Siempre recuerdo ciertas advertencias de mi abuelita y de mi madre, entre ellas, que si oyes que te llaman y sabes que estás solo o no estás seguro de quien pueda ser y aun así, es preferible no contestar, sino ir hasta donde la persona que crees que te llamo y preguntarle directamente. Otra de sus advertencias, era no recoger nada de la calle, lo que vieras, incluyendo ciertas monedas, ya que había personas que hacían cuestiones espirituales con estas cosas (esto me lo explicaron ya casi de adolescente) y podían ser dañinas para el que las recoja, puesto que no sabes que te estás llevando contigo...
Mi madre contaba en sus años de infancia, que en su pueblo los niños andaban libremente sin temor a nada, ya que todos se conocían y para la época era un pueblo relativamente pequeño a pesar de estar rodeado por muchas haciendas ganaderas; pero también se hablaba de la maldad existente, entre algunos de sus pobladores, se hablaban de brujas, gente que practicaba diferentes tipos de magia y les hacían "trabajos" de diferentes índoles a las personas. Era bien conocido que uno de los árboles para dejarle, pegarle en sus troncos estos trabajos era la ceiba, un árbol con un tronco bien grueso, frondoso y fuerte, abundantes por aquellas tierras.
Un día, ella y su amiga Maritza andaban por las afueras del pueblo como acostumbraban, trepándose a los árboles para coger las frutas maduras o simplemente jugando. Cuando de repente se toparon con una ceiba y en ella estaba una muñeca de trapo atada con varias cintas de colores, a mi madre esto le dio como cierta curiosidad, más sin embargo recordó las advertencias de mi abuela y se abstuvo de tocar aquello, pero Maritza que era una niña más osada, no le importaron las advertencias de mi madre y tomó aquella muñeca y se la llevó consigo.
Diciendo, que eso eran puras tontearías y se llevó la muñeca. Mi madre no le dijo más nada, pero no quiso seguir jugando y se fue a casa. Maritza se fue también contenta y burlándose de los miedos de mi madre. Pasaron los días y Maritza no iba a buscarla para jugar, entonces mi madre decidió irla a visitar, no quedaba muy lejos de su casa; cuando llegó encontró a Maritza en cama, con fiebre bastante descompensada, su familia le dijo que había estado así desde hace varios días, que decía que en su cuarto estaba un hombre vestido de negro que la veía y se reía de ella.
Pero que ellos pensaban que era por la fiebre que decía estas cosas, pero la llevaron al médico y no le encontraban nada, la niña había dejado de comer prácticamente, estaba muy delgada. En cuanto la niña vio a mi madre, la reconoció y se animó, los familiares aprovecharon para ver si estando con su amiguita, comía algo; mi madre se ofreció a darle la comida y está al fin comió un poco, esta no quería que mi madre se fuera, porque decía que con ella a su lado se sentía bien y aquel extraño hombre no se le acercaba. Mi madre creía que eran delirios de su pobre amiga y entre su inocencia no suponía nada malo.
Así pasaron los días en que mi madre, prácticamente asistía al colegio y luego iba a acompañar a su amiga, por petición de la familia, pues era la única forma de que comiera y se dejara bañar. Nadie se había percatado, de la muñeca sentada al fondo de la habitación, pero mi madre, si y no le gustaba verla allí, así que cuando ella iba la tapaba con cualquier cosa que encontrara. Mi abuela no le hacía mucha gracia aquellas visitas, pues pensaba que esa niña había cogido por ahí, quizás que maleficio, ya que no lograban que mejoraran. Ella les dijo que buscaran ayuda espiritual; sin embargo, permitía que mi madre fuera, por una cuestión de caridad con esa niña.
Al final era una inocente, pero siempre prevenía a mi madre, porque le habían dicho los vecinos que cuando mi madre no estaba con la niña, esta se tornaba, agresiva y que, incluso varios hombres de la familia, no podían con ella, cuando le daban esos accesos de ira, pero cuando mi madre llegaba con ella, todo cambiaba, estaba en calma. Una tarde, estando mi madre con su amiga luego de comer, ambas se durmieron, mi madre se quedó dormida al lado de ella y cuenta que se despertó porque sintió que se asfixiaba, era su amiga que estaba encima de ella ahorcándola y que le gritaba con una voz gutural ¡muérete!
Cuenta mi madre que ella trató de gritar, pero no podía, la tenía casi que asfixiada, entonces como pudo, le metió un empujón con ambas piernas, ella era gordita, robusta y pudo quitársela de encima, pero ella decía que rezaba mentalmente, aquello le gritaba que viniera, pero mi madre salió despavorida. La familia de la chica, habían salido un momento a que la vecina aprovechando que las dos se habían quedado dormidas y por eso no estaban allí para auxiliar a mi madre.
Cuando mi madre llegó a casa descalza, con la ropa casi rota, despeinada, mi abuela no pudo menos que espantarse y preguntarle que le había sucedido, entonces ella procedió a contarle, por supuesto mi abuela no la dejó ir, más por temor a que eso que se había apoderado de aquella niña, la volviera a atacar de nuevo. Con el tiempo se enteraron de que habían llevado al cura del lugar a tratar de ayudarla, los eventos paranormales habían cedido un poco, pero ya la chica no volvió a ser la misma; siempre de vez en vez sucedían experiencias extrañas alrededor de ella y a pesar de que intentaron varias formas de ayudarla, lo que era, no se fue del todo de su lado, por el resto de sus días...
