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

THE LOST DOLL

Maria Del Carmen was the daughter of Roberto and Rosa Soto. She was beautiful, bright, kind and loving. She was sick by birth. She could not recover her health and died at four. Almost everybody attended her funeral because they loved her a lot. A few days later, Rosa gave the clothes and playthings of Carmen to a priest of the nearby village. She did not think it was necessary to save them any longer because her doctor had already declared that she could not have child any more. But Roberto objected to what she had done with Carmen’s belongings. He was hopeful that God might offer him another child. However, she had forgotten to give Carmen’s doll to the priest. They looked for it everywhere in the house. They finally forgot the doll.

The Lost Doll

Rosa gave birth to the second child. They named the baby as Evengelina because it meant good news. She looked exactly similar to Carmen in the face and nature. But she was healthier than Carmen. Evengelina often said that she was sick a long ago. But Rosa replied that she has been healthy since her birth time.

One day when Rosa and her sister were talking, Evengelina entered the room. To see her, Rosa’s sister said that she looked like her sister. But Rosa pointed out that she was healthier than Carmen. To hear her mother, Evengelina said that she was sick a long time ago. In the meantime, her sister asked Rosa if they found Carmen’s doll that was missing. She replied that she did not find it. When Evengelina heard this, she said that she remembered where she had put the doll. She took both sisters by the hand and pointed to the stony ground under a tree. They dug up under the tree and found the doll. When they asked how she knew where she had put her doll, she replied that a priest came and prayed with his hand on her head. Then she fell asleep. A nice man woke her up by the hand. He didn’t allow her to take the doll with her. Then he helped her to put it under a tree. When she looked at her mother she saw a kind of sickness in her.

This is a story about reincarnation. Reincarnation is a belief that the soul or spirit of one body is reborn in another body. Evangelina is the reincarnation of Carmen. This explains why Evangelina “remembers” being sick, and why she knows where the lost doll was hidden.