I had been in Malaysia for three years and I was getting ready to return to France. I spent the last two weeks of my stay in Malaysia visiting all my Malaysian friends. Various people had invited me to thier homes for dinner. My old classmates had held a small classroom party for me. Nina invited me to her house one evening to have dinner with her.
It was a delicious meal and, when we had finished eating, Nina and I went outside to sit on the porch while her mother served coffee. I chatted with Nina about the previous three years and told her that I would be very sad to leave Malaysia. Nina recalled the first time we met and how Cikgu Zahrin had told me what a bomoh was.
"I remember you seemed quite surprised when Cikgu Zahrin told you that one of my jobs was to help people who had been disturbed by ghosts. I also remember that you told me you had an open mind about ghosts."
I said nothing. I just grinned.
"I'd liketo tell you one more story before you leave Malaysia," she said.
"Its about a young boy who didn't believe in ghosts.
I put my coffee cup down and sat back in the rotan armchair. I knew that I would miss Nina and her stories when I got back to France.
''There was once a group of schoolboys who were playing football in a small field on the edge of a rubber estate," she began.
"The boys had brought food and drinks with them and, when the game was over, they had a little picnic. One of the boys was a very good story-teller and he started telling his friends a ghost story which he had heard from his grandfather. The other boys listened to him and enjoyed the story. However, when the boy had finished telling his story, a boy called Chan stood up and said, 'What a stupid story!' All the other boys were surprised. 'What's wrong Chan?' they asked. 'There are no such things as ghosts,' he answered, ' and people who believe in them are stupid.'
'You'd better be careful,Chan,' one of the other boys said. 'Some people say if you dont believe in ghosts, the ghosts will get angry. One of them might appear to you on the way home.' 'Yes,' said another boy. 'You might meet a pontianak!'
"Chan laughed at them. 'Rubbish!' he said. 'Don't be so stupid!' and he walked over to an old tree stump that was a few yards away from them. 'You see this tree stump?' he said. 'If any ghosts appears to me I'll give it a kick, like this,' and he kicked the tree stump.
Chan felt proud of himself. He turned towards the other boys with a big grin. Then he turned towards the tree stump again. He was just about to kick it the second time when,suddenly,he stopped. His face turned white and the smile disappeared from his lips. He stood staring at the tree stump with a look of terror in his eyes.
"Whats the matter,Chan?" asked one of the other boys. Chan tried to speak but no words came out of his mouth. The boys crowded around him. 'Come on, Chan,' they said. 'Tell us what's wrong.'
"Finally Chan managed to say something. 'Look! Look!' he said, pointing at the tree stump.
"Yes,' one of the boys said, 'its an old tree stump.
Whats so special about it?'
'But.......look!' said Chan. 'Cant you see.......'
'See what, Chan?' There's nothing there.
'Nothing there!' exclaimed Chan. What about the gravestone!
'Whats are you talking about, Chan? There's no gravestone,' the others said.
'There is!' screamed Chan. Then he trembled as he said, 'aaannd its got mmmmyy name on it!'
The boys told Chan to clam down. They told him that there was no gravestone but Chan refused to listen to them. In the end, two of the boys took Chan home and told his father what had happened.
Later that evening, Chan became feverish. He sat in an armchair, trembling and talking about the gravestone which had his name written on it. His fathe sent for the doctor and the doctor gave Chan a sedative and asked his father to put him to bed.
"At three o'clock in the morning, his father looked into Chan's room to make sure the boy was all right. He received a terrible shock when he realised that his son wasn't there. The bed was empty! Chan had two older brothers and the father woke them up. They took a couple of tourches and started seaching all over the kampung but they could not find the missing boy anywhere. The next day Chan's father reported his son's disappearence to the police and offered a reward to anyone who found his son.
A few days later, two rubber tappers were walking across a field near a rubber estate. It was the same field where Chan and his friends had been playing football. The rubber tappers had just finnished thier morning's work and they were on thier way home. Suddenly, one of them stopped. 'What's that?' he asked. He had seen something near a group of trees close to the edge of the feild. The two rubber -tappers walked over to have a closer look. It was a young boy. He was lying beside an old tree stump and the boy was dead.
One of the rubber tappers stayed with the boy while the other ran to the estate manager's house. The manager telephoned the police. Ten minutes later, a police car arrived and took away the body. The police sent for Chan's father and he went to the police-station to identify the boy.
Nina leaned forward. "can you guess who it was?'' she asked
"I think so," I replied.
"It was the body of his son, the boy who didn't believe in ghosts!'' said Nina
Nina said nothing for a few seconds. There was a smile on her face as she looked at me straight in the eyes.
"Now tell me something," she said "Do you believe in ghosts?''
-shankr ;)
