The house is in darkness and I walk down a hallway until I reach the room that is near the courtyard. I open the door and enter, some flapping startles me and I desperately run out of the house, but they follow me, I can't escape, and I feel them on top of me, I wake up startled, and I can't go back to sleep.
Xiomara has suffered from claustrophobia since she was ten years old. During a vacation at her paternal grandmother's house, she got lost in the mountains and after two days of intense searching, she was found in a cave. There she was sitting at one end, with her legs tucked in, and her eyes fixed, staring at a hole in the ceiling. It took her a week to speak, but she was never able to tell, not even in the hypnosis sessions she underwent when she turned 18, what had happened in those days. He did not remember.
Since that experience, closed places make her anxious, she starts sweating cold and feels that she is choking, that she cannot breathe and on extreme occasions she starts crying. She avoids elevators and riding the subway. When she has to travel by plane, medication controls her anxiety.
A year ago, she started having this recurring dream from which she wakes up in fear. She has returned to therapy with the psychiatrist who has treated her for the last twenty years.
"Your subconscious is sending images of what happened to you twenty years ago. That is not bad, on the contrary, it can help you to heal your phobia".
"But I was not in a house, how can it be a memory?"
"What we dream is not an exact image, it is just an interpretation of your mind".
Xiomara continues her life with the hope of being able to overcome the fear she feels, and so she has accepted a job in a town near the city where she lives. It is a very prosperous agricultural area, and they need an administrator in a fruit company.
She loves the place, the village is small with only two cobblestone streets that go up and down, full of stores and there are two banks, the square is in the center with many trees, and in front of the church. The houses are made of mud walls and tile roof, colonial style, with windows and balconies. Many of the people live in the surrounding area on small farms where they grow strawberries and peaches. Xiomara thinks that at least here she won't need to take the subway, let alone ride an elevator.
"I am in an open and clear place, in contact with nature, no enclosed places, how wonderful", she thinks as she walks towards the office of the company that hired her and feels, for the first time in many days, free of her fears. Her slim figure and short, curly, very black hair highlight her green eyes. With great confidence, she enters and introduces herself to the manager.
"Good morning!, I am Xiomara Betancourt, and I was hired to be the administrator of the farm".
"Hello Xiomara!, come in, you are welcome, we have been waiting for you", Carlos Espinoza is a man of almost fifty years old, with a thick build and a little pot-belly, his thinning hair reveals a large entrance, his smile and his kindness make him immediately very friendly to Xiomara.
"Thank you very much, you are very kind".
"Where are you staying?"
"At the hotel in town", he answers with a smile.
"That's right!, it's the only one in town. As you must know, the farm you are going to manage is about an hour from here and to avoid you having to come and go, there is a house where you can stay. If you want, I'll go with you to get your luggage and we'll go there".
"Of course, let's go, I would love to start as soon as possible".
When they arrived at the farm, they were greeted by the field manager, a tall, stocky man in his forties named Manuel, and the engineer in charge of production, a young man in his thirties, thin, with black hair and a short beard, named Gerardo. Both were dressed in work clothes: jeans, shirt and hat. The morning was cool and the rows of peach trees were in bloom and a pleasant aroma filled the air.
Xiomara had the opportunity to meet the rest of the staff, they took her to their office in one of the farm's sheds and little by little she got to know the work. She was very happy and felt at ease in that place.
After lunch, Gerardo invited her to tour the farm and showed her the strawberry crops and the whole process of harvesting, washing and selecting the fruit to be sent to the cities, another part was left in the farm where they produced juices and jams. Everything was very clean and organized.
In the afternoon at the end of the activities, Gerardo himself accompanied by a young biologist named Marisela took her to the house. She wore glasses, was very short and had long brown hair which she wore in a braid, she worked with fish breeding in some artificial ponds that had been built on the farm.
A road lined with large trees ended at a very old-looking house, the walls were painted yellow. A corridor surrounded it and the doors and windows were made of wood. Behind the house ran the river, and to reach it one had to go down a hill that was planted with coffee. Its aspect was somber.
Upon entering, Xiomara felt a shiver, it looked like the house of her dreams. The long corridor where the rooms were located ended in a door that led to the courtyard. The kitchen was brightly lit and on the center table was a large bouquet of white flowers.
"I hope you feel comfortable in this house", Gerardo told her as he took her to her room. "It is very old, it belonged to the family that owned this land and the last heir, a man who did not like life in the countryside, abandoned it, he said there were many bugs that bothered him at night and did not let him sleep. The people who bought the land for the company recovered it".
That night when Xiomara went into the bathroom to take a shower before going to sleep, she noticed that there were black spots on the walls, and she had also seen them in the corridor, and they had an unpleasant smell. She did not want to disturb the boys who had already retired to their rooms and thought that tomorrow she would find out. He was very curious.
The bed was very comfortable, and she was very tired, but she could not sleep, she thought about the man who lived in the house, what were those bugs that did not let him sleep, why had he gone away leaving her abandoned? She remembered the black spots and did not know why she associated it with this. She fell asleep and in the early morning she woke up wanting to go to the bathroom, but she didn't want to go, she was afraid. She waited for a while, but she could no longer stand the urge to urinate and opened the door to her room.
The bathroom was at the end of the hallway and she walked hurriedly. A dim light bulb illuminated it. When she opened the bathroom door and turned on the light, numerous animals came fluttering out. Xiomara gave a bloodcurdling scream and in desperation opened the patio door and went outside.
Gerardo and Marisela woke up and came out of their rooms, saw the patio door open, and ran outside. When they came out they saw Xiomara fastened to a tree trunk, on the branches there were many bats.
"Don't move from there, Xiomara, I'm coming for you".
Gerardo helped her up and into the house, Marisela hugged her and took her to the living room. Xiomara was trembling from head to toe and kept repeating
"They were bats!, they were the ones who were there!".
"They are bats, but they are harmless, sometimes they come into the house, but since I've been living here I haven't seen so many. Too bad we didn't warn you. We didn't know you were so afraid of them". Gerardo tried to apologize.
Xiomara told them about what had happened when she was a child and about her phobia of enclosed places.
"The bats were there in the cave, they accompanied me. Now I remember everything that happened. I was crying, I felt very lonely, and it was dark, the bats entered through a hole and air and light also entered through there. And now I remember their excrement all over the cave, like here in the bathroom. When they took me out of there, my mind blocked those two days".
From that day on, Xiomara was no longer afraid of closed spaces, she was cured of her phobia. And she continued working in that place, where she felt very well and loved by her new friends.
The bats continue to visit the house as they have always done.
