THE GIRL IN MY EYES (Part VI)

From then on, my daughters’ attitude changed completely, they were almost always in a bad mood and rebellious. They started to answer back with sass every time I scolded them, they rejected the food I was making for them and they also began to complain about everything. Their behavior towards my girlfriend became derogatory and disrespectful. Every time they misbehaved, they ran into their bedrooms and hid and if I followed them, my little naughty girl would get in the way and blocked me, by standing in the middle of the hallway.

My family and friends kept saying: “It will pass, they are experiencing jealousy, but it is temporary it’s only because they will have to share your company and attention, do not worry! Everything will return to normal when you get married, because they will understand that nobody is stealing their father away”. And others said: “It is natural for daughters to be rebellious when they grow up, especially when they see your girlfriend as an intruder, who is going to live in the house with them.  Try to understand them they have been living alone with you in the house for many years, the presence of your soon to be wife has caused a temporary conflict”. However, despite my daughters’ bad behavior, the wedding day arrived and in a way we all celebrated it. My mother babysat and took care of my daughters while I enjoyed a brief honeymoon.

With the arrival of my wife to the house many problems came also. For instance, the pump that cleaned the water in the pool stopped working and strangely the water evaporated almost daily. A company worker came to fix the problem, but he found everything to be normal even though the water had turned green and continued to lower its level. In addition, frogs appeared in large quantities especially at night, the water looked broken down and it was disgusting to think of swimming in that pool. On the other hand, the grass in the yard dried up and the palm trees looked dull and dehydrated. Additionally, the toilets began to  clog as a result from the massive roots that began to grow inside the drainage pipes, causing them to collapse and start to irrupt sewage waste from all areas from where there was a drain, the house became smelly and we had to leave it for almost a month while the cleaning and the repairing went on  to all the damage. The house walls began to crack, the air conditioner ducts began to drip water all the time, humidifying the house, causing mold to build up on and in the walls and again the house began to stink with an odor similar to old damp clothes. When the AC worked it had the unpleasant smell. These nauseating issues happened one after another. Every day when I returned from work, I’ve always heard a complaint. My wife would tell me: “Every time I am home alone the kitchen utensils would fall into the ground or slam against the walls without anyone touching them”. She would also say: “Again the heater turned on by itself, to the degree that the house felt like an oven and I couldn’t turn it off”, or ” I fell asleep and felt my hair being pulled “, or ” your daughters messed with my closet, ” or ” your daughters threw all my makeup away “. On the opposite end, my daughters would say: “Your wife yells at us all the time,” or “Your wife is mean to us,” or “Your wife throws our clothes in the trash.” And the situation got out of control, it seemed like a battle of emotional and the supernatural, the conflicts were happening, and I was caught in the middle of everything. And one night my wife and I strongly argued even to the point of thinking about divorce. They all went to sleep early that night, but I stayed up in the living room completely alone, I laid down on the sofa and fell asleep until an intensifying cold air woke me up. When I opened my eyes, my little naughty girl was standing on the couch, but she didn’t resembled a child this time, she looked like an evil entity and she yelled at me in a stern, rough voice: “She is a liar, I asked her age and she lied to me, she deserves to be pushed away. ” Then she got off the couch and started walking towards the bedroom where my wife was sleeping, I got up and followed her to the bedroom and she then began to rise above the ground floating in the air and she placed herself in a horizontal position above my wife’s body and extended her hands as if she was going to strangle her and  I ran towards her and shouted; “STOP” ,then she turned to me as she was floating in the air and the white of his eyes staring at me for the first time with hate. Her lower jaw began to shake producing a creepy sound, while it began to slowly fall to the ground while her mouth grew enormously and the darkness emanating from the inside of it covered the entire ceiling. I backed up to the wall, bent my knees some and raised my left arm to cover my eyes as she dropped over me abruptly swallowing me completely. I don’t know how much time had passed before I had control over my body again, since I was paralyzed by fear and I didn’t know if it was day or night or if I was asleep dreaming or awake living a real torment but the dense darkness that surrounded my entire area did not allow me to see absolutely nothing because I was literally inside her stomach, or at least I felt so, in the midst of the stupor that confused my mind no sounds were made until I heard a soft and small voice in the dark calling me: “Dad! Dad, I know you’re here because I can feel your presence”. It was the voice of my naughty little girl and she continued to say: “Dad, she trapped me inside her, I’m scared. Can you come to me?” and for the first time I heard her cry like the tender and innocent girl she was. An unpredictable voice from nothing rung in my ears: “If you want to free yourself and the little girl, you must face your fears.”  