The Devil in your Eyes

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist." This is a quote from the movie, The Usual Suspects, but it is true, as we read in Revelation 12:9: "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." For all the people in the world who believe in God, few know much about Satan. When most people think of Satan, they think of that guy in the red suit with two horns and a pitchfork. They picture him ruling over a fiery hell in which souls are tormented day and night on some kind of eternal charbroiler. None of this could be further from the truth, and we should all know better. This story was told to me by my father.

My dad was born en Riel de Patillas, Puerto Rico where he went through a lot of supernatural occurrences back then. My mom like I've mention before in Carite, Guayama. In between those two town is Arroyo where I lived for a few years. In that town they have what's called El Malecón which is by the Caribbean Sea, It's a beautiful place on the southern tip of the Island, where people go to enjoy themselves. They're many cantina's (Canteen's) were people go drink, mingle and dance. El Malecón is located in the town of Arroyo itself. I used to live in one of it suburbs called Barriada Marin, a few miles from El Malecón.

My dad told me something that has become a folktale, but many like him say it's true. He said he had a cousin tell him the story because he was there.

He said he had gone to one of the cantina's where all the locals used to go to drink, dance and pick up women and versa, versa on this very dark night. On this particular moonless night the place was jumping. The crowd wasn't as big as other nights but everyone that was there was having fun. The music was being played by local musicians. Everyone was drinking and most where dancing. My dads cousin Jose went to the bar where his other cousin Raul was talking to this girl who he had just met. They were standing, drinking and chatting.

He greeted the couple and asked the barkeep for a drink (No doubt Rum and soda.) He then turned around and started speaking to his cousin who introduced him to Lucy. Jose found out that she was from another town and that she was there with her beautiful cousin Maria, who was on the dance floor dancing. Lucy pointed her out and Jose like everyone else in that cantina saw this beautiful women dancing. She had eyes as dark as night, big beautiful red lips, long silky brown hair, that covered half her hour glass body, her beautiful legs showed every time she swirled. Lucy a little jealous told the guys, "Es bien bella, no?"(She's very beautiful, isn't she?) Jose and his cousin Raul were mesmerized. "Si" They both said in unison.

Just then a very handsome gentleman who's dress to the nines comes in. No one had ever seen him before. Jose asked his cousin who said he never seen him before and he in turn asks the bartender, who also said he had never seen him before either. Raul than asks Lucy if they came together, she just nodded no. Lucy was in a trance like state. It seems that way to Raul when he saw her unknowingly licks her red lips with her tongue. It seems to him that Lucy had some sort of instant crush, love at first sight, or just a sexual desire for this stranger. She just stared at this new patron as did all the other women in the cantina.

Now Jose was very good looking back then. He was skinny, blond, and had very blue eyes (yes Puerto Ricans come in all colors.) And the women adored him. But the man that had just entered the cantina looked like an Adonis. As the man walked through the dance floor, the music stopped, as did who were dancing. They all moved aside as if the stranger had Leprosy (which by the way is another story I will blog about of a sad but true happening in the town of Arroyo, in future post.) Everyone there just stared at the stranger. He stops in the middle of the dance floor without speaking a word, he extends his right arm out and opens the palm of his hand. He wants Maria to dance with him. She puts her hand in his and the musicians starts playing again. But no one joins the couple on the dance floor. The crowd just stands there in awe on how good the strangers are dancing together. Raul looks at Lucy and sees her starring at the stranger and at her cousin, no doubt hoping it was her he was dancing with. Jose tells Raul, "Estas seguro que no estan juntos?" (Are you sure they're not together?) Raul stares at Lucy who's starring still at the stranger, "No lo creo." ( I don't think so.) No doubt feeling a bit jealousy at how quickly Lucy forgot him. Raul starts to stare at the stranger too, but for a different reason. He is looking for a flaw in this really good looking man who is wearing very expensive threads.

Now this is were it gets scary an unbelievable.

He told my dad that a week later after he went back to the establishment to have a beer. The place was almost empty He said you could count the people in one hand and those people weren't there the week before. So they didn't know what had happened. He himself said he was petified of going back there, but he felt if he didn't he would have lost some respect for himself. My dad asked him to continue the story, "Pero que paso?" (But what happened?)

Jose continues telling my dad that Raul wanted to find some sort of flaw on the stranger and so he closely analyzed the stranger from top to bottom. And that's when he saw something that made him open his eyes wide. He thought he saw something protruding from the mans ankles. As the man dipped Maria, Raul got a better view and his fears were confirmed. Jose said that Raul saw that the man had what appears to be hoofs. He quickly tells him to look. Jose at first said he didn't believe him and dismisses Raul's claims as jealousy, but under further review he notices that Raul could be right. Jose looked at the stranger shoes and saw the hoofs above the shoe line.

The stranger seemed to realize that people had noticed and he stop dancing. The musician slowly stop playing too. The strangers starts to laugh out loud as he looks at everyone. Everyone in turn is looking at him as some pointed at the strangers feet and the start to murmur.

The strangers laughter got louder and louder as he looked at the petrified faces around him. He reached for Maria and grabbed her tightly with both his arms. Maria that say looked horrified as she looked at the strangers face. They say he turned into a devil and vanished along with Maria.

I find this to be a folklore too, but with all I've seen and heard, well who knows.