I seriously hope no one who lives in Potong Pasir reads this and gets the wrong idea. let me get this straight, Potong Pasir (a small homely estate near Upper Serangoon) is perhaps one of the greatest places to live in Singapore. its quiet, peaceful, serene and its very much a modern kampung. however, during my time there, i would always feel weird whenever dusk approached. there is just this unmistakable aura which surrounds it. when i was in my primary school days, i would be terrified at being left alone after dark at home. the corridor of my block is frightening at night, because it isn’t well lit, long and has sharp corners. my overactive imagination ALWAYS got the better of me everytime. sometimes i would just envisage myself walking down the at 2am corridor and spot a pontianak at the far end. plus all my neighbours close their doors all the time, which adds to the complexity.

once i was alone at home and i was sleeping in my bedroom. i wld hear the chairs in the kitchen being pulled, like sharp small screeches. i always felt an undescribable yet harmless presence in my home. of course, this could also be a juxtaposed result of my own personal insecurities and paranoia…which some of you might call a “scientific explanation of consequences”.

anyway. once, my mother suffered heavy migraines and malignant, almost tumour-like stomachaches. she would groan suddenly and endlessly after dark. sometimes the pain would be so brutally unforgiving, she would cry. it scared the fuck out of me of course, but what was i to do. after a while the pain would cease only to turn up again. this went on for 2-3 years. she seeked the help of professional physicians to bomohs and to no avail.

then came the incident which freaked her out…. i was watching television one night in the living room and my mother was in the bathroom. before she entered the bathroom she hung clothes on the window ledge of my bedroom. my windows were usually locked from the inside (my fathergets very paranoid about thieves sometimes) and it was no different that night.

in about 30 minutes my mother came out of the shower and got a shock when she found that the clothes which she hung on my window ledges were MISSING. she asked me where i put them, and i was so engrossed with TV i didn’t even reply. she panicked and paged my father who was out that time. when my father returned home 2 hrs later, he found the clothes that were supposedly hung on my bedroom window; ON THE CORRIDOR STAIRCASE 10 METERS AWAY FROM OUT UNIT.

ok first you’ve got creepy apparel-stealing ghosts. i found that pretty amusing but my parents didnt share my thoughts. but then again consider this;
1) the windows were locked from inside. how could my clothes get OUT?
2) how in the world did it get to the corridor staircase 10 meters away? wind? IMPOSSIBLE

in a few months, we moved. i am NOT going to sound like some pretentious ‘hero’ who isn’t afraid of ghosts. i will run for my life if i encounter a vampire someday. yet i can’t bear to live Potong Pasir, even after all these years. sure my house was spooked, sure, my family was clearly disturbed. yet, as anti climax as it may sound, i still find ghosts who steal clothes amusing.