A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW

    ByBussell Lee
       Hawker
          I know of this lady who lives somewhere in the upper Serangoon Road area,
you know, in one of those tiny bungalows in a labyrinth of lanes. She reads the future
by using Tarot cards.
          I was introduced to her by a friend. I was fascinated by these things, you see,
and I wanted to learn more about them.   went to her house. It was very dark inside.
She shut all the windows and doors. I wondered how she could stand the heat. The
room was very elaborately decorated, full of wall-hangings and ornaments. Some of
then looked exotic. And there was wonderful fragrance in the air, it came from some
kind of incense she was burning.
          Madam KK, this wore a pakistani veil and dress. But she was Eurasian. She
had these large black, eyes that wound stare unmovingly at you and made you feel
uncomfortable. She was an intimidating person.
          She told my fortune by reading the cards. There was a crystal ball on the
table too, but she didn't use it. She explained very patiently to me what all the
symbols ,meant, and their positions, what my future wound be like.
         Her predictions were very true. I went there five times and every time what
she foretold came to pass. She seemed to know many things about me. She was
quite amazing.
          I admired her so much I wanted to learn the skill of reading the Tarot from
her. But she said a person must have special capabilities to use them, and I hadn't
inherited the "gift". I asked what she meant by "special". Then she demonstrated.
She stood up and disappeared!
           It scared me so much because I knew only  ghosts could do things like that.
I didn't wait for her to return and quickly scampered out of the house. If you have
to be a ghost to learn the Tarot, then forget it!
          But I remembered to leave her something in this big glass bowl she kept by
the table. She said she used it to save up money to give to charity. I gave her
double the usual amount. I didn't want her knocking at my door, asking for her
fee.
         
       

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL

      By Russell Lee
      Confectioner
          This happened to my niece. She invited a group of friends home
on a public holiday. They played with a board which had alphabets you
could roll around which then, formed words. The contraption was very
expensive and it was for talking with the spirits. Then one of her girlfriends
wanted to talk to her grandmother. She asked her grandmother what life
after death was like. When they were rolling the thing, the girlfriend felt a
nip on her forefinger. It began to bleed.
          But the thing continued to move. The blood stained the board and
to everyone's alarm, it formed the Chinese character for "beautiful".
          The girlfriend, after some thought, realised why it had to be so. Her
grandmother had to communicate by using blood instead of spelling it out
on the board. The reason was evident to her: her grandmother didn't
know any english.

TOUCH ME NOT

     By Russell Lee
      Dentist
        A  few years ago, I visited the Bato Caves in Malaysia during
Thaipusam.. It was a fascinating time. Although it wasn't entirely new
to me, having seen kavadis being carried in Singapore before, it was
nevertheless an awe-inspiring experience, particularly since the place
was much larger and there must have been thousands of Indians
there at the time.
         Though I am actually half-Indian, my family and I are Mormons.
I found the procession itself quite bizarre, but my children, both teen-
agers, insisted on revelling in the mystery of it all. They squeezed into
crowd and pressed their way to the front of the spectators to get a
better view.
         The Hindu followers trooped past.
         I had learnt a little about the rituals. The believers or Suibra-
maniam have to fast for sixteen days, during which they are counselled
and then hypnotised by their priest. On the day of Thaipusam, silver
wires, spears, needles and all sorts of sharp things will be attached to
their bodies. For some it is to prove their devotion, others to do
penance. The ashes of the dead will be smeared on the wounds. This
is said to invoke the assistance of the spirits in the ordeal these wor-
shippers would be undergoing.
          There at the Batu Caves the trial was fiercer than anywhere else.
All devotees not only had to endure the pain of self-mutilation, they had
to persevere and compel themselves to climb 272 steps leading up to
the temple! These people must have such overpowering faith.
         And I recall standing there, watching in awe. I suddenly caught
sight of my son, David, who reached out and touched one of the
believers passing by The boy had no respect for other religions. I was
about to call out to him to stop it. But David fell back instantly at the
contact. He shouted in pain.
         I rushed over to him. And be kept howling, while the worshippers
danced all around him in a trance. Then I looked at his hand. It was really
strange, for his fingers were scorched all over.
         I took him to a doctor in town, who simply prescribed an ordinary
ointment used for burns. I sensed that David's injury was more that just
that., My  intuition proved correct.
         That night, David just screamed in agony. He complained about his
hand hurting, as if his flesh was truly in flames. I was extremely worried,
but apart from praying there was little I could do. Perhaps in the morning,
I could take him to see another doctor.
         It continued till dawn. I was putting ice on the wound throughout the
night. At daybreak, David fell asleep abruptly. He looked as if he were
dead. I got rather frantic, but discovered he was in deep sleep. At least,
his breathing was slow and constant, and there was no fever.
         It was then I saw glowing golden smoke drift out of his fingers into
the air. It was a translucent, twirling shape, which dispersed into the at-
mosphere  like any natural gas.
         I now think it was the spiritual manifestation of a dead person that
I saw. It must have entered David's body when his hand touched the
ashes. That was why David felt such pain. It was a pain derived from that
Thaipusam pilgrim.
         Served David right. It was time he learnt to respect other religions.
I must say it was also an eye-opener for me.Now I know what a dead
person's soul can look like. There is only word for it Beautiful.

