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Unable to deal with this scenario, she buried her head in her hands and started crying. Which is how the rest of the family found her.

“Pepi? ¿Estás bien, amor?” Félix asked concernedly, resting his hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him, eyes swimming with tears. When had he come in? Out of the corner of her eye, she registered that more people were present in the door. Dolores was in front, Julieta with her basket of food next to her. Agustín and Mirabel stood to the side, holding scraps of fabric and spools of thread; Luisa beside them clutching a misshapen lump of a stuffed animal she insisted she only kept because Mirabel had given it to her for her birthday. Isabela was off to the side, casting nervous glances at her while she whispered something to her abuela. All of them bore the same worried expression on their faces. “I…”

“We heard you scream, tía,” Isabela piped up. “All of us. Not just Dolores, you were super loud.”

A glare from her abuela silenced her. “Pepa, hija, what’s wrong?”

Taking shuddering breaths through her tears, she finally managed to speak. “Camilo…he shrank himself until he was the size of my hand, he was in the clothes, but then I dropped him and now I can’t find him!” A fresh wave of tears overcame her. She was such a horrible mother, and now everyone knew.

“Mi vida…he’s right there.” Félix pointed to the side of the basket calmly. Indeed, a trembling Camilo clung to the basket, breathing almost as hard as Pepa.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Pepa scooped him off the basket and deposited him on the table. “Ay, Dios, you scared the daylights out of me.” She placed her hand on her chest, trying to calm herself. “We thought you were lost somewhere.”

Camilo rubbed his arm, face downcast. “I’m sorry, mamá. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She ran the back of her fingernail over the side of his face affectionately. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” She swallowed. Her heart rate seemed to have returned to normal. “Why did you shrink in the first place?”

Instead of answering, his eyes wandered to the door. He appeared… nervous. He made eye contact with Dolores, then scurried to hide behind the basket, out of her line of sight.

Dolores scowled, crossing her arms and fixing the spot where Camilo hid with a death glare.

From this silent exchange, Pepa had gained a shrewd idea of what was happening. “Okay, well, it’s not important. What is important is that you’re safe and sound. Thanks for checking on us everyone,” she addressed the rest of the family loudly. “We’re okay now, so don’t let us keep you from what you were doing.”

The others nodded with various degrees of unease. Pepa’s tone of dismissal had been obvious, and they filtered out one by one, leaving only Félix and Dolores in the room with Pepa and Camilo.

Félix rubbed Pepa’s shoulders soothingly. “Are you all right now?”

Pepa swiveled her head to face him. “I am, mi sol, thank you.”

He hummed in acknowledgment, continuing to rub her shoulders lazily. “Camilo,” he looked down at his son sternly, “you shouldn’t scare your mamá like that. What were you thinking?”

Camilo’s eyes darted over to Dolores, who was still leaning against the doorframe, and shook his head frantically.

Pepa didn’t miss the way Dolores’ eyes narrowed. “I’m sure Milo will be happy to explain.” At his gulp, she added, “To me.” Seeing that no one had moved, she reiterated, “Alone.” Feeling she’d been a bit harsh, she added, “If you two don’t mind. I want to speak with Camilo by myself.”

“Of course.” Félix walked over to Dolores, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go, Lola.”

“But-“ she protested desperately, eyes ping-ponging between her mother and her brother.

“Did you finish your chores?” Félix spared Pepa from having to be the bad guy.

Dolores hemmed and hawed. “Well no, not yet, but-“

“So you should go finish them, yes?” Félix put his hand on her back and ushered her out the door. “Come on, I have to finish mine too.”

She shot Pepa a furtive glance over her shoulder before dashing away.

Pepa gave Félix a grateful look, mouthing Thank you at him before returning her attention to Camilo. “It’s just us now, Camilo. Talk to me.” She moved the basket aside so she could see him.

The seven-year-old groaned. “Ay, mamá. Please don’t yell at me. I know, I know; I wasn’t supposed to use my gift like this, but I had a really good reason, I swear!”

“I would love to hear your ‘really good reason’ for almost giving your poor mamá a heart attack.” She let out an exasperated breath and peered down at Camilo. His size made her feel disoriented. “But can I hear it from normal-sized Camilo instead of tiny Camilo?”

He giggled, and grew back to his normal size. “Okay, mami.”

“There’s my big boy.” Pepa wrapped him in a hug, using her long arms to tickle his sides behind his back.

