The Apparition at The Melendez Lot

(a Nicaraguan folk tale) by Douglas Arroliga

 

Once upon a time, in a nameless little town of Nicaragua, the sudden apparition of a ghost altered the peaceful life of its dwellers.  Every night after the bells in the little church struck 8pm, everyone closed their doors and their windows, because that’s when the ghost appeared down the empty lot of the Melendez sisters.

The whole town was terrified, and for days, all everybody spoke of was the ghost.  Some said it was a terrible sight.  Some said they heard the rattle of chains as if someone were dragging them making an eerie sound.  Some said they heard the apparition moan and wail making hair-raising shrieks.  No one dared to walk at night anymore after eight, which made some wives happy and consider the ghost a blessing in disguise; after all, their not-so-well-behaved husbands came religiously home at 6pm.

For the men that was the horrible part.  They couldn’t stay out late anymore drinking, playing cards, horsing around, or just enjoying a one-nightstand affair.  In sum, the men were the most affected by the damn apparition.  So they plotted to approach the ghost once and for all and get rid of it.  Maybe it just wanted a few memorial masses to rest in peace.  Maybe it just needed to tell somebody were it had buried the cache with gold to then get out of the purgatory and go to heaven or hell or where ever else it needed to go.

So they decided to go to the Melendez lot and talk to the ghost.  That night a group of them walked toward the lot not without fear.  Some had torches made of pine tree branches, somewhere armed with machetes, some with sticks. Only one of them, the leader of the group had an old battered flashlight.  They stopped in the middle of the street in front of the lot at exactly 8pm.  The church bells began to toll, a dog howled in the distance, the night was black and a chilly wind swept the nearby trees making a mournful whistling sound.

 Suddenly, out from the darkness they saw a feeble light coming towards them.  As the light neared, their knees began to tremble and their teeth to rattle in terror.  The light turned and it went inside the empty lot, stood in the middle and lowered almost to the ground.  More dogs began to howl like coyotes as the terrified men saw the light dim and then become bright, dim and bright.  For several minutes they couldn’t move.  It was as if their feet had solidified.  The light was still there, dimming and shining in the middle of the lot.  At last, the bravest one of them, their leader, decided to go over and talk to the light.  With a cracking voice he commanded, “Who are you? Are you dead or living? Do you belong to this life or the afterlife?”

With great expectation they waited for a response.  Seconds passed very slowly until they heard a squawking chuckle and then an indignant voice of an old lady saying: “Go away you idiots.  Can’t you see I’m trying to do number two?  Go away and leave me alone, morons.”  It was Doña Goyita Melendez who was 85 years old and who was fond of her cigars using her property as a toilet.