For a moment, she can hear it—all of it: The priest performing a christening, Luisa building a better donkey pen, Isabela singing to herself while she made the plants grow, the rushing of the stream, the settling of the mountains, and the unmistakable hiss of sand, rats chittering, and one man trying very hard not to be heard as he ran through the casita, trying to patch any cracks that came up while he was there.

Then, as soon as it was all there, pounding through her ears, deafening her and giving her perfect clarity at the same time, it was gone, and Mirabel nearly screamed at the sudden quiet of only having her own hearing and her own mind inside her head.

"Dolores, why is Tío Bruno hiding in the walls of the casita?" she asked.