Instructions On Or Rather Examples Of How To Be Afraid

In a small town in Scotland they sell books with one blank page hidden somplace in the volume. If the reader opens to that page and it's three o'clock in the afternoon, he dies.
In the Piazza Quirinal in Rome, there is one spot, unknown even to the initiated after the nineteenth century, from which, under a full moon, the statues of the Dioscuri can be seen move, fighting against their horses ad they rear back
At Amalfi, where the seacoast ends, there's a jetty which stretches out into the sea and night. Out beyond the last lighthouse, you can hear a dog bark.
A man is squeezing toothpaste onto his brush, all of a sudden he sees the tiny figure of a woman lying on her back. coral sort of, or a breadcrumb that's been painted.
Opening the door of the wardrobe to take out a shirt, an old almanac falls out which comes apart immediately, pages falling out and crumbling, and covers the white linen with millions of dirty paper butterflies.
There was a story about this traveling salesman whose left wrist began to hurt him, just under his wrist watch. When he removed the watch, blood spurted out. The wound showed the imprints of very tiny teeth.
The doctor finishes his examination and his conclusions are very reassuring to us. His cordial and somber voice precedes the medicines, prescriptions for which he is writing out at the moment, seat behind his desk. Every once in a while he raises his head and smiles, to cheer us up. We don't have a thing worry about, we'll be better inside of a week. We sit at ease in our easy chair, happy, and look idly and distractedly about the room. In the shadowed area beneath the desk, suddenly we see the doctor's legs. The trousers are pulled up to just above the knees and he's wearing women's stockings.

Julio Cortázar.