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Introduction

The House was first conceived on sunny afternoon in the pool of my house. At first, I was trying to do a horror book. After writing a couple of chapters, I realized that writing horror wasn’t my forte. This is not to say that there isn’t a scary element to the book. For me, the most frightening element is living in my house in Cuba. Most of my memories there are pretty terrible, with the blackouts, the flying roaches, the ghosts and we were robbed twice after my dad died.

As far as the main setting, the book takes place my house in Pinal del Rio. The characters are my own creation. They are chimeras composed of different people and events from my early childhood. All in all, this is the one and only book I will ever write that takes place in Cuba. Cuba is the place where my father died of cancer. It is the place where I suffered from my childhood illness. It is the place where I first started school.

I suppose one could easily imagine that this book Quasi biographical. The book itself is 40 percent based on my past memories. The other 40 percent is based on stories I heard from my mother and father. The rest is based on my pure imagination. The setting is Pinal del Rio, Cuba. People say that the best books are written when writers take from their own life experiences. I wanted to take a whack at that idea. The story takes place in 1982.

The title was the thing I gave the most thought. I wanted to make it something simple, and unassuming. Eventually, I wiggled it down to just The House or La Casa. Considering the killer dog in the book, the title can also mean The Hunt. And yes, the dog character is based on a real animal that terrorized my neighborhood. We had our own neighborhood Kujo, who specially liked to prey on people who rode bicycles, and small children.

Unlike Kujo, that dog had friends. I hope you have fun reading about my creepy house, and the dog that made going to school a chore.

Chapter 1 The House

There was nothing special or extraordinary about this house. It could easily have been your house.

This story takes place in a little island called Cuba. Most people do not know about Cuba. They hear about it from time to time. They are more familiar with the capital Havana. This story doesn’t take place in Havana. No. This house is located to the west of Havana, in a region known as Pinar del Rio. There is a park about a couple blocks away from the house. The park has some large, plumeria flower trees and some pines. The only other trees are pines separating two roads that lead to the school.

Behind the house there is a fence, and beyond it a little dirt park. It has some iron swings, a couple of slides and a single wall covered by Hibiscus flowers. Our story begins in the year 1982. During that time, Cuba still maintained healthy relationships with the Russians, formally known as the Soviets. There was still steak and chicken rations and the Amistad Stores were just opening. Dollars entering from the exterior was severely limited and considered a contraband. The exchange ratio for one dollar was 300 pesos.

The house was situated in the street known as Isabel la Catolica. The single floor colonial house had a high ceiling. The doors too followed in suit. Each was cut to a perfect fit, about 10 feet high. The connecting bedroom doors where only 7 feet tall. The facade had two 8-feet-tall windows made of wood with ornamental iron bars protruding from the walls. The windows where segmented into glass square. There was a second exterior, solid wooden window made of solid wood, to protect it. These two windows opened within. As soon as you enter, you are greeted by a majestic large living room, with a tear drop chandelier. The living room and kitchen floor was made of a marble checkered board pattern. Meanwhile, the bedroom floors were made of red tiles. If you walk straight from this room, you arrive at the interior, walled concrete patio. Beyond this patio, one found the kitchen with the only “working” bathroom.

Working has quote on quotes for good reason. Since this was a colonial house, the bathroom and electricity was a modern modification. There was only a single faucet that had running water, and it was not found in the bathroom. Through the usage of a hose, the two main water tanks were filled. The first was located in the back-garden past, the kitchen. This garden was also made of concrete. It had the only working faucet, and a sink to wash the laundry. This water tank was made of copper. The second one was found in the interior, and it was made of blue plastic.

Aside from the water tank, the back garden had two gas tanks. They were mainly used for the gas stove. The kitchen also had the same tear glass chandelier. Each room had connecting doors. There was also a single door and a pair of windows that faced the garden. The windows in the bedroom where small and rather high, requiring a stick to open them every day. The first room was the only one that did not face the garden. Rather, its doors opened to the living room. It also had a window facing the porch. It also came with its own chandelier. The two other rooms had a regular, single light bolt lamps.

