An Incident 6

Lim peh ka li kong

This incident happened in the early 70s...

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"Dear, how long more before we are there?" Jane asked her husband Peter who was driving the old Nissan.

Peter and Jane were newly wed. Both of them were Malaysians who worked in Singapore to earn more due to the favourable exchange rates. As Chinese New Year was just around the corner, they had decided to go back to their hometown in Malaysia.

"Another 2 hours at most. Why? Is my dear-dear sleepy? Take a nap and when you open your eyes again, we will be home." Peter touched Jane´s face affectionately as he answered her.

"No, I am not tired, just wondering if this old car which you borrowed from Ah Huat can function well till we reach home." Jane asked Peter as the Nissan had just been collected from the workshop in the evening before heading home.

"Don´t worry, it will be fine."

The long, bumpy, deserted road in semi-lit lamp-posts looked rather eerie and the trees along the road made the scenery more scary to Jane as she had heard so many "Ghost" stories which happened along this inevitable route back to Malaysia.

After driving for another 15 minutes or so, the old Nissan started to cough and purr and finally puffed out its last cough and decided to take a rest.

Peter steered the car to the roadside and switched on the hassle hazard lights in order not to stand in the way of the traffic. He switched off the car engine and waited for 3 minutes before turning the car key again to try to start it.

The car coughed and coughed but just refused to start its engine again.

Peter turned and looked at Jane, "Guess it´s the engine, I am going down to take a look at the engine. Lock the door after I get off."

Peter pecked on Jane´s cheek before stepping out of the car to look at the engine.

Jane immediately locked the door after Peter got down the car.

Peter walked to the front of the car and lifted up the bonnet trying to figure out the problem of the old car.

Jane sat in the car anxiously as she could not see Peter with the bonnet lifted up in front.

Slowly and gradually, Jane felt her eye-lids were getting heavier and heavier and she dozed off into sleep...

Jane suddenly jerked awake and by looking at her watch, she realised that she had dozed off and for a mere 15 minutes. She looked around but she still could not see Peter as the bonnet was still raised.

Although it was past midnight, a car zoomed past her in an average interval of every 3 to 5 minutes and that made Jane felt better knowing that even if Peter could not fix the car, they should be able to hitch-hike a ride from someone.

Another 15 minutes passed and Peter was still out there trying hard to solve the problem.

Suddenly, Jane heard a soft thud coming from the top of the car. Although it was quite soft, she actually jumped and almost let out a scream cos it was so quiet sitting in the car alone.

As the car was stopped under the trees, Jane told herself that the soft thud was none other than the falling of twigs from the trees.

"Thud." Another soft knocked on the top of the car. Then another "thub", then another and another, each getting a little bit louder. The funny thing was that Jane could not see any twig whatsoever falling from the trees nearby.

Jane tried very hard to look for Peter who was supposed to be standing in front trying to fix the engine problem but with the uplifted bonnet, her visual was blocked.

"Thud."

"Thud."

"Thud."

The knocking sound became louder and louder but still bearable.

Then Jane saw a car coming from a distance behind and the car actually slowed down while overtaking Jane´s stationary car.

Jane prayed that the driver of the car would stop and gave them a helping hand but no, the driver just slowed down a little while driving passed her.

The driver in the car was an Indian guy and Jane saw that he was staring at her with 2 big round eyes and for 1 moment she thought he looked afraid, very afraid.

The next thing Jane knew, the car sped away in high speed.

Jane was really puzzled as to why the Indian driver looked so frightened and sped away so fast.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!" The knocks became louder and louder and Jane was feeling more and more frightened. She looked around desperately for Peter but the was no sign of him.

"Thud!"

From the rear mirror, Jane saw another vehicle driving towards her again. She almost opened the car door to get out to wave for the vehicle but the "thud" sound from above made her stayed tight.

The on-coming vehicle was a van and the driver started to slow down the speed when nearing to Jane´s car.

As the van drove pass Jane, she could see that the middle-aged couple with their son were seated in the front of the van. While driving parallel to Jane, both the husband and wife stared at Jane with 2 pair of big big eyes. Once again, Jane thought she saw fear in the eyes of the 2 person in the van.

Unfortunately, the driver of the van did not stop his van but instead picked up his speed and drove off quickly.

All the while, the knocking thuds from the top of the car did not stop at all, the thuds kept going on and on.

As more and more vehicles drove pass her without stopping to lend a helping hand, more and more fearful stares from the owners of the vehicles, Jane got more and more worried. She could not see Peter at all and the knocking thuds were getting louder and louder.

Finally, just before she lost her nerves, she saw 2 Police cars speeding towards her with the sirens shrieking loudly and lights flashing brightly in the night.

Thank goodness.

Both the Police cars stopped as they approached Jane´s car.

All 4 policemen, 2 from each car, stepped out of the car and walked cautiously towards Jane.

Jane opened the car door and the 4 policemen looked very anxious and 1 of them said, "Miss, slowly, please get out slowly."

Jane was very puzzled at the 4 policemen´s cautiousness but since all of them looked so kan-chiong, she refrained herself from rushing out of the car but got out very slowly.

"Good. Just keep calm and walk slowly to us. No, don´t look back now, just walk steadily and calmly towards us. Everything will be alright."

Walking half way towards the 4 policemen, she heard a loud "Thud" coming from the car behind her. She almost turned around to take a look but the policeman stopped her, "No Miss, dont you look back now, just keep walking."

Finally, Jane reached the 4 policemen and 1 of the policemen immediately pulled her towards the police car.

It was then that Jane turned around to look at the car and she broke into a hysterical shriek upon seeing the unbelievable.

There, sitting on top of the car was a man, holding something in his hands and kept knocking it onto the top of the car.

The thing which he was holding and knocking continuously was Peter´s head..........

lim peh kong wan liao