Soul Asylum Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

Michael leaned back on the chair. There was a soft beeping sound from the heart monitor. Michael didn’t know why he was spending his day off in the ICU. He always felt agitated if he stayed away too long from his patients especially those that need attention. Michael rubbed his eyes and looked at Rafiq sleeping peacefully. His eyelids were closed but there was eye movement.

     ‘What are you dreaming Rafiq?’ thought Michael. He looked again at Rafiq’s chart . There was nothing abnormal, all his vital signs were fine.

     Maybe he should put Rafiq on the EEG test again. Any height in his dream sequence could lead to a warning for another seizure. Rafiq had been lucky so far, two seizures and no signs of damage to his brain or heart but they could only be sure if Rafiq was awake.

 

Michael remembered the conversation that he had with Sharifah when she wanted to know whether Rafiq’s frontal lobes was damaged causing Rafiq to have continuous dreams. He had told her that there is a possibility Rafiq might not know which is reality. A person in a coma could sense what is going on around him, his brain would still be alert unless he was brain damaged.Probably he was trying to find away to get out. Michael sighed and slid down on his chair. A smile crept at a corner of his mouth. He sounded like Sofia.  

 

That girl really needs a life besides her science fiction and paranormal books. This was the first time that he had met someone who really believe in paranormal psychology and to dwell into the idea as if it would solve their problem……Michael smiled.

 

     Sofia was standing facing him sitting on the stairs. She crossed her arm and looked at Michael with a grim look on her face.

     “There could be a remote possibility to it,” she said stubbornly.

Michael didn’t deny the fact that brains do produce electromagnet energy but to produce the energy into some sort of radio wave and to transmit it to a specific person  was a bit far fetch to him . Sofia in her child like eagerness pointed out that scientist and psychologist didn’t shut the idea of near death experience or out of body experience or the idea of twins able to experience the pain and danger of one another so why couldn’t they believe that dreams are important in interpreting human emotions and have the power to communicate with another person for help when they are in trouble. Micheal interrupted her by saying that RAfiq was not at the verged of death for him to have a near  death experience beside Rafiq never met Sharfiah before.

 

     Sofia sighed trying to prove that there might be something to her idea. Why was it that Rafiq had sudden seizure attacks after when ever Shairfah visits him. Why was it that Sharifah had weird dreams about RAfiq and why was it that even though his body is recovering and there was not indication of damage to the brain, he was still unable to wake up?

 

 She read that in America they had their own lab to test on psi activities where two people were put into two separate places. One was the sender and one was the receiver. The sender was able to send the images presented to him by the tester to the receiver and she was able report what was sent by the sender with accurate detail. Michael had laughed at her idea stating that there was no paranormal activities detected in Malaysia except some supernatural occurrence like ghost or orang bunian or even the last he heard was a lang suey (candy ghost) near UiTM Shah Alam. Oh yes, he mocked saying that there was once a UFO sighting somewhere in the late 90’s at Klang Vally but that turned out as a fluke. Sofia’s face had turned bright red at this and Michael was a bit alarm that she might cry.

 

     “ It is possible that someone can communicate to another person just by thinking of the other person. Come onlah, it is known fact that we only use 10% of out brain who knows what the  other 90% can do. Their like our very own data processor .” Data processor?, she’s going into IT now?’ thought Michael. Why are you doing this? Michael had asked.

 

     “I know that I might be right…..and that if I shouldn’t have turned my back on Sharifah when she said that she was having dreams on Rafiq. I just put it off as a crush and nothing else,” said Sofia looking at the door sadly.

     “Maybe your were right the first time. She has a crush on Rafiq that explains the dreams.”

     “But it didn’t explain why she’s having them whenever Rafiq had a seizure. I want to help my friend.” Michael wanted to say something skeptic but looking at Sofia and how sad she was, he didn’t have the heart.

 

     “Again lets say your right. Why Sharifah? Rafiq never saw her except what you told me they met for a brief moment….in a commuter train…why not Aida where he has a bond with. She’s his cousin and they’ve been close since they were little. Why not her? Sofia just simply shrugged. Her forehead wrinkled, deep in thought…….

 

Michael heard a soft scrapping noise. He looked up to see Aida carrying a chair and putting it beside him.

 

     “You’re not working today, doctor?” asked Aida nodding at his polo T-shirt and denim pants. Michael smiled and shook his head. Aida comfortably sat beside Michael. The two of them didn’t say anything else, they just sat and looked at Rafiq.

