by Francisco Rebollo
Read other essays by Francisco Rebollo
A long time ago, when there was a boy named Carl. He was a student in English School called ELS. Carl was a bad student. Everybody hated him. He would do everything to make people around him mad. He knew how to push everybody's buttons and when person would get mad at him, Carl would humbly bow his had and would say, "I'm sorry sir... I didn't meant to..." But nobody believed that he is truly sorry. His mom was an alcoholic that rarely was home. He didn't like to go back home. He was always dirty and half of the buttons on his cloths was missing. He would play with other kids until dark and sometimes sleep over at his friend's houses. His dad died when Carl was two years old. Carl didn't remember anything about him except the smell of the sweat and his hard, big hands.
One day Carl was exceptionally bad at school. He opened the inkbottle and set it on the edge of the table, rite on tope of the teacher's bag. Everybody knew how awkward is Mrs. Canister and when she sit at the table she bumped the inkbottle and in a second her bag was nicely covered by this black ink. The homework papers that Mrs. Canister needed to grade for the next day was also destroyed by ink. Mrs. Canister knew right away who did it. She was so mad at him. She didn't say anything and she took him by his hand and literally dragged him in the furnace room. This room was in basement of the school. Kids hated this room because it was dark and very scary. It did smell like an old mattress and it look like the janitor had some fun ones in a wile there. It was rumors going on among students that there is a bogeyman. But it's could be because the janitor made all sorts of funny noises when he was drunk.
Mrs. Canister was a big woman and she has some kind of heart problem, so she went home sick. No one knew that Carl was still downstairs!
Everybody forgot him! That was on Friday, that evening the janitor locked up the school. Then the janitor turned off all the lights. But Carl was scared of the dark. It's was so dark, he couldn't see anything. He heard a squeak. It was a rat. He was scared of rats. He tried to find the door in the dark. He crawled up the stairs. A rat went down the stairs across Carl's hands. He screamed. When he finally found the door, it was locked.
On Monday, they remembered him. They unlocked the door, but they couldn't open it. Carl's body was in the way. He was dead. His eyes were wide open, his mouth was like a scream, and his fingers were bloody. Carl had tried to claw his away out.
People say that Carl's ghost has still here at ELS. Kids have heard some strange noises from the furnace room, but their parents say it's just rats.
In the cold and plain living room, Matt is sitting in his chair. His eyes don’t shine anymore. His skin is wrinkled and pale. He looks extremely old and weak. Today is his birthday, and he is by himself. The only thing that he has been doing all day is thinking about how his life is sad and lonely. As he was looking at some old pictures, he found one special with him and his friends from college. This picture brought back the days when he had friends and his life was full of happiness. Also, it brought him a sad memory. This memory happened forty years ago, during his last year of college.
Throughout college, Matt had a friend named Mark. Mark was tall and skin. He wore a thick glass. He was shy, smart and responsible. Also, Mark didn’t have lot friends as Matt had. He considered Matt as his best friend. As good friends, Matt and Mark went bowling together, they knew everything about each other, and they hung out. Also, they overcame many problems together. They were really good friends.
On his twenty- fourth birthday their life changed. On the night before his birthday, Mark called Matt, “Hi! Matt” his voice sounded strange. He continued, “I have an important project to work on. I’m having some problem with this. Maybe, you could come over and help me with it giving me some new ideas. Could you?” Matt asked, “What time?” Mark kept in silent for a minute, then he said. “At 8 p.m. is good for you?” Then Matt answered, “Ok! See you later”. At that night, it was Matt’s birthday. So, he didn’t want to spend his birthday helping Mark with his project. Matt went to a club with some others guys.
The next morning, Matt noticed that Mark was acting differently. When he went to talk to Mark, Mark ignored him completely. He left the classroom without saying one word. As Mark was walking away, Matt said in an angry voice, “You are selfish. You are just thinking about yourself. I was having fun on my birthday. Why can’t you understand it?”
While he was saying it, Mallory, one of his classmates and friend, stood up and started to say, “ How can you say such thing to Mark? You don’t know what happened! Last night, he called you many times, but he didn’t get any answer from you. He worried about what was going wrong with you. He took his car and drove all night looking for you. He looked at the hospital, the jail, and bars . . .” Matt started to apologize to Mallory and to himself, saying, “Why did he do it? He could work on the project by himself, and . . . ” At that time Mallory spoke angrily, “Shut up! He had prepared a surprise party for you, and we waited for you or for a call all night long.”
Tears fell from her eyes. Matt didn’t know what to say or what to do. Before he said anything, she left the classroom. He sat down and stayed there for long time. He looked around the classroom. It was cold and plain without his friends. It was empty, just like his living room is now.
Three hundred years ago, in my city, there was a man who went out to frighten the people every night. Everybody in Loja called him the headless priest. The first time the people saw him was when he was leaving from a house. Many people followed him for many blocks, but no body reached him. The second time, the waited for him on the corner with sticks. However, he never went there. Therefore the headless priest was so astute. In fact, somebody told him where the people were waiting for him. As a result, he escaped from them.
