Leprechauns are Real.

It's strange to me that people believe in ghosts, alien E.T.'s, and Cthulhu but not Leprechauns, I honestly believe they should be side by side within a level playing field of possible existence. 

The reason I bring this up is because in my family this is a very real topic and a quick leap from a light hearted to serious discussion when brought up. And yes I know some of you are probably thinking well maybe there is just something wrong with your family but no. I am not alone on this one. This topic ventures into extended family and more than a few outside of it who have seen them in the light of day and most importantly, are not genetically related to me.

The following are said to be real life instances of Leprechaun encounters including one of my own.

My Grandfather's story:
Everyone believes my grandfather brought them to our family from Mexico.
 When he was a young man he was a real life Cowboy. Which meant having to camp in isolated areas of brushy desert for days at a time as they took the cows where they needed to go. 

On one specific night after he and his fellow Cow men set up camp for the night they saw something strange. They saw a few feet away from them a marble that rolled across the ground as if pushed and rolled behind a bush. Then became worried when they saw the same marble pushed back out from behind that bush and back to where it came from a few feet away. This happened repeatedly for a few minutes before it stopped. They worried but the bushes were to short for anyone to hide behind. It was late and dark and I can only imagine they were tired from riding their horses all day so they went to sleep.

They all slept until my grandfather woke in a panic the next morning because he couldn't move. As he looked around himself he realized his blankets had been nailed into the ground around him as well as the other men with him. Each one had had their blankets nailed to the floor in the night. Like some sort of odd prank. From there they forced their way out from under the blankets and the rest is kind of history. They would later be told they found "duendes" or Leprechauns in the desert. A very mischievous and slightly mean creature. Later a short little man started to appear from out of nowhere to my grandfather following him from place to place. He left with him without my grandfather knowing it until he got home.

It is said that my grandfather saw him often and later this little man and others like him would appear and mischievously steal things from the family appearing to each generations children in its own time. And more like him would appear to the children later. Which is why for a good while my mother had a picture of a white horse in her living room and my grandmother several figurines of white horses they believed would fight off an infestation of sorts.

I started to see them, which I was told was common for my age, along with my cousin around the same time when we were both about 5 years old. I still remember going to his house one day when I had been having troubles with them stealing my things for the last couple of weeks. When my cousin told me that he saw a little man and I told him secretly that I had seen one too. Neither of us thought on it to much and went outside to play in his backyard.

Behind his backyard at the time was a very tall wire fence with a gate in the middle that was held shut with a big lock and chain. This fence belonged to the empty property behind the house and was just an empty lot as far as we could see. The chain was loosely holding the gate door closed and we could still manage to open it several inches. Being so little we could still fit through the gap if we wanted. Behind the fence was just a small open field with short tree like bushes and unkempt long grass. While we talked and played I noticed that behind one of the bushes a golden light began to shine just so perfectly that I wondered why it seemed so isolated. My cousin stopped and stared with me and behind the bush came a little man in earthy toned colors and he stood there and stared back at us. He pulled from his pocket what looked like gold coins and showed them to us both.

Come, he said. There is more. He said this in Spanish and I felt  that I should feel afraid but at the same time so curious, all I wanted was to know what was behind the bush. I couldn't help it. I crouched down to start fitting myself through the gap between the locked gate and fence. I wanted to know. My cousin put his hand on my shoulder and told me to stop, "you cant go in there," he said. Then he looked at the little man and told him "no" in a confident voice even for a child. The little man looked at me letting the pieces shine and almost gesturing to the glowing light behind the bush. But I was standing next to my cousin again and I realized that I needed to listen to the fear I should have been feeling. "No" I said reluctantly back. He hobbled away behind the bush and the light disappeared.

Looking back at this I think how lucky I am to have not made it to the other side of that gate, to have been stopped by my cousin.
For all I know now that could have been something evil or worse a real person with evil intentions. Actually I am not sure which is worse but both I only barely avoided. 

Thankfully as I got older I realized how widespread this phenomenon is. This last mention belongs to a boy in my eighth grade class. 
He and I were in a group discussion trading ghost stories with the rest of the class when he chimed in and said "That's not scary, where I grew up there were Leprechauns and they scared the life out of me." His stories were similar to most of mine as far as his things going missing then showing up in extremely odd places in his house. But what I love the most and found the most curious about his story is that he was actually grabbed by one, like a monster in an old horror movie. He claimed that one night when letting his feet dangle off the edge of his bed, a tiny hand shot out and grabbed his ankle, hard. He screamed and jumped off the bed, he would later see that it was a little man under there in earthy toned clothes. This little man was also quick and good at hiding in odd places as well. He would find him and others like him in his closet and hiding under the stairs. After that all I can recall from this conversation was that he had never been happier than to hear that his parents wanted to move from their old Leprechaun ridden house.

Thanks for reading.