The Altar

Strange Occurrences

After settling down the plane took off. What was strange was there weren't many people. 20 including our family. My father loudly said as a joke "Not many people here lah". No one even looked at him or replied. He let out a nervous chuckle. What was even more creepy was the flight attendants. They were all female, not one male, and they were dressed up in so much makeup that they looked like dolls. When they pushed the cart by us, they began singing a child song in Hokkien (A language from southern china) and began smiling. My mom became very nervous and I could hear her whisper a prayer or two in her native Indonesian. After eating lunch, we made our way through a thick dark cloud. My father sensed something strange. Suddenly out of the blue we heard an enormous growl. My mother let out a whispered shriek, but I assured her all would go well.

I stood up to use the bathroom, still a bit disoriented due to the blackout. As I walked up the aisle, I saw an elderly couple burn incense. Yes, on a plane. I immediately assumed they were an elderly tourist couple from the Chinese mainland, everyone knows Chinese tourists have a reputation. But when I walked by they stopped their prayers and said in perfect English, with British accent and all, "Hello, how do you do young man?". I let out a small jolt and smiled and replied. After using the bathroom, I sat down and tried to sleep.

I woke up 5 minutes before we landed. As we descended I could see Singapore, neighboring Malaysia, and Batam in Indonesia, which was across the strait of Malacca. My mother was very excited for this trip. She had things planned for every day. The first thing we did was take the ferry over to Batam to meet some of my mothers family. She was close to her brother Arif, who lived in Batam. As we arrived in Batam my uncle showed us around the town. It was a nice city, but suddenly a feeling of dread hit my mother. My toddler brother, Dien, who couldn't even properly walk, wasn't in his stroller. Dien had disappeared. My mother began screaming his name, and suddenly an elderly woman walked out of a fortune telling stand in the night market we were visiting. She said she knew where he was. She led us to a stand selling fish were Dien was playing with a stray cat. My mother took Dien immediately, but my father told my mom something crazy was happening. The stray cat had black fur and according to my father it was a cursed cat. We made our way back to Singapore, and uncle Arif came with us. He said he wanted to make sure everything was ok.

We arrived in Singapore at 1am taking the night ferry from Batam. Everyone was dead tired. We settled in the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and slept. Everything seemed fine, until the next morning. My father had woken up early and set up his altar. He was chanting for most of the night, yet when we woke up my youngest brother something super strange happened. His arm was black with Sundanese script. My mother freaked out and Uncle Arif translated what it said. It said "The curse will never go, no matter how hard you try". We immediately phoned the police, but they claimed they could do nothing, as they didn't deal with spiritual matters. My father phoned his aunt, who knew a Shaman. My whole family made their way to the shamans' shrine, and asked for guidance. What the shaman revealed shook my whole family, even little Dien to the core...