 

 

     Sofia took of her prayer clothe off and hanged in on the clothe stand ,she neatly folded the prayer mat. It was already Asar and Sharifah was still asleep. Sofia sat on the floor across from Sharifah leaning on the wall. She took out her International Marketing book, preparing for tomorrows lesson.

     She was half way through the first page when she heard Sharifah mummer something delirious. Sharifah rolled on her left side , her back towards Sofia. Sofia could still hear her mummer. Sofia went to her friend and touched her head, it was hot. Sofia rushed to find a towel and found the dishtowel on the kitchen sink. She quickly wet the towel and rushed back to her friend. Sharifah had rolled to her back facing the ceiling. She was mumbling   and her hands were  raised up front as if she was reaching for something. Sofia was getting worried. She regretted not asking Michael to stay for a while, truth was she wasn’t good at taking care of sick people, normally her mother would do the job if one of her brothers or she herself was sick. She didn’t have what people say a healing touch. Sofia folded the towel into two and put it on her friend’s forehead. Gently as she could without aggravating her friend she lowered both Sharifah’s hand down. Sharifah’s head was moving and right uncomfortably. Her lips were dry but she was mumbling again. Sofia leaned down to hear what she was saying. Her heart was pounding so hard she was afraid that she might get a heart attack. Irnic, sine she was trying to help her friend.

    

 

     “Rafiq.” It was distant but Sofia was sure that was what Sharifah was saying. Suddenly Sharifah grabbed Sofia down pulling Sofia on top of her. Her grip was so strong as if she was holding on for dear life.Noooow, Sofia was petrified. Sofia desperately tried to get away but everytime she tried to struggle the hold got stronger. Sharifah’s face was a mask  fear and pain but her eyes didn’t open. What ever she was dreaming she wasn’t going to let go. This is embarrassing, thought Sofia. With all her strength she pulled herself from Sharifah, without warning Sharifah let go and Sofia was flung backwards. Sharifah was smiling but she wasn’t even looking at Sofia, she  wasn’t even awake.

Sofia distant herself from Sharifah, she didn’t realize that she was trembling until she stood up, her feet was so weak that she had to sit down again.

     “What am I suppose to do?” asked Sofia nearly close to tears.

     “Ok pull yourself together,” said Sofia taking a deep breath. Should she call a bomoh or ustaz? But her friend didn’t seem to be posses. Aaaargh, said Sofia putting both hands at the back of her head. She wasn’t built for emergency cases. She looked at Sharifah.  She was quiet now. No rolling to her side or mumbling. Sofia moved closer to her friend carefully staying far away for any sudden movement. But Sharifah didn’t move. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Sofia poked her hand with her friend. “Sharifah,” called out Sofia.

     “Sharifah……….”

     Sharifah opened her eyes …

     The lights….the lights were so bright. Sharifah blinked her eyes. Her vision was coming back to her. She saw the ceiling and the long nylon light above her. She felt something on her right hand. She raised the hand and saw a hospital bracelet on her hand. The writing was small but she could make out her name.

     Not again, thought Sharifah. She could feel the white mattress below her. She grabbed the railing on both side of the bed and pulled herself up. Yes, it was like the first dream. Everything was in white, she was in the same room, there were no windows except a door across from her bed. Sharifah looked at herself and notice that she was wearing a hospital pyjama. Sharifah looked at the other bed expecting Rafiq to be there. The bed was empty.That’s new, thought Sharifah.. She skimmed through the room, which was extremely fast as there was nothing much there , their beds, a night stand beside her bed and next to it was a cupboard, both colored white. Funny, the door was wide open… Sharifah couldn’t see anything at the other side. It was pitch black, quite a contrast form the room. A gust of wind  blew in the room and Sharifah caught a soft sweet smell. It was a pleasant smell. Sharifah turned her body to the edge of the bed. Her feet were dangling a couple of centimeters from the floor. She had remembered the last time she had tried to get off the bed, she had fallen and kept on falling until she woke up. Carefully she put the tip of her left toe on the cold marble floor still clutching to the railing of her bed. It felt solid. Gently her left foot landed on the floor and then put the other feet down on the floor. Sharifah wished she had slippers. The floor felt icy cold. Step by step, she moved closer to the door. The closer she got; the stronger the wind came into the room. Sharifah reached the dor, she still couldn’t see anything but the smell….. it was so sweet. The wind blew on her face inviting her to step inside. Sharifah felt her feet move by itself. One step, two steps … she stepped outside the door. Without warning, the door behind her closed with her feet halfway through the doorway.

