It's Chinese New Year again and the temple has once more come alive with devotees coming to pray to the Buddha and also their departed loved ones. The "Palace" had never been so busy!
As usual, on CNY's eve, Head Nun prepared a special dinner for the nuns. This time she came up with fried rice, pumpkin soup, mock mutton curry and stir fried broccoli. For me, I had some mock fish stew with rice and my usual soya bean milk. It might not be a "grand" dinner but to us, we are more than grateful for the food on our table. We were all eating away heartily and talking about this and that when suddenly, we heard some loud wailing which seemed to come from the Palace. We looked at each other and for me, goose pimples started running up and down my spine.
"Well, I guess I shall have to investigate," said Head Nun, putting down her chopsticks. Turning to me, she said, "Vege Cat, you come along as well."
"Er ... me?" I gulped. Frankly, the Palace was the last place I wanted to go especially with all that wailing.
"Yes, you!" said Head Nun firmly. I had no choice but to obey.
We walked quickly to the Palace and Head Nun opened the door. It was rather dark and the only light came from the oil lamps which were burning on the tables below the tablets of the dead. The wailing immediately stopped as soon as we entered and we were rather surprised when Humpty Dumpty (HD) and Pumpkin Head (PH) came rushing towards us. (Incidentally, only Head Nun and I can see them, which is just as well otherwise the nuns would be screaming hysterically everyday).
"Head Nun, Vege Cat!" gasped HD. "Thank goodness you're here!" I saw that a number of spooks were standing in a group behind him and were making quite a bit of noise.
"What's going on, why this commotion?" asked Head Nun. As I hid behind her, I couldn't help but admire her courage and fearlessness - nothing seemed to scare her, not even all those spooks.
"Well," began HD. "Our friends here are getting restless. It's CNY eve and they want some excitement. They say they're bored and want to go out and paint the town red, some even said they don't want to come back to the temple. But I told them it's not safe out there, even for ghosts. Just listen to all that din caused by heavy traffic and fire crackers - I'd rather stay here!"
Head Nun looked at the group of spooks and said gently, "My dears, I can understand how you feel. You were once part of the world outside and you can't help but long to be back there to relive (so to speak) your old days, especially at this festive time. Actually there's nothing to stop you all from walking out, in fact I'm sure many of you have wandered out many times before but you all came back. So you know there's nothing wonderful about the world outside. It gave you a lot of pain and suffering before it took your lives and put you here. HD is right, it's not worth going back there. You are lucky that your kith and kin found you a home here, this place is now full and there's no more place for people who want to be put here when they're gone. Even I don't have a place here. I would advise you to stay here and enjoy the peace free from any encumbrance, but of course, if you insist on running out of this door now or any other time, then I can't stop you, but remember, if some wandering ghost were to come along and seize your niche, then I'm afraid I can't do anything to help you to regain possession of it even if you want to come back."
When she finished, the spooks started whispering among themselves. Then the old lady spook, the one who was so happy that her daughter had come home from overseas to see her, spoke up.
"Friends, Head Nun is right. We have a wonderful resting place here and we shouldn't risk losing it after so many years here. I don't know about the rest of you but I am staying put."
"Well said, Madam," chipped in HD. "But I don't see why we cannot enjoy CNY eve here. I'm sure Head Nun won't mind if we have some fun, what say you, Head Nun?"
The other spooks started voicing their support and Head Nun, though a little taken aback, said, "I have no objection so long as you're quiet, behave yourselves and don't get drunk on the rice wine your relatives have offered you. Is that clear? And HD, since it's your idea, I want you and PH to be responsible and make sure there's no trouble, then report back to me tomorrow."
Both HD and PH nodded their agreement and the spooks cheered happily. Then, to my shock and utter amazement, the old lady spook grabbed another spook and started waltzing up and down the hall. Soon the other spooks joined in and as they danced, they hummed some oldies softly and kept to their word to be quiet. I just couldn't believe my eyes!
"Hey, Vege Cat," said Pumpkin Head, coming up to me. "How about dancing with me?"
"Me? Oh no, I can't dance ...." I stammered.
As usual, Head Nun came to my rescue. "Vege Cat and I have to go back to finish our dinner, if you all don't mind. The nuns are waiting for us and we wouldn't want them to come here looking for us and ruin your fun."
With that, she signalled to me and we both left the Palace and locked the door quietly behind us.
"Phew!" I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "Head Nun, I can't believe what I just saw. And I'm even more amazed you agreed to let them have their own party!"
Head Nun shook her head exasperatedly and said, "This is the first time in the history of temple that the dead souls have asked to have some fun and I hope I am not wrong in agreeing to it. I shudder to think what they want to do next!"
I was quiet for a moment thinking over something Head Nun had said earlier. Finally I plucked up courage to ask her. "Head Nun, how come you don't have a place in the Palace when you've been with the temple for so long?"
She smiled again and said, "When I die, I want my remains to be brought back to China where I was born, that's why. So you won't have me watching over you when I'm gone," and she laughed and gave my head a playful knock. I felt a tinge of sadness when she said that and prayed silently that she would be with me for as long as possible.
The nuns were all very curious when we rejoined them and asked what we discovered. Of course we couldn't tell them the truth, so we said it was a stray dog howling. We finished our dinner and washed it down with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, given to us by APK's mother.
The evening ended quietly since there was nothing to do and everyone went to bed early. As I lay in my basket, I wondered what was going on in the Palace but didn't have the guts to find out!
The next morning, HD told Head Nun that the spooks had a whale of a time - everyone was happy and there was no more talk about leaving the temple. In addition, two spooks fell in love while dancing, two found out that they were lovers in their previous life and another two discovered that they had died at the same time in the same hospital on the same day.
Sometimes I wonder whether we can believe everything HD tells us.
Happy Chinese New Year!
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