The interiors walls and crown moldings where painted white. The kitchen did not follow this pale scheme, since its walls where painted blue. The interior garden was unassuming. The floor was made of concrete. It had a single crate that led into the sewers. It was somewhat ornamental. The problem with this ornamentally was that the magnolia tree of the neighbor. It towered over this house. From time to time it would drop leaves into the concrete garden. When the crate was covered with leaves, it would clod up, thus creating a flooding hazard. In a corner of this garden, there was a half wave dipole antenna.

The reader may be wandering about this useless concrete garden of the house. The truth be told is that despite the heat, there has never been a pool culture in Cuba. The nearest pool to the house was a public one. It had been created to train Olympic divers and swimmers. The irony is that the first person who drowned in it was a foreign Olympic swimmer. None of the locals remember the name of the dead foreigner, just that he was an Olympic swimmer.

This was what the house looked when the family first moved in.

Chapter 2 The Mason Family

The family who permuted to this house was the Mason family. While in most parts of the worlds people bought and sold houses, the people in Cuba traded them like cards. Depending on the quality of the property one could trade two houses for a better one, or trade down for more than one property. If anything, it was a quicker system for moving between houses. The homes did not have a specific value to them, and there was no home inspector. It was up to the homeowner to eyeball the quality of the home. This entire process was known in the island as Permutar or Permutation.

The Masons, like everyone who shared their last name, were still rotting away, waiting for their inheritance. Two generations had passed and still no millions of dollars. The father obsessed about his inheritance like all the Masons, but not enough to disrupt his daily routine. He went by the name of Eduardo. He was 6’0’’, coffee complexion, with Asian eyes, skinny like a pole, with green eyes and straight red hair. During the early colonial years of his family, there had been a lot of mixed breeding. His great, grandmother, who was still alive was Chinese. He was the second male son of a family of 7 daughters. Since he spent most of his early life looking after the girls and his oldest brother, it so happened that it took him the longest to get married. Now that all his siblings where settled, he was finally able to marry Angelica Ferreiro.

Angelica was native to La Palma, the rustic portion of Pinar del Rio. Angelica was 5’8’’, she had beautiful straight black hair, a well chiseled chin, green eyes, a tanned complexion, and a slender frame like that of a ballerina. Indeed, she had studied ballet when she was younger, but then she got bored and tried swimming. When she got bored of swimming she played competitive ping pong, and then she did a bit of acting. Angelica dreamed of moving up in the world became studious. Eventually, she was assigned to become a doctor. In Cuba, you do not pick a career. The government chooses one for you based on your skills, and grades. She met her second husband Eduardo while working in the Polyclinic. After two years, they got married and had two children. Angelica would have liked to have more children, but her husband decided for her that two was more than enough. Since he was the head of the Hospital, he had her tubes tied.

This was a bit shortsighted in the long run, but nothing that hampered the stability of the marriage. While Eduardo was comfortable living in Cuba, Angelica dreamed of moving to Spain. Her weird cousin had lived there for a time and had returned with stories of air conditioners and a fully stocked marketplace. It was the food situation that seemed the most appealing to Angelica. Angelica dreamed of being overweight. To cope with her never ending desire to eat, she resorted to the cylinder of nicotine.

She had stopped her little nasty hobby when she got married, but she had recently picked it up again. As luck would have it, both her children did not enjoy the best of health. The boy who was seven was taking steroids for his asthma. Her little girl had to go to the hospital every other weekend. After some experimental treatments, the boy was cured, and the girl was getting better. Still, the daughter was treated like a delicate flower, because she had been in a coma once before.

The older brother was named Eufrasio and the girl Lucero. Eufrasio had a stutter. While Lucero was cordially known in the neighborhood as Lucifer, she was just that annoying. There was a time when they thought she was possessed. In the end, it turned out she had learned those English cursed words from a British neighbor who was slumming in Cuba.

Both siblings were rather tall for their age. Both shared the delicate frame of their mother. Still, Eufrasio had bucked up a bit ever since he started primary school. Eufrasio already had what he called his mortal enemy. As for Lucero, it was this year when she started school at the age of 5. While her brother had straight hair, and green eyes, she was cursed with a hair whose texture was akin to hay. She got such a hair not from the African side of her family, but from the Spaniards. She had the same face and hair as the Menina, with the temperament of a chihuahua.

