The Green Clad Madrigal

Detective Julieta

"In my defense, when you brought it up in the future you all down played it!" Cas hissed at Dolores, "You all treated it like a silly crush! Like Mariano was smittened with her but not about to get engaged!"

Dolores just groaned as she rubbed her face, "Just....please stop."

They got to a painting nearby, Dolores lifted the painting revealing a secret passage, "Follow the rats."

"What? Tio Bruno actually is in the walls?!" Cas asked in shock, "I thought you guys were just exaggerating?!"

Dolores didn't answer and hurried off as she could hear Abuela calling for her sounding very annoyed.

.....

Cas was pretty sure her Abuela and Tios would have a meltdown if they saw her in the walls of Casita swinging off beams and parkouring past gaps in the ground. But she did anyway glances at the giant cracks in the walls as she did.

Casandra had heard the stories growing up about how the family had needed a stronger foundation as a child, how Casita had fallen becauses of all the pressure and secrets, but the family had come together and rebuilt Casita and the family. Cas guessed she must have traveled back to before Casita was rebuilt.

She continued on her path when she heard a scraping sound, Metal on stone. Cas picked up the pace and eventually found a man with a green ruana on with his hood up filling in the cracks.

"Tio Bruno?"

The man turned and looked at the girl, "No, I am Hernando!"

Cas started confused as she was pretty sure this was her great great uncle, till a old story her grandmother told her came to mind.

"Right your Hernando and you're afraid of nothing!" Cas smiled as she pointed at him, "Is Jorge going to be by later to help with the spackle?"

That caused the man to pause and remove his hood with a little smile, "Yeah....How do you know about Jorge and Hernando?"

"Abuela Mirabel tells me stories about you," Cas honestly answered then pointed at her green shirt, "We both have time powers so I said I needed to wear green like you."

Cas couldn't really tell what the look on her Tio Bruno's face was but he moved forward to hug her so it must have been good.

....

Mirabel didn't feel like sowing or doing anything really. She thinks it must have bothered Antonio as he had dragged her along with him into town.

The family had a bit of a melt down after Cas' reveal of Tio Bruno's version. Mirabel felt a little bad for Isa, for a little though. But she more just felt disconnected from everything. Cas was treated more like a part of the family during breakfast than she had for a while.

"Mira?" Antonio pulled on her sleeve, "Those kids have been following us for a while."

Mirabel paused and glanced back, "Shit." It was some of the bullies that picked on her. What she really didn't need today.

.....

".....I can't believe you and Tia Dolores stole all my family pictures out of my room," Cas muttered as she looked down at a picture of newborn her, Abuela Mirabel, and Tio Bruno.

"I can't believe your little Mirabel's granddaughter," Bruno muttered as he gave some arepa crumbs to his rats, " But, yes. Me and Dolores grabbed them. We....Well I don't think Abuela will have a positive reaction."

That made Cas look confused, "What? Abuela Alma wouldn't like that I'm here...?"

"More like I feel like she may have a bad reaction to the future," Bruno grimaced, "I don't want to risk it. Especially knowing that Casita fell at one point."

"Come on, you guys rebuilt it," Cas tried to explain.

"Yeah, but have you seen how Abuela treats Mirabel?" he replied, "Try tell her she's wrong and she'll double down. Especially if you tell her your Mirabel's granddaughter and that Mirabel is the leader in your time."

That caused a look to appear on her face, "Eh...Come on, Abuela Mirabel has to be close to seeing the cracks soon, she always told the store to us around the same time every year. She sees the cracks during Antonios ceremony, has to figure out your visions, something about we don't talk about Bruno, gets Tias Isabela and Luisa to-"

"Wait, Wait, hold up," Bruno holds his hands up to get Cas to stop, "Antonio's ceremony was yesterday.....Mirabel didn't see any cracks...."

Cas and Bruno stared at each other for a minute.

"I broke the timeline."

"You broke the timeline."

....

Julieta was flipping arepas in the kitchen when she felt the rain drops. She turned to see her younger sister entered with a low dizzle.

"Pepa?"

"You...you don't think...." Pepa sighed and took a deep breathe, "Casandra looks older than Camilo and Mirabel....Bruno....Bruno wouldn't have a had a secret child right? He wouldn't do that...."

Julieta didn't know how to reply to that. Bruno had loved the family, loved being around them, loved his nieces and nephews. She couldn't see him having a child and not bringing them to be raised at Casita.

Then again she hadn't seen him leave the family either....

"I don't know anymore," Julieta admitted as Pepa pulled up a chair and sat next to Julieta.

"I will say though Cas looks scarily like Mirabel though," Pepa commented as her cloud rumbled, "Could be twins if you didn't know any better."

Julieta laughed a little, "True, I had a little shock when I put the classes on. Reminded me of when I saw photos of Mama when she was Isabela's age....."

All of a sudden the hourglass on Cas' ruana and door came to her mind as she went through all the things Casandra had said prior to her mother assuming she was Bruno's daughter. Julieta thought of the emboaring on Cas' ruana and shirt.

"My gift is time."

Julieta gasped and covered her mouth.

Pepa raised her eyebrow, "Julieta? What's wrong?"

"Pepa, we're about to do the ole double team on Cas."

"You're burning the arepas...."

"Shit."