Chapter Text
“Masiela! Don’t hit your sister! Mariposa! We don’t pull hair!” Isabela barely managed two pull her two daughters apart.
“She started it!”
“No, she started it!”
“I don’t care who started it!” Isabela decided as she dragged them towards their bedroom. “Today is the one day a year when we’re suppose to come together as a family and I won’t have you two disrupting it because you can’t get along! Now-” Releasing the hold she had on their wrists, she pushed them into the room. “You are both going to stay in here until you learn to love each other!” Slamming the door shut before they could voice their objections, Isabela turned and leaned against it before slumping down with a tired breath. Inside, she could hear her daughters arguing and yelling at each other, but she hadn’t heard any sounds of pain, so she didn’t worry too much about it.
“Everything okay?” Isabela quickly stood up straight, looking over to find her mother looking at her.
“Yep!” Isabela let out a nervous chuckle. “Everything is just…peachy!” Her mother continued to stare at her with a look that clearly said that she knew better. Isabela sighed. “...No; Mariposa and Masiela were fighting- again! I’ve done everything I can to get them to stop, but they just keep going at it!”
“Isabela…” She had begun pacing- a nervous habit she had picked up over the years- and didn’t seem to hear her mother.
“And Juanito is absolutely no help; every time he has to punish them for fighting, he just lets them off with a warning! They have him wrapped around their little fingers which I normally find adorable, except this isn’t them sneaking a buñuelo from the kitchen before dinner and it’s only destroying what little headway I manage to make with them!”
“Isabela-”
“ ¡Se pelean todo el tiempo y yo me estoy volviendo loco! A veces solo quiero dejarlos caer por un pozo- ”
“Isabela!” Grabbing her by the shoulders, Julieta stopped her daughter in her tracks. “Breathe!” Realizing how harsh her breathing had become, Isabela stopped and took a few deep breaths, releasing a bit of tension from her body.
“Mama, I don’t know what I’m doing,” She admitted after a moment.
“A secret I learned when I had you and your sisters?” Julieta offered. “No one knows what they’re doing- that’s why it’s called parenting. When you’re a parent, you learn to realize that there are no right answers when it comes to raising your children; they are each beautiful and unique in their own ways and, unfortunately when you have more than one child, they’ll clash more often than not. Trust me, I would know,”
Isabela knew what her mother was thinking about; she and her youngest sister Mirabel had spent more time fighting than not. Of course, they had their moments of comradery, but they were few and far between. They both had gotten along better with their middle sister Luisa.
“I remember how I was with Mirabel,” She heard the breath her mother sucked in. It wasn’t that they actively avoided speaking about Mirabel- it wasn’t like it had been with Bruno. It was just hard and the mere mention of her name would just make everyone sad- everyone thought about her, though. Isabela did, at least. “We hated each other right up until… I don’t want Mariposa and Masiela to be like that. I don’t think my heart could take it if they ended up like us,”
“Then make sure they don’t,” Releasing her shoulders, Julieta took Isabela’s hands and looked her in the eye. “I will be the first to admit that I made a lot of mistakes raising you girls,”
“No, mama-”
“It’s true,” She insisted. “I should’ve done more for…for Mirabel when it came to how everyone treated her and I should’ve done more for you and Luisa. I grew up with so much pressure on my shoulders to provide for and help the encanto and our family that it was never not normal and when you girls came along, it never even occurred that I was putting the same pressure on you,”
“Mom,” Taking on her mothers hands, Isabela held it between her own and raised it against her cheek. “You loved us and took care of us-”
“That’s what mothers are supposed to do,” Julieta gave her a smile, but it was a sad one. “But I want you to do what I didn’t; talk to your daughters before it’s too late to make a difference. Por favor , for your mother and your sanity,”
“I suppose you’re right,”
“I usually am,” Julieta winked before making her leave. In the courtyard the festivities were still going on- the partygoers too used to Mariposa and Masiela’s antics for it to affect much.
Letting out another breath, Isabela turned and started towards the bedroom before she could talk herself out of it. Thirty-four years old and she was still no good at meaningful discussions- not yet completely broken out of her need to pretend that everything was fine despite so much time having passed since she learned she shouldn’t have to.
There was no noise coming from the other side of the door, so- hoping that either one or both of them were asleep- Isabella lightly knocked on the door before sticking her head in.
After having rebuilt the casita nearly a decade and a half ago, they hadn’t been able to depend on magic and had built every room themselves- including the bedrooms. It had been a bittersweet experience; they had regained their home, but it no longer alive as it once had. None of them had realized just how much they depended on the casita until it couldn’t do so any longer.
