El Demonio Lo Quiere Ahogar En El Estanque Historias De Terror - REDE

WEBVTT

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The singing frog. This is a
story that happened to me when my son

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was barely seven years old. Back
then, my son and I moved a

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lot. I had become pregnant at
the age of sixteen and having no support

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from my family or my son'
s father, we were always bankrupt and

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I was always looking for different jobs
to support us. Me and my little

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one. It was in one of
these untiring quests for a job that I

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could afford to pay enough that I
ran into Mrs Magdalena. She was a

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seventy- six- year- old
woman who needed help cleaning her house and

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watering her plants every day, as
the previous person had left her work overnight.

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Voted at first, I didn'
t like the idea, as it

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seemed to cover many hours and but
I thought it didn' t pay well.

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But I did. And what ended
up convincing me was that Doña Magdalena

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told me that at the bottom of
her garden there were some rooms that my

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son and I could use to live. This offer was too tempting, since

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the most expensive thing to survive is
undoubtedly the rent and if I just had

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to worry about food, it would
be to take a great deal of weight

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off my burden. After some thought
I decided to accept it and immediately,

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when I arrived at that house,
I knew that I had made the right

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decision, or at least I thought
so. At that time, that woman

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lived in a mansion and her garden
was extremely large with plants of different kinds

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and in the middle of it a
very large pond, which also looked very

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deep. The water was a little
cloudy and dark so much that you couldn

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' t see the bottom. But
that didn' t bother me. When

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the lady showed me the so-
called rooms that were in the background,

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I realized that the only reason she
called them that was because their house was

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three times bigger, but they were
not rooms. It was a small house

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with two bedrooms, dining room and
a bathroom. Neither of us had ever

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lived in such a big house.
I remember that lady told me to feel

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free to decorate as I wanted,
since she had not had time to do

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anything in those small rooms. After
that he gave me several instructions on how

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to care there, as he had
many plants of different species and some required

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more attention than others. I accepted
everything he was asking me to and he

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told me that I could settle down
well and that I would start working from

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the next day. First thing in
the morning, I said yes, and

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I went back to that house with
my son. My son was very happy,

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as he had never lived in a
house like that and had not had

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access to such a large courtyard immediately. And even though that lady hadn'

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t told me anything about my son
being unable to play, I made several

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rules for him. The first was
that, although I could play in the

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vicinity, I had to be very
careful with each of the plants, since

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they had hired me to take care
of them and if they were damaged or,

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in the worst case, they died, then they would fire me.

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I also told him that, under
no circumstances did I want to see him

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playing near that pond that was in
the middle of the garden, as it

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looked too deep and could easily drown
in it. Later that day, while

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I was in the kitchen unpacking our
scarce belongings, my son was deciding which

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of the two rooms he wanted,
until suddenly he ran towards me waving a

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big frog teddy about seventy centimeters.
That thing was almost on the subway.

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It was pretty ugly. In my
opinion, it looked a bit worn out

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by time. It was one of
those frog stuffed animals that had very long

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arms and legs, it looked handmade, with some green towel and rags inside.

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His eyes looked very strange because he
had been sewn up by strange red

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buttons that didn' t finish convincing
me. Besides, it looked all dusty

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and had some dirt stains on it. I told my son to leave him

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there, that we didn' t
know who he was and that he also

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looked disgusting, but he told me
he was the prettiest frog I' d

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ever seen and begged me to let
him stay with her. I told her

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that maybe it wouldn' t be
right because that teddy definitely belonged to Doña

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Magdalena and we' d have to
give it back to her at the time.

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He got very sad, but he
seemed to understand. That night we

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left him in the living room and
I told him I' d return him

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the next morning. The truth.
My idea was to throw it away,

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since I didn' t finish giving
that doll a good spin. But when

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it dawned and my son got ready
for school, he told me he wanted

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to give it to him. At
first I hesitated as I was convinced that

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Doña Magdalena was not interested in the
doll and that it probably wasn' t

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even hers. There was a high
probability that I would tell him I could

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keep it, but my son insisted
so much that in the end I had

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no excuse to deny him wanting to
do it on his own. For my

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bad luck, exactly what I feared
happened. When we ran into Doña Magdalena

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before leaving the house, he handed
her the frog and told her that he

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had found her, but that I
had told her that she probably belonged to

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her. Doña Magdalena looked for a
few seconds and then said that it was

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not hers and that it most likely
belonged to the Lord' s son who

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used to help her with the garden. My son asked him if he could

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stay with her. Doña Magdalena was
surprised that a child wanted a doll that

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seemed to be about to unravel on
its own, but she only shrugged her

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shoulders and told her that if she
wanted to keep it, she was free

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to do so. My son leapt
with joy with the doll in his hand

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and then left him sitting on a
gas tank, telling me that when I

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returned from school, then I would
take him to his room. I told

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him it was okay and we went
deep down. I didn' t like

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the idea too much. I remember
well that when I came back, the

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idea around my mind was that I
had to throw that doll in the washing

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machine so that all the germs that
I could have would come out of it.

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As I walked into the house with
the doll in my hand, I

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began to feel a little strange as
I passed through that pond I felt like

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something was looking at me. At
first I attributed it to paranoia, but

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I couldn' t get rid of
that feeling. I quickly turned around to

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see what it was about. I
didn' t see anything, but I

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noticed something. It was as if
something had dived into the water the instant

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I looked. I think I stared
at that pond for a few minutes hoping

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to see what it was about.
But after the little bubble, nothing happened.

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I had no choice but to follow
my path. While watering the plants

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and Doña Magdalena went to check that
she was doing it. Well, I

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told him what I thought I saw
in his pond. She looked at me

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for a few seconds to see if
I would say anything else, but in

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not doing so, she finally smiled
and told me not to be naive,

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that it was only the frogs that
lived in the pond and that sometimes you

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could see them jumping between the lilies
directly into the water. At the time

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I felt like a fool. I
told him the truth is I didn'

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t know there were those frogs.
She left letting me finish my job as

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soon as my son came from school, her acclaimed Peluche was already drying up

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in the sun. He was very
happy to be able to keep it.

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And the truth was that at the
time I thought maybe I was overreacting.

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That same day, in the afternoon, while we were eating, my son

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was pulling that Peluche frog everywhere and
had even named it René It was logical

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that he would put that frog in
that way. And as soon as he

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finished eating, he told me if
I could go play in the garden,

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I said yes. I sat on
the couch and I and half set out

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to watch TV from one moment to
the next. I fell deeply asleep and

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when I opened my eyes, I
realized that I had already darkened. But

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that' s not what worried me, but when I called my son I

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realized that I wasn' t scared
yet. I went out very quickly and

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started looking around, but as much
as I called him he didn' t

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respond, he was already freaking me
out, believing that maybe he had fallen

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into the pond when suddenly I saw
him actually was in the pond, despite

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what we had talked about, this
was not a normal behavior in him.

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My son was very obedient and usually
understood the consequences of his actions. A

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little annoying I approached the pond where
he was holding that stuffed frog so that

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both looked straight into the water.
When I arrived, he seemed scared,

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as, evidently he knew you shouldn' t be there. I asked him

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for explanations and told him that I
had told him not to go near the

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pond, but he almost immediately told
me that the singing frog had told him

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that he had nothing to fear and
that he could not drown because in case

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she fell, he would take him
out. I didn' t even pay

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much attention to what my son was
telling me. I just took him back

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home to make him understand how serious
it would be to approach that deep unsupervised

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pond as soon as I calmed down
having already sent him to his room.

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That explanation resonated in my mind.
It was very rare that the singing frog

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had said such a thing to him, especially because his teddy wasn' t

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even called that as much as I
thought about it. I couldn' t

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find an explanation on that occasion.
I decided to ask my son more calmly.

