"Singapore!" cried all three of us.
" Don't worry everything is covered. Check under yourpillow when you wake
up," said Melor giving us a mischevious smile.
Sure enough when
we woke up , there underneath our pillow were our passports and plane tickets.
Now you would be asking us how
they did that? We learn that these naive peace loving
bunians had a few tricks up their sleeves and they had Malek who knew how
things work in our world.
What we couldn't figure out was why the hassle of a
passport when we could easily used one of their portals in Singapore?
Changi Airport was swarming with people. December must be
the right time to visit Singapore.
" Raju! Sofia! Rafiqu!" A female voice called
to us. We were going down the excalator. All three of us turned and saw a young
woman waving franticly at the three of us.
" Hi, I' m Amanda Lim. You're Raju, Rafique and
Sofia, so nice to meet you," said Amanda grinning widely.
" How did you know us?" Asked Raju curiously.
“Melor
told me to expect you. She said to watch out for a young Malay woman wearing
head scarf accompanied by two young
gentleman , one Indian and one fair
Malay. You’re the only one that I see fits the description, “ said Amanda
grinning happily. She helped us to get our bags and ushered us to an awaiting
taxi at the entrance. The three of us
sat at the back while Amanda sat the front passenger seat , directing the taxi
driver where to go .
“So
how did you know about Melor?” asked Raju.
“Her
father is a family friend, “ said Amanda looking at us through the rearview.
" My family had known about
the existence of the Bunian people since my great grandfather. He stumbled into
them by accident. My great grandfather followed an expedition back then into
the jungle, which is now famously known as GunungLedang in Malacca. Fascinated
by nature he had wandered off from the group. When great grandfather realized
that he was alone, he had wandered too deep and couldn’t track back to the
group. He was lost for hours and it was getting dark. He stumbled onto a stream
and that was when he heard voices and laughter. Curious he had followed the
sound and saw a group of people camping near the stream. They looked like
royalty, complete with baju melayu, tanjak ,keris and all. The leader was sitting lazily against a huge
bolder. Everyone looked up when they heard my great grandfather approaching and
they were alert, poised to attack with
their keris drawn out.
Scared and thinking that they
were ghost, great grandfather ran into the jungle. Out of breath, great
grandfather leaned against a tree not noticing a snake slithering down to him. When
great grandfather turned and saw the snake, it was ready to strike him……..”
We were passing by a traffic
light into town. All three of us crammed at the window to see the iconic
Merilion statue. The symbol of Singpore, a lion head and a fish tale.
“What
happened next?”
“Great
grandfather didn’t have time to move.
Everything happened so fast. The moment the snake strike towards him a flash
long object struck the snake. The snake was thrown back, embedded into the tree
trunk. That long object was an arrow released from the Sultan’s bow. He had
saved my grandfather’s life and not only that his warriors helped him to find
the way out of the jungle. And that was the start of great grandfathers contact
with the Sultan. A week after that he had dreams about a mythical kingdom with
warriors and the sultan. He dreamt about a Euphoric place where there was no crime , it was as if the seven
sins does not exist in that place. The sultan greeted great grandfather and
showed him his kingdom and the portal that could lead him to the bunian world.
Our family were very worried about great grandfather after his escapade at the
jungle, talking and laughing by himself and he would disappear for hours. Great
grandfather would bring back these strange artifacts back with him, like the
sultan’s official stamp and a carved keris. We started to believe him when we
had these artifacts to be checked out by a historian at the Singapore Museum.
The wording and carvings were way before our time and the artifacts should be
in an Arcadian. The historian wanted to know where we got the item but great
grandfather had made us all swore that we can never tell anyone where he got
the items. When great grandfather passed
away , strange things begin to happen. Gold coins could be found around the
house. Grandfather could hear whisperings but could not see anyone. Things that
we thought we lost were put back at their original place. “
The taxi driver drove into
Orchard road. I loved Orchard Road, you can see a lot of foreigners and the
landscape trees and the skyscrapers gave
a feeling that we were overseas a far cry from the Indian street that we passed
by as well. The driver drove into Hilton Hotel. We looked at each other. This
was too posh for three village people that hadn’t finished their studies yet.
‘It’s
ok, courtesy of Melor and Malek. I’m sorry I couldn’t put you in our apartment
, I believe it will be too crowded for you.
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