Golden Ghost

Golden Ghost

Don Pancho had been working as a taxidermist for 30 years, and became the best one around. Great hunters and rich men came to town just to hire him. His talent was so big that people even said once he finished the animals seemed more lively than before they were killed. Several people got scared when they saw coming out of his shop dancing bears and tigers about to jump.

One day two little kids arrived, dressed in estrange clothings, facial features so different, One could notice how it was difficult for hem to talk our language. They wanted to hire Don Pancho to dissect the creature in their bag. A family pet perhaps, thought Don Pancho.

The kids opened the bag, and inside was a little, more like tiny monkey, in a really pretty golden hair that would make the most shiny jewelry be sad. For the size for sure it was going to be a difficult job, but also the results would be pretty.

For two days Don Pancho worked on the animal, with pride he formed the wired skeleton, with fine movements he filled the tiny fingers, with patience he prepared the face and eyes. Finally it was finished in front of him, so lively and so surreal of the beauty it had. Don Pancho couldn't resist to tell it "Hey, jump" and suddenly the monkeys eyes begin to move, its legs begin to crouch, preparing for a jump, just as Don Pancho gave the last scream of his life, scared to death.

The kids return on the date, but for as much as the town people helped them find its animal among the finished or in process items by Don Pancho, they couldn't find it, and had to go empty handed.

Soon the golden monkey mischief would begin, so fast it was that people would just see a golden blur, so soon it was believed to be a ghost. Spots on the hanging clothes, a few broken plates, chairs that fall down on its own. Not a big thing to be scared or cry, but for sure something that would make the townspeople soon declared it haunted.

With time people learned to live with the events, event to the point the ghost became part of local jokes, but it is still there, jumping around.