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The next day, as soon as
breakfast was served, I asked him

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again about why he had decided to
go to that pond without my permission,

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he tried to explain it to me
again. He told me he didn'

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t want to at first, but
while he was playing about five meters from

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that pond he heard a voice calling
him, he told me it was a

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frog that spoke and told him it
was called the singing frog. Then he

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also told him to go to the
pond my son, at first he refused

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and told him that I did not
give him permission because he could fall and

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drown, but that frog told him
that would not happen to him, since

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if he fell she would take him
out. And so it was, as

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I had convinced him to go to
that place. He also began to tell

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me a series of meaningless things,
like that the singing frog did all kinds

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of funny tricks and that it also
looked a lot like his teddy, who

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also had red eyes and his legs
were very long. The truth is,

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at the time I thought my son
was lying to me. I think any

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mother or father in my place would
know right away that it was a lie.

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He had probably only been curious to
go snooping in the pond and then,

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when he was in trouble, he
had invented such a story to get

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rid of them. After leaving him
at school, the idea that he might

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have been some kind of imaginary friend
came to my mind. It made a

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lot of sense, because in these
cases, children come to believe so much

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this whole fantasy that for them it' s not like a lie, it

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' s just like hiding a story. I thought this might be one of

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these occasions. This explanation had a
flaw because my child was seven years old

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and at that age it is not
normal for them to have imaginary friends,

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because, according to something I had
read in some magazine some time ago.

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It was very difficult for a child
at the age of seven not to know

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how to distinguish between fantasy and reality, and therefore it was even more difficult

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for them to continue to have imaginary
friends. I also had their exceptions,

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and one of these was that my
son spent much of his time only after

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school. Of course I blamed myself
for this, thinking that maybe my son

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was starting to make things up because
I couldn' t live with children his

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age any longer, and when I
went to pick him up that day after

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school, I asked one of my
son' s friends' mom if she

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would have any trouble letting her son
come to our house after school two or

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three times a week for my son
to play with in the afternoon. At

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first, this did not convince her
at all, because even though our children

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were good friends and we had a
rather cordial relationship, the truth is that

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we didn' t know each other
very well, so she suggested that my

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son could go home after school for
a couple of hours and I didn'

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t love the idea either. I
figured I couldn' t expect confidence from

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her if I didn' t give
it to her. I accepted and from

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that day on I went twice a
week to live with his friend at home.

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I thought this would be more than
enough to stop you from talking about

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this song frog issue. The truth
is, it wasn' t like that.

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I remember well that on one occasion, when I went into his room

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to sort it out a little bit
I found that he had many drawings of

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the singing frog and that is that
the more I saw it stranger, it

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was with very long arms and legs, it was not in zancadillas as normally

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a frog would be. I didn' t give it much importance at the

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time, as children don' t
usually draw very accurately the dimensions of things.

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And it was not only about the
drawings, but also my son kept

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talking to me about the singing frog. I used to say that, since

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he didn' t go to the
pond anymore, the singing frog would go

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to his window and croak all night. I even remember one day he told

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me that the singing frog had not
let him sleep because all night he had

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been croaking in his window. He
also asked me if I hadn' t

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heard it, but I said no, because that was true. I had

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a very light sleep and yet.
I' ve never heard a single croak

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of frogs. Of course I'
d seen some in the pond, but

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I' d never seen them get
too far away from there. That was

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like their habitat and even though I
was walking all over the garden watering plants

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and making sure they all had what
they needed, I had never seen a

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frog wandering alone out there, without
thinking twice I left what I was doing

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and ran out in search of my
son and his friend, leading me only

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by the screams, which were leading
me directly to that gigantic pond the closer

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I came. I realized that my
son' s friend was drowning while my

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son was desperately looking for something to
try to get him out. I was

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looking for a branch or something to
help him. As soon as I was

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there, I didn' t hesitate
a moment to jump to try to get

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the child out of the pond when
I tried to climb the child a little

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to the surface, as I was
swallowing a lot of water. I noticed

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it didn' t go up and
I thought it was stuck with some branches.

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When I looked down, everything looked
black. I could not distinguish anything

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and, in a desperate attempt,
I started kicking, so that that way,

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00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:00.000
if he had adored himself with something
like a branch, it would break.

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I felt like I kicked something.
This felt as if he was kicking

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something alive, but as soon as
I kicked him it was as if he

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had responded, as if it had
hurt him so much that he immediately let

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go. At the same time,
I also felt as if that same thing

214
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had scratched me. I managed to
get us both out. The boy threw

215
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up a lot of green algae,
which really disgusted me, but I still

216
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helped him get back on his feet. Then we took him to the house,

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asked them what had happened to them
that child looked directly at my son

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and without wasting time, this time
I asked my son directly what had happened

219
00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:51.079
and why his friend had fallen into
the pond when I had clearly told them

220
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that they could not play there,
my son replied that he wanted me to

221
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meet the singing frog, but that
she had liked him very well and that

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was why I had not helped him
to get out of there. Already a

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00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:10.400
little tired about this whole thing,
I told my son not to lie and

224
00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:12.880
to tell me once and for all
what had happened and wanted the truth.

225
00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:21.119
No weird tales of no singing frog. My son told me that was the

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truth and that his friend had told
him that he was very ugly and that

227
00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:30.279
was why he was angry. I
tried everything, but I couldn' t

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00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.920
get him out of that weird version
that the singing frog had tried to drown

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00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:37.920
his friend. I had to face
the mother of that child, who was

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reasonably upset about what had happened to
her. I remember well that as soon

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as he took it, I told
my son that, thanks to being irresponsible

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00:18:48.920 --> 00:18:52.000
and not listening to his friend,
they would no longer allow him to go

233
00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:56.960
play with him again. My son
said he didn' t care, because

234
00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.920
if the singing frog didn' t
like him, then neither did he.

235
00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:07.920
I told him to stop telling lies, but he insisted that that was not

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00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:12.799
a lie and that the singing frog
did exist frustrated by not being able to

237
00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:17.359
get him out of that idea.
I just told him to go to his

238
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room. I too had had a
long day and I just wanted it to

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00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:26.680
end. I remember well that as
soon as my son left and I started

240
00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:30.599
to pick up the room a little
bit, I felt a strong burning in

241
00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:33.960
my leg and that' s when
I remembered that I had felt it.

242
00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:38.960
When whatever I kicked had scratched me. I checked my leg and actually had

243
00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:44.480
a tear. It was like four
claws embedded in my leg and pulled it.

244
00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.160
They looked a little thin. They
weren' t that thick either,

245
00:19:49.559 --> 00:19:55.200
but they were deep. My foot
was bleeding and because of all the commotion

246
00:19:55.319 --> 00:19:59.440
of the moment I hadn' t
noticed. It looked so strange that it

247
00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:03.039
was hard for me to believe that
some branch had caused me. That treated

248
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.640
my wound a little bit and I
went to sleep. While I was trying,

249
00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:14.799
I was already getting deep asleep.
I began to feel a lot of

250
00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:19.480
burning in my leg. It also
felt like somehow it burned. My leg

251
00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:26.119
ended up rubbing the sheets and the
pain I finished getting up. I was

252
00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:30.240
just going into me and looking for
the switch to turn on the light and

253
00:20:30.240 --> 00:20:34.559
check my wound, when I suddenly
realized that I was listening to the croaking

254
00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:41.839
of a frog, and not only
that, but I was also feeling that

255
00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:45.000
someone was seeing me. I turned
to the window and saw as if something

256
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:49.359
were moving away from the window.
It was as if I had been there,

257
00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:55.720
but the moment I turned around he
had hidden himself. First I thought

258
00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:00.799
it might well be a frog After
all, Doña Magdana had told me that

259
00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:04.480
there were frogs there and as I
had heard, the croar of one was

260
00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:10.559
perhaps in my window and as soon
as I had made a sudden move to

261
00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:15.799
turn the animal, he had been
scared and jumped, and that had caused

262
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.400
such an effect that by the darkness
I believed that he had hidden himself.

263
00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:26.400
I wanted to convince myself of that
at all costs and I didn' t

264
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.119
even dare look out to see if
that frog was still there. But what

265
00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:33.079
I did see at the time was
that my wound was getting really bad.