Aside from the main family unit, there was Angelica’s mother. Her name was Irina Leighton. Her father was British, while her mother was Soviet. She had recently divorced her husband, and all his belongings had been split in half by her. With her half of everything, including half a table, she was currently living with the Masons. Irina was fair skin, with deep blue eyes, and a blonde hair that was the envy of many. Her daughter always envied her mother’s behind, though she never would admit it. At the age of 53, Irina was retired. Retirement age in those days was 50 for women and 55 for men. Despite her age, she did not look a day over 35. She kept herself sleek, despite smoking those thick Cuban cigars, aka Habanos. Those Cigars were manufactured in Viñales, Pinar del Rio.

To pay for her schooling, Angelica had worked in those tobacco farms for a couple of years. Education was free, but you still had to work to pay for the education. The entrance to the farm was done by force. Even if you were not planning on having higher education, you still had to slave away in the plantation, in the same fashion as every Cuban’s African ancestor.

While in the farm, she had learned many practical agricultural practices. She hoped to apply such skills on her new house.

Chapter 3 La Palma

The story begins with the Manson family on a horse drawn cart. Inside, there were 20 other people all squished together like sardines. On the further part of the cart, there are the travel bags, all piled on top of each other. The Mason’s belonging are inside four wooden arks. The arks were part of Irina’s divorce settlement. The Masons where in the middle standing, while the two children sat by the window.  

Little Lucero was pouting, she hugged her knee a little and whimpered, “Mommy. I want water.”

“You, you are not getting an, ny, ny,” said Eufrasio.

Lucero turned around and held onto the bars of the window, she then started kicking the wall. This called the attention of Irina. She came to Lucero and asked, “What do you need?”

“I want water,” insisted Lucero.

Irina pushed herself past a sweaty farmer. She too was sweating, a sleeveless, summer dress. It was decorated with polka dots. Around her waist, she had a white belt. Her makeup was slightly running, and she was wearing white sandals. Lucero too was sporting her favorite yellow dress. It was decorated with yellow rhinestones. It was knee long, with a sash, with a flower around the hip. Her shoes were black, made of patent leather. Since she used those shoes a bit too much, the metal of the talon was somewhat exposed. As such, whenever she kicked the walls, Lucero made a louder sound. She knew this too, and over the months, she had worn down the back of her shoes, to increase their acoustics.

Since Irina was not getting her water fast enough, Lucero redoubled her efforts.

Eufrasio already used to her tantrums stoically ignored her. He changed his attention to one of the toy soldiers he held in his hand. He placed the pair by the window and made it seem as if they were marching through the countryside.

Sighing, Irina made it to where Eduardo and Angelica where standing. They had moved to the open back portion of the cart to get some wind. The bad thing about it was that they were close to the edge. One bad bump, and they could easily splatter against the road. Not that it mattered too much. At the rate of 2 kilometers per hour, they would not be too hurt if they fell onto the road. Eduardo was dressed like his son, with a green tank top, and green cargo pants and sandals. As for Angelica, she was sporting short- shorts, and a white Walley World National Lampoon T-Shirt, and tennis shoes. She was already used to the weather of La Palma, as such she had not bothered to put on makeup.

It was an unusually warm August afternoon. From time to time, a life-giving breeze would come and rock the little carriage. There was still 1 more hour before they would arrive at their destination. They heard the noise being made by Lucero and guessed what was the problem. Though they were thirsty, they had saved the bottle of water for their little noisy critter.   

They gave the water bottle to Irina, who took a small sip. She then passed through the crowd before handing it to little Lucero. The people in Cuba did not believe in cooties. Family members would drink from each other’s open container, and they would kiss on the cheek. Part of the reason why Irina had drunk from the bottle was to remove some of the smell from Angelica’s fourth cigarette. Smoking while on a bumpy carriage ride is almost an impossible feat, but where there is an addiction there is a way.

When Lucero held the bottle, she drank a little bit in order to ration the water. She handed it to her brother Eufrasio. He had not asked for water, nor was he thirsty, but he drank it, nonetheless. His sister would get cranky if any of her kind gestures were ever ignored.

With a firm voice, he said, “Thank y, you.”

“You are welcome,” said Lucero. She then stood up and held onto the bars of the carriage window. Once she had a good grip, she started crying while saying, “I want to get off…wahh!”