And then, I asked myself, “How can I face my fears?” If one of my worst fears it’s what has me terrified right here and now since I was a child, I could never be alone at night because I’d always panicked in the dark. I’d always slept with a lamp on, with the radio on my favorite station and hugged the Bible to not feel alone. The voice continued saying, “Beat the darkness with the light in your heart and dare to walk without fear so as not to lose yourself on the road, in endless torment!” How could I face my worst fears? If I continued to be dominated by fear. Not even a naughty little girl who kept crying even as I heard her, I felt hopeless because I couldn’t help her, at that moment, what I wanted was to cry too, but that would have not solved anything because I was no longer a child; however, I was still crouched on the ground as if I was. So, I encouraged myself and I stood up and although it seems ridiculous, I closed my eyes to not see the darkness and began to walk guided by my ears that followed the crying sound of my little naughty girl and I kept walking until I felt her tiny hand touching my leg and I heard: “Dad, I’m here.” Then I bent my knees and held her in my arms, I picked her up and pressed her against my chest in a warm embrace that dissipated the fear that covered my heart and I understood that the light inside me was called LOVE! Then I opened my eyes and I could see that I was on the ground at an elevated distance because in the deep end a small white dot glowed. It was the exit, I was standing on something solid and in order to reach the exit I had to throw myself into the abyss and overcome my fear of failure, which was another one of my fears. So, while embracing my little naughty girl tightly without fear and with enough faith to believe that I would find the way out I jumped into the abyss. The descension was so fast that in a few seconds I was in my room again, having overcome my fear, I conquered the dense darkness allowing myself to see clearly and my naughty little girl was still in my arms and over our heads floating in the air there she was with disgusting long hair, her face deformed and broken, her white shredded ghostly dress  floating in the air creating a terrifying look. There she was, the real darkness represented as an evil entity that had kept my little naughty girl trapped in the gloom. Her hands were bare, her fingers were long bones with sharp and dirty fingernails, her breath was repulsive and her gaze was furious. Then I placed my little naughty girl behind me, and I stood facing that evil spirit that had deceived me and at that moment it pounced on me, emanating a loud sound like a loud moan. I raised my right hand with a fist and stroke her hard on the head just at the moment she wanted to hold me by the neck and with one of her hands she scratched my left arm causing me four cuts with her fingernails. My arm started to bleed as she was on the floor the punch, I gave her had crashed her into the wall making her fall to the ground. I approached her with determination and faith as I shouted: “In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to leave this place forever”. An intense light began to shine within the room that was reflecting directly at her, to the extent that it dissolved the darkness and eradicated the evil spirit completely. As I turned into the light, I recognized the voice that spoke to me, it was my uncle Maximiliano (Max). This time he was in the company of three men, two of them shone radiantly and I realized that it was them who destroyed the darkness. My uncle Max said to me: “The little girl’s name is Jazmin and this is her father.” Jazmin who was behind me, walked forward and when she saw her father, she embraced him tightly then she turned to me and tenderly said to me: “I will always love you dad”. I don’t know why, but my eyes filled with tears of emotion and then I looked at my uncle Maximiliano, it was pleasing to have him near me again, although it was only for a brief moment. He looked young, strong, without sadness, without pain or suffering in his eyes, in a broken voice and tears in my eyes I said:  “When you return to the place where you came from, if you see my father tell him that I love him”. My Uncle Max, called me “Vitio” as he used to call me as a child and he said, “He loves you too”. Then everyone vanished in the middle of a light that encircled them. Everything returned to normal I found myself in my bedroom standing by the bed where my wife slept peacefully and I went to the bedrooms where my daughters slept and they were also asleep nobody noticed what happened and after that night everything changed for good in the house, I kept what happened that night to myself in my heart, until today when I shared it with all of you, as a reminder of that night I have four scars that look like fine lines on my left arm, which have faded over time. But if you look at my arm closely you can still see them. My oldest daughter is married now and lives in Texas with her husband and my first grandson. My middle daughter lives in Provo Utah, where she goes to school and My youngest daughter is now 15 years old. We are still living in the same house in Orlando and my wife and I this past October 11th, celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary and although from time to time we hear strange noises around the house, my little naughty girl (Jasmine) has never returned to the house. However, I still keep her hand-painted portrait in the original frame hanging on one of the walls of the house. I will never forget her because she became a part of me, she will forever live in the pupils of my eyes, where the brightness of my eyes will reflect her image for eternity as “The Girl In My Eyes.”