266
00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.920
She was all swollen and seemed to
have the first signs of infection. I

267
00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:44.200
figured that made a lot of sense, since the water in the pond didn

268
00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:49.240
' t look so hygienic, having
had an open wound in there Who knows

269
00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:53.200
what bacteria could have gotten into me. I thought that, as soon as

270
00:21:53.240 --> 00:21:57.920
I left my son at school the
next day, I would go to a

271
00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:03.079
doctor to check if he was dangerous
or should just wait for him to heal

272
00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:07.480
alone, because the truth was that
at that time I was hurting a lot

273
00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:11.200
and I was also burning up and
it didn' t matter what I did.

274
00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:17.279
I couldn' t calm these symptoms
and when it finally dawned, I

275
00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:21.200
had a fever. The wound was
getting infected with a rapidity that was impossible.

276
00:22:21.799 --> 00:22:26.039
It looked like she was already starting
to get pus out of her and

277
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:30.480
she was having a really bad smell. I was not even able to support

278
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:33.359
her well, so I had no
choice but to tell my son that I

279
00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:38.279
would miss school that day and take
a taxi to the doctor to evaluate the

280
00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:42.960
wound. And it is that,
as soon as I discovered my leg,

281
00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:48.559
the doctor made a grin of disgust, both because of the state of it

282
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:52.240
and because of the unpleasant smell emanating
from it. He looked a little upset

283
00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.839
and asked me why I had let
her go up to that point and why

284
00:22:56.839 --> 00:23:02.279
I had not gone to attend before. It didn' t matter how many

285
00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:06.559
times I told her that I had
done it the previous afternoon and that I

286
00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:08.119
didn' t think it was such
a serious thing. He didn' t

287
00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:12.759
believe me. After making a healing
on the wound, he asked me intrigued

288
00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:18.880
how I had done it. I
replied that I was not entirely sure and

289
00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:25.000
told him the whole history of the
pond he told me that they were probably

290
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.880
some branches. He also mentioned that
very accurate cuts were seen almost as if

291
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:33.759
it were a leg with very thin
claws. After that he prescribed some antibiotics

292
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:41.440
and sent me home. I remember
when I got there what, first I

293
00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:45.160
saw was Mrs Magdalena, watering herself
to the plants. I almost immediately worried

294
00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:51.039
and told her I was fine,
that I only needed a couple of minutes

295
00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:56.079
and that I could do the job, but she told me that nothing would

296
00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:00.039
happen if I did. On that
occasion he looked rather concerned about my health

297
00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:04.680
and told me that later he would
bring me a ointment that had turned out

298
00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:10.960
very good for the wounds. It
occurred to me to ask her if she

299
00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:15.039
knew why the previous person who cared
for her garden was gone. She told

300
00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:18.200
me no, that one day that
person grabbed all her stuff and left that

301
00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:23.759
she even looked like she had waited
for her not to leave without giving her

302
00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:30.640
any explanation. He showed something annoying
about this fact and told me that people

303
00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.480
didn' t like it when they
left without giving a good reason or at

304
00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:38.599
least without giving him enough time to
get someone else. After that, I

305
00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:42.279
told him I' d go see
my son and take some medicine that the

306
00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:47.119
doctor prescribed for me. She told
me to take all day to rest my

307
00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:52.759
leg. I agreed and left when
I was only a few feet away from

308
00:24:52.799 --> 00:25:00.200
my home. I heard someone running
through the leaves. He was walking away

309
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:04.319
and seemed to be heading for the
pond at first I thought it was my

310
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:08.319
son and I was about to go
look for him to tell him that I

311
00:25:08.359 --> 00:25:14.400
had already told him a million times
not to come near that place. As

312
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:18.680
soon as I turned around to go
in the direction of the pond something caught

313
00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:22.359
my attention was the voice of my
son who was calling me from the door

314
00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:27.599
frame of our house, wondering what
he was doing, I looked at both

315
00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:33.319
places without being able to explain what
I had heard, since in that house

316
00:25:33.359 --> 00:25:40.000
no one could run at that speed. I was alone with my leg hurt,

317
00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:44.079
Dona Magdalena, who, because of
her advanced age, could no longer

318
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:48.480
run, and my son asked her
if she had seen anyone else with him.

319
00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.400
My son replied that yes, that
the singing frog had gone to see

320
00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:57.279
how I was at the time I
didn' t feel like arguing. I

321
00:25:57.359 --> 00:26:02.759
told her the lime was fine and
she sings it towards the house. As

322
00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:07.119
soon as I was on the porch, I realized that at the entrance there

323
00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.720
were footprints that looked the same as
those of a frog, even though they

324
00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:14.039
were already drying out because of the
heat it was making. I looked at

325
00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:18.720
my son and asked him whose they
were. He told me they were from

326
00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.920
the singing frog and that she had
told him that I was coming. The

327
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:26.880
best thing was to get out of
there and that' s why he ran

328
00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:30.960
away. I told him not to
lie and that if he had made that

329
00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:34.920
footprint to make me believe that the
frog was real, he could tell me

330
00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:40.880
that there was nothing wrong with having
imagination, but my son assured me that

331
00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.400
the frog was not imaginary and that
he had been there with him all afternoon

332
00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:49.599
I remember going into the house and
saw a trail of water like footsteps.

333
00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:52.839
This time they no longer had the
shape of a frog' s leg.

334
00:26:53.480 --> 00:27:00.200
It was more like someone walked in
wet shoes. I looked at my son,

335
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.839
but his feet were dry. I
told him not to play with the

336
00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:10.039
water and he replied that he had
not been, but that the singing frog

337
00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:15.640
needed to be always wet. It
had wet a little while I had been

338
00:27:15.640 --> 00:27:18.559
there. I told him not to
lie to me anymore and never to mention

339
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:25.240
the singing frog again, because that
was a lie and he was better off

340
00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:29.880
forgetting that game at once or punishing
him for the rest of the day.

341
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:36.079
My son was very quiet and by
the time the night arrived I was quite

342
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:40.680
tired, as I had not been
able to sleep much the day before because

343
00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:45.039
of the severe pain in my leg. I fell asleep very fast between dreams.

344
00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:48.680
I heard a window open and I
also heard my son' s voice.

345
00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:55.039
The more I woke up, the
more I realized that it was not

346
00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:59.640
the product of my dreams, but
that my son was talking to someone.

347
00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:03.400
The rooms were stuck, one with
the other. I could hear it.

348
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.839
He said things like I didn'
t want to, that they were friends

349
00:28:08.920 --> 00:28:12.920
and that maybe if I let her
see her, then I wouldn' t

350
00:28:12.920 --> 00:28:17.200
oppose her friendship. At first I
didn' t know how to interpret this.

351
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:22.359
Moments later I heard something that smelled
my blood. A voice replied to

352
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:26.359
my son that I would not understand. It was a very strange voice,

353
00:28:26.920 --> 00:28:33.119
as if something was trying to talk
at the same time as vomiting and at

354
00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:36.680
that moment I opened my window and
pulled out my head to see what was

355
00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:40.119
going on. And that' s
when I saw her was a frog,

356
00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:44.400
but very big, maybe about a
meter. He had bright red eyes.

357
00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:49.480
He looked at me and then ran, losing himself in the vegetation. I

358
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:55.400
was so horrified that I ran to
my son' s room and closed everything

359
00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.599
very well. My son was trying
to explain to me that I was totally

360
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:03.200
harmless. I told him that none
of that could be good and that the

361
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:08.079
next day we would leave. From
there first thing in the morning. I

362
00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:14.680
spent the rest of the night packing
all our stuff and making some calls and

363
00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:18.720
as soon as the first rays of
the sun came out, I went to

364
00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:25.200
look for Doña Magdalena and told her
what she had seen at the beginning she

365
00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:29.720
tried to dismiss my story by saying
that maybe it had been a very vivid

366
00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:30.559
dream and that it could not be
real. But I told him that I

367
00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:36.359
was not dreaming, that my son
had been seeing her and that that thing

368
00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:40.839
had been very interested in him and
that I was not willing to put him

369
00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:45.000
in danger. Longer I left there. We never got back to today.

370
00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:49.799
My son is a teenager and he
doesn' t remember much of that span

371
00:29:49.799 --> 00:29:55.440
of his life. Just remember that
we live in that place, but it

372
00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:59.359
doesn' t remember a frog at
all. I don' t know what

373
00:29:59.480 --> 00:30:03.440
it was or if Doñana Magdalena did
know about it and just tried to pretend

374
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:07.319
she didn' t or if that
thing had good intentions or bad intentions.

