Nightmares

Nightmares

-Tell me a story, grandpa.

-I’d be happy to do it, but the ones I know are very few….

-Never mind, I want to hear you.

-I’d better tell you something that happened to me when I was young.

-Of course it did.

Galo Araujo, a young boy of about ten years old, who at the age of seven, mischievously took a pistol from his father and emptied his eye, -they say that by a miracle he lived-, he was the youngest son of a friendly family. This boy, perhaps because of his loneliness or because he felt good with us, liked to stay at our house on weekends or holidays.

The only requirement was to leave him near his house and to get to this friend it was necessary to cross a bridge that was over a deep ravine. This place had a bad reputation for being sinister, years ago was dragged and passed by that bridge a former president branded a heretic, an atheist who had a pact with Lucifer.

-And who is Lucifer, grandfather?

-The devil, my son.

For this reason there were tales of terror: that Eloy Alfaro appeared at the least expected time, or that he wore a disguise to scare anyone who passed by, that there were heartrending cries for help to collect and unite his body in one place, that they dragged chains …

One night I went to leave Galo and when I was returning I found a man who called me,

-Look, boy, do me a favor,

My first reaction was to run away, but fear paralyzed me.

-What a favor…

-I dropped a 24-carat gold ring adorned with emeralds, with ruby dots, which is a souvenir of my mother, help me boy and I’ll give you fifty dollars.

I didn’t think it was a souvenir. Rather, my head lit up with this immense amount of money that I was going to have in my hands.

-What is the help?

Since it is impossible to climb down the slope, I tie a loop around your waist and lower you down, you reach down and grab the ring, I pull you up, you hand me my ring and I give you the fifty dollars.

I thought the job was easy and the profit quick.

-All right, I said, let’s give it to him.

He tied me around the waist and hands to work, he lowered me down and when he felt me hit bottom, he yelled at me -Did you find the ring?

Not yet! I answered him.

The bottom was full of mud and extremely humid and stinks of rottenness, but my good luck made me find the jewel immediately, so I shouted with all my strength.

-I found it!

Are you sure?

-Yes, very sure, I answered, please pull me up, right away. He shortened, shortened the loop until I was suspended a meter from the bridge platform. The man said to me, -Give me the ring now and I thought, if I give the ring what security do I have that he will take me out, therefore, I said to him, -if you do not take me out, I will not give you back the ring, Immediately the man loosened the rope and made me fall a few meters abruptly and he sentenced me.

-If you don’t give me back the ring right now, I’ll throw you off the cliff,» he said.

-But lose your ring, I said crying. With a very kind voice he said to me,

-Give it back to me and I’ll take it off you.

-No, no, take it from me and I’ll give you back your ring.

-Young man, you’re getting on my nerves, I’ll throw you and you’ll die, your body will be broken into a thousand pieces.

-`but you, you will lose your ring,` he said in anguish.

In this discussion I don’t know how much time would pass, but for me it was an eternity.

The man got tired and threw me over the cliff.

-Grandfather, but then, what happened to you?

I woke up scared from that terrible nightmare and I was on the floor of my bedroom, I had fallen out of bed.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.