LETTER FROM HELL

By Russell Lee
        Student
        This is my brother's story.
        He doesn't like to read, but while in school there were always
lot's of projects to complete, so he didn't have much choice.
        Once, he was doing on Chinese mythology and picked up a
book about Hell. It was a swell book and had lots of vivid des-
criptions of the various punishments and torture techniques
used in the eighteen different  levels of Hell. While he was flipping
through the pages, a slip of yellow jotter-book paper dropped out.
He opened it.
         It was letter in Chinese. It was written in a strange manner
and there were many words that he didn't understand. But on the
whole, the letter talked about reclaiming the life of a person
called Lee C----Y----, living in the Katong area.
        My brother thought it was some kind of sick joke until the
next morning he saw the obituary of the very same person the letter
had mentioned. He went back to the library aqnd found the book.
But the letter was gone.
         Where did it go?

BLOOD-SUCKER

      By Russell Lee
           What? You don't believe there are pontianaks? Just wait till
you hear this one
            I lived in a zinc-roofed house in the forest pretty near the
Botanic Gardens.  Its was quite secluded and most people didn't
know about it, although you could usually get a peep at it, When
you passed by the road. Outsiders had a name for us. They called
us "squatters".
            One evening, when I was eight, I was walking home after
playing the whole afternoon. I think it was some time between seven
 or eight, whilst crossing a little bridge that sat over a ditch, I saw a
shadow standing very still behind a banana tree. It was planted
beside my house. I didn't think it was cursed or haunted.. But it was
so dark then shadow looked so threatening, I could't but tread
softly, fearing to attract its attention. I thought the shadow must be
the awful creature my mother told me about to keep me from coming
home late, the pontianak.
              I took care not to make a sound. But, accidentally, I stepped
on a twig. C-r-a-c-k! I saw a face look from behind the banana tree.
It was pure evil!
              The creature had white glistening teeth. Its hands held some-
thing white and bloody. To my horror I realised it was my pet rabbet,
Joey. The creature had killed Joey! I felt angry, sad and frightened all
 at the same time. Then the creature's mouth widened into a smile.
               I ran away as fast as my legs could manage. Behind, I
could hear the creature in pursuit. My heart thumped faster than a firing
machine-gun. I could almost feel its hot breath on my neck. I tripped
and fell.
              The pontianak and past me but it turned round. I never felt
more afraid in my life. It was too late to run.
               When you are cornered, you have no choice but to fight.
I summoned every ounce of courage in my being and picked up the
nearest object and threw it at the creature. The metal cake-can hit
the pontianak's eye. It howled in pain. In my panic and bravado, I
quickly picked up debris on the ground and flung it. The rocks, sticks
and glass bottles hit the creature. My last missile, a red brick, slammed
into its forehead and it started bleeding.
              "Eeeeee!" it howled.
              The pontianak scuttled away in fear. Encouraged, I chased it,
anything I could pick up. The thought of what it did to Joey made me
really angry. I chased the pontianak until it disappeared into the dark-
ness. I would have liked to have gone on chasing it but was out of
breath. I tried searching for Joey but could not find him.

