FEAR

- A psychological story

- shows how we make things worse and suffer when we are unnecessarily nervous

Characters : Armando Gonzalez – a middle-aged, simple-minded, honest, poor man

                 : Three teen-age boys

                 : A Bank Teller

Armando Gonzalez was a shoemaker. He lived with his family. One day he had gone to a bank to withdraw fifty thousand pesos to buy a house. But the teller of the bank troubled him by asking unnecessary questions. Furthermore, the teller counted out the bills loudly. It seemed to him that the people behind him knew how much he was carrying in cash. In his nervousness, he fidgeted his hat. By putting money into the pocket of his baggy pants, he was about to leave the bank. Accidentally, he put his hat on backward. A number of the people noticed and a few of them did a double take. One rather heavy man almost ran into a table in the middle of the lobby when he looked at Armando a second time. He felt that everyone in the bank knew what he had in his pocket. He was clutching the ward of bills tightly in his pant pocket.

Armando was waiting for the bus. He saw the heavy man standing next to him. It was the same man who had fallen into a table of the bank lobby to see Armando twice. Then Armando was sure that he was following him to rob him. He thought that his idea to buy a house was not good because he believed that someone was going to rob him. When the bus pulled up, the heavy man got on and took the seat farther back. Armando also got into it and took the first seat behind the driver. When some others came into the bus, they looked at Armando because he had put on his hat backward. All this made him think they knew he was carrying money.

Next time when Armando looked into the big mirror hung over the driver, he saw the heavy man reading a newspaper when the bus was rolling he wanted to outsmart the heavy man by getting off the bus. However, he withheld thinking of the worse situation in case the heavy man followed. This time he took the quick notice at the heavy man. He was found talking with three boys. This time Armando was sure that he was making plan to rob him. In panic, he grabbed the cord of buzzer and pulled it hard. He felt relaxed for the moment. He looked as if he was the only person getting off out of the bus through the back door. To his surprise, he saw three boys speaking, looking towards him. They were walking towards Armando. Then he thought that they would beat him and take all his money. He gave a frantic cry and started to run wildly. He cried for help and started running. The boys followed him thinking that he needed their help. But in his efforts to run away from them, Armando fell upon meal garbage. They were standing over him. They assured him that they were students who had come for a football tournament but they had caught wrong bus. Armando felt relief to hear this. He corrected his hat and he returned with them cheerily.

This is not a supernatural story because there are no ghosts or spirits in the story. It is a thriller (exciting and frightening story) based on the human fear of a nervous man.

http://monkit34.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-poplar-field.html