De la muñeca, solo se supo que la quemaron, pero ya el mal había sido "traspasado" a la niña, según los curiosos, y mi madre afortunadamente no experimento nada inusual, según le dijeron a mi abuela, ella por su inocencia fue protegida de este ser y por tener un espíritu fuerte a pesar de ser tan niña; por eso era, que su amiga se sosegaba cuando ella estaba con ella. Pienso que es cierto, pues mi mamá ha sido una persona bien fuerte en todo sentido y estos episodios, seres o espíritus, siempre la han perseguido a través de su vida, gracias a Dios, únicamente han quedado los cuentos que son varios y nada más.
I always remember certain warnings from my grandmother and my mother, among them, that if you hear someone calling you and you know that you are alone or you are not sure who it might be and even so, it is preferable not to answer, but to go to the person you think is calling you and ask him/her directly. Another of her warnings was not to pick up anything from the street, whatever you see, including certain coins, since there were people who made spiritual questions with these things (this was explained to me almost as a teenager) and could be harmful to the person who picks them up, since you don't know what you are taking with you....
My mother told me in her childhood years, that in her town the children walked freely without fear of anything, since everyone knew each other and for the time it was a relatively small town despite being surrounded by many cattle ranches; but they also talked about the existing evil, among some of its inhabitants, they talked about witches, people who practiced different types of magic and did "works" of different kinds to people. It was well known that one of the trees to leave, to stick in their trunks these works was the ceiba, a tree with a very thick, leafy and strong trunk, abundant in those lands.
One day, she and her friend Maritza were walking around the outskirts of town as usual, climbing trees to pick ripe fruit or just playing. When suddenly they came across a ceiba tree and in it was a rag doll tied with several colored ribbons, this gave my mother some curiosity, however she remembered my grandmother's warnings and refrained from touching it, but Maritza who was a more daring child, did not care about my mother's warnings and took that doll and took it with her.
She said that it was all nonsense and took the doll with her. My mother didn't say anything else, but she didn't want to continue playing and went home. Maritza also left happy and making fun of my mother's fears. Days went by and Maritza did not go to look for her to play, so my mother decided to go visit her, she was not far from home; when she arrived she found Maritza in bed, with a high fever, her family told her that she had been like that for several days, that she said that in her room there was a man dressed in black who saw her and laughed at her.
But they thought it was because of the fever that she was saying these things, but they took her to the doctor and they could not find anything, the girl had practically stopped eating, she was very thin. As soon as the girl saw my mother, she recognized her and cheered up, her relatives took the opportunity to see if she would eat something when she was with her little friend; my mother offered to give her food and she finally ate a little, she did not want my mother to leave, because she said that with her by her side she felt good and that strange man would not come near her. My mother believed that they were delusions of her poor friend and among her innocence she did not suppose anything wrong.
The days went by in which my mother practically attended school and then went to accompany her friend, at the family's request, since it was the only way to get her to eat and bathe. Nobody had noticed the doll sitting at the back of the room, but my mother did, and she didn't like to see it there, so when she went she covered it with anything she could find. My grandmother was not very happy about those visits, because she thought that the girl had caught some kind of evil spell, since they were not able to get better. She told them to seek spiritual help; however, she allowed my mother to go, as a matter of charity with that little girl.
In the end she was an innocent, but she always warned my mother, because the neighbors had told her that when my mother was not with the girl, she became aggressive and that even several men of the family could not cope with her, when she had those fits of anger, but when my mother arrived with her, everything changed, she was calm. One afternoon, when my mother was with her friend after eating, they both fell asleep, my mother fell asleep next to her and she says that she woke up because she felt that she was suffocating, it was her friend who was on top of her, choking her and shouting at her in a guttural voice, "Die!
My mother tells that she tried to scream, but she could not, she was almost suffocated, then as she could, she pushed her with both legs, she was chubby, robust and was able to get her off, but she said she was praying mentally, she was shouting at her to come, but my mother came out terrified. The girl's family had gone out for a moment to see the neighbor, taking advantage of the fact that the two of them had fallen asleep and that is why they were not there to help my mother.
When my mother arrived home barefoot, with her clothes almost torn, disheveled, my grandmother could not help but be frightened and ask her what had happened to her, then she proceeded to tell her, of course my grandmother did not let her go, more for fear that the thing that had taken hold of that girl, would attack her again. Eventually they found out that they had taken the local priest to try to help her, the paranormal events had subsided a little, but the girl was never the same again; strange experiences always happened around her from time to time and even though they tried several ways to help her, what it was, did not leave her side completely, for the rest of her days...
Of the doll, it was only known that it was burned, but the evil had already been "transferred" to the girl, according to the curious, and my mother fortunately did not experience anything unusual, according to what my grandmother was told, she because of her innocence was protected from this being and for having a strong spirit despite being such a child; that was why her friend was soothed when she was with her. I think it is true, because my mother has been a very strong person in every sense and these episodes, beings or spirits, have always haunted her throughout her life, thank God, only the stories have remained, which are several and nothing more.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
