I like to travel to small towns around the northern regions
and spend perhaps one or two days there to enjoy the unique foods and natural
resources of each place. Since my travels are normally impromptu, finding
places to stay can be a big problem.
One day, I got an urge to visit Pantai, which is a small
fishing village in the state of Perak. I decided to stay two days there so I
just tugged a piece of t-shirt and some personal effects and off I went to
Pantai with my car. I contacted my pal, Khor but unfortunately due to school
holidays; his spare room was taken by a visiting relative. And, all of the
known lodging facilities were taken up by tourists flocking the small town. So,
my last resort was either looking for a community hall or a family memorial
shrine (宗祠).
Luckily, Khor knew someone and I was able to find a
temporary shelter in Khor’s memorial shrine to spend a night. The person in
charged led me to a small store room just beside the main memorial hall where
hundreds of soul tablets were located. The store room used to be the rest room
for long distance guests but since there weren’t too many visitors from a far,
it was packed with other stuffs. In the centre of the store room was a long
bench with some items stored beneath. I thought at least I could sleep on the
long bench which was about 7 feet in length and 3 feet wide. So I thanked the
person in charged and he reminded me to lock the door and passed him the key
before I left the next morning.
Since the memorial shrine was a little gloomy and scary, I
thought I would just go out early and return late at night to cut short my time
in the store room. After a heavy seafood dinner, I returned to the memorial
shrine around midnight. As soon as I washed myself and ascertained every door
and window is properly shut, I jumped onto the long bench and laid flat face
up.
After a while sleeping, in a dreamy state; I suddenly felt
someone was standing beside me. I opened my eyes and saw a long-beard-grandpa
in white stood by me. He said: “Young man, you have squeezed me so much that I
couldn’t breathe!” The grandpa then used his hands to rub against his waist
indicating that he wasn’t feeling very well with his waist.
Then a grandma in white appeared beside the grandpa. She
said: “Young man, your legs are on my face.”
And then a mid-aged woman came forth and complaint: “Your
buttock is facing me and you farted too frequently tonight… I cannot stand the
farts.”
Another young man in white said: “Your sliver dripped onto
my face…”
All of a sudden, the small store room seemed to be filled
with angry folks. They pushed my body and I rolled off the long bench. As soon
as my body landed hard onto the floor, all of the apparitions were gone. I
switched on the light and found nothing around. And I inspected items stored
under the bench and to my surprised, there were some soul tablets put right
under the long bench. I decided it is better just to sleep on the floor for the
rest of the night. And I experienced no more disturbances after that.
First thing in the morning, I bought some incense and food
offerings for the spirit to console those good brothers and sisters I have
offended. When I passed the keys back to the person in charge and asked him
about the soul tablets I found below the bench. He scratched his head and
replied: “Ah! Those are the tablets that I had taken down from the main altar
due to roof repair work last year. I had totally forgotten about them; how did
you find out?”
I smiled and said: “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told
you!”
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