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT

              By Russell Lee

              Remember the amusement park in Kallang that used to the
        favourite haunt of many a couple? It's gone now, but one
        incident in that place well haunt me for as long as I live. It hap-
        pened on the Ferris wheel.
               It was a cool night and my girlfriend was holding on to me.
        We were enjoying the romantic starry night when we both saw
        a hazy figure moving  rapidly towards us. As we were almost
        reaching the apex of the structure, the wheel stopped. We were
        trapped in the meshed-up cubicle. In fear, we waited.
              The figure came rapidly and melted into the cage as if it was
        the most natural thing to do. What shocked us further was that
        the figure didn't stop. It went right through us and out of the cage.
        Then there was this sick feeling in our hearts.
               My girlfriend and I felt very depressed and upset. We went
         home immediately and fell into a miserable state for a few days.
         We broke up soon  afterwards. Some bomohs that I went to
         see said it was a spirit that was being punished by a god. It
         just happened that we were in its path and it shared its feeling
         with us.
           Till this day, the feeling of misery still overwhelms me sometimes.

A THRILLER

             By Russell Lee
       
          An army corporal serving at Cable Car Towers was performing
     guard duty. There was another guard with him, but they had to take
     turns staying awake. One was snoring in the guard-room while the
     other sat in the little booth on the ground floor.
          He was reading a book of ghost stories.The story he was reading
     was reading was entitled "Demon Lover".Ah Seng flipped the pages
     eagerly, his eyes glued to the book. Ah Kow, his eyes fellow guard,
     gave off a loud snort behind. Ah Kow turned onto his side and
     began mumbling something. He must be having a nightmare, for
     there was a twinge of horror in his voice.
          Ah Seng ignored the disturbance. The ghost stories were ex-
     trembly absorbing, for these were the sleazy kind you find from
     Hong Kong. Perfectly mind-boggling. He consumed page after page
     of The Erotic Ghost Story when an eerie wind blew.
            It sounded like the sighing of a sexy woman.
            Ah Seng looked up from his book and scanned the surroundings.
     Trying to pick out things in the darkness was always a creepy process.
     You will your eyes to pierce through the murky cloak, but simulta-
     neously, your inner springs of fantasy burst into action, concocting
     the wildest of creatures to delude your sharpest senses.
            What was that whitish shape that flitted across the steps? And
     that grey shape squatting so still in that corner? Was it a . . .
            His imagination wandered; but Ah Seng restrained himself.
      Now, this is no way to stand guard. You won't last through to morning.
     scaring yourself like that.
            Then he thought he heard feet shuffling. Ah Seng pinked up
     courage and emerged from his booth. He switched on his torchlight.
            "Who's there?" he shouted.
            Silence. No one was there.
            Ah Seng heaved a sigh of relief. In the night, he thought he heard
     another sigh of relief-and it wasn't his. His heart racing, Ah Seng yelled,
     "You! Show yourself! Stop playing tricks, this is not funny!"
           And it showed itself.A horrible head with gigantic, bulging eyes
     flew past him. It was leering wickedly, its white teeth showing, its lips
     were red as blood. And dangling, where the neck was detached from
     the body, were the innards the throat, the intestines, the veins. . .
           "Ahhhhh!" Ah Seng's blood-curdling scream pierced the silence of
     the night.
             The Medical Officer examined his body three hours later. He
     pronounced the poor soldier dead.His conclusion was Ah Seng had
     died of a heart attack.
             The Duty Officer called up the other guard for questioning. This
     corporal revealed all that he knew:  I really don't know what
     happened. You see, I got up in the middle of the night, sir, for a
     leak. I went to the toilet and relaxed,  when suddenly I heard
     him scream ... like killing pig like that. When I came out, he was
     already lying son the floor."
            Everyone was quite mystified. What could have happened?
     What did Ah Seng see  that frightened him to death?
            They searched around for clues, but there was hardly anything
     helpful. They did, however, see in a nearby tree, a kite caught in the
     branches.
            It had a happy face, with big eyes and a wide smile. And
     dangling in the wind were strand  stand of colourful crepe paper.
           Innards? Throat? Intestine?

TO SIR WITH FEAR

By  RUSSEL LEE

Musician,male, 22

      Nobody ever dared to offend the Enrik in my

school this was becaused whoever did so would

have the worst pains inflicted upon him. By this,

I don’t mean that he tied you up and whipped you

or cut up your guts.teachers don’t do things like

that. But there are other dark methods no one

ever hears of....

