There was this one night I was headed out for clubbing & took a yellow / Citycab. After giving the Malay taxi uncle my destination, I took out my phone and started texting my friends when suddenly the uncle asked me, “Boy. You believe in.. ghosts or not?”

I was like, wtf kinda question is this to ask?! but before I can answer, the uncle continued his monologue.

He said he picked up this Malay NS boy and his mother from Yishun, heading to the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Along the way there was an accident on the highway; a car and motorcyle buang and the jam was slowing traffic down. It was quite awhile before the cab can finally squeeze past and as it did so, the uncle could see two bodies lying on the road. The NS boy was busy talking on his phone but the mother was also very sad. She said softly to the uncle in Malay (which he translated for me), “It is a great tragedy when you see your children die before you do.”

Anyway, by the time they reached the ferry terminal, the boy was almost late. He paid the uncle and rushed out of the cab without saying goodbye. The uncle asked the mother if she wanted a ‘return trip’ but she didn’t reply him, so he shouted to the boy “Oy! I send your mother back ok don’t worry!”

The boy stopped in his tracks and turned round in shock. He quickly walked back to the cab and asked the uncle angrily, “What are you talking about? My mother passed away 2 weeks ago why are you asking this type of nonsense?!” He started sobbing a bit and told the uncle, “Before she pass away she always came to see me off to camp. I miss her.” Then he ran back into the terminal.

The uncle was very shocked and didn’t dare turn around! But he could still see the mother in his rear view mirror, who was smiling sadly at him. She said, “He was always the most filial of his brothers and when I left, I knew he would miss me the most and that’s why I wanted to see him off again.” The uncle didn’t know what to say so he started saying a prayer of blessing from the Quran. After a couple of minutes he looked up again and the mother was gone.
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I was damn hooked onto his story and its touching twist of an ending. I didn’t know what to say also so I just asked, “So after that did you go home to your wife?” in a lame laughter sort of way.

The uncle said, “No lah, still have to work. But I was still quite shocked so I continued driving around for awhile until I saw you and pick you up lah!”

WTF that was when I realised the “encounter” JUST happened to the uncle which means the seat next to me was where the auntie……