Waiting on a Miracle

End of Summer

Once Upon a Time...

...in Albuquerque, New Mexico, lived a beautiful 14-year-old girl named Margarita Martinez. She lived with her parents, Elena and Jesus, and her two older sisters, 16-year-old Olga and 15-year-old Rafa. Elena was a doctor at the local hospital while Jesus was a stay-at-home father.

Olga enjoyed horticulture and botany. She always enjoyed studying different plants and flowers, and she knew just how to care for them. She also taught her family what poisonous plants to watch out for in the park or in the wild.

Rafa was on the dance team at school. She enjoyed doing different kinds of dancing, and her favorite was rhythmic gymnastics. She liked to see dancing as a great workout. She also liked to study the history of dancing.

Margarita was an artist—she enjoyed drawing and acrylic painting. Art took her anywhere her imagination led. Whenever an idea for a drawing or painting popped into her head, she just had to jot it down. The best part about art was playing around with the colors.

It was late August 2022, and tonight was the last night of summer vacation. Tomorrow, the sisters would go back to school, and this season, things would be a bit different. Tomorrow, Margarita would start high school, and that meant she'd go to school with her sisters. Right now, the family was outside, enjoying the beautiful sunset.

"This is it," Olga sighed. "When that sun sets, summer is officially over, and a whole new school year begins."

"I know," Margarita sighed. "I don't remember a sunset being this beautiful." She was drawing a picture of the sunset in her sketchbook.

"That's a beautiful drawing, Margarita," Rafa remarked.

"Gracias, Rafa," Margarita smiled.

"Are you excited about going to school with your sisters, Margarita?" Jesus asked.

"Sí, Papi," Margarita replied. "There's no knowing what Tanglewood High School has to offer."

"It sure has a lot to offer," Rafa said. "There's the annual art show to welcome spring and the art club."

"And if you desire, you can even audition for the annual school play," Olga smiled.

"Well, if that were an option, it would mostly depend on what the play is about," Margarita said.

"Fair enough," Rafa smiled.

Later, before it was completely dark, Margarita was in her attic bedroom, ready for bed. She'd been looking through her categorized sketchbooks—in other words, she liked to draw different categories in them. One sketchbook had different drawings of flowers. Another was full of drawings of different movies. There was no knowing what category Margarita would draw in a certain sketchbook. Before she knew it, her sisters came up to see her.

"Are you excited about starting high school, mija?" Olga asked.

"Oh, sí," Margarita beamed. "I mean, it's like a whole new chapter of my life is about to start."

"Good to hear," Olga smiled.

Something on a nearby table caught Rafa's eye—it was a sketchbook with the movie logo of Encanto drawn on the front cover. "Oh, I can see you're filling this book with different drawings from Encanto," she remarked, looking through the book.

"Sí, I've had so many different drawing ideas for the movie that I had to give it its own category," Margarita smiled.

Rafa and Olga looked at the drawings in their sister's sketchbook, and they were amazed by them.

"Wow, I love how you drew the Casita," Olga said.

"And the Miracle Candle looks beautiful," Rafa chimed in. "Oh, and look at Mirabel—she's so beautifully imperfect."

"If Encanto were this year's play at Tanglewood, you'd probably audition," Olga told Margarita.

"And I bet you'd play the lead," Rafa chimed in.

"Well, if that were possible, my performance probably wouldn't be anywhere near as good as yours were," Margarita said. "Olga did an awesome job at playing Sandy in Grease, and your performance as Tracy in Hairspray was outstanding."

"Gracias, but you'd do even better than us put together, singing any of the songs in this movie," Olga told her.

"Gracias," Margarita blushed.

Elena came up to find her daughters together. "Chicas, I hate to interrupt your beautiful moment, but it's 8:58—time for bed," she said.

"Okay, Mamá," Olga said.

"Buenas noches, Margarita," Rafa said.

"Buenas noches, hermanas," Margarita smiled, climbing into her bed.

Olga and Rafa left their sister's bedroom and retreated to their own rooms.

"I see you've been drawing pictures based on Encanto," Elena said.

"Sí, Mami, and I've been brainstorming a lot of ideas," Margarita said, taking off her glasses.

"Well, I'm sure you'll come up with more ideas when you're not too busy," Elena said.

"Okay, Mami—buenas noches," Margarita smiled.

"Buenas noches, mija," Elena smiled, hugging her daughter.

Once Elena left her daughter alone, Margarita turned off her lamp, snuggled in bed, and fell asleep.