a last laugh of an evil spirit; the corruption of a pure soul with the promise of material redemption.
The Evil Treasures of the Dead
From colonial times, the petite pharaohs of our banana republic defied Matthew 6:19-20.
They made sure to burry whatever fortunes they had amassed in life before they kicked the bucket. In some cases, the desperate measure might have been a simple precaution in case of a prompt resurrection (the second coming of the Lord, after all, had been advertised for quite a while already). In other cases, it might have been read as punishment to their relatives for having outlived them.
They would rather have their gold coins be rusted and corrupted than enjoyed by an undeserving blood-related parasite.
These dead men and women’s treasures or entierros, as they were known in Venezuela, became the subject of legends and horror stories. On rare instance, relatives could guess and find the buried family heirlooms. In even rarer instances, the deceased would reveal the location of the treasure to some allegedly random person.
It was in this kind of granting where the most bizarre theories were woven. There were stories of humble men who received the announcement of an entierro in dreams or by strange fireflies-like lights that guided the chosen one to the spot where they had to dig (usually a remote place or an abandoned house or plantation). These people became rich overnight, but their fortune, cursed as it was, was doomed to vanish as fast and mysteriously as it came.
There were also terrible stories of entierros that were granted to two people under condition that only one of them would return to enjoy it. The other one was offered as an exchanged sacrifice to appease the tormented soul of the dead.
Some might say that the wealthy deceased was finally doing an act of charity favoring a nobody with a fortune they would make better use of. However, whenever you saw the humble generous recipient of such curse, wandering around town looking down their evasive shadows, you knew the entierro had only meant a last laugh of an evil spirit; the corruption of a pure soul with the promise of material redemption.
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Thanks for your reading
This was my entry to @mariannewest and @latino.romano’s 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday prompt: TREASURE. You can see the details here.
Make sure you visit the Freewrite House!!!
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