However, as the family grew, space became tight. No one had wanted to move out, so sleeping arrangements had been made until they could find time to expand the casita; all of the adults had returned to the rooms that had been built in place of their lost ones and, so far, there were only six children in the house; Mariposa and Masiela; Camilo’s children Lorenzo, Carmen, and Luz; Luisa’s daughter Inez, and Dolores’ daughter, Gloria. They all shared the old nursery downstairs with Masiela and Mariposa sharing a bed, Lorenzo and Gloria had their own and the twins and Inez were still young enough to be left in a crib. It was well past time for them all to be separate rooms, but it was one of those things that they just hadn’t gotten around to doing.
The twins were asleep in their parents room and the rest of the kids were downstairs, so Mariposa and Masiela were the only ones in the room; they were both on their bed with their backs on the wall, but their arms were crossed and they angled away from each other as much as physically possible. There went Isabella’s hope that they had made up on their own.
“Are you two ready to admit how much you love each other yet?” The identical, synchronized huffs were a clear indicator that they weren’t. Shaking her head, Isabela stepped into the room and closed the door behind her before making her way over to the bed. “Come here, mis niñas ,” Isabela sat down between them and waited for them to shuffle their way underneath her waiting arms before pulling them into her sides. “Tell me, why is it you two can get along with everyone but each other, huh?”
“She’s so annoying,” Mariposa accused almost immediately and Masiela let out a squeak of indignation.
“Am not!”
“Are too!” The elder of the two looked up at their mother. “She knocked one of my canvases on the ground while it was still drying and I know she did it on purpose! I spent hours on it, mama!”
“Masiela,” Recognizing the tone, the girl in question looked down at her lap. “Did you knock the canvas over on purpose?” She shrugged and Isabela gently jostled her. “Shrugging is not an answer, Masiela…”
“Mariposa never lets me paint with her!” She said hotly, angry tears forming in her eyes. “She only wants to hang out with stupid Lorenzo even though he still picks his nose! She won’t ever play with me because she says I’m a dumb baby, but Lorenzo isn’t even a year older than me and I’m gonna be five just like him soon!” Her birthday wasn’t for another month and, by then, Lorenzo would be six making her point null, but Isabela decided not to point that out.
“Lorenzo doesn’t eat my paint and get me in trouble when he gets sick!”
“I thought it was horchata !”
“You’re allergic to cinnamon! You can’t just go around drinking random cups of horchata !”
“Okay, okay! That’s enough!” Isabela decided firmly. Now Mariposa was angry and Masiela was upset and would start crying soon if Isabela didn’t fix the issue. Looking down at Mariposa, she nodded her head at Masiela, but was given a headshake in response.
“No!” Mariposa whispered hotly when Isabela squeezed her shoulder.
“Please, mi amor ?” She kept her voice low. “For your madre ?” Mariposa stared at her for a moment, resolute in her refusal before her shoulders slumped and she sighed.
“Fine…” She grumbled before leaning forward to look over at her sister. “Masiela, I’m sorry for calling you a dumb baby and not letting you paint with me… Tío Camilo is taking me and Lorenzo to the lake to catch fish tomorrow…do you want to come with us?”
Masiela sniffled, wiping at her nose with her sleeve. “Really?”
Mariposa looked like she had bitten into a sour apple, but nodded. “Really! Tío Antonio taught me how to skip rocks last year and I’ll teach you,”
“Thank you!” Hopping down off of the bed, Masiela rushed over and jumped up, tackling her sister flat onto the bed. “Thank you!” She kissed her on the cheek. Thank you!” Another kiss. “Thank you!” Another kiss.
“Okay! Okay!” Mariposa tried to push her sister off, but the strength of a ecstatic five year old wasn’t something that could be overpowered so easily.
After giving her face a few more kissed, Masiela let herself be pushed away before spinning towards the door with giggles of glee and disappearing out of it. However, a second later, the door cracked open and her tiny face appeared again. “Can Gloria come too? I promised to braid paint her nails tomorrow and I don’t want her to be sad if I leave without her,”
Sitting up, Mariposa looked up at her mother who raised an eyebrow, silently letting her make the decision. “Fine,” She sighed and Masiela let out shriek of joy before disappearing again. “Happy?”
“I’m not doing this to punish you, mi querida ,” Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to the top of Mariposa’s curly black hair. It wasn’t long enough to do much with, so the curls would just stay where they were, reminding Isabela of her little sister. “I love you and I don’t like to see you upset, but I hate seeing you fight with Masiela. You’re sisters-”
“Are we even sure that’s true?” She asked and Isabela’s eyebrows furrowed. “She doesn’t look like you, me, or papá,”
“Don’t say things like that,” It was true though; both Isabela and Mariposa had matching dark skin and thick black hair. Isabela’s husband, Juanito, was even darker with short dreaded black hair and a slim, muscular frame. Masiela, however, favored neither of her parents. Instead, her skin was noticeably lighter like her Tía Pepa and pin straight brown hair. Isabela had never thought twice about her daughter’s skin tone, though- never once thinking that it would make Mariposa doubt their relation. “Just because she looks different, doesn’t mean she’s not your sister. Tío Camilo doesn’t look like Tío Antonio and they’re still brothers, aren’t they?”