All in the carriage groaned hearing the brat screaming again. Lucero started smacking the chair with the heels of her shoes while rattling the bars of the window. She continued in this fashion for remainder of the trip. Every 15 minutes, she would take a 1-minute break to rest her voice and to get more water. One her throat was hydrated enough; she would continue her tantrum.

The other passengers where just waiting for the moment to end. A couple had even gotten off to continue walking the rest of the way. Those lazy enough to stay had to endure the high pitch gauntlet that was Lucero. You might be wondering why Lucero had not been disciplined. Discipline had been tried before, and it had failed many times. Reasoning with her also did not work, because Lucero had an independent mind and she could not be reasoned out of her reason. As for physical discipline, it is true that it was quite commonplace in Cuba. Irina was at that age were children could do no wrong, in her eyes. As for Angelica, she had tried to do so once, and her husband had told her, “Lucero is flesh of your flesh!”

This was the one and only time Angelica had ever tried to physically discipline her daughter. On hindsight, she should have controlled herself when she saw that Lucero had mutilated, drowned and thrown away her smokes. Angelica knew that they were bad for her, she being a doctor. All those who have ever suffered from an addiction know how hard it is to kick a habit. Eduardo’s only addiction was towards oranges. One time in his work, his coworkers gave him a cake with an orange in the center. Irina smoked her Habanos more out of habit, than necessity. She could easily go without it.

Irina was however addicted to Santeria. Despite having a financial degree, she loved throwing the cards, palm reading and tending to her little Elegua. She had his little effigy wrapped in paper and plastic bubbles inside the wooden arc with her belongings. The visual sign of this side of her was the small beads bracelet she was wearing. It had the red and black color patterns associated with Elegua.

When the family arrived at their destination, the farmers all cheered, and they even helped unload the arks into the new house. The house they arrived into is not the house of our story. In fact, they are only going to be inside this house for one day. The items where left in the living room. This colonial farmhouse was made of sturdy hickory and ash wood. The floor was made of oak, as well as the window. It had a nice wood on wood type of feel, with warm oranges and brown colors. The furniture was made of leather, and there were a couple of animal pelts here and there.

All the beds had white linen, and a mosquito netting. The prime decoration of the house was a Stradivarius violin. It was displayed against the wall, held up by nails. Irina picked up her father’s violin. She said to the little children, “Do you want me to sing you a song?”

The children nodded in response.

Angelica frowning said to her husband, “I guess mother is not going to help today.”

“It has been a long day for all of us,” said Eduardo, “Let her do as she wants.”

Irina sang Lucero’s favorite song, “In Seville, there was a house, and in the house a window, and in the window a little girl, who was envied by the roses. And she resembled a queen gazing out the window. Oh, girl, her boyfriend used to say. Oh, my little girl of my heart, he used to say seeing her looking so pretty. Don’t look at yourself in the river. Don’t look at yourself in the river, my heart. Because I am jealous of it, because I am jealous of it…”

The song was interrupted when Irina felt something tickling her ear. As one known to have a fear of bugs, Irina did what came naturally to her. She flung the violin against the wall. She then started to fastidiously to clean her ear, with the collard of her dress. She then scratched at her shoulder. The children got up and moved back a pace. They eyed the broken violin with suspicion. It was then when Lucero screamed, “Roach!”

This naturally brought the entire house into a panic. Angelica came in with her sandal on hand looking about saying, “Where? Where?”

“There! There!” said the children in unison.

The critter was there on the floor, eyeing the humans with suspicion. The children subconsciously moved away from it. Lucero stood on top of the couch, while Eufrasio jumped on top of the rocking chair. Eduardo peered from outside the porch and asked, “Did you get it?”

In response to his inquiry, the roach took flight on his direction. There was a nearby bucket on the entrance, which he threw at the flying pest. With the roach trapped beneath it, the winged menace was subdued for the moment. It started flattening itself to make it outside. With her wits recovered, Irina mustered all of her strength and she lifted the bucket. With two precise steps, the winged menace was no more.

Irina took a deep, sigh and said, “Jesus Christ!”

“I am sorry mom,” said Angelica sadly. She added, “Your violin broke.”

Irina came to look at her instrument. Chuckling, she said, “It is fine. The terminates had already done most of the work. It was only a matter of time till it turned to dust.”

“Is it over?” asked Lucero.

