split mountain. As he looked back at the donkey fence, the white dot from the sun staining his eyes blocked part of a figure who stood at the gate. He blinked it away and called out to the person.

"Hello?" he asked, still squinting and blinking. By the time he was face to face with the figure, he had realized who it was,

"Señor!" Mirabel's curls bounced from her jumping up from the gate. "Your fence didn't have a lock so I installed one." Osvaldo was stunned. He heard rumors and theories about the young Madrigal girl, but he never expected in a thousand years that after all this time, she would show up just to fix his fence. "You just have to flip the wood and it'll lock!"

"Senorita-"

"Y'know I always wondered why the donkeys kept escaping-"

"Senorita-"

"And this is why! The solution was always really simple it only took me an hour-"

"Mirabel." He said. She stopped talking and looked up at him for the first

time. His face had aged. His mustache was now the color of clouds. His face was full of wrinkles. "Would you like to come in for something to drink?"