“I guess,”
“Is that why you’ve been fighting with your Masiela?” Isabela asked. “Because you didn’t think that she was your sister?”
“No,” Shaking off her mother’s arm, Mariposa shuffled back until her back was against the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest. “It’s like I said before,” She insisted as Isabela joined her. “She’s annoying and she always messes everything up! I wish she would just go away!”
Isabela couldn’t help but flinch when she heard that. It hit way too close to home, but maybe it needed to if she was going to get her girls to get along.
“You know…I used to think the exact same thing about my little sister,” Big dark eyes stared up at her in confusion.
“But Tía Luisa is awesome!” She refuted. “She’s so cool and so strong!”
“She definitely is,” Isabela agreed. “But I wasn’t talking about her,”
“Then who…?” Old enough to realize that her mother was struggling with whatever she was about to say, Mariposa shuffled closer and slipped underneath her arm, giving her- what she hoped was- a patient smile.
“Tía Luisa and I had another sister; your Tía Mirabel,”
“Mirabel…” Mariposa’s eyebrows furrowed as she thought about where she had heard that name before. “Isn’t she the lady whose photo is on the ofrenda with Papá Pedro? She’s your hermana ? Where is she?”
“No one knows,” This was it. Isabela always swore that she’d tell the truth when it came to telling her daughters about Mirabel. She owed her sister that. “A few years before your were born, she got in a big fight with your Mamá Alma. They both said some really bad things to each other and then she disappeared. We spent weeks searching for her before we had to stop,”
“She left because Mamá Alma was mean to her?”
“No, no,” As easy as it would be, Isabela couldn’t put all the blame on her Abuela. It wouldn’t be fair to her or Mirabel’s memory. “When we were all growing up, your Mamá Alma treated Mirabel…differently than the rest of us. Because of that, the rest of us treated her differently, too,”
“You were mean to her?”
Isabela gulped. “Yeah,” She confirmed. “I was. You see, when we were growing up, I was the oldest out of all of us and- because of that- I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders to be perfect. I couldn’t mess around like my sisters or my primas or run around playing and Mirabel could. Out of all of us, she was the only one who didn’t have any expectations put on her and I resented her for that. It wasn’t fair of me- I know,” She assured, seeing that Mariposa was ready to jump to her Tía’s defense. “But it was how I felt and I wasn’t shy about letting her know it.”
“When your Tía Mirabel and Mamá Alma got into that fight, we had only just made up with each other; Mirabel made me realize that I didn’t have to be perfect all the time and that I didn’t owe it to anybody to be and I made her realize that having everyone scrutinizing your every move wasn’t a fun way to grow up, either… Every time I think back to that day, I wish we had realized those things about each other sooner and that we hadn’t spent our entire lives fighting and hating each other.”
“...Is that why Mamá Alma spends all that time at the river past the Broken Mountain?” Mariposa asked quietly after a moment. “Because she wishes things had been different, too?”
“I think… I think Mamá Alma made a lot of mistakes when it came to our family,” Isabela mused. “I think that, even though we’ve all forgiven each other, she won’t be able to forgive herself until Mirabel comes home,”
“But her picture’s on the ofrenda ,”
“None of us want to think that she’s gone,” She explained. “We all hope that she’s still out there- just too angry to return home, but Antonio wanted to put her picture up just in case because- if she’s not out there- putting her photo up is the only way she’ll be able to find her way back to us. We all still have hope that she’ll come home someday, though,”
“...I would miss Masiela if she didn’t come home one day,” Her voice was barely audible, but Isabela still heard her. “Even if she really wasn’t my sister,”
“I know you would,” She assured. “But I don’t want you to miss her- I don’t want you or Masiela to go through what Luisa and I did when Mirabel disappeared. I want you two to love each other now while you still have the chance; I don’t want you to hold grudges or hate each other. When you have an argument, I want you two to do what Mirabel and I never could and forgive each other and, if you can’t, I want you to talk it out and make your feelings known… I don’t want either of you to lose each other. You’re sisters-” Isabela hated that she was crying. “I want you to love and take care of each other like sisters are supposed to,”
Mariposa nodded, her eyes glassy. “I will, mamá,” She said as tears spilled down her face and returned the tight embrace her mother pulled her into. “I’ll take care of Masiela- I promise! I promise!”
For the rest of the night, Isabela held her darling girl, rocking her back and forth until she stopped crying. Once both of their tears had stopped and Mariposa’s breathing became steadier and steadier until her body was heavy with sleep, Isabela shifted until they were both laying down.
Later that night, when she woke up and found Masiela squished between them and a quilt thrown over them all, Isabela found herself wishing she could stay in that moment forever; her, her girls clutching each other in their sleep and the baby growing inside of her still flat stomach- each of them where they were safe and no harm could come to them without getting through her first.
Unfortunately, her wants and wishes had never really seemed to matter to the world.