375
00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:19.640
The truth is, I don'
t want to know a reflection. My

376
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:25.240
name is Augustine and today I would
love to tell something that, although it

377
00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:27.759
is not my story, if it
happened to someone I admire and respect,

378
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:33.559
which is my grandfather. Since I
was a child, I was aware that

379
00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:40.880
my grandfather had and hisoptrophobia. This
phobia basically consists of being afraid of mirrors

380
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:47.599
more specifically to reflect yourself in one
of them. From what I' ve

381
00:30:47.720 --> 00:30:52.240
read about this phobia is that,
they' re usually afraid of mirrors that

382
00:30:52.319 --> 00:30:56.440
are something big where the whole body
is reflected or have a considerable size.

383
00:30:57.079 --> 00:31:00.559
But my grandfather' s phobia was
going a lot further, and it'

384
00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:06.440
s that no matter the size of
the mirror, however small it is or

385
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:11.200
large. He feared them all equally
you could almost always see the mess because

386
00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:14.640
he didn' t notice how he
was. And the few times he came

387
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:19.440
to reflect in the mirrors was because
he was accompanied by someone else as a

388
00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:25.319
child. I saw it as normal, especially because I grew up under his

389
00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:30.720
roof. In our house there were
only two mirrors and he had very specific

390
00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:37.359
rules concerning these two mirrors. The
first was that both should be covered if

391
00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.880
it was not absolutely necessary and besides
that, no one could be reflected in

392
00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:47.240
one of those, if there were
not more than two people in the nursery.

393
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:51.960
I didn' t have any trouble
following these rules and they didn'

394
00:31:51.960 --> 00:31:56.680
t bother me. When I became
a teenager, all this changed and in

395
00:31:56.680 --> 00:32:00.319
one of these many changes of age, I got quite stuck with this rebellion

396
00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:05.519
to see how far this phobia of
my grandfather could go, as at that

397
00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:10.920
age I was foolish and believed that
perhaps my grandfather just wanted to draw attention

398
00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:15.720
or put some silly rules for the
simple fact of being able to do so.

399
00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:21.720
I remember that on one occasion,
while I was in the bathroom,

400
00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:25.720
which had a small mirror that was
always covered, I took the blanket off

401
00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:31.279
of him I had reflected for a
while and then I left without covering it

402
00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:36.319
again. My grandfather didn' t
tell me anything because he hadn' t

403
00:32:37.039 --> 00:32:42.240
noticed, but a couple of minutes
later he went into the bathroom and yelled

404
00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:45.359
loudly and the next thing I heard
was how that mirror broke into a thousand

405
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:52.200
pieces. My grandfather had gone into
such a panic when he was unannouncedly reflected

406
00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:59.200
in a mirror that he punched him. My grandmother quickly ran to help him

407
00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:02.640
and, obviously, the claims fell
on me immediately. My grandfather had a

408
00:33:02.680 --> 00:33:07.920
bleeding hand and repeated to me over
and over again why he had removed the

409
00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:12.319
blanket from the mirror. The truth
is that at that moment I wanted to

410
00:33:12.359 --> 00:33:15.359
play even more alive and I told
him it was because I became silly.

411
00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:21.359
I told him nothing was going to
happen if we left the mirrors uncovered.

412
00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:25.039
For once, my grandfather, only
with a gloomy voice told me that I

413
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:30.880
didn' t know what reflexes were
capable of. At that moment I couldn

414
00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:36.079
' t hold back the laughter and
I replied that the reflexes were just that

415
00:33:36.200 --> 00:33:42.119
and that they couldn' t get
to do anything my grandmother tried to signal

416
00:33:42.680 --> 00:33:46.160
me with her hand, trying to
tell me not to tell her that,

417
00:33:46.759 --> 00:33:52.559
but I didn' t listen to
her and kept making fun of me until

418
00:33:52.640 --> 00:33:59.359
my grandfather finally told me that maybe
I was old enough to know why he

419
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:00.319
' s never willing to reflect in
a mirror or mirror. Being alone.

420
00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:06.240
When he was just a child,
he experienced something very traumatic. He told

421
00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:10.320
me he was about eight at the
time. His best friend was Gustavo and

422
00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:15.960
people used to say that together they
were unstoppable. They both wanted each other

423
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:22.519
as if they were brothers, maybe
even a little more. On one occasion,

424
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:25.800
Gustavo arrived with my grandfather and told
him that his brother, along with

425
00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:31.800
his friends, had made a very
interesting game. My curious grandfather asked him

426
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:37.519
what kind of game he was,
to which Gustavo replied that it was the

427
00:34:37.559 --> 00:34:44.239
reflex game. I really don'
t know if this is something popular personally.

428
00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:47.119
I' d never heard it before
my grandfather told me. He said

429
00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:52.960
you just had to wait until it
was dark to be in a dark room,

430
00:34:53.519 --> 00:34:58.119
light a candle and stare at your
face in a mirror. He said

431
00:34:58.159 --> 00:35:02.000
that after a few minutes, your
face would begin to change and that that

432
00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:07.760
was the true appearance of your soul
at the time. My grandfather didn'

433
00:35:07.840 --> 00:35:12.840
t believe him. He told him
that his brother had probably invented that game

434
00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:17.320
to bother him, since he used
to do that kind of thing, but

435
00:35:17.559 --> 00:35:22.360
Gustavo insisted. He said that they
had not let him play, that they

436
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:29.239
had told him that he was too
small, but that they had been playing

437
00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:35.039
and that everything seemed to indicate that
it did work, as everyone had assured

438
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:37.480
that they had seen how his face
was different. Curious decided they would.

439
00:35:39.239 --> 00:35:44.519
They came up with it. It
was waiting for it to darken around eight

440
00:35:44.559 --> 00:35:49.480
o' clock at night and with
a piece of mirror, do it anywhere

441
00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:53.559
nearby so that after finishing playing,
everyone would go home. My grandfather told

442
00:35:53.639 --> 00:35:59.320
me that he was the first to
try, that they sat under a mesquite

443
00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:04.679
when it had already darkened. They
lit the candlelight and looked into the mirror.

444
00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:09.320
He said it was five minutes later, ten minutes until the candle wax

445
00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:15.719
fell into his hands and interrupted him. He hadn' t seen anything different

446
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:20.199
on his face. He let Gustavo
know that was a lie, but still.

447
00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:25.239
Gustavo wanted to try, but as
much as he tried, he didn

448
00:36:25.239 --> 00:36:30.920
' t get anything. My grandfather
told him that he was fine and that

449
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:35.760
his brother and friends probably wanted to
trick him with that game. They both

450
00:36:35.800 --> 00:36:42.400
said goodbye and each went home.
The next morning, when my grandfather finished

451
00:36:42.519 --> 00:36:47.159
doing all his homework, he went
to see his friend. This one was

452
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:52.599
a little excited and told him that
he had tried and that it had already

453
00:36:53.199 --> 00:36:57.559
come out at the beginning. My
grandfather did not believe him, but his

454
00:36:57.880 --> 00:37:02.239
friend insisted and told him that his
reflection had winked at him of course that

455
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:07.559
my grandfather told him to stop inventing
things, but his friend told him it

456
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:10.840
was true. After that, he
invited him home to see him, as

457
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:15.320
he told him that his reflection now
seemed to have a life of its own.

458
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:20.280
My grandfather, curiously, went to
that boy' s house to see

459
00:37:20.320 --> 00:37:24.320
what he was talking about. At
first, my grandfather told him that he

460
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:30.519
believed that the rules of the game
meant that they had to do it at

461
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:35.480
night, but his friend told him
that since it had worked, it seemed

462
00:37:35.559 --> 00:37:39.199
that it no longer mattered. His
friend just stood in front of the mirror,

463
00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:44.840
didn' t even light a candle
or anything. At first, my

464
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:49.679
grandfather told me he didn' t
notice anything strange. It was really his

465
00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:53.960
reflection, blinking. At the same
time he made the small involuntary movements that

466
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:59.400
his friend made and in general,
it was like any reflection. Even at

467
00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:05.360
some point, after about five minutes, my grandfather was going to tell her

468
00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:08.119
that they' d better do something
else, as she was already getting bored

469
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:14.360
until suddenly she saw the reflection smiling, but her friend didn' t.

