Thursday, October 13, 2016

Midnight Kids Of Tanjung Bungah (午夜小孩)


There are two roads leading to Tanjung Bungah: one is through the Tanjung Bungah Road and the other is a narrower and winding road, Mt. Erskine. The former road is wider with clearer view than the later and the first road is always the choice; but the second one provides a shorter route. Having said so, since the Mt. Erskine passes through a Chinese cemetery, rumour has it that one part of the winding road is said to be haunted at night.

My pal, Wong is a salesman and his house is in Tanjung Bungah. As a local since childhood, he is very familiar with both of the roads. One night he decided to use Mt. Erskine road to return to his home as it was approaching midnight and he was very tired after entertaining some potential customers downtown. The only thing in his mind then was to return home, take a hot water bath and sleep. So, as usual he drove along the road and everything lust looked normal. The road in front and behind him was in dead silent and complete darkness with street lights far in between.

As Wong was approaching the sharpest corner, he saw a white thick fog gathered in the corner. As a seasoned driver, Wong’s first reflexes was to move his foot from the gas paddle and pressed the brake to slow down his car. Of course, seeing fogs on roads during midnight is nothing strange. But Wong claimed to have seen a group of kids appeared within the fog and they appeared to be crossing the road.

It was a split of a second decision if Wong was to stop or to ram ahead. And for no explicable reasons, Wong has chosen to step on the brake and the car came to an emergency stop right in front of the fog. As the car was stopping, he sworn to have seen all of the kids turned to him, smiled and waved at him. Wong said later that he wanted to return the favour but he was frozen with fright and he could only trembled: Where did the kids from during the dead of the night? As far as Wong knew, that that stretch of the road passes through the middle of a granite hill and no one stays near or around…

Suddenly a motorcycle sound came from Wong’s back and in a second or two, the motorcycle zoomed passed Wong’s car and rammed into the fog with the kids. And almost instantly, the kids and the motorcycle disappeared into the fog. Almost immediately too, Wong heard a loud bang and then there was a dead silent. After that, the fog in front of Wong started to disperse. Strangely speaking at this point, Wong returned to his senses and he restarted his car and proceeded carefully.

A more shocking scene came to Wong’s sight when his car went passed the sharp corner: there he saw the wreckage of a motorcycle wedged in between the granite wall and a boulder. With no intention to investigate if the driver was alive or otherwise; Wong sped off and rammed into his home; and directly jumped into his bed until morning.

After Wong has told me his experience, I just smiled and said: “You know, with all those ‘mat rempit’ (illegal racers) around; you should not travel in the dead of the night.”

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