He erupted in a peal of laughter as she continued tickling him. “Mamiii,” he whined, wiggling around in her arms. “Stop tickling me.”

“Okay, cariño.” She pulled him onto her lap, combing her fingers through his messy curls. He seemed calmer, she observed, relieved. “Can you tell me what happened?”

He fidgeted in her lap. “Do I have to?”

“Well now you definitely have to!”

“Fine, I’ll tell you. But please don’t yell at me, mamá,” he pleaded, gripping her arms with his little hands.

“That’s twice now you’ve asked me not to yell at you,” Pepa noted, amusement tinging her words. “Camilo…” she brushed his hair out of his face to look him in the eyes, “were you doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing?”

He huffed in indignation. “Why are you asking me that?”

Pepa stifled what would have been a very ill-timed laugh. Dolores had inherited her father’s sweetness, and a gentle spirit that Pepa didn’t know where she got. Camilo…Camilo was a little spitfire. He was all Pepa. “Because,” she drew out the word, “you wouldn’t be hiding what happened from me otherwise.”

He struggled to work through her logic, but eventually accepted it with a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll tell you, but-“

“I won’t yell at you. I promise, Milo.” She kissed his forehead. “What happened?”

“Okay, so I was in Dolores’ room…”

That beginning did not bode well for the rest of the story. “Camilo...you know you’re not supposed to go in your sister’s room.”

“I know, I know,” he replied impatiently, “but I wanted to see if Dolores was in there.” He paused, eyeing Pepa as if to gauge her reaction.

“Keep going, Camilo.” She gave him permission to continue.

“Well, she wasn’t in there, but I saw a book lying open on her bed and I wanted to see what she was reading.”

Pepa frowned. Camilo wasn’t much of a reader. “Okay…” She waited for him to elaborate.

“I looked inside, and it turned out that it wasn’t a book. Not the story kind, anyway.”

Pepa had a bad feeling where this was going. “Camilo…did you read Dolores’ diary?”

“I didn’t mean to!” He protested. “At first I thought it was a regular storybook, because it talked about knights riding on horses and I wanted to see them fight a dragon, but then it just got mushy. No dragons at all. The knight just got married to a princess and they kissed a lot.” He grimaced.  “And then I turned the page and found out the princess was Dolores!” He made a retching noise.

That…was a lot of information for Pepa to process. “Camilo, you know you shouldn’t be touching your sister’s things. Especially her diary. That’s only for her and no one else.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said too, when she caught me looking at it.” Camilo huddled closer into his mamá. “She was really mad, mamá. And then she said she was going to make me regret it.”

“Oh, Camilo…” She pulled him tighter into her embrace. She really hated when her children fought. Unfortunately, with Dolores getting older, and Camilo still wanting to tag along everywhere with her, it happened more frequently than not. “What happened after that?”

His lower lip wobbled and tears rimmed his eyes. “After that, I ran away from her room and hid so she wouldn’t find me. And I thought it would be easier to hide if I was smaller…”

“Ah.” Understanding dawned on Pepa’s face. “I’m not going to yell at you, mi rayo de sol, but you know you’re not supposed to go into Dolores’ room or touch her things. Don’t do it again, okay?” She wiped away the tear running down his cheek with the pad of her thumb.

“Okay,” Camilo agreed begrudgingly.

Wanting to reassure him, she continued. “But Dolores shouldn’t have said that either. I’ll go talk to her. You don’t have to hide from her anymore.” She swayed him back and forth rhythmically in her arms, like when he was younger. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Camilo seemed satisfied by the resolution. He gave her one last snuggle, then jumped off her lap. “I’m gonna go play with Mateo and Diego,” he informed her, running out of the kitchen.

Guess that was it for their conversation. “Be sure to come back before dinner,” she called after him.

He waved at her in acknowledgement before disappearing over the hill.

Pepa sat back down at the table. Needing to do something with her hands, she began sorting the dirty laundry from the clean clothes. Although she wasn’t pleased about Camilo reading Dolores’ diary, she was intrigued by what he’d found inside. So, Dolores imagined herself as a princess…being swept off her feet by an unknown knight…if he was even unknown. Was it just a youthful daydream? Or was Dolores experiencing her first love? Ay, she thought she’d have more time before her kids got too big, but here they were, growing up way too fast, right before her eyes. She wished they would just stay little.

The shirt she was holding almost slipped out of her hands. Given what had just happened, “little” wasn’t the right word to use. Camilo’s little stunt had taken years off her life.