"Come over and stay with me a few days," Ning implored me. With Head Nun's blessings, I set off one evening with a food package from the temple. Ning was happy to have some company and also a change in his daily menu!
We unpacked the food and made some vege soup. As we tucked into our meal, we noticed that a strong wind was rising. The sky had darkened and it certainly looked like it was going to rain. Then rumblings of thunder, a lightning flash and rain started lashing down.
Ning looked worriedly at the roof of the hut. "The weather has taken a turn for the worse," he remarked. "Hope the roof won't be blown away."
Just then, we both heard what sounded like the barking of a dog outside. Ning went to the window and looked out but could see nothing.The barks continued.
'I don't remember anyone having a dog in this area, Ning," I said.
Ning was listening intently to the barks.
"Da, you won't believe this, but it sounds like Bones! I can recognise that bark anywhere," he said.
"Bones! But he's dead, isn't he?"
Ning nodded, then ran to the door and went outside. The barking had stopped and he came back, soaking wet.
"There's nothing out there," said Ning, shaking the rain off his body.
We decided to curl up and sleep. The rain soon stopped and all was calm.
The next morning, Ning was up very early. I found him outside looking around the hut. When he saw me, he said excitedly, "Look, Da! Footprints of a dog around the hut! There was a dog here last night!"
"So there was," I said, looking at the muddy ground. "But it couldn't be Bones!"
"Yeah, I guess you're right. It must be some other dog." replied Ning.
We spent the day by the river idling our time away. When evening came, the weather again became windy, with thunder and lightning, followed by rain. Then uncannily, we heard the barks of a dog again.
"Da, it's Bones! I'm sure it's Bones," said Ning, jumping up and running outside. Again there was no sign of a dog outside. "Something's strange here," said Ning, coming back in, soaked to the skin.
"I think this bad weather is getting to us, Ning," I said. "The imagination always goes wild when there's a bad storm."
Ning was silent but I knew he did not agree with what I had said.
The next morning, we saw the same footprints again outside the hut.
"I tell you what, Da," said Ning. "Tonight, we shall sit outside on the porch and see whether we can spot any dog. Are you game?"
"Alright but I don't think we're going to see anything." I said, doubtfully.
Strangely enough, it rained again that night. We had stationed ourselves on the porch and though we sat there for over an hour, we couldn't see or hear any dog.
"I think we'd better go to bed, Ning," I said, feeling rather silly. Then suddenly we heard the sound of barking and this time, the barks were stronger and sounded more urgent. We got up and searched the grounds outside the hut. As we strained our eyes in the darkness, a sudden bolt of lighning flashed across the sky and hit a nearby tree. We looked up startled and saw a great big branch falling towards the hut.
"Run, Da, run!" yelled Ning. We both ran away from the hut as fast as we could and when we turned back to see what had happened, we saw that the branch had crashed into the porch where we were sitting!
"Oh my God," gasped Ning.
"We .. we would have been killed if we hadn't left the porch to search for the dog," I whispered, trembling.
In any situation, especially spooky ones, Ning is always the first to recover.
"The dog! It was trying to warn us all this time ...." he exclaimed. "Look!" he said, pointing excitedly to the sky.
I looked up and saw to my amazement the faint image of a dog.
"It's Bones! I knew it was Bones all the time! He saved our lives!" yelled Ning. "Thanks, Bones, thanks so much!"
I had never seen Bones before but who else could it be?
The image slowly faded and soon the sky cleared.
We had been saved by a ghost dog and it was an experience neither of us could easily forget. What a lot to tell Lao Lo when he returns!
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