      My Encik taught us Malay. During the day,

he was soft-spoken and conservative. He never

lost his temper, but the senior assistant didn’t

like him. It seemed that there were complaints of

Enrick being “complacent”. When I discussed this

with my  classmates, they said it meant that Encik

was lazy and never did his work properly.

       I suppose there was some truth in it. Of all my

teachers, Encik did give the least homework and

the highest marks. He would have been the first on

my popularity list if he was not sickeningly boring.

      His lessons consisted of countless yawns, espe-

cially on hot afternoons, yet would rap our heads in

a most irritating manner if he cought us snoozing.

bloody inconsiderate. As students, of course, we

couldn’t say anything. But there were thesen who

weren’t willing to take this and criticised him like

anything.

       And that was when the trouble started.

       The critical senior assistent was the first to

experience his fury. One day, he called theEncik

Into his office for a good talking to. Apparently, it

was about some administrative matters that the

Encik had not finished punctually. Halfway throuh,

the senior assistant gave a loud  yell and ran out

shouting , ‘help, monster!” He kept on spouting

gibberish. He claimed the Enrick had transformed

Ionto a fiery red creature and ordered him to mind

his own buniness. Otherwise the creature would

teach the senior assistant a painful lesson.

       The staff room was thrown into unprecedented

uproar. The strange thing was that Encik had been

the principal for the past hour and there was no

way he could have been with the senior assistant at

the same time.

       Then the senior assitant  broke into convulsions

and writhed on the floor in agony. He kept screeching.

“There is something biting me from inside! Take it out,

quick! Stop” The biology teacher gave him a thorough

body check, but there was nothing to be seen. What

could it be that was gnawing at him?

      They sent him to the hopital, to no avail. The doctors

could not detect any physical problem. Finally, his family

asked a bomoh to help. The bomoh said that it had been

the mischief of “firedevils” which had beset him. They

were probadly reared by an enemy of the senior assis-

that’s and sent to torture him.

      Ah, the Encik- no one dered to confront him after that.

no, not even the principal himself. Everyone was sweet

and friendly to the Encik.

       Until one day, an ignorant parent came. She com-

plained that the Encik had raped her son on the head with

his during lesson.

       “Corporal punishment”, she bawled in the staff room,

“is no longer applicable in our modern age. How can you

use violence on a young, defenceless student?”

       Outside, we students were watching with bated breath.

It was recess time. Knowing what had happened to our

senior assistant, we waited eagerly for the showdown.

It came.

       The mother was about to continue with her commotion

when she suddenly doubled up and whined in distress.

“My stomach”, she cried, “so painful” It becama so bad

She went on her knees.

She begged piteously, “Im sorry! Please, whatever

spirits I’ve offended, Im sorry! I will burn you offerings...”

Then, and then only, did her pain cease. I remember

seeing the only, did her pain cease. I remember seeing the

smug snile of satifaction on Encik’s face.

       My friends and I kept a close watch on the Encik after

that. There was once we caught him preparing some offerings

at a deserted spot behind the science laboratories. He was

praying, facing theest. In front of him was a whole chicken,

egg and some yello rice, placed on a banana leaf. But that was

merely a fleeting glance. We didn’t dare to keep looking.

      Later, though no one said it aloud, the whole school knew

that Encik was in lengue with some eveil spirits. Our principal

arranged for Encik to be transferred, on the excuse that it

Was some sort of promotion. But this didn’t fool anybody.

Encik himself knew that the school feared him. I don’t

think he liked it at all.

      We were on our toes the entire period before he left,

careful not to incur his wrath. I was sure the teacher

heaved a sigh of relief after the obligatory farewell party.

But he relief after the obligatory farewell party. But he

created havoc before he left. Our canteen caught fire that

Saturday after and was burnt to ashes. My art teacher was

especially heart-broken, because all his masterpieces in the

attached art storeroom had been destryed in the flames.

       Many reason were given for the fire. But no one men-

tioned the Encik at all . In the end, my art teacher was blamed.

They said something about his flammable oil-paints. But for

those of us in the picture, we knew the truth.

 It must have been the Encik’s fire-devils.

