This is absolutely true and I don't care if anyone believes it or not.

I was 15 years old and having great fun at my Grandma's house over summer vacation. My parents were out of the country and Nani usually took afternoon naps. It was then that all of us, me, my brother and our neighbor, went out collecting specimens for our retarded biological lab. we would try and capture frogs, butterflies and other insects and cut them up under a coke bottle bottom that served as a microscope. There was no real educational merit to our little experiments but we thought it was fun.

Anyway, this particular afternoon we were hunting for a lizard. Your ordinary, common garden-style lizard. Except we couldn't find any. It was hot and frustration was looming over us. I came up with the bright idea that lizards like shady, cool places and if we go up to the store room we will be sure to get some. The store room was directly above the garage and was only accessible through an outdoor stair. It was filled with junk that my grandfather had collected over the ages and was usually locked. However, Nani was asleep and we knew where the keys were.

Once inside, I remember feeling a little weird. Like I walked into someone's bedroom without asking but I just thought that was because we weren't supposed to be there. We divided up and started looking in the nooks and crannies for a sign of our next lab. experiment. I spotted one curled up around a wooden roof-beam. I don't know if it was asleep or just wasn't paying any attention to us but it showed no excitment at our commotion. We were trying to figure out how to reach it and put it into the glass jar. My brother said that if we hit it with a sandal, it will get knocked out and fall and we can easily capture it. Great idea. I had the surest aim and so I took off my sandal, took careful aim and let go.

I hit the lizard right above the head and I must have put more force than necessary because it's head was smashed and it just hung on the beam. Dead.

It was exactly at that moment that we heard the low grinding noise. For a brief moment we thought that there was someone in the garage downstairs. Only then I saw the lizards.

Thousands of them. Everywhere. Covering the walls, the windows, the door, the junk. Everywhere I looked I saw their eyes turned at us. Barely a second had passed from the sound of my sandal hitting the beam to the scream that escaped our collective thoughts. We lunged towards the door. I grabbed my brothers. My neighbor, Pati, tried to jump down the stairs. He broke his ankle. I took the stairs but stumbled at the very end and cut my eyebrow on the concrete.

My grandfather found us sitting in the garden around sunset. Neither of us had wanted to go indoors and the middle of the green seemed the safest place. He seemed to know what had happened, even though none of us told him. He asked me to get my sandal from the store but I flatly refused. I remember that he gave me a sad look. He said, "You have angered them and should go apologize." I wanted nothing to do with it.

Soon after, Mom came back and we left. I never went to get the sandal and I never intentionally harmed any animal. I have an almost phobic fear of lizards.

My brother went into the store with my grandfather to retrieve my sandal. He told me that there were no lizards in the room. Not even the one that we had left dead and stuck to the beam.