470
00:38:15.719 --> 00:38:21.079
At that time, my grandfather'
s friend turned his head surprised and asked

471
00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:25.639
him if he was seeing that too. My grandfather was shocked at the time

472
00:38:27.280 --> 00:38:30.639
because, even though his friend was
turning in his direction, his reflection was

473
00:38:30.719 --> 00:38:37.519
still intact in the mirror just standing
there smiling, says my grandfather who knew

474
00:38:37.719 --> 00:38:44.199
that smile was not exactly friendly.
He said he could notice that he had

475
00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:49.519
some malice traits in her that didn' t finish convincing him, but his

476
00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:53.000
friend was so excited that he didn' t know how to tell him what

477
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:57.440
he felt about it. On the
one hand, all this scared him and,

478
00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:00.440
on the other, the person he
trusted the most in the whole world,

479
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:05.199
acted as if it were the safest
thing in the world and told him

480
00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:08.440
to approach and to check, if
his reflection could also do the same.

481
00:39:09.719 --> 00:39:13.519
But my grandfather wasn' t sure
he wanted to do something like that.

482
00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:19.519
He refused, telling him that his
father had told him to go home early

483
00:39:19.599 --> 00:39:23.559
because he needed me to help him
repair a wheelbarrow and with that excuse he

484
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:28.800
left his friend' s house.
My grandfather thought that maybe it was just

485
00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:32.519
a phase and that his friend would
soon forget that. Or perhaps his reflection

486
00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:37.400
would return to normal and by then
his friend would have lost all interest.

487
00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:44.880
But that didn' t happen.
With the passing of days everything got worse.

488
00:39:45.400 --> 00:39:49.400
His friend started talking to himself,
whenever he had a mirror in front

489
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:52.239
of him. He was, he
was staring at him for a while.

490
00:39:52.679 --> 00:39:58.480
Then he smiled because, according to
him, the reflection was speaking to him.

491
00:40:00.119 --> 00:40:04.800
This began to bring jokes with the
other kids out there because they said

492
00:40:04.880 --> 00:40:09.559
he was crazy personally. My grandfather
did not believe the latter, as he

493
00:40:09.599 --> 00:40:15.159
had witnessed it with his own eyes. But he still didn' t see

494
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:21.679
right that he was so involved with
that thing, as something in him told

495
00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:27.599
him that it wasn' t exactly
his reflection. Even my grandfather tried to

496
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:32.400
express this concern to his friend telling
him that he felt very strange vibes when

497
00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:37.079
his reflection changed, that he did
not feel it was a good thing,

498
00:40:37.079 --> 00:40:39.360
but his friend seemed to be offended. He told him not to say those

499
00:40:39.840 --> 00:40:45.880
things because the way he reflected in
the mirror was something like the true form

500
00:40:45.239 --> 00:40:50.800
of his soul and that if he
didn' t like it, then he

501
00:40:50.960 --> 00:40:55.840
had something against him. My grandfather
tried to reassure him by telling him that

502
00:40:55.840 --> 00:41:00.000
he didn' t have to get
defensive, that he was just telling him

503
00:41:00.760 --> 00:41:04.880
what he was laughing at, and
he could also notice that he had changed

504
00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:07.480
a little bit since the whole reflex
thing. They weren' t big things,

505
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:13.599
he was just too obnoxiously distracted and
it seemed that life mattered very little

506
00:41:13.679 --> 00:41:16.840
and he just focused on seeing himself
in the mirror a lot, to which

507
00:41:16.920 --> 00:41:22.800
his friend told him it was because
the feeling was great, but that he

508
00:41:22.960 --> 00:41:25.599
didn' t know it because he
didn' t dare to see what his

509
00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:29.239
soul would really be like. And
that was because he was a coward,

510
00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:32.880
to which my grandfather replied that that
was not true and that he would dare,

511
00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:37.559
but that it was just that he
didn' t give him a good

512
00:41:38.239 --> 00:41:45.679
thorn all that, but his friend
insisted, telling him that it would be

513
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:52.559
fabulous and at first it was a
little scary, then it was quite normal

514
00:41:52.599 --> 00:41:52.519
and in the end he ended up
insisting so much that my grandfather agreed.

515
00:41:53.039 --> 00:41:59.039
They went to his house and Gustavo
reflected himself. He waited about five minutes

516
00:41:59.079 --> 00:42:02.440
and after that, his friend'
s reflection winked at him, understanding that

517
00:42:02.519 --> 00:42:07.559
he could now move alone. After
that, his friend insisted that my grandfather

518
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:14.880
approach him and his reflection seemed to
obey him in every respect, but my

519
00:42:14.880 --> 00:42:19.079
grandfather says that at the time his
reflection was also in the mirror that thing

520
00:42:19.199 --> 00:42:23.280
stared at him almost as if he
didn' t like him being there.

521
00:42:27.119 --> 00:42:31.800
My grandfather told me that several minutes
passed without anything different happening and relieved he

522
00:42:32.159 --> 00:42:37.800
thought it wasn' t going to
work. When he suddenly saw how his

523
00:42:37.880 --> 00:42:42.360
reflection smiled, he told me that
at first it was a very light smile.

524
00:42:42.880 --> 00:42:46.519
If I wasn' t paying full
attention to him, I would have

525
00:42:46.519 --> 00:42:51.880
totally overlooked him. He says he
then blinked at him and at that time

526
00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:55.960
my grandfather jumped back from the impression
was like having a double in front of

527
00:42:57.039 --> 00:43:01.840
him. But his friend Gustavo grew
happy. He told her it was the

528
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:07.239
best thing that could have happened to
them and even told her that he did

529
00:43:07.360 --> 00:43:09.760
try it in his own house.
Little by little I could talk to him,

530
00:43:10.880 --> 00:43:16.239
just as he did with his own
reflection. My grandfather told me that

531
00:43:16.679 --> 00:43:21.840
he was very afraid. He told
his friend that he was not interested in

532
00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:25.559
talking to his reflection and that he
had to leave. He just turned around

533
00:43:25.639 --> 00:43:30.920
and left for the rest of the
afternoon. Everything seemed to pass fairly normally,

534
00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:37.800
without any incident. He said that
the next morning, while he was

535
00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:44.000
combing and looking towards the mirror,
he suddenly felt that the reflection changed and

536
00:43:44.039 --> 00:43:47.159
that he was now staring at him. My grandfather got scared and backed back.

537
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:52.960
He says that while he was doing
so, he could see how his

538
00:43:52.039 --> 00:43:54.960
reflection sketched a big smile. He
yelled at his mother to see what was

539
00:43:55.000 --> 00:44:00.440
going on, but my grandfather says
that as soon as she arrived, her

540
00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:07.920
reflection was behaving in a normal way. There was nothing strange and it seemed

541
00:44:07.079 --> 00:44:12.960
that he had imagined everything, but
my grandfather knew it was not so.

542
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:17.039
In an attempt to understand what was
going on, he said he pretended he

543
00:44:17.159 --> 00:44:22.559
wanted to confess to go talk directly
to the father of his church. He

544
00:44:22.599 --> 00:44:27.440
said that once there he asked the
father if the mirrors could be evil,

545
00:44:27.559 --> 00:44:30.679
to which the father, trying to
contain a laugh and also with some skepticism,

546
00:44:31.519 --> 00:44:37.440
told him no, that the objects
as such were not evil, but

547
00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:45.000
that sometimes people used them for evil. My grandfather was already a little upset

548
00:44:45.039 --> 00:44:49.719
and not knowing how to go over
the matter, he told him that he

549
00:44:49.840 --> 00:44:54.800
believed the reflexes were evil. He
talked to him briefly and also somewhat vaguely

550
00:44:54.960 --> 00:45:00.920
how Gustavo and he had heard about
the reflex game and then, as Gustavo

551
00:45:00.159 --> 00:45:05.119
had seen his reflex move and had
encouraged him to do so as well.

