Snuggling under the warm comfort of my blanket on that recent cold Merdeka morning, the last thing I would want to do then was to get up and watch some sohais shouting ‘Merdeka!’ on tv.
It’s not that I’m no longer patriotic anymore but strangely, I don’t know whether I am having hearing problems or what these days…or is it because the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock is still fresh and lingering in mind, but damn it, each time someone mentioned the word ‘Merdeka!’, it somehow sounded like “MURDER-ka?” to me!
After lazing in bed for a while, I decided to get out of the room to greet my son, Charles who should be up and face-booking by then in the living room..but what greeted me as I stepped out of my room that morning almost made my heart stopped!
Right before me was this fully cloaked creepy figure squatting on Charles’s chair and meddling with his laptop!
My mind went blank for a few seconds and the first thought that came upon me was that it was still the Chinese ‘hungry Ghost’ month and there.... right before my eyes in my living room was this horrendous ‘thing’!
Before I could finish exclaiming “Oh my f@%king gawd!” the hood came down and a familiar head popped out asking, “Choe mee yeah? (What’s up?)”
and continued with,“Walau! You look so scared la, dad. Thought you saw ghost issit? hehehe…..Where got ghost so clever, knows how to play Facebook on laptop one leh? kekeke!”Niamah!..It was just my equally eccentric son, Charles who was too lazy to put on a shirt, wrapping himself with a blanket instead on that extremely cold morning.
Apparently, Charles must have forgotten that particular scary hair-raising incident we had when we were staying at the old terrace house some years ago. For history, those houses there were built on a plot of land which was part of the Chinese cemetery some 50 years ago!
We were watching a DVD movie in the living room one weekend and since it was already 2 am, we decided to continue the movie in my bedroom upstairs.
After our usual pre-bed personal hygienic routine were done, we turned off all the lights on the ground floor, leaving just a small green night light on in the living room and hurried up the stairs to my bedroom to continue watching the movie as planned.
Up in my bedroom, we realized that we had forgotten about the disc which was still in the player in the living room downstairs. Charles volunteered to get the disc and hurried out of the room before I could say “Forget it, it’s already late”.
The next thing I heard was a loud but short “ARGGGHHH!” from outside my bedroom door! I then saw a terrified Charles rushed back into the room and latching the door in panic!
I kept asking him, “What happened?” and each time I got the same murmuring answer….
“Nothing.. nothing.. err just nothing..forget it.” he kept insisting, failing miserably in his attempt to act like everything was fine even though he was looking terrified.
Trying his best to regain his composure and not wanting to worry me further he suggested we watch something else. This made me even more curious and upon my persistent questioning, he finally confided to me that he saw something spooky downstairs!….
He had caught a glimpse of someone or something sitting at my computer table which was just near the bottom of the stairs!
“Could it be a burglar?” I asked in a whisper while reaching out for my torch and the rattan stick I used to keep in the bedroom for security reason.
“No!...errrr…I.. I.. I dddon’t ttthink so, dad….It was clearly a pair of a young lady's legs I saw! I dared not even look up to see the rest of her!"
Isshhhh!! I felt goose bumps suddenly all over my arms as my mind started to picture what Charles allegedly saw…How could there be a 'lady’ sitting at my computer table in the dimly lighted living room downstairs at that strange wee hour of the morning?
I took a deep breath and said a very short but precise ‘Yeh Soh’ prayer before telling Charles that we had to go downstairs to check things out.
I turned on all the lights available in my room and started moving around the room in heavy stumping steps on purpose, talking louder than usual and making as much noise as I could…hoping that, that ‘thing’ downstairs could get the impression that I still got my balls intact..(even though they could have been reduced to ‘kacang putih’ size! lol!)
Charles stood close behind me with one hand on my shoulder as I opened the room door. I could see that he was all tensed up, probably thinking~ Gosh! What if that ‘thing’ had already climbed the stairs and was just outside waiting for us behind the room door?
I shone my torch immediately down the stairs and every corner of the living room that I could reach from the top of the stairs. For the first time, I realized that green color bulb is not a wise choice for a night-light. It was creepy and eerie!
Taking another deep breath to steady myself, I walked down the stairs with Charles tailing behind me like we were a lion dance team... stumping our feet on the wooden planks hard to make thumping sounds as our final ‘warning’ to whatever or whoever who had intruded into our home that morning.
Thank God we found nothing unusual after checking every nook and corner on the ground floor and finally went to bed feeling more comfortably secured that night... errrr... with all the lights in the house left on of course!
We kept this incident to ourselves without telling Jboy, my elder son until we moved out of that old house years later.
