I’m not much of a scaredy cat. As a matter of fact, I love scary movies and have loved them ever since I was a kid. I never had nightmares or thought that “Jason” or “Freddy Krueger” was going to attack me. The things that did scare me were the ones that started with “based on a true story.” Whenever a scary film or a novel starts off with “based on true story,” that makes me question the legitimacy of the story. If it says it’s true, then did it really happen?
Let me start off with my earliest memory of being frightened by something “based on a true story.” I remember my family and I were living in New Campo, which is a poor sub-division in Brawley, where the rent is cheap. My younger relatives and I called it the “fancy projects” because they were two-story attached apartment homes and nicer looking than the real projects. Anyway, I think I was about 8 or 9 years old and I remember we were all getting ready to go to Mexicali one night. While I was sitting in the living room, I was watching the local news that was broadcasting from Mexicali. I was watching a news segment in Spanish talking about how some owners of a restaurant believe their restaurant was haunted. The camera crew followed the owner around the restaurant and showed them the restroom where the customers complained about creepy noises and strange activity. I didn’t think too much of it at the moment I was watching it, but got a little scared. I thought “well, we don’t live in Mexicali so I think we’re fine.”
About an hour later we were all in Mexicali and everyone decided to have dinner there. I wasn’t sure the name of the restaurant we went to but it was at a Chinese food place. The moment I walked into that restaurant, I felt this blanket of fear over my body. I balded my eyes and thought to myself “Oh my God! This looks exactly like that restaurant!” I took my s
eat closest to my mom and dad and tried to stay as far away from the restroom as I could. Until, however, my mother told me “Ve lavate las manos” (Wash your hands). I screamed in my head “QUEEEEEE!?” (Whaaaaat!?). The restaurant already looked exactly like the one in the news segment and I was not about to find out if the restroom was the same too. But I braved myself and slowly walked to the restroom almost frozen with fear. To my biggest fear, at that time, the restroom looked exactly the same I had seen a couple hours before on the news segment. I walked slowly like I was walking on eggshells, washed my hands as quickly as possible, and ran out! I don’t remember ever telling my mom I was scared, I just remember dealing with it.Later on that night when we were all home, I laid on my bed very still not wanting to move because I didn’t want to reflect any attention on me. I remember closing my eyes and trying to fall asleep when I SWEAR TO YOU I felt hands on my neck!!! I thought…..IT FOLLOWED ME! IT FOLLOWED ME!!! I sharply opened my eyes and started to slowly make my way to the door. I was sharing a room with my sister Carmen and we had really squeaky floors so I was trying to be as quiet as possible. As I was tip-toeing across the room, almost to the door knob so I can get to my mom and dad, a squeaky sound submerged and Carmen woke up! “What are you doing Chena! Go back to bed!” Having to listen to my sisters just like I listen to my mother, I turned around and slept in fear that night!
I don’t remember how I got over this fear but it was rather quickly. I seem to get over fears like this quickly all the time. Ok so the second one was a little harder on me than the first one. When the
movie “Fire in the Sky” first came out I was excited to see it. As I usually am with scary movies. However, when I saw in the subtitles “based on a true story,” I probably should have stopped watching it! I was just ten years old when this movie came out and I had seen it at the drive-in theater with some family members. The thing that really freaked me out was all the things the aliens did to that poor guy. I remember when the movie was over all I would do is look up at the sky and make sure I don’t see anything “suspicious.” I remember I couldn’t sleep for weeks thinking that I was going to be abducted! But the more time passed, the less fear I felt and was soon back to normal. I stopped looking for aliens. To this day, I will NOT watch that movie again! I’d rather go on the rest of my life not believing in them.Throughout my teenage years, there really wasn’t much I was afraid of. By then the fear of “la mano peluda” and “la llorona” had already resided. For those of you who don’t know “la mano peluda