“Mmm. I dddon’tt wanttt ttto. Sssteppp. On, on, ttthe fl, fl, floor,” said Eufrasio.

Eduardo came to offer his back to Eufrasio. He carried his son outside the house, and he did the same for Lucero. It would be a bit before the kids would be brave enough to enter inside. The children watched their parents tidy up on the home, while looking from outside the window. After a half an hour, Irina got bored and said, “I am going to go for a walk.”

She came to the children and they each took her hand. Together, they made their way past the natural garden and they came upon a river. The river was called Blanco or White. Despite having such a name, it had a brown coloring to it. The other name was the Chocolate of the Widow. The river acquired the silly nickname because of the lady that had made the plumbing system of La Palma. After passing through all her filters, the dirt accumulated in the pipes. As such, when people opened the faucets, the water came out with a nice red color.

The coloring of the river came from the rocks, from up close the river showed its pure, clear colors. Inside its gentle banks, the children noted the tiny fishes. By the time the river reached this house, it had degraded into a small stream.

It had many numerous rocks of different sizes. The stones on the floor were not rounded, but large, solid flat slabs. The rocks protruding from the ground had moss growing on them. The children moved from small rock, to small rock. They would try to go back and forth between the banks as quickly as possible. One got extra points, by trying to make it across the dry rocks with as little steps as possible. Irina sat down on a rock and brought out a book she had taken from the library. Irina had read most of the books.

The book Irina was reading was Nada Menos que Todo un Hombre or Nothing more than a Complete Man by Unamuno. The book was quite mundane in its premise, but it kept her amuse. It was mainly dialogue, with hardly any scenery description. It was a quick, action oriented read.

From time to time, Irina looked up from her little book to see what the children were up to. Lucero came up to her and said, “Can I have some paper?”

Irina removed one of the blank pages of the book. Lucero handed it to Eufrasio. He bent the paper in two, using his knee for support. He then licked the side of it. Once the paper was soft, he gently separated the parchment. When he had two papers, he made with them two tiny boats. The boats floated gently by, and the rest of the day progressed just as uneventfully. The placidity of the stream, the laughter of the children at play, all combined to relax Irina’s tense nerves.

There was no fear that the children might drown. The stream was barely a couple of inches deep. The only thing that broke the peace, was Lucero’s occasional coughing fit. This was quickly addressed by the river. She would sit down and drink the clear, pure water. Eventually, the children and Irina were summoned for lunch. The family had super salty eggs and hard rice. Irina frowning, said to her daughter, “I told you to call me to make lunch!”

“I am sorry mom, but you just seemed tired from the ride,” said Angelica meekly.

“I prefer to be tired, than to eat bad eggs,” said Irina.

Lucero did not even try the eggs or rice. She felt the rise with her hand, and she smelt the eggs over the top. She left the table and went to eat a piece of fresh Cuban bread. Lucero was quite particular about how she ate her bread. She would first remove the hard part with her nail. Once she had the white of the breed, separated from the hard-brown part, she would eat the hard part, and then finally the softest part of the bread. For drink, she had orange juice without pulp. She drank it with a spoon.

Eufrasio was not too particular about what he ate, but even he could not stomach hard rice. He placed the egg inside a piece of bread. Only then was he able to eat his lunch.

After this defeat, Angelica felt her time was better spent gathering new supplies. The fridge was still pretty empty since their last visit. She pondered on whether to take Lucero with her or not. In the end, she decided not to pester the girl. Eduardo stayed with the children while Angelica went to acquire supplies. Getting supplies in Cuba was a simple affair, for people who did not mind starving. One simply had to offer a card, and then your basic banquet was fulfilled by the store. You were not allowed to stockpile on anything. Angelica acquired her basic basket of rice, chicken, eggs, beans, and soap. It was a good thing she had arrived at the start of the month. The basic basket was only done once per month. If any of those supplies got damaged or stolen, you had to make due with nothing till the end of the month.

After delivering these supplies, she went to fill her black basket. The black banquet was anything else you acquired. From friends and patients, she acquired the steak, the spaghetti, the tomato sauce, and milk. Milk was something that was delivered daily. It too was rationed.

The only thing that Lucero drank with regularity was milk. And so, she receive extra rations of it from her mother. When Angelica arrived home, the beans were already done, and the rice was a work in progress.