552
00:45:06.280 --> 00:45:09.239
And with this I expected the father
not only to believe him, but also

553
00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:15.920
to do something about it. What
happened was the opposite. The father bothered

554
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:21.559
to tell him that it was not
funny to waste his time on a man

555
00:45:21.639 --> 00:45:24.719
of God and that if he wanted
to deceive someone, he would play with

556
00:45:24.719 --> 00:45:29.400
his friends. My grandfather tried to
convince him that nothing he was telling him

557
00:45:29.480 --> 00:45:35.159
was a lie and that he needed
his help because he was desperate, but

558
00:45:35.360 --> 00:45:37.400
the father wouldn' t listen anymore. He held onto the idea that my

559
00:45:37.440 --> 00:45:42.719
grandfather was lying to him. He
told her if she kept that up,

560
00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:46.480
then she' d tell her parents. My grandfather had no choice but to

561
00:45:46.559 --> 00:45:52.559
leave the confessional and return home.
He told me that was when his phobia

562
00:45:52.599 --> 00:45:58.320
of mirrors began, but that was
not exactly because of fear of a mirror,

563
00:45:58.840 --> 00:46:01.920
but of reflection. He could not
look more than five minutes before his

564
00:46:01.960 --> 00:46:08.079
reflection seemed to take on his own
life and also seemed to be trying to

565
00:46:08.079 --> 00:46:13.679
communicate with him. He talked a
lot about it with Gustavo and told him

566
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:19.800
that he no longer wanted that,
that he wanted his reflection to obey him

567
00:46:19.920 --> 00:46:24.840
again and also asked him if there
was a way to remove it, but

568
00:46:24.920 --> 00:46:31.199
Gustavo always told him that he did
not know it and honestly did not understand

569
00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:37.679
why so much problem that if he
just gave his reflection the opportunity to communicate

570
00:46:37.079 --> 00:46:43.119
with him, then he would see
that this was not bad at all and

571
00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:46.039
that they knew things. My grandfather
asked him what kind of things a reflection

572
00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:52.239
might know, to which Gustavo replied
that he knew about the future and also

573
00:46:52.360 --> 00:46:57.159
secret about the people he could spy
as long as there was a mirror nearby.

574
00:46:57.679 --> 00:47:01.960
My grandfather asked him exactly what he
meant by that thing seeing the future,

575
00:47:02.199 --> 00:47:06.679
to which Gustavo told him he had
told him that when he was big

576
00:47:06.679 --> 00:47:10.639
he told him that he would have
a big house, wife and children.

577
00:47:10.719 --> 00:47:15.800
Exactly. He had told her how
many children and whether they were boys or

578
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:21.679
girls. My grandfather says that this
joy on Gustavo' s part faded more

579
00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:25.440
or less. A week after this
conversation, he was very obnoxious and pale.

580
00:47:27.039 --> 00:47:30.800
My grandfather thought to ask him why
he was like that and Gustavo replied

581
00:47:30.880 --> 00:47:37.039
that he believed that his reflection wanted
to take him away. He told him

582
00:47:37.079 --> 00:47:43.119
that he had been having horrible dreams
that some sort of invisible force would pull

583
00:47:43.199 --> 00:47:47.920
him while he was sleeping and whenever
he woke up in the middle of the

584
00:47:47.960 --> 00:47:52.239
morning, he could see that his
reflection was standing there in the mirror and

585
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:55.840
looking at him. My grandfather says
that this was getting worse as the days

586
00:47:55.920 --> 00:48:01.480
passed and that even in his despair, Gustavo was talking to the Father of

587
00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:07.519
the Church to receive some advice from
him. But the father did exactly what

588
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:12.199
he had done to my grandfather.
He told her he wouldn' t tolerate

589
00:48:12.280 --> 00:48:15.639
that kind of joke, completely ignoring
what that kid had to tell him.

590
00:48:16.079 --> 00:48:22.440
My grandfather told me that one day
finally, Gustavo disappeared. Nobody knew what

591
00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:27.320
happened. His mother claimed that he
had only gone to sleep and had not

592
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:31.239
dawned. It was as if the
earth had swallowed it. Nobody heard the

593
00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:36.800
door open. It would be impossible
for anyone to get in or out.

594
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:40.119
They searched for him for a long
time, but they never found him.

595
00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:45.920
My grandfather was always sure that it
was the reflection of that mirror that had

596
00:48:45.960 --> 00:48:52.719
taken him away. My grandfather says
that he was cursed since then and that

597
00:48:52.119 --> 00:48:55.760
was the reason why he couldn'
t see himself so much in a mirror,

598
00:48:57.440 --> 00:49:00.960
because if he did his reflection he
would smile and let him know that

599
00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:15.159
he could have the same fate as
Gustavo the one- eyed. My name

600
00:49:15.239 --> 00:49:16.880
is Fernanda and this is something that
happened to me. Three years ago,

601
00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:22.079
I lived in Toronto, Canada,
and then I was studying at the University.

602
00:49:23.119 --> 00:49:29.159
The truth was that I needed to
find a job that had flexible schedules

603
00:49:29.199 --> 00:49:32.719
so I could continue my studies more
or less comfortably. The opportunity to work

604
00:49:32.840 --> 00:49:38.440
occasionally as a babysitter gave me the
perfect solution. One time, a lady

605
00:49:38.519 --> 00:49:44.599
from the same building knocked on my
door. She lived two floors down and

606
00:49:44.679 --> 00:49:51.159
had seen her sometimes. We had
never really had a real conversation, but

607
00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:54.159
she told me that one of the
neighbors on the same floor, whom she

608
00:49:54.159 --> 00:49:59.480
had looked after her children for a
couple of nights, had told her that

609
00:49:59.519 --> 00:50:04.079
I work bar as a nanny and
was quite interested in hiring my services.

610
00:50:04.639 --> 00:50:07.559
I said yes, and I also
asked him what hours. She would like

611
00:50:07.599 --> 00:50:13.480
me to go home to see if
she had that schedule available, but she

612
00:50:13.559 --> 00:50:17.599
told me that if there was no
chance of her son climbing my apartment for

613
00:50:17.599 --> 00:50:22.119
a few hours. At first I
refused, as I had never looked after

614
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:28.880
children directly in my house. I
felt that I had very few furniture and,

615
00:50:29.159 --> 00:50:32.639
besides, I was not very interested
in the children snooping around almost immediately

616
00:50:32.679 --> 00:50:38.079
I refused that one. Ma'
am insisted on telling me that what was

617
00:50:38.199 --> 00:50:44.840
happening was that she worked from home
and sometimes her son made too much noise

618
00:50:44.840 --> 00:50:45.960
with his video games. And if
I could do that for her, I

619
00:50:45.960 --> 00:50:52.320
would appreciate it very much, that
I only needed about three hours a day,

620
00:50:52.639 --> 00:50:57.519
at least three times a week.
I ended up accepting that first day.

621
00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:01.280
I made a general toilet for all
of me leaving. I even remember

622
00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:07.079
making him some popcorn and buying some
sodas at the mother' s request so

623
00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:10.880
that he would stand still there most
of the time. About five o'

624
00:51:10.920 --> 00:51:15.039
clock in the afternoon, he knocked
on the door. I went to open.

625
00:51:15.639 --> 00:51:19.360
I thought first that his mom would
go with him, but he was

626
00:51:19.480 --> 00:51:21.679
alone or at least that' s
what I saw through the look at the

627
00:51:21.679 --> 00:51:25.440
door. I didn' t care
much about her, as the mom was

628
00:51:25.519 --> 00:51:29.719
downstairs and I knew I could locate
her, if there was a problem.