THE EXORCIST

By  RUSSEL LEE

Nurse, female, 54

      I was sitting in church one day listening to

Rev. LEE preach. There was a strange lady who

Came in, she had a very strong odour. After

About ten minutes of sitting behind me and doing

Nothing, she suddenly screaming and

shouting at Rev. Lee, saying his words were rub-

bish. She called him all sorts of vulgar names and

flung the chairs to the floor. We were all very

frightened. We all prayed.

      A few brothers caught hold of her but she

Was extremely strong. It took about six of us

Brothers and sisters to hold her down.

Rev. Lee told most of the congregation to go

Out. He kept  a few of us who were stronger in

Faith. We prayed continously for a few hours,

Calling on the Lord for the help. I heard the lady

Speak in many differrent voices. Finally, she passed

Out. Rev. Lee said the evil spirits had been subdued

And cast out.

      We looked her to one of our homes. Since then

We have tried helping her. She is quite normal

Now, but something she will ;ook into the air with

A glassy expression on her face. She makes me wonder.

TROUBLE IN A BOTTLE

By  RUSSEL LEE

Mechanic, Male, 40

       I throuht Toyols were native Malay ghosts

but it is seems they are internationally available.

       My speculation is the result of some infor-

Matio the aprentice at my garage has given

Me. He has a foster father in Hongkong who

Earns a lot of money. Everybody thinks Lady Luck

Has smile on him, but my apprentice, Peng,

Knows better.

        Peng once stayed at his foster fehter’s house.

There he saw two bottles on an altar. They looked

Very stranger, being painted completely black on

The outside. There were long thin slips of yellow

Paper pasted on them. He wasn’t sure  what they

Were, at first, but after careful observation, he

Learnt that they were homes for tiny “pixies” that

His foster father was rearing.

        You can send pixies on assignments to tor-

ment your enemies or discover their secrets. But

Each time you see them, you have to feed them

Food. They will grow into full-fledged ghosts later,

After which you grow more dependent on them

And they on you. If you ever do anything to offend

Them, they can punish you severely.

        Peng soon realised what they were when he

Saw his foster father always putting food, such as

Grains of rice, at the altar after every meal.

Whenever he went by, he never failed to notice

That the food really grew less. When he leaned

Closer to look, he could see tiny bites in the altar

Food. The thought of them made his skin crawl.

         On once occasion, he was in the sitting room

Alone. That was where the altar was located, just

Beside the main door. Being the sort who loves

Poking around, he touched the bottle to feel its

Texture. To his surprise, a powerful electrical flow

Passed though his body. He felt ill immediately

Afterwards. Peng was sick for two weeks. His

Foster father did not suspect anything at all and

thought he had caught the flu.

         I was very annoyed becaused there was no one

To help me at the garage. But when i heard his

Story. I forgave him. I thought it was fascinating,

That these pixies sounded exactly like toyols, ex-

Cept that toyols here are said to suck the blood of

Thier owners from thier toes. It would be inter-

testing to find out if there are any biological or

Spiritual links between them.

SUPER NANNY

  Taxi driver
      I was too young to know anything then.
      Just a baby you know.
      My Indonesian nanny, who was a faithful servant, told me I
  nearly got killed by a spirit once.
      Mine was a huge house at .Pasir Panjang.
      At the time, around December, I was  only about one month old.
      The monsoon rains were pouring then.
My nanny was doing some sewing by the light of a kerosene lamp.
      She was sitting in the common living area.
      It was also where she slept, in a foldable bed.
      I was napping in a bundle, hanging from the ceiling.
      This was located in my parent's bedroom.
      That night, my parents had gone to wedding dinner.
      Only nanny and I were in the house.
      While she was squinting at her button-holes, nanny suddenly thought
she heard a sound coming from the bedroom.
      Because of her concern for me, she investigated.
      The room was dark.
      But a figure stood before the hammock.
      Its back was facing my nanny.
      Realising the danger I was in nanny immediately picked up the potty
nearby and flung it at the intruder.
      It hit home with a clang.
      But the intruder seemed unhurt.
      The sky flashed with lightning, and in that instant, nanny saw the face
of a woman.
      However, nanny could see she wasn't human.
      The skin was unusually pale, and those long finger-nails stuck out
sharper that any razor.
      She had long silky hair and a slim, shapely body.
      Then, the snarled.
      And nanny saw her fangs.
      She was drooling in hunger, nanny explained later.
      My brave nanny screamed and snatched me away before the
hantu could get me.
      She rushed into the living area which was bright and well-it.
      The hantu did not dare follow.
      It was also fortunate that my parents returned home at that point.
      The sound of more people probably scared the hantu away, for when
my nanny told them what had happened, they all entered the bedroom
together to check it out.
      The creature was gone.
      They combed the bedroom and found a three-inch-long finger-nail.
      In the end, they had to believe my nanny's story.
      Since then, they have always kept lights on at night.
      Whet I tell you is completely true.
      If you wish, you could come and take a look at the finger-nail, which
I have kept in my drawer till today
     

