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Soulmate. If there any other thing that the magic gave to the people of Encanto other than the gifts, then it would be the soulmate indicator. At the young age of five, children will feel a tingling sensation on any part of their body and that’s how they knew they have a soulmate.
Sometimes it’s a symbol, that represents the person they’re meant to be with. Sometimes it’s a sentence, words that they will hear from the fated person on their first meet. Fortunate soul will have the soul mark, the less fortunate sometimes either ended up with a soulmate but without a soul mark to find them or they do have one but the feelings were not reciprocated, a platonic soulmates pair do exist though very rare, and the unfortunate one...
They have neither.
But it is very unlikely for the people of Encanto not having a soulmate.
For the Madrigals, soulmate is so much more than what it is. It came to them alongside their gift. When her three small babies came running to her with their wrist stretched out front. Alma nearly cried a tears of joy.
“Mi amor, can you believe it? our Bebés have a soul mark, someone will love them the same way you loved me, Pedro.” She whispered happily to her husband portrait that night when the children were asleep.
Or at least two of them.
Pepa was wide awake, hiding behind a wall. She on was her way to the kitchen when she saw her mother in front of her father’s portrait. She doesn’t mean to eavesdrop of course, but no one can blame her if she just happened to pass by and caught a few words right?
Looking down at the words tattooed around her wrist like a bracelet, she replayed the words of her mother that night at her bed.
Someone will love them the same way you loved me.
It left her giddy and giggling. The idea were so romantic for a child so young at the time. A dream so beautiful of a boy so sweet came to her that night.
Félix were quite the boy, loud and energetic. With a friend so many you’d expect that he won’t be so secretive about his soul mark. Surprisingly, he is. Though he won’t admit it, he is quite the romantic. Sometimes the old ladies on his neighborhood would gush about how loyal he is for a person he never even met.
Félix were quite the boy. So, his soulmate might be quite the person too. For his soul mark is unique. It always changes along with the weather of Encanto. And Félix found it fascinating.
A sun, a cloud, a thunder, and many more. And he found that he always rubbed and draw circles around his chest where his tattoo lays on a heavy rainy day. It comforted him, and apparently it comforts his soulmate too, for the familiar warm appear on his symbol, he found out when he was ten that soulmate is connected in more ways than the people know.
Strangely, the weather brightens and the sunlight could take a peek behind the cloud once again.
If you asked Pepa Madrigal whether or not has she found her fated one, she would say "I haven’t found them yet.”
people would be quick to reassure her that she’ll find that person sooner or later. But most of them held back their tongue at the bright smile on Pepa’s face, a smile even brighter than her signature grin, a smile so bright the sky was as clear as glass, not a single cloud allowed in the sky when she’s happy.
They don’t understand, but Pepa do. She may not know with who she’s going to spend the rest of her life with. But it nearly felt like she always felt them around her. A familiar comforting warm always appear near her left chest when she’s in a bad mood. The comfort always managed to calm her and the storm around Encanto down.
Her finger would always find its way to her wrist. Where the sentence she longs to hear was written in a neat handwriting.
I love the rain.
Now twenty-two, Félix couldn’t help but notice Pepa Madrigal. The way she always has a smile that outshine the sun, the commitment she had to always keep the Encanto bright and sunny. And he noticed the tingling on his chest whenever she's around, whether when he sees her, hear her voice, or even when the townspeople mentioned her.
And por Dios, if goddesses exist, they must’ve been jealous of her beauty.
Sometimes she caught him glancing her way, and she would always smile at him. And it took him all his might to not run up to her and reveal the possibility of them being soulmate. It fits, the weather change along with her heart and so is his mark, and sky were clear once more when he offer comfort through their connection. The joy of finding it out left him in a stupid puddle of joy. But then come the realization that he is fated to a Madrigal. por Dios, is all he could think of.
No, he is not ready, and she is a Madrigal. She has a lot on her mind already.