629
00:51:30.159 --> 00:51:34.840
When I opened the door to him, I realized something. It wasn'

630
00:51:34.840 --> 00:51:37.719
t one, it was two.
They were twins. At first it bothered

631
00:51:37.760 --> 00:51:43.559
me a little because we had agreed
that it would be one or at least

632
00:51:43.599 --> 00:51:47.199
that had remained, since she had
always spoken only of one son, not

633
00:51:47.280 --> 00:51:52.239
two. As soon as they both
came in, I realized one thing I

634
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:57.960
didn' t notice because the other
kid was in the back and he was

635
00:51:58.039 --> 00:52:00.039
wearing a cap that covered part of
his face. First of all, the

636
00:52:00.119 --> 00:52:06.000
boy in front of him looked very
obnoxious with bags in his eyes. It

637
00:52:06.079 --> 00:52:10.639
was as if he had been crying, or perhaps he had been very personally

638
00:52:10.639 --> 00:52:15.159
revealed. I thought it was the
second because of the amount of time I

639
00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:20.960
assumed his mother allowed him to use
the video game console. In addition,

640
00:52:21.400 --> 00:52:24.679
he looked very emaciated and some air
of sadness seemed to come out of him.

641
00:52:25.360 --> 00:52:31.239
All this was eclipsed when you saw
the second child were almost equal in

642
00:52:31.239 --> 00:52:37.079
height, hair color, almost everything, but there was a clear exception on

643
00:52:37.119 --> 00:52:40.360
the face and that was that his
right eye was missing. It seemed to

644
00:52:40.440 --> 00:52:46.159
have been something recent. On top
of that, it looked like he had

645
00:52:46.199 --> 00:52:52.000
some scratches on his face that were
also closing something inside me. He told

646
00:52:52.119 --> 00:52:55.840
me he might have had an accident. The truth is that I didn'

647
00:52:55.880 --> 00:53:01.400
t want to ask many questions about
it, as I thought that being such

648
00:53:01.519 --> 00:53:07.519
a recent event might well be too
sensitive a topic. I showed them where

649
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:12.440
they could connect everything, and the
kid didn' t talk to me much

650
00:53:12.519 --> 00:53:16.440
anymore, he just connected the console
and started playing fast. I realized I

651
00:53:16.679 --> 00:53:22.559
only had one control, but I
figured they' d take turns. I

652
00:53:22.559 --> 00:53:28.400
went to do my college jobs.
I thought I should only go out every

653
00:53:28.400 --> 00:53:31.320
once in a while after I showed
them where the bathroom was and told them

654
00:53:31.360 --> 00:53:36.000
they could have all the soda they
wanted, as the mother told me,

655
00:53:36.440 --> 00:53:40.480
and they could also use the microwave
to make more popcorn, and that'

656
00:53:40.480 --> 00:53:45.880
s what they wanted. I was
entertained for about an hour and a half

657
00:53:45.960 --> 00:53:49.360
while listening to how he was playing
his video game. I didn' t

658
00:53:49.480 --> 00:53:52.639
think there was any problem with being
honest. I thought that, being two

659
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:57.800
brothers, at some point they'
d start fighting for command, but this

660
00:53:57.880 --> 00:54:00.760
didn' t happen. After that, first thing in the morning, I

661
00:54:00.880 --> 00:54:06.199
decided it was time to go take
a look at them and see if everything

662
00:54:06.199 --> 00:54:08.760
was in order. And when I
got out, the only thing I found

663
00:54:08.840 --> 00:54:14.320
was the kid who was, so
to speak, healthy, playing, and

664
00:54:14.440 --> 00:54:19.920
the one- eyed kid sitting on
the couch staring at the screen, I

665
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:22.320
didn' t take any more importance. I just asked them if everything was

666
00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:24.840
okay. The healthy child answered me
yes, while watching the screen, but

667
00:54:24.880 --> 00:54:30.639
the one- eyed child did not
speak to me. I didn' t

668
00:54:30.719 --> 00:54:34.599
give it any more importance, and
I did my jobs again. After another

669
00:54:34.719 --> 00:54:39.039
hour I went out again and ran
into the exact same scene that child playing

670
00:54:39.119 --> 00:54:45.320
and his one- eyed brother staring
at the screen. I was about to

671
00:54:45.400 --> 00:54:51.119
ask her if she didn' t
think it was fair that her brother was

672
00:54:51.159 --> 00:54:53.159
playing too, but I stopped,
though I assumed it wasn' t my

673
00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:57.719
business. I went back to my
room to get on with my homework.

674
00:54:58.480 --> 00:55:01.719
Once there was the first time I
wondered how strange the situation was and how

675
00:55:01.760 --> 00:55:07.840
that lady had deliberately omitted that I
would have to take care of two children

676
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:15.159
I quickly told myself that I should
not be making such a fuss, as

677
00:55:15.199 --> 00:55:20.360
technically whether it was like taking care
of a child or rather how not to

678
00:55:20.360 --> 00:55:23.880
take care of any, since they
were only there very quiet. At the

679
00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:30.960
same time, I began to wonder
what might have happened to that little boy

680
00:55:30.079 --> 00:55:35.400
on that occasion, I no longer
left my room until his mother came to

681
00:55:35.400 --> 00:55:37.960
pick them up. She thanked me
and paid me not to mention at all

682
00:55:38.039 --> 00:55:40.840
that she hadn' t told me
it was going to be two children.

683
00:55:42.840 --> 00:55:46.760
The healthy child quickly picked up the
whole console and left, followed by the

684
00:55:46.840 --> 00:55:52.800
one- eyed child, who showed
almost no expression. I found it hard

685
00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:58.239
to believe that a child behaved like
this. I reckoned they were at most

686
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:02.920
nine years old that one- eyed
child acted that way. I thought it

687
00:56:04.400 --> 00:56:07.119
was weird because of his age.
It was very difficult for him to stay

688
00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:10.280
still, but at the end of
the day, that wasn' t my

689
00:56:10.280 --> 00:56:16.320
problem. For the next three weeks, so was the dynamic. Three times

690
00:56:16.360 --> 00:56:22.760
a week, that boy arrived,
connected and played video games until his mother

691
00:56:22.880 --> 00:56:27.559
came after him. Meanwhile, his
brother only sat on a corner of the

692
00:56:27.679 --> 00:56:32.119
armchair and watched him play until on
one occasion I remember well that while I

693
00:56:32.239 --> 00:56:37.360
was making a model for the school, suddenly I felt that someone else was

694
00:56:37.400 --> 00:56:44.280
in my room. I turned almost
gave a jump from the scare standing in

695
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:46.559
the frame of my door. There
was that one- eyed child. Looking

696
00:56:46.599 --> 00:56:52.159
at me with his only eye,
I asked him if he needed anything,

697
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:59.519
but he didn' t answer me
and after a few minutes, trying to

698
00:56:59.559 --> 00:57:04.639
get any sound out of him,
just tell me I turned around and I

699
00:57:04.719 --> 00:57:07.360
kept doing my project, but I
felt like he wasn' t leaving and

700
00:57:07.360 --> 00:57:10.000
I was starting to get uncomfortable.
I turned again and asked him if he

701
00:57:10.039 --> 00:57:15.119
wanted more popcorn or soda, but
again he didn' t answer me.

702
00:57:15.519 --> 00:57:20.800
He just stood there looking at me. It occurred to me to ask him

703
00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:24.960
if he wanted me to tell his
brother to let him play with the console

704
00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:30.480
and after about five seconds of staring
at us, he finally spoke to me.

705
00:57:31.480 --> 00:57:36.800
The only thing he told me was
that because I did talk to him,

706
00:57:37.239 --> 00:57:39.920
I told him I didn' t
know what he meant and he told

707
00:57:40.039 --> 00:57:47.119
me again that no one would talk
to him without knowing what to say to

708
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:52.199
him I just smiled at him and
told him that maybe no one would talk

709
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:53.760
to him, because he was very
quiet and sometimes it might seem like he

710
00:57:53.760 --> 00:57:57.880
didn' t want to talk to
anyone. At the time I noticed that

711
00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:02.199
the silicone gun I was using was
pulling a lot of silicone. Turn me

712
00:58:02.239 --> 00:58:07.320
around for a moment to unplug it. It was just a second, but

713
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:10.239
when the boy turned around, he
was gone. I found it very strange,

714
00:58:10.559 --> 00:58:15.159
as I had not heard his steps
move away and when I went to

715
00:58:15.199 --> 00:58:22.000
see them, the scene was the
same, the kid playing video games and

716
00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:24.559
his brother watching the TV. At
the time, I couldn' t wait

717
00:58:24.639 --> 00:58:30.400
any longer and asked the kid who
was playing on the console if he didn

718
00:58:30.440 --> 00:58:32.119
' t think it would be better
to let his brother play a little.

