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Para ese entonces mi abuela vivía sola con sus hijos pues su esposo se había ido y ella quedo sola con ellos.
La costumbre era retirarse a dormir temprano pues ya en las horas de la noche no se acostumbraba a hacer mucho, mi madre era una de las mayores eran 8 hijos.
Una noche todos se fueron a dormir más temprano porque empezó una lluvia muy fuerte y de malas se les fue la luz entonces encendieron unas velas, cuando esto sucedía la plaga se alborotaba entonces mi abuela se ponía a matar zancudos con una de ellas.
En una de esas la lluvia arreció mucho y empezaron a oírse como se movía el follaje de los arboles fuertemente, se empezó a oír como si alguien estuviera cortando árboles, ya era pasada la media noche y cada vez se oía más cerca del ranchito, se oía claramente como si cayeran las ramas o troncos de los mismos.
Para ese momento ya todos estaban muy asustados mis tías, madre y abuelas los pequeños dormían…,en una de esas mi abuela cuenta que mi madre se fue asomar por un huequito que había en las paredes de lamina de zinc para ver quien era el causante de tanto ruido y a esas horas...
Entonces, mi abuela le pego un jalón a mi madre y la regañó fuertemente, le dijo que no debía asomarse pues ella no sabía que podía encontrarse o ver y que a esas horas nada bueno debía ser.
El susto ya iba creciendo porque cerca del ranchito al lado había un árbol de cedro muy grande y temían que este lo tumbara, sea el que fuera que estuviese talando, en ese preciso momento, empezaron a sentir como le pegaban al árbol para tumbarlo se podía oír claramente los golpes secos del hacha a la madera y el techo se les empezó a hundir…
No hallaban que hacer a todas estas ya los mas chicos estaban despiertos llorando y todos en total terror, entonces mi abuelita empezó a orar y rezar un rosario, diciéndole a las mayores que repitieran todo lo que ella dijera, así hicieron hasta que de repente todo dejo de oírse, cesó la lluvia y todo se calmó.
Al otro día ya en pleno sol todos salieron a revisar los destrozos que este hombre o ser debía de haber hecho y para su sorpresa no vieron absolutamente nada, todo estaba como siempre, no habían ramas cortadas y los arboles estaban intactos, los vecinos más cercanos le dijeron a mi abuela que ellos no oyeron nada, pero que seguramente habían sido visitadas por el hachador.
Se dice que es el anima en pena de un hombre que era un hachador, pero que un viernes santo decidió salir al monte a cortar un árbol para hacer su propia urna, pero que Dios lo castigó por querer cortar leña ese día y que desde entonces vaga por los montes venezolanos en las noches a atacar todo lo que ve.
English
In my grandmother's first little house in 1950. It was a very humble little house made of zinc sheets, very humble, at that time everyone slept in the same room because everything was very small inside it barely had the essentials to live.
At that time my grandmother lived alone with her children because her husband had left and she was left alone with them.
The custom was to retire to bed early as in the evening hours it was not customary to do much, my mother was one of the eldest there were 8 children.
One night they all went to sleep earlier because it started raining very hard and the light was out so they lit some candles, when this happened the plague was rampant so my grandmother started to kill mosquitoes with one of them.
At one of those times the rain started to fall and we could hear the foliage of the trees moving strongly, we could hear as if someone was cutting trees, it was past midnight and each time we could hear it closer to the ranchito, we could hear clearly as if the branches or trunks of the trees were falling.
By that time everyone was very scared, my aunts, mother and grandmothers, the little ones were sleeping..., in one of those moments my grandmother tells that my mother went to peek through a little hole in the zinc sheet walls to see who was causing so much noise and at that hour....
Then, my grandmother yanked my mother and scolded her strongly, she told her that she should not look out because she did not know what she could find or see and that at that hour nothing good could happen.
The scare was already growing because near the ranchito next door there was a very large cedar tree and they feared that it would be felled, whoever was cutting it down, at that precise moment, they began to feel how they were hitting the tree to knock it down, they could clearly hear the dry blows of the axe to the wood and the roof began to sink...
They did not find what to do at all these and the children were awake crying and everyone in total terror, then my grandmother began to pray and pray a rosary, telling the older ones to repeat everything she said, so they did until suddenly everything suddenly stopped hearing, the rain stopped and everything calmed down.
The next day already in full sun everyone went out to check the damage that this man or being must have done and to their surprise they saw absolutely nothing, everything was as usual, there were no cut branches and the trees were intact, the closest neighbors told my grandmother that they did not hear anything, but that surely they had been visited by the axe man.
It is said to be the anima en pena of a man who was a hachador, but who one Good Friday decided to go out into the bush to cut down a tree to make his own urn, but God punished him for wanting to cut firewood that day and since then he wanders the Venezuelan mountains at night to attack everything he sees.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)