Stenographer, female,
22
One of my classmates had the power to see
ghosts. He was a very strange character himself. He
always looked at people very hard, sometimes staring
rudely. Sometimes he looked not at you but somewhere
just to the left or the right of you as if he saw
something there.
In our final year at school, the class organised a
barbecue at Pulau Tekong after the exams as a final
get-together. Almost the whole class turned up for that
party, and we were all supposed to stay overnight.
Everybody was having a good time, shouting and
playing games. Somebody tried to get some disco
dancing started, but I guess it was still too early in the
night for that, so people just broke up into small groups
to talk among themselves. Everybody was still having a
good time.
I noticed that particular classmate of mine and
another friend of his going off in the middle of the party
to investigate a bridge nearby, which was supposed to
be haunted. Somebody had told me about it on the ferry
to Pulau Tekong in the afternoon and I remembered
overhearing somebody telling that classmate of mine
that they should go there later in the night to have a
looksee.
So, as I watched the two classmates go off, I
realised where they were going. I don't know why but
for a moment I felt like jumping up and running after
them. I wasn't sure whether I would have stopped
them or joined them.
Anyway, it was just as well I didn't go after the
two. It was quite dark and I don't remember them
carrying any torchlights. I looked out for them though I
didn't tell anyone they had gone, even when somebody
later asked where those two were.
I saw them return about an hour later when
everybody had already settled into their small groups. I
remember there was a very strange look on the face of
the classmate who had the "sight", as we all called it.
He looked like he was following somebody's footsteps,
the way he kept his eyes on the ground and was
stumbling back in a hurry with his friend.
Somebody called out to him and he looked up,
startled.
I think I remember somebody saying something
like, "Hey, where have you been? Ghost hunting, is it?
Saw any or not?"
And then, the classmate slowly raised his hand
and pointed above the head of one of the girls and said,
aI see it right now. she is floating just above your
head."
That girl screamed.
She looked as if she was going to go into fits.
Thankfully, one of her friends managed to calm her
down. The classmate with the "sight" also tried to calm
her down, saying he was just making a joke, that he
hadn't really seen any
thing. He was quite convincing, actually, but those of us
who knew him well knew that he hadn't been lying
when he said he saw something.
There was no ferry back that night and when
we fell asleep it was only from sheer exhaustion from
trying to stay awake.
THE STUDENT WHO HANGED AROUND
AFTER SCHOOL
Typist, female, 23
This didn't happen to me, myself But I
know the girl it happened to. she was one year
my senior in secondary school. I was in Sec Two
at the time.
One day, during class-time in the after-
noon, this girl, my senior, went to the girls'
toilet. This was on the fourth floor. She said she
went to the cubicle right at the end of the toilet
and there she saw it, right before her very eyes,
another student, a girl in full uniform, hanging
there and swinging.
The senior screamed until she became hys-
terical. We found out later, it seems a girl hanged
herself in that very same toilet before.
Ed: Wait a minute, waaaait a minute! Why
is it always the girls' toilet? It seems to us
every other girls' school has a
student-dangling-from-the-beams story and it
always happens in the girls' loo. Show some
imagination, girls. How about dangling a
body in the staff-room instead? That ought to
keep the teachers on their toes!
DON'T PINCH ME
THERE
Student, female, 19
Last year, I had the most awful experience of
my life. I thought my life was in danger.
It was about two months before my midyear
exams. I was picked by the class teacher to take part
in the cross-country race even though I wasn't
interested. But the teacher wouldn't budge on her
decision because I had been a cross-country runner the
year before when I was in Pre-U One.
Since I had to run, I decided I had better do it
right, so a few friends and I agreed to meet regularly
for practice runs. our run was supposed to be through
the MacRitchie Reserve.
I was there, early in the morning the following
Saturday. It wasn't quite bright yet but a couple of the
girls were already there, warming up. We decided to
embark on our run first, without waiting for the other
three girls who were supposed to turn up. We were
going to race each other because we were all
reasonably fit already and so only had to work on our
technique.
A quick last stretch and we were off!