719
00:58:34.000 --> 00:58:39.320
But those words seemed that, rather
than reconsidering his behavior, they altered him.

720
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:45.360
He saw me again, he seemed
very surprised by the proposition I made

721
00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:50.440
to him, but at the same
time he also seemed to be trying to

722
00:58:50.480 --> 00:58:54.000
contain the crying. I didn'
t know what to say to her and

723
00:58:54.039 --> 00:58:59.639
for my fortune, at that moment
her mom knocked on the door for the

724
00:58:59.639 --> 00:59:05.280
kids to leave The truth was that
at that moment she was a little embarrassed

725
00:59:05.400 --> 00:59:07.559
and didn' t understand very well
what was going on. I didn'

726
00:59:07.760 --> 00:59:13.599
t say anything and I just let
them go the way they always did,

727
00:59:14.119 --> 00:59:16.679
thinking maybe that kid would accuse me
with his mom. There really wasn'

728
00:59:16.800 --> 00:59:22.239
t a reason why you should accuse
me, as I hadn' t done

729
00:59:22.320 --> 00:59:28.079
anything wrong. I remember well that
the next day they did not come,

730
00:59:28.320 --> 00:59:31.400
but they did the day that followed
him and the moment they both entered.

731
00:59:32.840 --> 00:59:37.039
This time I asked the healthy child
if he didn' t want me to

732
00:59:37.119 --> 00:59:43.000
play with him this time, as
he had every intention that this time we

733
00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:45.639
could let his brother play. I
didn' t tell you this. I

734
00:59:45.719 --> 00:59:50.440
just asked him if we could play
him and me. He thought about it

735
00:59:50.519 --> 00:59:54.679
for a moment and told me he
was fine, but then he would go

736
00:59:54.760 --> 00:59:59.760
for another check and without letting me
answer, he ran to his apartment.

737
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:06.000
I was very surprised and to a
certain extent somewhat frustrated, as I could

738
01:00:06.400 --> 01:00:12.440
not believe that all the time they
had a second control and deliberately did not

739
01:00:12.519 --> 01:00:16.920
let play the other child who had
sat on the couch. I sat down

740
01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:22.559
and tried to talk to him telling
him that he could play this time,

741
01:00:22.719 --> 01:00:27.440
but he shook his head and told
me he didn' t believe that was

742
01:00:27.440 --> 01:00:32.039
true. I asked him why and
he told me that it was because now,

743
01:00:32.199 --> 01:00:37.079
since he had had the accident,
it seemed that no one wanted him,

744
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:40.679
that his mother ignored him and pretended
that he did not exist, and

745
01:00:40.920 --> 01:00:45.960
also his brother, that before they
two were very close, but since he

746
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:49.920
had lost his eye, it seemed
that both of them were disgusted. I

747
01:00:49.920 --> 01:00:54.360
tried to comfort him and told him
that that was not true and that maybe

748
01:00:54.559 --> 01:00:59.639
sometimes people didn' t like to
talk about certain things like what had happened

749
01:00:59.840 --> 01:01:02.960
to him, but that he didn' t doubt for a minute that his

750
01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:07.440
brother and his mother loved him as
always. I also asked him if he

751
01:01:07.519 --> 01:01:13.320
had already tried to talk to them
about it and he bowed his head and

752
01:01:13.360 --> 01:01:16.239
told me that he had tired of
trying to talk to them, but that

753
01:01:16.239 --> 01:01:20.960
they only ignored him. I,
trying to understand the situation a little bit

754
01:01:21.679 --> 01:01:24.480
more, asked him what had happened
to him. He looked at me for

755
01:01:24.599 --> 01:01:30.360
a moment and told me that the
truth was that he couldn' t remember

756
01:01:30.360 --> 01:01:36.440
it very clearly, only that his
brother and he had gone skating together and

757
01:01:36.480 --> 01:01:40.719
then they were trying to impress the
older children by climbing bigger ramps. He

758
01:01:40.760 --> 01:01:45.599
told me something like that the ramp
was very steep and that he remembered that

759
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:52.440
he felt the skateboard deviated and that
was his last memory. He said it

760
01:01:52.639 --> 01:01:58.320
was all very confusing afterwards. He
felt a lot of pain in his face

761
01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:01.960
and then he could remember very well
that his mother was crying and yelling at

762
01:02:01.960 --> 01:02:05.800
the doctors who had to save him. He told me he didn' t

763
01:02:05.840 --> 01:02:10.679
understand why his mom had been crying
and begging everyone to save himself and when

764
01:02:10.719 --> 01:02:15.519
he was all right, he just
ignored it. He also told me that

765
01:02:15.559 --> 01:02:20.199
he felt it was because he no
longer had an eye and then he was

766
01:02:20.199 --> 01:02:22.920
a monster. I told him at
that time not to say it that way

767
01:02:23.039 --> 01:02:28.880
and that maybe I could try to
talk to his mother and let her know

768
01:02:28.920 --> 01:02:32.480
how he felt. When I suddenly
heard the voice of his brother, who

769
01:02:32.559 --> 01:02:37.920
asked me what he was doing,
I turned to see him. He already

770
01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:42.760
brought control in his hand and looked
very confused without losing composure and also trying

771
01:02:43.280 --> 01:02:50.760
to stand firm believing that in that
way he might stop ignoring it. I

772
01:02:50.800 --> 01:02:53.679
told him I was talking to his
brother and that, in fact, he

773
01:02:53.719 --> 01:02:58.639
was telling me that it really hurts
him to ignore him that way. I

774
01:02:58.960 --> 01:03:05.199
also took the opportunity to tell him
that surely the whole situation of the accident

775
01:03:05.239 --> 01:03:09.760
had been very difficult for everyone,
but that his brother needed all the support

776
01:03:09.840 --> 01:03:14.079
he could get to cope with it
and what he was doing was very bad.

777
01:03:14.719 --> 01:03:19.679
But as I spoke more, I
noticed that he was becoming more and

778
01:03:20.280 --> 01:03:24.000
more silent and when I finished giving
that speech, he only opened his mouth

779
01:03:24.119 --> 01:03:29.239
to tell me something that resonates in
my ears to this day. My brother

780
01:03:29.519 --> 01:03:36.079
died two months ago. At that
time I turned in the direction of that

781
01:03:36.159 --> 01:03:39.119
one- eyed child and, to
my horror, I realized that I was

782
01:03:39.199 --> 01:03:42.719
no longer there. I didn'
t know what to say. I think

783
01:03:42.800 --> 01:03:47.440
I went into some kind of nervous
breakdown, because after that I don'

784
01:03:47.440 --> 01:03:52.559
t remember much, only that child, whom I looked after so many times,

785
01:03:52.000 --> 01:03:57.360
ran to where her mother and brought
her to my apartment. Once I

786
01:03:57.400 --> 01:04:00.360
calmed down, I told him everything
I' d been seeing for those weeks.

787
01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:06.400
That lady cried when I told her
all the details, because there were

788
01:04:06.519 --> 01:04:11.880
things I wouldn' t have the
way to know and, besides, she

789
01:04:11.960 --> 01:04:15.960
didn' t have any reason to
lie to her that way. He told

790
01:04:15.199 --> 01:04:19.840
me he was fine and after that
he took his son and never left me

791
01:04:19.960 --> 01:04:26.519
in charge of him again. The
truth is that to me it was a

792
01:04:26.559 --> 01:04:30.119
great relief, because I had no
interest in continuing to take care of him.

793
01:04:30.639 --> 01:04:33.119
But from what I learned later,
they did a mass in his honor

794
01:04:33.199 --> 01:04:39.119
and the lady had gone to say
goodbye to him directly to his grave or

795
01:04:39.199 --> 01:04:43.079
something. The point is, I
never saw him again and that' s

796
01:04:43.119 --> 01:04:46.719
something I really appreciate. Sometimes I
like to believe that at least I helped

797
01:04:46.760 --> 01:04:57.119
that poor innocent soul rest in peace
stories written and adapted by Lisa Hernández