Villacián: four houses, a storm and a yellow light in a window where nobody lives.
By the time Miriam, Ignacio and Josu reached Villacián, the storm had already taken over the village. Under the lightning, its four houses appeared and disappeared, each with a door opening onto the street and another hidden at the back. In the middle stood Miriam’s family house. On one side were two more, lived in by elderly couples; on the other, a fourth one that nobody seemed to want to mention: blackened walls, a caved-in roof and weeds that looked as if they wanted to swallow it whole. From the car, Miriam waved to one of those couples, who were watching them from the window of the furthest house.
The family house was made of dark stone, with a path that ended at a small porch. As they got out of the car, the other couple, the ones from the house next door, came out to welcome them and kissed Miriam on both cheeks. Before saying goodbye, the old man leaned in and whispered something in her ear. She answered with a mischievous smile, the kind that keeps secrets. Behind the house, a yard enclosed by a low wall opened onto the forest through an old gate.
During dinner, a clap of thunder rattled the windows. Ignacio looked out and froze: behind a black pane in the abandoned house, a yellowish light was flickering. Miriam then told them the story. A hundred years earlier, a fire had gutted the inside. A married couple and their seven-year-old daughter, Sonia, had lived there. When the neighbours put out the flames, they found none of the three. Nobody had lived there since.
Josu laughed and said the family must have come back to celebrate the anniversary.
At midnight, on the last chime of the cuckoo clock, the house went dark all at once. From the windows they could see that, in the whole of Villacián, only the burnt house was still lit. After a few minutes of silence, Miriam and Ignacio, who knew a bit about electricity, went down to the cellar to check the fuse box, with their phone torches as their only light. They had barely opened the door when a scream ran through the house.
They ran back up. Josu was pressed against the wall, speechless. In the middle of the living room stood a girl covered in soot, her dress burnt and her skin lit by a reddish glow, as if embers were still breathing beneath it. Ignacio hid behind Miriam. Sonia looked at them one by one.
“Do you want to play with me?” she asked, and began to laugh.
Outside, by the front door, two elderly laughs answered her in unison. Ignacio and Josu stepped back. Miriam, on the other hand, looked at the girl for a moment, raised her hand and gave her a high five.
Activities
1 Detective Inference
What was really going on that night in Villacián? Tick the correct hypothesis.
- a) Sonia, the girl nobody found after the fire, had truly come back to her house and dragged the whole village’s light with her.
- b) Ignacio and Josu had set up the scare to teach Miriam a lesson for telling them the story at dinner.
- ✓c) Miriam and the neighbours had planned a prank in advance, and Sonia, the soot-covered girl, was part of it.
- d) A girl from another village had sneaked into the burnt house and hidden in the living room when the lights went out.
Which clue proves it? Copy or summarise the clue from the text that proves it.
Correct hypothesis: c). Exactly: Miriam and the old couple knew, and the girl was in on it. That’s why nobody from the house was scared, except the guests.
Key clue: “The old couple laughed in unison from the door and Miriam, after a mischievous smile, gave the girl a high five.” Three clues that fit: the smile of someone keeping a secret, the elderly laughs and a friendly gesture towards a “ghost”.
2 The Loom Order of events
The story starts with the arrival in Villacián. Put the events in order, starting with the earliest. Write the order number (1, 2, 3…) in each box.
- 1 A fire guts the house where Sonia lived with her parents.
- 3 Ignacio spots a light flickering behind the glass of the burnt house.
- 5 The cuckoo clock strikes twelve and the house goes dark.
- 4 Miriam tells the story of the missing girl, and Josu laughs.
- 6 Miriam gives Sonia a high five while elderly laughter rings out.
- 2 An old man whispers something to Miriam and she smiles mischievously.
Correct order:
- A fire guts the house where Sonia lived with her parents.
- An old man whispers something to Miriam and she smiles mischievously.
- Ignacio spots a light flickering behind the glass of the burnt house.