    Great, thought Ssharifah. Sshe couldn’t see anything. She tried to search the door behind her. She turned towards where she thought the door was.  Fumbling in the dark. She raised both her hands , trying to touch anything solid in front of her a wall, a door….anything, but she only got empty space. She took the risk to move further. The smell was getting stronger. What she would do to see her arms and feet. Surprisingly she didn’t feel scared….no ‘Arghhh, I’m alone’ feeling or the scary Alfred Hitchcock de ja  vu where you feel that something weird and out of this world would appear in front of you. She was still probing on this when she lost her footing; literally. One minute there was a floor, next she was standing on empty space and then she was falling. The feeling of weightlessness and the fact that she was falling in a pit less hole like Alice in Wonderland did not scare her, what scared her was that the sweet pleasant smell earlier was gone only replaced by the smell of kemenyan. Kemenyan from a benzoin of flower, milk cream in color, used by bomoh to conjure or ward off evil spirits. It was even used by Malays, mashed into dust and spread around the piece of white cloth used to wrap up a body before burying it. Death, was that what’s scaring her ? thought Sharifah. She wasn’t able to think about that longer as she was falling faster. Sharifah tried to grab something to stop her fall, it was hopeless. The farther she fell inside the hole the brighter it became and the slower she fell. She could see her surroundings. It was like she was falling into a long tube with white screens

 

everywhere. There were images on them at each level Sharifah was falling. Each one of them tells a story.

 

A baby given to a man and a women. Sharifah recognized them, they  were Rafiq’s mother and father,  they looked about 20 years younger. Picture shift to a small boy sitting at a dinner table alone with an Indonesian maid trying to feed him some rice form a plate. Shift to the small boy fearfully showing his report card to his father. Sharifah could clearly see the disgust in the father’s eyes as he looked at the red marks. She couldn’t hear what they were saying but she could feel the pain from the boy’s eyes brimming with tears and the guilt expression as he had just let down his parents. The boy just stared at the floor as his parents left the room. There were a lot of sadness, the scene when it was parent teachers day, every students’ parents came to class and  the boy sneak out of the class to wait at the parking lot hoping that either one of his parents would come was heart beaking. Picture shift to the boy playing with a small tomboyish girl, Sharifah couldn’t help smirking, no matter how young she was it was easy to know that the girl was Aida, cute, short curly hair and broad athletic body. It was fun watching them play ‘Galah Panjang’ with the rest of the cousin and at that moment Sharifah could see how happy the boy was. Shift to the time when the boy grew into a teenager and that was the first time he met Rozita.  Sharifah could feel herself falling faster again . The screens were fading as she passed them. Sharifah could see one scene a man arguing with an old man. There was so much anger emulating out of his eyes that Sharifah thought that he was going to hit the old man. That was the last scene that Sharifah saw as she fall faster and the lights were getting brighter until it hurt her eyes. Sharifah covered her eyes. Thump! She hit solid ground with such force that she thought she might have broken all the bones in her body. She carefully got to her feet. She was standing on grass. Sharifah looked up expecting to see the hole that she had fallen from. All she could see was the bright blue sky. It was a bright and sunny day. It should have been peacefully if not the disturbing strong smell of kemenyan. Strong wind was blowing from behind her bringing the smell along. Sharifah turned behind not expecting what she would see. Slowly she turned and then her mouth dropped.

 

 

Sofia got really worried when Sharifah’s body jolted. Sharifah didn’t wake up but lay there, pale and silent. With trembling hands Sofia tried to search for her pulse by placing the tip of her finger at the pulse point on her neck. She couldn’t feel anything. Sofia tried putting the back of her hand near her nose. She could barely feel any air coming out of Shaifah’s nostril.

 

     “Relax Sofia, jangan paranoid sangat,” said Sofia. She bent down to Shairfah’s chest to hear  her heart and could hear a soft and stable thumping. Sofia sighed  and rubbed her eyes.  She looked at he watch. It was 5 in the evening and Sharifah’s housemates were still not  home.

 

     “Please wake up Sharifah,” whispered Sofia laying beside her friend.