Letters to Camilo

Letter #5

Dear Camilo,

Happy birthday!!

Today is your birthday (which I am sure that you know but maybe you forgot because you maybe don't know the date) and you are now 16 years old!! You will soon reach Dolores!

I hope that you are having fun wherever you are, maybe you even made some new friends! But I hope that you didn't forget us, we still love you so much.

I still didn't get any letters back from you, even after I gave you the stuff to write on. Maybe the letters got lost somewhere, tío Agustin said that it can happen sometimes. I don't know, but I still will continue writing to you just in case you read these letters.

If you can write back to me, how did your day go? Did you have fun? What did you do? Did you get any presents?

I don't know if it counts as a present, but the flowers on the table that Isabela makes were yellow, orange and white, your favourite colours and tía julieta cooked most of your favourite food. I really wish that you were here eating it with us, I'm sure that you would have liked, no, loved it.

And Mirabel said that she was making something special for you, but then you disappeared and she couldn't give to you so now she's hiding it in her room. I tried to ask her what it was but she didn't tell me. She didn't tell me where it is either.

Today was quiet too, but more people are starting to spend less time in their rooms, which is very good. The rest of us cousins sat together in the living room for some time, in silence. But the silence wasn't bad, it was nice staying and relaxing with Dolores and our cousins. It would have been better if you were here still.

The snow was falling less, I could see pieces of the ground instead of everything being covered in white, but today it's falling a bit more. I think that it's because it's your birthday and you aren't here with us. But in the morning it rained for some time before starting to snow again. I don't know what that meant, I'll have to ask someone what mamí's different weathers mean.

Oh, and no one has started working and doing their chores again, which is good. I heard someone from our family say that we needed the break. Abuela is making sure that nobody works just yet. When she saw Luisa try to go out and help the people, Abuela told her to relax for now and take it easy in "these tough times" (that's what she exactly said).

And when last week some townspeople came to Casita to ask for help, Abuela told them to solve their problem themselves if it wasn't serious. I think that it wasn't serious because they left then. After that thing, I heard Isabela and Mirabel say that maybe Abuela was getting better. I don't understand what they were talking about.

A while after we ate our lunch, I went to take some of my animal friends outside to run a bit wherever they want, like usual. They don't go too far away because when I call for them they always come back to me.

When I went near the back wall of Casita, I saw something that surprised me a lot.

Mamí was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, looking at the sky with her eyes closed while the rain fell down on her. It had been so long since I last saw her, she was always locked in her room.

At first I didn't know what to do, but then Parce told me to go sit next to her. So that's what I did.

I tiptoed to where mamí was and quietly sat down next to her. I put my head on the side of her arm and that was when she noticed me. She looked surprised but then relaxed and started petting my hair, which I like a lot. I missed her very very much.

When I looked up at the sky, I saw a rainbow (which I was told is made when there is the sun and rain at the same time) and a bit of the sun's light from a small space from between the clouds.

When I looked at her again, I saw that she had drops from the rain on her face and a small smile. Maybe she is finally feeling happier.

We sat there in the rain for some time, which I didn't mind, I like the rain but not when it means that mamí is sad, before papá came to tell us to go with him.

We went with him to the front of Casita, where everyone else was. There were a lot of balloons in different colours there too.

Abuela explained what we were going to do. We were going to write something for you on the balloons and then let them go so they would arrive to you.

There weren't enough markers, so we had to share and wait for our turn. After everyone finished writing their messages, we counted to 3 and everyone let go of their balloons. Mamí even made some wind so that the balloons could properly fly to you.

It was really pretty seeing that, lots of balloons of different colours flying in the air and then disappearing.

I hope that when the balloons come to you you see how much everyone misses you and wants you to come back home.

And I hope that your birthday was very fun and you loved it and did whatever you wanted in it.

Big hugs and kisses,
Antonio 🎈❤

This chapter was Camilo's birthday, tomorrow (4th Apr) is my irl birthday, what a coincidence :))
(Lmao I swear I didn't plan it to be like that)

Family is getting better, still dearly miss their little troublemaker though <3

Thank you for reading and see you next Sunday!! ❤