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EL COCO

            We were walking in the forest, all of us, Jaunita, Veila, Deila, Pita and I; Odilia. It was dusk now and the girls were trying their hardest to stay awake as long as possible, Pita was whining and complaining, something about how hungry and tried she was I couldn't really understand what she was saying but i tried to make it out the best I could. Jaunita and Deila were arguing about who knows what, and I didn't try to calm anyone down I am tried and starving to add to it. I decided to have everyone lay down since it had become nightfall now, we created a little shelter made out of trees and old branches that had fallen off. I told everyone to go to bed because we had a long day ahead of us not to mention fighting the lechous really took a lot out of us, they were mean little things.

 

    Pita came and snuggled up to me, I was the last to go to bed that night. I had noticed that Pita had sat up and was talking to something but I just thought it was Jaunita so I brushed it off and went back to bed. Suddenly I heard Pita scream like she had just seen someone get murdered, the awful scream startled me. As I woke up Pita was bawling and she rushed her into my shoulder and I held her there until she was back asleep. That morning I woke everyone up bright and early so that we could start walking.

 

    I had noticed that Pita was looking behind every once an awhile so I got curious, I ran up to her and asked her "Hey are you okay, I heard your bloody curdling scream last night, d-did you see the chupacabras?" I questioned worried. "yeah im fine, and no I didn’t see the Chupacabra" as she walked away nervously almost as if she did see a ghost. Then we made it to a clearing on a hill looking over a beautiful meadow, so I asked her again "Pita are you sure that everything is fine, you look scared." I asked again even more worried, "yeah I'm good" she answered but with an attitude this time. We were walking for a long time before something happened. Finally I figured out was wrong with Pita, This figure popped out of nowhere Pita screamed, I guarded my sisters. This is what I was worried about the El Cucuy,  "pita what did you do" I barked at her, "well when I screamed last night it was because of HIM Odilia, he came to him saying that if I didn’t behave that he would take me away from my family and eat me!" she said crying " I don’t want to get eaten Odilia." I could tell she was scared for her life more than ever, I went to swing but my hand went right through him, "he's a ghost, we have to pray him away, pray that he will leave and never come back, pray for pita girls" I said with my eyes watering, even i was scared but I cant show it I need the girls to be tough.

 

Suddenly I saw Jaunita drop to her knees, then Veila and Deila, I told pita to drop to knees I did the same, we prayed and prayed, and prayed, slowing he was vanishing. "keep praying girls its working." I yelled, wind was whirling and the trees were blowing around like one of those storms that would always happen back home, god I miss home, I miss mama, I miss going to bed knowing I was safe in my nice, warm bed.

 

Finally he was gone and never to be seen around us again thankfully, now to deal with pita "Pita come here and listen to me, you must behave the rest of the trip, or least until we get to Abuelitas' house, okay?" I said to her sounding like mama when she would get mad at us. "okay, I am sorry, you do that Odilia right." she answered looking at her shoes, I felt bad but I cant.

 

I don’t think Pita really understood what just happened, she was still crying and worrying that El Cucuy was going to come back to get her, but I had to calm her down enough to the point where she would start walking again.

AUTHORS NOTE

      Maybe you have noticed a lot of what I read and see in movies and television has characters or elements from folklore and mythogly as an element of the story. My narritive contains a monster named "El Coco" I took his orginal story and modernized it. In the orginal story for El coco; if children were acting misbehaved, El coco would come and eat them in front of their family to let them know that he doesn’t show mercy towards them.  In my depiction of El coco in my narrative, I maintained many similarities from the orginal, but also modernized the tale in order to convey the theme that always stay on your best behavior and it is a helping hand in staying safer.  In some ways the two depictions of El coco are similar. In two storys El coco is a ghostly man that will eat children if they are misbehaving. '"yeah im fine, and no I didn’t see the Chupacabra" as she walked away nervously almost as if she did see a ghost'" (my story, 2). In the orginal he would almost do the same thing "Also known as the "el coco," this mythical ghost-monster targets children who misbehave.

 

 The Portuguese equivalent of the bogeyman, the cucuy was described as a ghost with a skull-like pumpkin head. The monster can appear as either feminine or masculine, and is said to devour children, leaving no trace of them." It was  ultimately these actions that lead el coco to eat children more and find more misbehaving. I have also made some important changes to my character.

 

 In my version, el coco was trying to get one of the little girls and they had to pray him away '"I told pita to drop to knees I did the same, we prayed and prayed, and prayed, slowing he was vanishing'" which wasn't any mention of having to pray him away.  I had made some more changes to El coco, In my story he warns the little girl and doesn’t eat her, in the orginal story if he saw one kid being bad he would eat them. "The Latino version of the bogeyman, El Cucuy has terrified children for generations. Used by daddies across the world to dissuade their children from misbehaving, El Coco, or Cucuy as it is also known is a shapeshifting figure that hides in closets or under beds and torments -- and eats -- niños who don’t listen to their parents." In my depiction of El coco in my narrative, I maintained many similarities from the orginal, but also modernized the tale in order to convey the theme that always stay on your best behavior. Even through I modernized this tale I still believe that the orginal and my story have very many similarities.

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by: Oakley Carter 

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