- Miriam tells the story of the missing girl, and Josu laughs.
- The cuckoo clock strikes twelve and the house goes dark.
- Miriam gives Sonia a high five while elderly laughter rings out.
The story begins with the arrival, but the fire happened a hundred years earlier, so it comes first. Then come the old man’s whisper on arrival, the light Ignacio sees during dinner, the story Miriam tells, the midnight power cut and, finally, the high five.
3 The Missing Page Coherence
Which continuation fits everything we know? Tick only one option.
- a) Miriam runs to the car with Ignacio and Josu, terrified, while the girl chases them, laughing, through the rain as far as the yard.
- ✓b) Sonia wipes off the soot, laughing, and her grandparents come in through the back door: it’s the yearly prank, and Miriam knew all along.
- c) The old couple, who knew nothing about the girl, come in very frightened, and Miriam explains she must be a child from the next village.
- d) Josu, his voice back, confesses that he was the one who told the neighbours to scare Miriam, although the girl wasn’t part of his plan.
Answer: b). It all fits: the old man’s whisper, the mischievous smile, the elderly laughs answering the girl and the high five.
- a) Miriam isn’t afraid: she smiles and gives a high five. And she’s one of the few who knows what’s going on.
- c) The two elderly laughs answered Sonia in unison: they did know. And Miriam knew the girl.
- d) Josu was pressed against the wall, struck dumb with fear. The one keeping the secret was Miriam.
4 Spot the Contradiction Literal reading
Three statements don’t fit the story. Put an X next to the 3 statements that don’t fit the text.
- a) Miriam’s family house stood in the middle of the village, with the old couples on one side and the burnt house on the other.That’s right: two old couples’ houses on one side, the burnt one on the other and Miriam’s in the middle.
- ✗b) The couple from the house next door were watching from the window when they arrived, and they were the ones who came out to kiss Miriam.The ones at the window lived in the furthest house; the couple next door were the ones who came out to welcome them.
- c) During dinner, Ignacio saw a yellowish light flickering behind a black pane in the abandoned house.That’s what he sees when he looks out, as the thunder sounds.
- d) Since the fire, a hundred years earlier, nobody had lived in the village’s burnt house again.Miriam says so: “Nobody had lived there since.”
- ✗e) At midnight the power went off in the whole village, including the burnt house, which went dark like the rest.In the whole of Villacián, only the burnt house was still lit.
- ✗f) Miriam and Josu went down to the cellar together with their phone torches to check the fuse box.Miriam and Ignacio went down, as they knew a bit about electricity. Josu stayed upstairs.
5 The Gallery Visualisation
In the game you choose the illustration that answers this question: “Which illustration shows Villacián just after the lights went out at midnight?”. Here, you draw it yourself, with every detail the text gives you.
What should appear: Four houses in their places, three dark and the burnt one with a yellow light: the only thing still lit.
Reward drawings that include the details from the text, not artistic skill.
Ending
To read aloud once the answers have been checked.
Sonia was no ghost: she was Sonia Ledesma, aged seven, the granddaughter of the old couple next door. The scare had been weeks in the making. The grandparents had switched off the village’s main power switch when the cuckoo struck twelve, and the yellow light in the burnt house came from a battery lantern that Miriam and they had hidden behind the glass that very afternoon.
The girl was wearing an old dress, real soot and a strip of red lights sewn inside, and she had come in through the back door of the family house, the one Miriam had left unlocked. Ignacio and Josu, who knew nothing, fell for it completely; Miriam, who had been wearing her whisper smile all night, only had to wait for her moment.
“Every autumn it’s somebody’s turn,” Sonia’s grandfather explained, once the lights were back on. “And this year, at last, it was yours.”
Suggested marking
Each activity is worth 2 points (10 in total). In 1, one point for the hypothesis and one for the clue. In 2, give one point if only a couple of events are swapped. In 4, half a point for each correct cross and minus half a point for each true statement crossed out.