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‘The Cantina was in an unusual uproar for a Monday evening’, Rosa mused as she made her way up the slope towards her home. pausing to rest against her cane to look into the raucous building. She moved fairly well for a woman of her age, but the cobblestones did cause an ache to settle in. It was nearly 11, Rosa was painting her art room mural in the newest school addition when she lost track of time. Only the soreness of her back telling her to head home. But the building with light and music and a voice singing full of charismatic joy came pouring out. Never one to miss a party, Rosa decided a nightcap couldn’t hurt.
The crowd was animated and dense, circled around around a pretty woman perched on a impromptu stage of a standing piano as Agustin Madrigal tickled the ivories. She was singing “un poco loco”. Animatedly dancing with her arms as the crowd clapped and whooped. She seemed a cut above the usual excellent performers that frequented this place.
A gesture to Angelo behind the counter was all she needed to order her usual. before moving to a seat with a favorable view where she could enjoy the show and sip her whisky to soothe the pain in her hip. The performer let off a well practiced trill and Rosa studied the woman. For fifty years she had been the art teacher to every child raised in the Encanto. This woman was an outsider, and yet a nagging sense of familiarity itched the back of her mind.
To her right, Felix, Pepa and Julieta Madrigal watched from another table. A happy Pepa watching with a small sun shower just large enough to cover her and a unperturbed Felix. The waiter bringing her drink almost slipping on her puddle.
“Ok boys, calm down” the beauty said to the crowd that had grown spirited and amorous. Rosa watched as the singer gracefully held her hand out, and as a man’s hand took it. A figure barely visible in the crowd until the group backed up out of masculine respect of a woman already spoken for.
‘Bruno Madrigal!’ He has a girlfriend?’
Rosa saw a flash of a glowing green ring on the singer's right hand as she passed handwritten song sheets from a notebook to Agustin at the piano. ‘No…Not girlfriend. ‘Fiancé!’
Shock turned to pride as she beamed at the scene in front of her. Bruno as a boy would bring his drawings and stories for her to see outside of school. She had watched this man grow up just to shrink and then disappear entirely. To then come back again and now being so in love he looked ten feet tall.
“Alright, so you know all my classics. But who wants to hear a never before performed song?” The singer asked, smiling charitably as a particular drunk crowd cheered.
“Elena.” “Elena.” “Elena”
The songbird gently gestured for the group to simmer down with a cheeky little smile. They obliged, smiling as if let into a joke.
‘She was a performer through and through’, Rosa thought. ‘Able to quell a crowd with the smallest of motions.’
”This song was written by my beloved father long ago. I always held it dear to my heart, never shared with anyone. But Bruno, I dedicate this one to you. I am sure Papa wouldn’t mind.”
Agustin barely got 7 notes in before the melody transported Rosa back to 1899.
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“I can’t believe you are abandoning me in the middle of nowhere to live in Cartegena.” Rosa whined, as Matteo leaned over his guitar to write in his notebook. The pencil gently scritched on the paper as he hummed out lyrics.
“You could always visit me, once me and Tulio get an apartment.”
“You know Dad wouldn’t want me traveling alone,” Rosa retorted before reading what he wrote. “Mountain doesn’t rhyme with Sun”
“It might if you clip the last syllable in mountain”, Matteo said.
“And if I had wheels I would be a bike. Give me that.” Rosa snatched the song sheet from under his hand. Shrugging Matteo leaned back and began strumming the melody out on his guitar with an easy lopsided grin. Letting Rosa write a note for a better rhyme.
“What is this anyways?”
“A song about how love ties people across time and distance. A song about how no matter how far away I am, I will always be there for you.”
Rosa teared up a little. She was five years older than her brother, but he had a gentle calm and maturity to him that both infuriated her and would be incredibly missed.
“Ok, let’s hear it” she said, shuffling close to join in harmony as they had done thousands of times before.
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Eyes wide open and our bond began,
there you are my lifelong friend.
We know our dreams and all our fears
Every memory I hold so dear.
as I leave your side it’s not for long.
just call my name, to you I’ll run.
My dearest friend, deep in my heart
No battle or squall would keep us apart.
No matter the distance I make this vow
My love will find you, no matter how.
As we travel the paths that lead us away.
Know that our harmony will always stay.
Our branches will spread out to meet the sun
But deep our roots will always be one.
Rosa was now back in 1952, her eyes brimming with tears as her voice joined Elena’s. The Cantina crowd confused began to move to clear a visual path between the girl on the piano and the beloved Encanto art teacher. Rosa rose in her seat as she slowly walked towards Elena, her voice becoming stronger, as a bewildered Elena kept singing though without her usual vigor.
A look of comprehension came to Bruno’s eyes as he wordlessly brought his hands to Elena’s hips. Helping her slide off the piano, her eyes never leaving the woman who somehow knew her fathers song.
My dearest friend, deep in my heart
No battle or squall would keep us apart.
No matter the distance I make this vow
My love will find you, no matter how.
Agustin, the last to realize what was happening, paused playing. The piano's last note disappearing into the quiet of the crowd, hushed at the scene transpiring before them. Two women, tied together with a song.
Bruno was the first to speak, voice cracking with emotion, when he realized the soft brown eyes that transfixed him across the Chia lounge mere months ago in Elena. Were mirrored in the woman who meant so much to him growing up.
“Mi amor, I would like to introduce you to my friend, Senora Rosa Ruiz.” Elena’s breath caught, her eyes following Bruno’s to his childhood teacher. “Senora, this is my fiancé. Senora Elena Rosa Ruiz.”
Warm wrinkled hands came to gently settle on Elena’s cheeks, her hopeful smile pulled to one side. Matteo’s smile. Matteo’s eyes. A strangers face pulling up the wisps of memory settling into profound connection.
Matteo’s song kept its promise.
No matter the distance I make this vow
My love will find you, no matter how.
And with overwhelming joy the women embraced, their tears soon washed away by a bawling Pepa’s shower of happiness.