It took only a few hundred metres before I
realised that the other girls were far more fit than I.
They were racing ahead like hares. Soon, I was left
behind and trotting along alone, curs
ing my teacher, cursing the jungle around me, cursing
my luck for having been chosen for what seemed to me
like an awful chore.
As I ran, I could hear the monkeys calling to
each other. The sunlight did not penetrate fully into the
dense part of the jungle where I was now. And it did
strike me as a full-grown Jungle, no matter what others
may say about MacRitchie being a "tame" garden.
I was looking around at the trees, trying to spot a
monkey if I could when I suddenly felt a stinging brush
against my left cheek, as if I had run into some
low-hanging branch. But when I looked around, there
was no such branch hanging over the path. I told
myself it must have been some insect bite.
I continued the run without any further incident
and met up with my friends in the canteen on the hill,
from where we could have a cup of coffee and look
over the whole reservoir.
One of the first things that happened was one of
my friends pointed to my face and said, Hey, what
happened? You look like you have a cut on your left
cheek."
"Is it bad?" I asked, concerned now, for my
looks more than anything else.
"Not very bad, but still a bit obvious," another
friend said.
"Probably an insect bite," I said, and the others
agreed.
Later that day, I applied some ointment on my
cheek and settled down to study. My mother noticed
the mark too and commented on it, but I told her it was
just an insect bite
"But it looks quite bad, dear," she said.
I went to look in the mirror and yes, it did look
more obvious than before, almost a welt under my eye.
But it didn't hurt or anything, so I thought I would just
wait to see if the ointment worked.
I have a habit of studying late at night, until about
12.30, especially on Saturdays. I was quite serious
about my work this year because I didn't do so well last
year.
At around 11 pm or so, my cheek started hurting
where I had been "stung". At about midnight, the pain
was almost unbearable. It was so bad I wanted to cry
out loud! But it was so late at night, there was nothing
to be done. All the clinics were closed anyway, and at
the time I never thought of admitting myself to the
A&E of a hospital, like someone suggested I should
have when I told him this story months later. Anyway, I
thought the best thing to do was to go to sleep and see
the doctor in the morning.
It wasn't easy to sleep at first, but as suddenly as
the pain had started, it went away. I felt so relieved
that I fell asleep right away.
The next morning, I went to the mirror and had a
shock. My family too was shocked. The welt had
swelled into something awful, my cheek was really
puffy. But there was no pain, none at all.
I had a quick breakfast and my mother rushed me
to the doctor. At first, the doctor also said it was
probably just an allergic reaction to some insect bite
and he applied some ointment, saying the swelling
would go away in a couple of
days.
That night, at exactly 11 pm, my cheek started
hurting again at exactly the same place I was beginning
to get suspicious. Why did my cheek hurt only at night?
And the ointment didn t seem to be working either.
Again, later in the night, the pain disappeared as
suddenly as it had appeared.
The next morning my cheek was even more
swollen. It was so puffy that it was affecting my ability
to open my left eye. But strangely, there was no pain.
Now, we were really worried. My mother told me not
to go to school and that we would go to the doctor's
instead. I was glad m classmates were not going to see
me like this.
I was quite mad to hear the
doctor say he didn't know what the problem was.
Surely he could do something, I thought.
ut he JUSt said, give the ointment more time and come
again tomorrow for another check-up
Luckily my mother was too upset to take the
doctors advice. She called up an auntie of mine and told
her the problem. The auntie very kindly came over to
my house to have a look Her first reaction was, "We
better do something about this quick!"
My auntie took my mother and me to a medicine
man she knew. The medicine man ooked hard at me,
listened to my story, did some chanting and all his
mumbojumbo and then told us what the problem was.
"Your daughter iS quite lucky," he began, "some playful
spirit asJust pinched her face. If she had been slapped
properly, she could have died. This, however, we
He did some chanting over me, gave me an
chilli food he said, substitute things like pepper
Fortunately this medicine man s treatment
only in glling went own.
I still go for my cross-country runs through
MacRitchie even though I YalwayS run together
with friends.