La Llorona- The Curse of the Valley

1

The soft sand of the pale trail that the two boys were walking on wound around a corner and disappeared. They walked this trail two to four times a day. It was just past dark on the warm late August evening. Neither of the boys wanted to go home but the rules were the rules. Besides, everyone knew better than to mess with Emma, Jack's mom.

Last year she had chased off a strange car that had stopped to talk to Jack and his little sister, Izzy, in the front yard. She had been in the kitchen and heard the kids talking to someone. When she looked out of the kitchen window she saw her kids walking closer to the car, looking like they were slowly, unsurely going to get something from the driver who she couldn't see. She burst outside kicking the screen door almost off its hinges with the first thing she could grab, a full can of pinto beans. She chased after the car as it started speeding away. She threw the can and shattered the back window of the dark colored sedan. The fact the car sped away, even after she had smashed the back window, was proof enough that whoever it was, was up to no good. So, she continued chasing that car for half a mile at a full sprint.

"Who do you want your teacher to be?" Jack asked Matt.

"I don't care who my teacher is." He shrugged his shoulders "I just want friends in the class. There's nothing worse than sitting in class with a bunch of kids I don't care about." Matt kicked a stone as if to emphasize what he was saying.

"I don't really care about that. I like getting to know more people. It makes it kinda fun. I don't know maybe that's weird."

"Yeah that's weird. You're weird!" Matt teased Jack. They both laughed and started pushing each other with their elbows and shoulders like boys do.

The trail the boys walked on was a gravel path that connected two neighborhoods. The "other" neighborhood, as it was called, was separated by a pit which was named The Valley. There were dirt paths and woods all throughout it, but in the middle there was a skinny circular path that resembled a quarter mile track with some pine trees and dune grass in the middle. The Valley was bordered on the west side by about 100 yards of woods that ran along Route 9 and on the East side was The Garden State Parkway. Officially, the Valley was about a mile north of exit 25 on the Parkway and it protected that side of The Valley from random strangers. It was also the side that had the lake. The boys ride their bikes, camp out, talk about which girls they like or dislike, and build bonfires while they play war down there. If their parents couldn't find them, they were usually doing something down in The Valley with their friends. Jack's dad could whistle with his fingers so loud that if you were standing too close, you could lose your hearing for five minutes. That was the call to come home and he had just heard it a few minutes ago. Jack's dad put up a bell that he had gotten at an old golf course. You ring the bell when you get a safe distance from a tee shot to let the golfers behind you know that it is safe to tee off. The sound carries well and since the boys couldn't whistle back he installed the bell on a tree 300 yards from their house. Jack was to ring the bell if he (or one of his friends) needed help or to acknowledge that he had heard the whistle and was on his way.

The Valley was relatively safe because the only access to it was through the neighborhoods. It was in a little town called Beesley's Point in South Jersey. Generally, the neighborhoods protected The Valley from being discovered by any outsiders. However, there was the time that the boys discovered a rusty old van with no license plates. They hid in a group of trees for an hour watching the van as their imagination ran wild. They agreed that the van was used by bank robbers. Why else would it not have plates? This, they believed, was sound reasoning and called for further, closer inspection. They army crawled through the high grass in the middle of a summer afternoon to sneak up on it. It seemed as if nobody was there. They opened the door and the rust buckled and popped in the hinges. The creak was so loud they jumped back and felt like running. However, they were too far into it to run away. Since nobody popped out, they thought they were going to find a dead body or someone sleeping in there. If either were in there, the door opening surely would have woken the person up, in either scenario. They decided if they found the money they would return it to the bank and be heroes. When they were finally brave enough to open the door, there was nothing and they were extremely disappointed. There was no body and no money to return. There they were with their dreams smashed into tiny pieces. However, there were old license plates from six different states. This, they reasoned, had to be a getaway car and they stashed it here where no one would ever see it. The police were called and the mystery of the magically appearing rusty van was never solved. It was towed away, with their hopes of becoming heroes. They did, however, get a cool story and they shared it every time they had a chance to do so.

In the distant dark sky Jack noticed a flash of summer lightning. It wasn't accompanied by thunder, so Jack wasn't alarmed. "You see that?" he asked.

"Yeah. that was far enough away. Looks like a storm. Think it's comin or goin?" Jack shrugged as if to say he didn't know. Just then, a strong wind kicked up and the leaves danced like footsteps in the dark. Both boys looked at each other. If either boy had been by himself, he would have run home through the darkness in a kind of controlled panic. Jack ran home every night he went through The Valley alone. He thought the Boogie Man was behind every tree waiting for him, ready to pounce on him and take his soul to hell. The windy nights just added to the terror, everything moved and the sound could mask someone creeping up in the darkness.

As they walked along, they were both scared. However, they refused to show their fear to the other. It was a contest of who was more brave. The boys were approaching the bell. Little did they know, that tonight was the one night they needed to fear.