When Things Go 'Swoosh' Past Midnight

THE Medang Serai enclave in Bangsar, just off the main road within walking distance from Bangsar Shopping Centre, is home to several prestigious housing development, the kind favoured by the expatriate crowd, retirees with deep pockets and corporate kids still wet behind the ears yet already earning indecently fat pay cheques.

Within that napkin-sized, frighteningly pricey parcel of land are several condominium blocks and a few rows of townhouses, the latter being three-storeyed, overpriced rabbit hutches much sought after by yuppies for their cosiness and upscale address.

When I started my public relations consultancy in 1991, despite being a new kid on the PR block, I was fortunate enough to have been given a chance by McCann-Erickson, one of the country's largest multinational advertising agencies, to provide PR services to a number of their top clients.

Public relations being what it is, image is an all-important thing. It followed that I needed a 'good' address to ply my trade. Because I had both a small outfit and a preference for SoHo (home-based office) kind of set-up, a Medang Serai townhouse fitted the bill just nice.

I turned the two upper floors into family quarters and the main floor into a workplace, complete with all the trappings of an office, including a pantry. Clients, agency people, suppliers and the media gang all knew that I also lived there and that I worked long hours, way past midnight every day.

Because of that, my office became a favourite 'lepak' (lounging) joint for everyone. Sometimes they would drop by for coffee, occasionally just to chat and lounge about watching TV. Most times, however, I would be working alone at the PC, with only Mimi the cat for company.

Mimi, despite its female name, was anything but. The black and white feline came to me as a stray; the kids found him somewhere and took him home. He was the very first cat I had since the big D four years before. Needless to say, Mimi and I were so much in love that he even shared my bed.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the first few months of my stay, although I did get the occasional unsettling sensation of being watched. Nothing tangible, just an uncomfortable feel. I put it down to my unfamiliarity with a new place. Nothing to worry about, I consoled myself.

It was not long before I realised Mimi was reluctant to stay with me when I worked late. I also began to notice there were moments when he would either growl or whine without rhyme or reason, followed by a mad dash upstairs.

Soon enough weird things started happening. For a few consecutive nights that I was working on the PC I felt a series of swooshes behind me. It was as though something was flying past. The nights were still, so it couldn't be the evening breeze. But I saw nothing.

I rely on my inner self a lot when confronted with the unexplained. It all has to do with "feel"; good or bad. if the "feel" is ok, then I usually do not give it a second thought, but if an element of fear somehow creeps in, then my senses become acute.

The swooshes, however, didn't trigger my internal alarm. I didn't feel spooked. All the same I was intrigued. I knew there must be something to these invisible fliers.

Frankly, I didn't ask to be shown who or what they were - I certainly wasn't foolish enough to scare myself silly should they make an appearance and look nothing like Richard Gere or Harrison Ford!

But there is a lot to be said about "kata hati", the unspoken words within. Deep inside I guess I must have asked that very question that the mouth refused to utter, because from that day onwards, I started seeing flashes of white swooshing by, from the corner of my eye.

They seemed to 'travel' in groups, these 'things', and they came in waves. While I wasn't exactly peeing in my sarong, it wasn't long before the 'trespassers' started to affect my mood and concentration.

A friend well-versed in the ways of the supernatural stepped in to help, only to discover that the entire span of my townhouse living room and kitchen was in fact the PLUS Highway of the other world!

The developers had inadvertently built the unit directly in the path of their 'road well-travelled', so to speak (it does provide a surreal twist to Robert Frost's famous offering, doesn't it?)

Apparently, the path ran the entire length from my humble kitchen exit door to the sliding doors of the balcony, both of which in direct alignment to each other. Can't blame the developers for not knowing; otherwise they would surely have considered repositioning the doors.

After knowing the whys and wherefores of things, I decided to stay put. They didn't set out to do any harm, so there was really nothing to be afraid of. Furthermore, they shouldn't be faulted for 'disturbing' my peace. In fact, it was us who should apologise for messing around their lebuhraya (expressway).

I hope none of them had the misfortune of running smack into my balcony glass doors. I am inclined to think none did, otherwise they would have haunted me till kingdom comes!

Note 1:
I think this is going to be my last eerie tale for now. I am beginning to feel rather spooked myself recalling all these episodes!

Note 2:
I was once told by someone knowledgeable about the realm of the supernatural that, if you have that 'something extra', rest assured you will be tested time and again. It seems that these beings from the other dimensions are also pranksters of the first degree - much like their garden variety kind from this tired old world of ours.