My name is Josh, I am thirteen years old and I am from Mexico. About a year ago I found a corpse. That has haunted me all this time, it has ruined my childhood and left me with a very deep trauma. It was during a field trip trip, we went to a river whose name I do not remember, but I do remember what I saw there. Mariano (my friend) and I, we wanted to take a dip since it was hot, very hot.
Towards almost 40 degrees, the teacher did not want to but he and I were determined to do it. When the group was going through the forest, we moved away. They had already reached a cabin that was after the forest. Mariano and I were a bit lost.
We did not remember the way to return to the river. Then we met a ranger and asked him where the road was. He told us not to go to the river, because they say there are crocodiles inside. But I do not believe the story, now I understand that the ranger lied to us to protect our innocence, since there was something worse in the river. Imagine that a crocodile attack is something terrifying. Imagine if one hot afternoon, you take a dip in the river you will reach the bottom, touch the bottom sand with your feet. Well, there instead of sand I had landed on a rotten corpse, talking about it still gives me goose bumps.
When he reached the river, Mariano said that I would throw myself first since he was deep and he did not know how to swim much, I did two years in swimming. Finally, I accepted and climbed a rock that was nearby and then I jumped from there to the water, it felt great when the cold water ended with the heat that was on top. Instead of sweat I was now soaked with water. But I got to the bottom of the river, fell very gently and touched my feet with something like bones, I did not want to but I opened my eyes under the water and something jumped into my face, I took it by the shoulders and started screaming, losing the air when seeing the horrible face of the corpse, shouted, cried and kicked to get out of the water my friend took me by the arms and in a matter of seconds appeared three forest guards who rescued me instantly, I told them what had happened and removed the corpse from the water an hour later.
The victim was identified as Roger H. Cruz, he was a snitch for the police, but nobody gave me many details, only that they were almost certain that it was a homicide, he had a heavy rock tied to his leg and two bullets in the back They went through his chest and came out in front. I heard that from the policemen who were talking with my mother. They suspended me in school for separating me from the group and also to Mariano. However, I will never forget the expression of that man, no psychiatrist can help me recover my childhood, whatever I do, I will never swim in a river again, ever...
