Page 33 - October 2022

evidence of my midnight visitor. She bought mischief at the rancho. He had vanished one
me the following week a glass case to place day, never to be seen again. But months later

them in, almost like a reliquary, and insisted some of the other cowherds began to complain
I put them on the bookshelf behind my desk that someone was letting the cows escape, or
for all to see. their possessions would come up missing, all
The story did not end there. Although I forms of calamities befalling them. One such

never heard the tinkle of the bell again, or the cowherd fell deathly ill, and on his deathbed,
laughter and patter of tiny feet, I would find confessed that he had accidently killed the
on my chair other “gifts” related to black and young boy, and that his spirit was the one who
white cowhide objects. By was plaguing them all. The Botanica owner

the following year, I had assured our aide that this was not the work of
amassed a dozen items to something evil at all, but rather a blessing.
add to the shoes. Thus, dear When I was finally transferred to another
reader, who and what was state, my midnight visitation and new gifts

it that was my benefactor? did not follow me—but I know that those
My description of what I who replaced me did not believe in anything
thought I had glimpsed supernatural and threw out the shoes and other
was the same as others objects. To the man, bad things, I am told,

who had seen the Evil-Lo. happened to them.
We hired an aide, who was What more, then, can I say. You have to
horrified that I displayed make up your mind whether you believe in
the gifts. He was genuinely the unexplained and embrace other beliefs

concerned for me and that may not have been of your own culture.
took me one afternoon to The Evil-Lo? Is he for real? He is a trickster, a
a botanica to talk to the master of mischief but kind-hearted and a giver
owner. The owner related of gifts. Or is he the true embodiment of evil,

to me what he knew about seeking revenge upon all who reject him? I can
the legend of the Evil-Lo, not and will not answer for you. You decide
that it was the spirit of for yourself. But if you hear tiny feet running
a boy cowherd from the in your kitchen, or a distant cow bell tinkling

1800’s who always liked in the breeze, be ready. He is a legend, not a
to joke around and cause myth. I know.

VOICES! | OCTOBER 2022 33