The Swap

More Waking Up

Pepa blinked awake at 7:15 and immediately knew something was off because there was a set of little arms hugging her tightly. That wasn't something that had happened ever since Camilo was little. Antonio was hugging her in his sleep, a feeling she unfortunately wasn't used to because he had been raised to go to Camilo or Mirabel when he needed comfort at night. Pepa ran her fingers through Antonio's hair, something she knew Mirabel and Camilo did to gently wake him up, and smiled when his little eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning, mijito," Pepa said softly.

"Buenos días, mamí," Antonio mumbled sleepily.

"Did you sleep well?" Antonio shook his head and tightened his hold on her. "Oh, no, qué paso?"

"Tenía un sueñomal. I tried to go to Dolores, but Casita wouldn't let me. She made me come to you."

"Why Dolores and not Camilo or Mirabel?"

Antonio looked up at his mother, confused. "Why would I go to them?"

"Don't you always go to them?"

"No, I go to Dolores. Her room is quiet and comfy, and Isa sometimes comes and gives me pretty flowers to smell so I can go to sleep."

It was Pepa's turn to be confused, but she just assumed Antonio was still tired because he was falling asleep again pretty quickly and didn't know what he was saying. Pepa moved him to lay next to Félix, who was sleeping like a log, and got up to get ready for the day. As soon as she got dressed in her normal yellow and orange dress, there was a light knocking on the door that she immediately recognized as Camilo coming to say it was 7:30. Typically, he would come in and give her and Félix an extra hug in the morning, but he didn't this time. Instead, a couple minutes later, there was a second knock on the door. When Pepa opened the door expecting to see Camilo, she was surprised to find Isabela wearing yellow and orange and dragging a hairbrush through her hair. Funnily enough, Pepa was doing the exact same thing.

"Isa!" Pepa said. "I wasn't expecting to see you until breakfast."

"Yeah, I just can't tame my hair this morning, can you help me?" Isabela replied.

"Sure." Pepa stepped out of the way to allow Isabela in. Isabela sat on a couch against one of the walls and turned her back to Pepa, who started brushing Isabela's hair. "You look great in yellow."

"I should hope so. I've been wearing it for a while now. You think you could braid my hair like yours, mamá? After waking up with it all crazy today, I don't want to mess with it too much."

"Sure." Pepa started braiding, then suddenly choked on her own breath. "What did you call me?"

"Mamá? What else am I supposed to call you?"

Pepa wasn't confused often, so when a thick layer of fog spread across the floor, everyone noticed, even Félix and Antonio, who were just waking up. Antonio jumped out of bed. "Whoa," he said. "What's this?"

"It's called fog, mijo," Félix said as he sat up and stretched. "We don't see it a lot."

"It's cold." Antonio shivered as he walked toward the couch. Seeing Isabela made him smile. "Isa!" He ran to the couch and jumped into her arms, yet another thing that confused Pepa. They weren't super close because he spent most of his time with Camilo, and before everything that happened surrounding Antonio's Gift ceremony happened six months earlier, Isabela wanted nothing to do with Camilo, so Antonio and Isabela had to basically start their relationship from scratch. Seeing him so immediately affectionate to her only made Pepa's fog get thicker.

"Good morning, hermanito," Isabela said sweetly as she returned his hug. "Did you have a bad dream again?"

Antonio nodded. "Yeah, but mamí made it better."