Family Stories

By Esteban Acosta

I was able to spend some time with my family in Georgia recently and they all shared with me some interesting stories. My dad, who lives in Costa Rica, was telling me that my aunt has been seeing a troll or gnome for quite some time now. It sounds funny, but I believe it to be true. Her house is haunted. When my cousin, who is my age, was little, he would laugh a lot when he was alone. Especially when he was left in his crib at night to go to bed. My aunt really didn't think much of it until one night she actually heard another voice laughing with him. My aunt always thought it was what we call in Spanish a "duende" - this translates into English as an elf. I've shared other stories of these duendes - one of my cousins saw one and another heard them by her window. She said she heard the voices of children, but she knew it was a duende since it was the middle of the night.

Back to my aunt's story. My dad was telling me that on a regular basis, she sees the troll or gnome when she goes to bed, but only she can see it. Her husband doesn't sleep in the same room with her and she says she will see the creature from time to time and he will try to climb into bed with her. She describes him as one of those bridge trolls that are talked about in fairytale books, but he is naked and extremely hairy. She makes her husband sleep on the couch next to her room because having him close by seems to keep the troll away.

The other story I was told by my nephew. His family moved to Georgia about a year ago. At night, in his room, his door will open and he can hear footsteps outside of the room. He has also experienced lights going on and off while he is alone in the house. No reason has been found for this.

The most interesting story is the one my nephew told me. He claims to have seen a Unicorn. He said he was in his mom's car with his younger brother (he is 18 and his brother is 12) outside of a therapy place his sister goes to. My niece is autistic and they go to a place with horses to get therapy. Horses seem to be used a lot with autistic children. Anyway, the two boys were waiting outside in the car and in the forest behind them where the horses are kept, the older boy spotted a black horse. This black horse had a horn like a unicorn. He told his younger brother who looked and saw it too - not just the horse, but the horn. They watched it walk behind a tree and disappear.

After doing some research about Unicorns, it seems others have spotted them too. People like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. I thought this was very interesting.

My questions are these. Is there such a thing as a Unicorn, and if so, why did my nephews see it? Also, all folk tales talk about Unicorns being white, but the one they saw was black. If there are Unicorns, are they really all white or do they come in other colors as horses do?