Before I begin, I must say that this happened to my mom about six years ago, when I was a high school freshman back in Tijuana. In order for you guys to get a clear picture of things, I must oblige with a brief description: My high school is a four-story building located on downtown Tijuana. It used to be a monastery dedicated to San Francisco de Asis, it is also built right in front of a beautiful church. It's been a school since 1954.
Report cards were being presented to our parents in the monthly meeting with teachers from each subject, so it was really a big deal. Hundreds of parents would cram the top three stories, (the first story consisted of the entrance, the gym and cafeteria) and expect to receive A's from their kids. My mom and my older sister (who was a senior in that high school) were amongst them, I stayed home with my kid brother during this afternoon.
My mom arrived early, at 6:00 pm or so, but in Tijuana during winter, the sky usually darkens at this hour. She and my sister were climbing the stairs up to the third story where my homeroom was. The stairs leads up to a large corridor with very big windows, tall and wide. It was dark outside, so they could easily see their reflections as they walked.
At some point along the corridor, my mom walked ahead of my sister (but just a few steps according to her), when she noticed a thin shape reflected on the window to her left, a tall shape wearing apparently a brown overcoat with a hoodie. The shape stood still a few feet to her right on the next stairwell that led to the fourth floor, then bent forward slowly as if attempting to tie a shoe. My mom turned her gaze away from the window to look at the shape and found nothing. She thought it was probably my sister, because she appeared a second later just behind.
My mom was probably wearing a puzzled expression because my sister asked her what was going on. My mom told her what she had seen. It was then that my sister told her the story of the monk that supposedly haunted our school.
It is said that during the long years of living in ascetic conditions, a monk of the Franciscan Order hung himself in one of the rooms (now the music room) on the third floor. It was also rumoured that the monk roamed the third and fourth floors, exiting the music room and climbing the stairs up to the fourth, before entering a small narrow door between two classrooms. The old custodians denied there was such a thing, but they did affirm that loud clashing noises were often heard on the upper floors, similar to chairs crashing into each other.
Needless to say, my mom is positive about what she saw. She had no idea of the story behind the school, so there was no way she had been suggested into seeing shapes of any kind. As for me, I didn't see a thing during my high school years. However, being the curious person I am, wasted no time in exploring this fourth floor door.
Unfortunately, it was always kept locked: a narrow wooden door, painted off-white with a copper knob. It was when one of the custodians opened the door that I peeked inside as he pulled out a few cleaning supplies. A long narrow corridor with no windows or doors, it stretched along until it reached a small opening in the wall, as if someone had begun to tear it down but changed his mind after the first bludgeon.
Nothing interesting, right? Probably used as a supply closet. Then I remembered it was built a very long time ago, could it have served another purpose then? Whatever it was, it still remains a mystery to me.
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Muchas grac