She found her devoted husband reading to Lucero and Eufrasio. He always made certain to read to the children whenever he got a chance. Aside from reading, Eduardo taught his children all the Catholic prayers. Eufrasio had all the rosaries memorized, as well as Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, the Nicene Creed and the Novena to Our Lady of Loreto. Currently, they were reading The Golden Age by Jose Marti. The Golden Age, it is an anthology book. The current story being read was called The Black Doll. Lucero particularly liked the story. It was this reason why she had requested to hear the story again. As for Eufrasio, he preferred the story called The Enchanted Crab. For now, the attention of the children was not focused enough for longer works.

Just a few days ago, Eduardo had tried reading to them Peter and Wendy. He thought they would enjoy the book since the kids had liked the Disney Movie. Lucero had tuned out after a couple of pages, while Eufrasio had called it quits after chapter 1.

It was around 5 when the wife finished her errands. She boiled some milk for the children. Eufrasio drank his milk on the glass. Lucero drank hers in a bottle. Lucero laid back on the couch, and she rested her head on her mother’s knee. With one hand she held her bottler, with the other she held onto her mother’s ear.

When the meal was concluded, the TV was put on. It was time to see the afternoon cartoons. During Angelica’s time, the TV used to have only Russian cartoons. It was later when the programming got a little diversified, with some original programming, like Elpidio Valdes. Like Marti, he was fighting against the Spaniards. As most children shows, it had plenty of humorous overtones, despite taking place during the War of Independence. From the outside world, the approved programming included Tom and Jerry, a bunch of Ozamu Tezuka anime shows, He-man, Scooby Doo, The Road Runner, The Flintstones, The Pink Panther, The Jetsons, Godzilla and Disney.

There were only two channels on TV. One channel always had nothing. The other occasionally had something watchable, but only at 6:30 p.m. and then again at 8:30 p.m. For late night owls, TV got good after midnight. Eufrasio many times wondered why the TV had 93 channels, when only channel 2, 3 and 12 where usable. Channel 3 was used for the Atari.

Only the basic clothing had been taken out. As with everything, one starts with good intentions, and then the heat of the day bogs down on you. The children after playing by the river, had changed into lighter clothing. With only a shirt and the undergarments, the siblings were both entranced by the television. Eduardo too was entranced, but he would never admit it. It wasn’t everyday he had some free time to spend it with the family.

The family was summoned to dinner. Since Lucero had not eaten lunch, she was served her favorite meal. She ate Spaghetti with steak. The steak and spaghetti had already been cut for her. Spaghetti in Cuba is not rolled into the fork but cut into smaller segments for consumption. To threat the little minx, Angelica had gotten for her daughter Coca Cola. She had intended it just for the girl, but it was unfair for one kid to get something and the other one not so. As such, Eufrasio had his Cola, even though he had not asked for one. Indeed, he was already bored of sodas. He would have preferred some mango juice. Regardless, he drank half of the bottle. What he did not drink was consumed by the little sister.  

The others had steak, with black beans and rise. The steak was pretty well done. Hailing from a family of doctors, they knew that undercooked meals carried germs. If the meat had even a little bit of red, it was considered raw. This was even more so for Lucero who eyed each piece of steak with suspicion. Even when the meat was perfect, she still found something wrong with it. If the meat was a little too soft, she imagined that it had fat, and so she pushed it to the side of the plate. All in all, she ate 45 percent of the actual steak.

The meal itself was concluded rather quickly, as was tradition. The parents always had to eat quickly to get back to work. Irina did so because she despised eating cold food. The children ate quickly in mimicry of their parents.

When the meal was concluded, the children went to brush their teeth. They usually did so whenever it was close to sleepy time. The time they actually went to sleep varied. Since they had played a lot outside, they had gone directly to bed. In this house, each child had their own bed. The pair of fans was put on, and each child was lull asleep by the familiar sound. This was not before saying their nightly prayers with their parents.

Irina retired to the library to practice her divination. It was a skill that required polishing. To attune them, she used them to see if the cards could accurately read her past. She gaged whether the cards were speaking or not, based on the accuracy. If they were not in a talking sort of mood, it was best not to press the issue. She brought out from the travel case ther little Elegua figurine. She placed for it some candy, and a couple of marbles. She then lighted a Cuban cigar and she breathed over the statue. The statue resembled a black volcano. From the top, the smoke made it emanate a sappy looking substance. Angelica saw her mother perform these rites, and she shook her head sadly.

