Jessica was an only child, barely six years old, living at her grandparents' house, sleeping in bed with her parents. One fine day, she found her parents having a little conversation,
Lola, her mother, said to Pepe, her father, "It's time we got a house to live in, the girl is growing up, she doesn't fit in bed with us, we must have our own space".
Pepe replied "I agree with you, tomorrow I will go out to look for a house to rent".
The next day very early, Pepe bought the newpaper, looked in the house section, he found an ad "comfortable and cheap houses for rent".
He took the bus and arrived at the indicated address, he knocked on the door, when the door opened an old lady about 70 years old came out, he told her "good morning, I came for the ad in the newspaper, I am interested in renting a house".
The old lady answered "good morning, my name is Leticia, come in".
Pepe entered the house, sat down on a chair, the old lady sat down on another chair and said "how many members are there in your family?"
Pepe answered " we are a small family, my wife, my six year old daughter and me".
The old lady said "well, I was waiting for you, I have already rented all my houses, but as I am an old lady alone in this small but comfortable house, you can come and live with me, you will pay me absolutely nothing, I just need company, I don't know if I will wake up alive one morning, but someone must notice me, here is my phone number, if you decide to move in".
Pepe, surprised by the old woman's words, took the paper, put it in his pants pocket and left the place. When he arrived home, he talked to Lola and told her about the situation he had experienced. His wife replied, "I don't think it's a good idea, I want to move to a house alone, with no strangers".
Pepe replied "I understand, but our budget is not enough for a big house, anyway think about it, the lady gave me her phone number so that I could call her in any situation".
Lola, very upset, answered "it was not what I wanted, but it is necessary to move, please call the lady, so we can move tomorrow".
In the morning of the next day, they looked for a moving truck and arrived at Mrs. Leticia's house to unpack everything. Jessica overwhelmed by all the movement, she felt exhausted, she sat on a chair, while she listened to the old lady talking " upstairs are two bedrooms and a bathroom, in which they can live peacefully in one room sleeps the couple and in the other sleeps the girl, downstairs is the kitchen and the laundry room and that door that is on the right hand side is my room, the door that is on the left hand side is not touched".
That explanation left Jessica very uneasy and intrigued, for she did not visualize a door, but a loose board wedged into a wooden table. Then she thought, "What if that loose board was actually a hidden passageway?".
The little girl began to imagine how to turn the boards around and see what was hiding behind it all. At night, when everyone was asleep, she got up, went downstairs, saw the room of the old woman, who was sound asleep, reached for the board, pushed a little on the table, which was made of cedar wood, went to sleep. Every night, after everyone was asleep, she would do the same procedure, she would roll the table a little. It was very clever of the girl, after rolling the table, she would place a chair next to it so that no one would notice the movement she was making. Every night she would roll the table until she had enough room for the boards to loosen. One night she visualized that the boards were loose, with its peculiar size, she was able to enter through the hidden passage, she found some stairs, down which she went, she turned on a light, she noticed that there were many dolls, she had never seen so many dolls together and a dollhouse, she picked up a doll, she started to play until she fell asleep. When dawn came, Lola went to the kitchen, she turned on the stove, put the water to heat to prepare coffee, she started to clean the living room, she realized that the door on the left side was open, she went to the place, she went downstairs with much astonishment, she found Jessica asleep, she scolded her telling her "Jessica because you disobeyed, Mrs. Leticia said it was forbidden to open that door, you are punished".
Upon arriving in the living room, Mrs. Leticia heard the scolding, she said "wait a minute, why are you going to punish her, if she is an innocent child".
Lola replies "she simply disobeyed the order".
Leticia said "Jessica, come here".
Jessica, very scared, approaches the old woman. Leticia asks her "Do you like toys?".
Jessica answers in a trembling voice " yes, I like them, she has a lot of dolls".
Leticia tells her "well, I tell you, those dolls belong to my granddaughter who is already twenty years old, I kept them because she never came to visit me again, but if you like them so much, you can use them and take care of all "
the little girl, very happy, hugged and kissed the old lady, she said a sentence "I know you are not my grandmother, but you give me the affection of a grandmother, from today you will be my dear grandmother".
Thus, Jessica lived for a long time with her parents at Mrs. Leticia's house.
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