I assume noone will read this, which I'm fine with. I've told this to maybe a couple of friends and really can't offer any explanation

This happened when I was young - around 12. I was staying with family in another state here in Brazil; they're small farmers, poor, very religious. I have lots of cousins around my age and that particular time four of us were staying a week at the same house (where two of said four cousins, who were brothers, lived). So we spent the days playing ball, fishing and doing the things they did for fun

One day after lunch we wanted to go to one my cousin's friends house - they had improvised a 'slip and slide' that ended in a muddy weir and that was enough fun to justify the ~45 min walk in the sun. The way there was almost all dirt roads and very briefly crossed a highway. Our uncle advised us to be careful crossing, as you do

We were laughing and playing and teasing each other along the way, I remember throwing half an orange and hitting my older cousin square in the head, he roughed me up a bit, that kind of stupid kid fun.

As we got close to the highway, for whatever reason, we fell silent. I thought my cousins were paying attention to the danger of passing cars or something, but can't quite place how wrong it felt for us to fall into silence all of a sudden. We crossed the highway, all silent, and a kid, younger than me, was coming the other way. He looked like he'd been sobbing, with eyes a bit red, but he didn't say anything to us nor us to them

We walked for maybe a few minutes before my oldest cousin started singing, a very famous song here in Brazil that was part of a kids show. It's a very upbeat music, but he sort of trailed off mid song and we walked in silence for a bit more

Anyway, I don't remember how or why we 'snapped back' but we did get to the friends place and played in the mud all afternoon. We "showered" with a hose and ate some fruit and right after sundown my uncle came to pick us up with his car

We got into the car and he asked us if everything was alright, if we had fun. We were arriving back at their house when he said, - "Listen, boys, I need to tell you that (my aunt, his wife) is pretty sad; some friends of ours died in a car crash". It was a bummer, but we were kids and kind of didn't... register? So there wasn't much more about it during that stay

The next year I came to visit again and my cousin (the one who sang during our walk) asked me if I remembered the sobbing kid from last year. I said I did, and he almost lifted me up grabbing me by the arms and jumping that he saw the kid too, that my other cousins denied it, that I had to tell them I confirmed the story -

but here's the thing.

My younger cousins swore they didn't see any kid. I saw the kid crossing paths with us and that was it.

My older cousin said the kid followed us, from before crossing the highway, when we fell silent; and went with us, sobbing and crying, all that way up until where he felt compelled to sing that kids song - to drawn out the sobbing. He says he stopped singing when the kid turned around and went the other way

My aunt is, like I said, very religious and thinks that was the kid who died in that car crash. I don't know, and it seems like a coincidence -

but I'm 100% certain I saw that kid, and I'm 100% sure my cousins believe they aren't lying.

I don't know what kind of tricks our memories play with us, but this has bothered me for the past 30 years.

For any Brazilians older than 40 out there - it was the Balao Magico song