As for Eduardo, he was putting on the TV on low. Currently, the TV was showing La Gran Escena or the Grand Stage. The show featured classical works, specially the ballet. Ballet was like a big deal in Cuba. Angelica still remembered her little ballet practices. She still enjoyed watching the dance and hearing the music. In fact, she enjoyed all types of dancing. It was a pity that her husband was born with two left feet. Still, he did nothing to stop her whenever she found an able partner at whatever party they went to. The TV was showing Alicia Alonso as Giselle. Alonso was the most famous ballerina of Cuba, and she founded the Alicia Alonso Ballet Company. All the top Cuban ballet dancers have been trained by her.

About two hours before midnight, the crickets awoke. They started making the ungodly noise associated with their ilk. Those used to their lot, can easily tune them out. As for outsiders, it may seem to them like auditory attacks. Noise pollution was quite common in Cuban. Sometimes it was the biplanes, at others an arbitrary alarm and even a cannon shot. Things were usually a lot quieter when there was a blackout.

Angelica noted the time and decided to check up on the children. She scratched her knee with her fingers before getting up. As she walked towards the room, she did so again. It was then when she noted the ungodly mosquito bite. Further examination of the leg revealed four other mosquito bites. After whispering some profanities, she took out the medical kit and applied a bit of antiseptic cream. With this done, she finally arrived at the room. She noted Eufrasio sleeping soundly. As for Lucero, she had her little brow furrowed.

Lucero was prone to nightmares. Angelica gave a closer look at her daughter and she frowned. The girl was scratching her forehead, while she slept. Angelica noted a new mosquito landing on the forehead of the girl. Angelica entered within the mosquito net and she gently swapped the mosquito. This took a lot of calibration. She had to be both swift and gentle. Angelica sat there watching over her daughter.

Eduardo came to check up on her as well. Angelica whispered, “I am going to keep an eye on her, go to sleep.”

Eduardo nodded.

By now, everyone had gone to bed. The only light came from a nightlamp. The light coming from the hallway had been turned off. Again, Angelica noted her daughter scratching her arm. Feeling that this was getting a bit ridiculous, Angelica crawled out the mosquito net and turned on the lights on the room. Eufrasio turned on his side but did not awake.  

Lucero too did not wake up either. She was used to lights coming on randomly. A sudden burst of light did not disrupt her rem cycle, it only deepened it. Her nightmares seemed to be tied to the darkness. As long as there was plenty of light, she would sleep.

With plenty of light, Angelica was able to see them. Why the mosquitoes were so fixated on Lucero, Angelica would never know. The point was that the tenacious critters were pocking holes into the mosquito net. Since the netting was not working, Angelica entered within and she swapped away all the mosquitoes that attacked her little Lucero. She wagged this silent war against the mosquitoes for four hours, but eventually they won. Angelica, exhausted, fell asleep beside her daughter without realizing it.

When morning came, her little girl had bites from head to toe. Since it was the summertime, the children were of the habit of sleeping without bedsheets. With only a thin pajama for covering, the little girl had been easy picking.

Irina was the first to notice this. It was her cry of horror which awoke Angelica from her peaceful slumber. She saw her mother cradling Lucero, crying. She kept saying, “You fool! How could you let this happen?”

Since Irina was crying, Angelica started crying as well, out of guilt. A few minutes later, Eduardo came to see the commotion. He too gave Angelica a serious talking to. The only person undisturbed by any of this was Eufrasio. He was a heavy sleeper. He only found out about what had happened to his sister, around noon when his belly awoke him.

He noted that all the stuff they had brought had been put away. He asked his father, “I tthoughtt, we were ggooing ttto live here?”

“The mosquitoes attacked your sister, so we are leaving,” said Eduardo flatly.

Noticing his intense tone, Eufrasio decided not to press the issue. He valued peace above all else, and he despised any type of argument. This was part of the reason why whenever his sister took one of his toys, he allowed her to have it.

With everything packed, the Mason family left the house in La Palma for good. It would be another year before they would move into the house that is the main setting of this story.