But that night, on the triplet's birthday party, they did more than catching each other’s gaze. They smile and wave to each other all night. Felix would make a funny face or just acted silly in general, stumbling on his feet purposely or mimics some people as a joke, and a giggle would escape her mouth in the middle of her poor attempt at suppressing it behind her hand.
He wanted to approach her, ask her hand for a dance. But at last, a neighbor of him soon came running to him, whispering the state of his ill mother. How her breathing became even shorter, how she kept on calling his name.
He took off running out of le casa del Madrigal. Many thoughts keep on spinning on his head like a hurricane.
I should’ve stayed with her; I shouldn't have left for that party.
And as his foot reach the front door of his house, another one of his neighbors, a kind old lady named Adella already opened it. The stream of tears rolling down her cheeks told him that it was too late. But he refused to believe it.
A thousand of words of denial came pouring down his lips and soon his eyes were clouded with tears of his own. Regrets clouding his heart as his hand went to cup his mother’s pale lifeless face. Another of his hand went to his soul mark, desperately seeking for comfort.
And that night, a heavy downpour went down on Encanto until the very next day. If the sky has a feeling of their own, then the sky must be grieving.
Pepa woke up with a gasp, cold sweats covered her entire body, her hands shaking and a cry left her mouth, for what reason? She don’t know. But it has something to do with her soulmate for sure, for she felt the burning of the words engraved on her wrist.
The sky rained, and she cannot stop it. Her mother went to her the next morning, “Cariño, why the rain?” she asked, frown imminent on her face. Pepa did nothing but cling to her mother shoulder, mumbling a few words about her fated one, her left hand keeps rubbing on her mark in search of comfort.
It took Alma a few seconds to process what happened to her daughter, and when she do, her frown disappear, replaced by a soft comforting face of a mother. She sat them down in the kitchen, her hands rubbing circles into Pepa’s back.
“Oh querida, let it out, feel their pain, so they can feel your comfort too.”
For the first time in all of the years since the miracle gift her a door, her mother told her to let it rain. And she could feel the relief washing through her, the rain although still pouring, it has lighten down into just a droplets of water instead of a heavy pour.
Thanking her mother, she stood up to grab an umbrella.
“I’m going for a walk Mamá.” So she said when her mother questioned her.
Encanto were beautiful under the rain, but of course Pepa never think of it this way. The rain is a burden, people can’t keep going on about their day with a rain around. So she always repress what she felt, clear skies, clear skies, is what she always said to herself to keep the clear sky.
On her rainy walks, she discovered that although she preferred the sunny weather, the rain have a comforting melody to each of its drop. And that the frogs seems to enjoy the vast puddles on the ground. And that there’s a boy standing alone in the rain, away from the town of Encanto.
It was the boy from last night, the boy that made her a giggling mess without even muttering a single word.
She doesn’t know why, but something is magnetic about this boy. So she approached him, umbrella in hand.
“The rain is quite depressing isn’t it?” she asked him while holding the umbrella above his head, shielding them both from the cold water. The boy looks up to her in surprise, and Pepa smiled at that.
“I wish I could make it sunny again, but for some reason I can’t today. Sorry.” She lowered her gaze to the ground. Silence accompanied them along with the rain for a few seconds before the shorter boy opened his mouth.
“I love the rain.” He smiled, she gasped, and the umbrella slips out of her hand.
A quick panicked apology left her mouth as she scramble for the umbrella, but he stopped her. Instead, he stretch out his hands to her.
“Would you honor me with a dance ¿Señorita Madrigal?”
She reaches out hesitantly, “Under the rain? We’ll catch a cold.” She told him, though it might be to late seeing that they're already drenched in water.
He nods, “it would fit your sentence won’t it?”
She glances down at her right wrist, a smile slowly stretching on her face. A giggles escape her freely.
“Yes it would.”
And that day, Félix might be grieving, but at least he knows that his mother would rest peacefully, knowing that her son has find his fated one.
And they danced under the rain. Pepa thought she couldn’t love the rain more and Félix thought she has gotten prettier under the rain.