I don't believe in spirits/ghosts but I don't disbelieve them. I'm not making sense, am I? Ok, let's just say I have a healthy scepticism about things that go bump in the night but at the same time, I also have a healthy open-mindedness about things I can't explain with science.
A Taoist priest (invited by a relative) once told us that there is a "Pak Cik" or "Haji" that "menunggu" behind our house where my late father had planted a rambutan tree. I'm sure most of you know what a Penunggu is but if you are a westerners, well Penunggu simply is a spirit that dwells in an area. The priest said there's nothing we could do about it; we can't evict the spirit because he has been there long before us and perhaps the priest just wouldn't want to mess with the Penunggu.
Once, my brother in-law had a hunger pang in the middle of the night. Everyone else was fast asleep. He woke up and cooked himself a packet of Maggie noodle, he was standing over the cooking stove when he sensed a presence. He looked to his left and there standing before him was an old man in a Batik shirt! He freaked out and ran back to their room. The next morning he related the incidence to my sister (his wife) and my family. To this day, he swore that he was not dreaming. At home, we simply refer to this "being" as the Pak Cik. He's harmless actually and sometime we suspect he is behind some mysterious occurrence that had helped us one way or another. Like things going missing suddenly appearing conveniently etc.
My nephew himself saw an apparition when he was a toddler. He saw a black or shadowy figure skulking them. They were in the living room and he said he saw a very dark man came from the direction of an unoccupied room in the house. The parents looked at the direction the boy pointed but didn't see anyone. They thought nothing more of it and we refrain from talking about it as we did not want to instil fear of ghosts/spirits in the boy. My nephew by the way, grew up to be non chalant about ghosts/spirits, he's the bravest "man" I know. Years later, my brother built his own house and they moved out.
Later, a young cousin of mine (I was in Singapore then) came to stay with my mother. He was maybe about 10 then. They never told him about what my nephew said he saw because kids can have a wild imagination and if you plant an idea of ghost in their heads, then they would start seeing ghosts everywhere. One night, he too said he saw an "Orang Hitam" (dark man) from the very same room.
When my late maternal grandfather was bed stricken, he slept in that room. My grandfather was a man of great faith and very rational in views. Even he confided in my mother that some nights, he was visited by someone who looked like a deceased relative.
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| Lusia |
Fast forward to the wee early morning of today, around 5am. I woke up to relieve myself and found myself unable to go back to sleep. So I decided to watch History Channel in the living room. Lusia, our Indon helper (more like an extended family in fact) had recently returned from Indonesia and offered her service to us again which we gladly took up. She's sleeping in that room but so far she has not reported about any paranormal incident.
I was happily watching TV when my peripheral view caught sight of a movement. I instinctively turned my sight towards the direction of the movement. My view was partly obstructed by a cabinet which we placed against the wall of that room and it was dark as I only turned on one of the lights in the living room. I strained my ear trying to hear any sound of movement. I couldn't hear anything. My eyes were focussed intensely at the direction of that movement I saw. Then I saw it, first I saw the top of a head. From the position of the head, it seemed that the creature was slouching, you know the way someone slouch or bend low when they are sneaking up stealthily on somebody. Then I saw the forehead. It was DARK skinned! "Oh My GOD! is that the Orang Hitam that the kids saw?" my mind was screaming. The creature was moving very slowly as though it wanted to avoid alerting me of its presence.
Then the whole face was exposed, the lighting was low and that creature was dark skinned. From terrified, my adrenalin kicked in and I switched to battle mode (I'm happy to know that in times like this, I actually go on a offensive mode instead of shrieking like a girl hehehe). I yelled in a stern voice (afterall, I am told that the living has authority in the living world than spirits who are not of this realm), "HOI!"
The creature jumped out from where it was hiding and it had the most dreadful look on its face! For a moment it seemed, both of us were frozen in time. I could only see the white of its eyes which were very white inspite of the low light and its mouth was wide open like people do when they are in shock! It bent its knees and both arms were raised above its heads as though in submission(you know like people getting apprehended by the police). As it uttered incoherent words, it waved its arms in the air, left to right and knees were shaking left to right, right to left.
Then I scolded it, "Bloody hell Lusia!! What the hell are you doing scaring me like that!"
Lusia : "You frightened me!"
Me : "I frightened you! You friggin almost make me crap in my pants!"
Later in the morning, I told my mom what happened earlier. Lusia was there. She explained that she heard the TV and went to investigate. She saw me sitting in the dark and I looked like a "patung" (a doll/statue?) because I was not moving. She got scared, that's why she was skulking to take a better look.
So I frightened her, she then frightened me and then later I frightened her back when I yelled "HOI!".