One day a man had arrived in Loja. Everybody wanted to know who he was. In particular, the Loja women wanted to know about him, because he was handsome. He was from Lima, Peru, and he was a priest. Every woman who saw him ran behind him to ask him something or request a blessing. In other words, the Loja women wanted to conquer him. The Loja men didn't pay attention because he was a priest. However, they didn't know who he was. He was a "Don Juan."
Every night he went out to conquer beautiful women, but when he left from a woman's house everybody knew him, and recognized him inmediately, specifically the men. He needed to use something, so the people didn't recognize him. He started to design a big soutane; so he was a designer like a Colonial Versace. This soutane covered up all his body and head when he wore it. He looked like a headless man.
Consequently, he was ready to conquer women very quietly. He conquered girls, married women, eventually nuns. Thus, the men were alerted against the headless priest.
Every night he climbed up a big Christ in the cross statue to leave the church. He used the statue shoulder to get out the window every day. One day Jesus Christ tired that the headless his shoulder, Jesus Christ said to him, "Until when will you use my shoulder, Father Eguiguren?" and the headless priest answered, "Until I come back, lord."
(This is a little story about headless priest) He was not only an outstanding "Don Juan," but he was also smart. The Headless priest was, so happy conquering women. In contrast, the men were so angry, because their girlfriends, wives and nuns fell in love with the headless priest. The men didn't know who the headless priest was.
One day the men decided to capture the headless priest. They waited for him in different places. They saw him, so they started to pursue him. The headless priest arrived, and he climbed up the church's wall. He entered through a window. Furthermore, the men saw him. They entered the church. However they didn't find either the headless priest or the Peruvian priest. They were confused.
Then They found out that a nun had disappeared, too. It's probable that nun escaped with him, but this is another story. In addition, they were so angry and jealous, because the headless priest stole the women's heart, for example girlfriends, fiancee, wives and nuns.
Nobody knew more about him. In contrast, for generations the women told their daughters this story until now. Actually, many girls dream to be with a man like headles priest, and I am jealous.
A long, long time ago in a very remote country there was a horrible and lonely man. He was known as the Dracula of Fuji Mountain. He not only loved sushi, but he also loved fresh, red blood. Every night he went looking for some people that he would like to suck the blood from. One of these days he was walking in the darkness when suddenly he saw a beautiful girl. “I ‘ll suck her blood,” he thought. Thus, he stared to run towards her with a big smile in his face. It was the smile of death. When the poor girl saw Dracula running to her she thought that she was going to die. She sobbed asking for some help, yet nobody could hear her. In a moment, Dracula reached the beautiful girl and instead of eating her blood he bowed to her, and said. “Hello my name is Dracula, however you can call me little Dracula”
The woman was very surprised; in addition, she began to laugh hysterically. She laughed for almost two hours. As a consequence, she died because she wasted all her energy. While it was happening, Dracula was studying hard for his midterm. It’s not a secret that he was never good in English grammar. Therefore, when he saw the woman lying on the street he thought, “I’ve got it again” I’ll take her to my house and I’ll enjoy drinking her fresh blood.”
Nevertheless, when he saw the woman’s face he was very surprised because it wasn’t a woman but a man. “I won’t be a nasty guy anymore, I can’t act like a vampire for these four reasons” Dracula said. "First, I’m very polite and the people always laugh at me. Second, I must study hard or I won’t be able to apply to BYU. Third, I can’t be a vampire because I can’t see in the dark with my slanted eyes. Also, I don’t like blood, I’d rather drink tomato juice. Furthermore, I won’t be Dracula anymore.
Therefore, it was the end of the Dracula of Fuji Mountain. Years later he would leave Japan and he went to the U.S.A. Some people think that he wanted to improve his English there. Maybe, yet this in my own thoughts, he’s studying English at the ELC. Perhaps, he’s a student there or a lab attendant. Thus, be careful and don’t forget to bring garlic to class every day.
Once upon a time, there was a poor man who was a woodsman. He was always unhappy because he had only a lonely son. He and his wife always wanted to give birth to a daughter like an angel, so they always prayed to God.
One day as he went along a forest to cut wood, he heard a cry like a little child’s. So he followed the sound. When at last he looked up a high tree, on one of the branches sat a very little child. In fact, its mother had fallen asleep, and an eagle had taken it out of her lap and flown away with it, and left it on the tree.
But he didn’t know that. He thought, “This is a gift that God gave us”. So the woodcutter climbed up a high tree, took the little child down from a high tree. He found it was a pretty little girl. The baby was an angel who they wanted. He said to himself, “The baby will give happiness to my son and to my family”.
So he brought her to his cottage, and both children grew up together. He was very happy because his desire achieved. The two children were so very fond of each other. They were never happy except when they were together. So their family lived happily forever.