CHINATOWN SPIRIT

by: RUSSELL LEE

                 

GYM Instructor

      One evening, my friends and I were walking

round Chinatown. We met a ghost.

      It took in a dark alley, with some name I can’t

rememeber. We were actually walking around

looking at girls and hoping to bump into some

hookers or something. That was how we discovered

this fortune-telling stall. It had this very old woman

sitting at it, playing with some cards.

      My friends wewre rowdy that night, not having met

any interesting chicks. So they pushed me into having

my fortune told, and pestered me until I gave in to

them. But I managed to get them to share the cost of

the service with me.

      The old woman was quite ordinary, like any seventy or

eighty-year- old lady you’d find in the marketplace. Of

course I was taking it casually, llaughing and joking, not

putting any seriousness in it. The woman took my hand,

asked me some questions which I ‘gabra like mad”

about, then she told me a very surprising thing. She said,

‘Tonight, you will meet a ghost”.

      I had this eerie feeling at the time. No one ever told for-

tunes like that, from what I knew. But my friends were so light

hearted and joked so much about it I didn’t place any importance

on it.

then as we were leaving the place and reached the other end

of the alley, we ran into this old man who wore  singlet. He

looked into my race and started saying I was going to meet

with some misfortune. He said, “ Come to my stall. I well tell

you hand and led us back into the ally. As usual my friends were

getting entertained  non-stop at my expense.

      Then we discovered a weird thing. This man took us to his stall,

which was the same one as the old woman’s. We asked and he told

us he had gone to the loo just now. When we told him about the

woman, he asked, “What woman?” Then his expression of

puzzlement froze, as his eyes bulged at the sight of something be-hind

us. We turned around and saw. The same old weman was walking away

with her back to us.

but from where we were standing, it was quite clear that the woman

had no feet, she was just floating towards the wall at the end of the

blind alley. We got away as fast as we could from that place.

      The very next day I had an accident while riding my motorbike and

tore my brand new leather jacket. Of all the rotten luck.

WITCHCRAFT

by: RUSSELL LEE

     Witchcraft exists in many forms in many xocieties.

voodoo, black magic, Taoist sorcery, Shamanism

these are all part of the same process whereby deeds

are committed through supernatural means. However,

“witchcreft” as a general definition has been combined

with that of Satan worship and hardful black magic. It

Is assumed to be diabolical, evil and destrutive.

      Hence witches have been blamed in the past for all

sorts of misfortunes, ranging from the untimely death of

one’s pet to freaky weather. T he witch-hunts took place

In the fifteenth century are but examples of the amount

of hatred and fear ordinary peoples felt against witches.

      In Eastern societies, supernatural activities do not

possess the stigma they suffer in the West, ans are not

regarded as taboo. They are not labelled evil by virtue of

their un-Christian. Rather, good magic that does good

receives positive response and evil magic that does evil is

condemned.

      The Malay bomoh is an equivalent of the sorcerer in our

region, as are the Chinese Taoist, the medicinal Buddhist

monk, the temple medium, etc. It is interesting to note that

their methods are as different as their cultural heritage.

WHO’S THE BOSS?

by: RUSSELL LEE

Aspiring businesswoman

      My cousin said his lady boss was a monster. At first,

I thought it was just peronal dislike, but later I found

out he meant it literally.

      According to my cousen, there was once he worked

overtime. It was late and he was the last one in his

office. Suddenly, there was a tap on his shoulds. He turned

around anhd saw his lady boss- but she had sharp teeth in

her mouth, like a vampire’s! She ordered him to take off his

shoes,

      She pushed him onto the floor and grabbed his bid toe.

Then she sucked and sucked, and he fainted. When my

cousin woke up, she was gone. The following morning she

looked normal again. But she warned him not to tell anyone

about it!

