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The boy & the toy marbles

My 14 year old sister was visiting me in Mexico around 2004, I was a college student at the time. We had gone to visit our aunt and cousins in Downtown Guadalajara. What a lot of people don't know, is that Guadalajara was officially founded on February 14, 1542. Let me say that again.... 1542. That's over 400 years of history & deaths during that time. 


My aunt lives in an old condo complex in the heart of Gdl. I'm not sure when they were built, but they are very old. After a day of laughter, sunshine and  delicious food, It was time to settle down. 


Our cousins Marcos and Edgar where telling us about the upstairs neighbor that had just passed away. He and his wife lived there pretty much all their lives and were in their 70's. He was terminally ill and had opted to stay at home.  Our cousins told us how the neighbors wife would talk to my aunt and say that her husband was being delirious and seeing things. She knew he would be dying soon.


One day, she noticed a bag of marbles on the dining room table. She asked her husband what they were for, he responded "They're for the little boy that comes to visit me." He had also mentioned a black cat that liked to visit him as well. He would often leave treats like baked goods or candy for the little boy. Our cousins continued with the story "Past midnight, you can hear the little boy playing with the marbles on our ceiling."  " No Way! " I laughed.  "You're just trying to scare us! " But my cousins insisted it was true, that they weren't making it up. 


My sister & I brushed it off and fell asleep in the living room. I was the 1st one to wake up in the middle of the night. "What's that noise?" I thought to myself. I look at my phone and notice the time.... it's 1:00 am. I listened closely....... and low and behold, it sounded like a marble bouncing on the ceiling above me. It bounced a few times before it started rolling. I then heard more marbles! I was so freaked out I wasn't sure I could move or speak. Somehow I was able to wake my sister up "Leslie! wake up!" I whispered loudly.  "What?" she asked. "LISTEN......" and another marble rolled over our heads on the ceiling. It was like a scene from a horror movie. We were so scared that the little boy would just peek through the floor upstairs and we would see him. 


Older folk, like the lady upstairs, go to bed early around 7:00 pm. My sister and I get goosebumps when we tell the story till this day. We'll never forget, the little boy with the toy marbles.


~Liss

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