” is this freakishly-looking hand that comes out at night to attack kids. And, “la llorona” is the crying women that appears at night looking for her children but when she can’t find them, she grabs any child that is near her. Both of these urban legends were and are still big in the Latin community. In my early and late teen years, it was more about spirits. I especially had an interest when my dad and brother died. I remember one night my mom had told me that she had woken up to the smell of flowers in her room and when she opened her eyes, she saw a blue glow next to the bathroom door. She said it didn’t scare her, but instead comforted her. She said she felt it was my dad coming by to see her. Another time we experienced something like this was when my mother, myself, my brother Edgar, and Vanessa were all in the living room and dining room having breakfast. Right before, we were about to leave for school, we heard what sounded like a window sliding to be closed. It wasn’t a loud, angry sound, but more of a “oh let’s not leave until we close that window” sound. It was strange, but not scary. At that moment, I remember thinking “oh it’s probably Dad!”One more fright past before I get to my current spooks. When I was 20, I had moved out of Brawley to go to school at CSUSM. When I arrived at the dorms, I was lucky to be friends with a girl named Clarissa who I had met through my sister Lupe. Clarissa and I were close right from the beginning. Being from the same area and our families knowing eachother, it was easy to get a long with her. One day when she was visiting her family, I had called her home number to see if she was available to talk because she hadn’t answered her cell phone. Her dad answered and said “Hola, que paso mija” thinking that I was Clarissa calling the house. I quickly said “No, it’s Jessenia. Is Clarissa there?” After I had hung up the phone, I had this sudden realization that I will never have a conversation like that in my life. I will never have my dad asking me how I’m doing, I will never have my dad call me “mija” again, and I will never talk to my dad o
n the other end of the phone. A somber feeling came over me and all I could do is cry. That night before I went to bed, I opened my window and lifted the curtains. I looked at the stars and began to pray to my dad and brother telling them how much I miss them. I closed my eyes to go to sleep but when I couldn’t, I looked up to stare at the sky again. When I was looking at the sky, I suddenly saw two big sparkling stars close to eachother. They were not there a moment before when I was praying. I remember thinking “Hi Apa. Hi Chava.” I know! This really sounds crazy, but I wouldn’t write about it if I didn’t believe it was them comforting me and reminding me that they’ll always be there for me. Ok, so this wasn’t so much of a scary thing, but more of a strange spiritual thing.Some of my current spooks haven’t been that bad. I don’t really believe in ghosts but that’s because I haven’t seen one. Or, maybe I have? In my junior year in high school, Andrea and I were at Mariko’s house working on a project and when we were finished my mother came by to pick us up. As Andrea and I were approaching the car, I usually take the front seat, we saw a figure sitting in the front seat so we both went around to the back. We thought it was Vanessa sitting there and while we were on our way home, I asked “what ya doing Vanessa?” It got quiet. My mom said “La Vanessa esta en la casa” (Vanessa’s at the house). Andrea and I looked at eachother with surprise were like “What!?” We both swear we saw someone sitting in the front seat!
Ok that’s enough of the past! Well, not too long ago when I was living with my girls at Barham in San Marcos, we thought we had a ghost in our apartment. We had lips smeared on our hallway mirror and a hand print that belonged to none of us. Marybel swore that she saw a man standing by her bed one night. It spooked her so bad that she asked Andrea to sleep with her. I didn’t believe in this ghost that was living with us until I was in our garage. One night I was in our garage bent down vacuuming the floor matts of my car when I felt fingers walking on my back. I yelled “Andrea stop it! I’m ticklish!” I continued to feel the tickling up my back so I laughed saying “Andrea stop it! haha!” and when I turned around, nobody was there. Um…..yeah…..I believed it then. I think that was the only time I ever experienced anything there. Andrea and Marybel experienced more I think.
So do I believe in ghosts? I don’t know. Do I believe in spirits? Not sure. Do I believe in aliens? I hope not! Even though I love scary movies, I cannot watch them alone. I prefer to watch them with someone else. It might creep me out for a bit but only momentarily. I like the suspense behind it all. I think it’s exciting and fun! I think a part of the reason why I never really got scared of scary movies was because my mom would always tell me that it’s not real. I remember she would always say that nothing scares her. And everytime she said it, I believed her. Until one day I was lying on her bed, I think I was 17 or 18, and I asked her “So, you’re not scared of anything mom?” and she said “Si, nada me da miedo” (yea, nothing scares me). At that moment I felt protected and safe. But then she added “Pero cuando los perros ladran sin saber que esta causando que ladren tanto, eso me asusta porque los animals pueden ver lo que los humanos no pueden” (But when the dogs bark without knowing what is causing them to bark and behave strangely, that scares me because animals see things that humans can’t). And now, everytime I hear a dog bark, I better find out why the hell that damn dog is barking! Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!
Jessenia Lua
P.S. I posted some pictures of my girls and I dressed for Halloween this year! Yes, we were cholas! Orale esa! Broleñas all the way!
Oh and a quick shout out to my sisters Vanessa, Lupe, and Mary! All October babies! Happy Birthday Hermanas! I love you!