      That is why my cousen is very afraid of his lady boss. But

he’s not complaining. He got promoted anyway.

THE THIRD EYE

by: RUSSELL LEE

Policewoman, 35

      I once had a neighbour who lived in the HDB unit

next to ours. He was a very strange guy, who helped

out at the coffee xhop nearby. He had crewcut hair, a

wrinkled face, a very large head with protruding eyes

and a big oily mouth just like the character in the movie

E.T. I had always thought he looked extremely ugly.

      He not looked weird but also acted like an alien. He

did not much. He had this queer habit of looking at you as

If you were his enemy. He might look at you with another

expression another time, as if you were an out-of-the-way,

Ultra-special specimen, or as if you just weren’t there at all.

He was the kind you would avoid at first glance, thingking

he was insane.

      My sisters and I sometimes laughed at him. He did not

seem to dislike us for that, and we thought he didn’t

notice. But an elderly man caught us giggling at him. He

sternly told us to respect our neighbour. He tolde us JK, the

neighbour, could see ghosts.

      JK, he said, was born with the third eye, in the way of the

three-eyed god,Erlang Shen. JK could see the world not

meant for mortals. It was more of a curse than a blessing , for

such an ability not only tormented thee life of the person,

making it totally fearful and depressing, but also shortened

his life-span.Such chosen ones die young said the elderly man.

     Sure enough, JK died a few months later. Those who attended

his funeral. Held at the void deck of our block, whispered that he

was only twenty-nine at the time. I was astounded when I heard it,

for JK appeared much, much older. It was also that he died of natural

causes which didn’t soound at all natural to me, since he was not

so old.

      And there countless visitors discussing his special power. JK could see

ghosts clinging to certain places and persons, he could see if a location

was under spiritual influences, or if certain illnesses were due to the

Influence of harmful spirits.

      It was uncomfortable for me to suddenly hear that the person I so

despised actuallky possessed some sort of extrasensory power. It

futher gave me the creeps to hear my friend tell me: Oy, do you recall

he always had this thing about your pot of fasmine? He kept gazing

at it.

     I gave the pot away the next day.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD

by: RUSSELL LEE

       

Accounts manager, male, 47

      My wife and I went to Tokyo- a short, stopover trip

for two days. That night, we went to the red-light district.

my wife is very liberal. She doesn’t mind as long as I take

her with me and we stroll together. But of course she

doesn’t let me engage in any hanky-panky.

      There was a street we walked into. There were many

neon signs shining. Under one of those wa a girl. She

looked very young about 17-18 years old. But she was so

beautiful that I was enchanted by her. She was wearing

a pink kimono. She had light-red lips and large watery eyes.

her complexion was very fair. She was the most beautiful girl

I have ever seen, and I mean it.

      But the eerie thing was nobody else seemed to notice

her. Everybody just passed her, pointing at things here and

there, talking to each other to myself. She is so beautiful, and

she is wearing, of all things, a kimono! All the otherprostitutes

standing there wore modern clothes.

      I nudged my wife. Just then, the beautiful girl walked away.

She walked right into it.

      I just stood there. My wife turned round and asked me what

I wanted. I uttered, “Nothing”. I  quickly rushed her back to the

holet. I didn’t want to have the girl haunting me.

     We flew off the next day.

MONKEY BUSINESS

by: RUSSELL LEE

                    

Policeman, male, 34

      If you have a nephew who is a medium, you’ll

know how family relationships ncan be such a pain.

      This nephew loved kung-fu when he was young.

he always showed off in frfont of us when he came

to our house to visit. Later, he went around seaching

 for more skilful masters to improve himself.

      Ten years ago, the pugilistic troupe he was a mem-

ber of came to singapore to perform during the Seventh

Month. I was in Chinatoen then and I happened to be

passing by. I caught sight of him performing but he didn’t

see me. I saw him sit on this back roseweed chair and jump

up and down, with his fingers folded into some symbolic

shape. He kept mumbling something.

      Then, comething possessed him.

       I realised much later it was the Great Monkey God he had

called. He jumped around and scratched his neck like a

monkey. For show, he poured boiling oil on his body and

pressed a dagger  and spear against his throat. I was shocked

to see him go into sort of thing. It made me ashamed for the

family. So I didn’t really try to meet him 

      We haven’t met since.