The humans call it "The Hungry Ghost Festival". It falls every year during the 7th month of the lunar calendar. Yes, this is the time when the gates of hell open allowing the spooks to roam freely for a month-long vacation in the human world! During the daytime, the columbarium in the temple is full of people paying respects to their departed loved ones but at night, it's a dark, empty place full of shadows and strange sounds. And this is the time I dread most.
This year I have fully prepared myself. I bought a pair of sleep shades for my eyes so that I don't see anything I don't want to see at night and also a pair of ear plugs so that I don't hear anything I don't want to hear at night. And I have my trusty old blue blanket to throw over my head when night falls.
Ning had a good laugh when he saw my sleep shades and thinks I'm chicken-hearted.
"Look, old boy, if you're so scared, I don't mind spending the night with you, that is, when I'm not going to the Long Tails Club," he said, grinning.
"Suit yourself, Ning," I said. "But don't say I didn't warn you when you hear things that go bump in the night!"
Ning spent three nights with me and he didn't see or hear anything.
"What did I tell you," he laughed. "There's no such thing as "ghosts". It's all in the mind! Hey, ghosts, come and get me! Where are you hiding?"
"Don't be silly, Da," he said, still laughing.
Being the good sport he is, he kept me company for a few more nights. One morning, after a quiet, uneventful night, I woke up to find him gone from his place beside me. I looked all over the kitchen and thought he must have left the temple. Suddenly, I heard him shouting from somewhere above me and I looked up to see him on top of the kitchen cupboard! It is an old almost decrepit cupboard which is hardly used by the nuns but they had kept it because of its antique value. It must be more than 10 feet high and towers above everything else in the kitchen. How Ning managed to climb up there to sleep was beyond me.
"Hey, get me down from here!" he yelled.
"Ning, how did you get up there?" I gasped.
On hearing his shouts, one of the nuns brought out a ladder and he scrambled down.
"You must have been sleep walking," she said, giggling.
Ning said he couldn't remember how he got on top of the cupboard and nobody thought much about it until we found him up there for the next three mornings!
"Look here," he growled at the nuns. "I don't think this is funny. One of you must have put me up there."
All the nuns swore they were not guilty. "Why should we do such a thing? We have better things to do than play tricks on you!" they retorted angrily.
"Ning," I whispered. "I don't think the nuns did it. Then again, if... if they didn't put you up there, who did?"'
We looked at each other.
"You mean ...you mean ....." Ning didn't finish his sentence. The hair on his back was standing on end and I could see his legs trembling.
"A GHOST?" we both cried together. Ning shot out of the kitchen and out of the temple before I could count to three.
The Hungry Ghost Festival isn't over yet and I sincerely hope that our cheeky, mischievous intruder has had his fun and gone to worry someone else who doesn't believe in ghosts.....
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