Ramli wondered where Rafeah was. He supposed that he would have caught her trying to sneak in at some ungodly hour yet again had it not been for what happened to their mother. She was so flighty and vain. And God, how he hated her friends. Those uppity undergraduate bastards, with their corrupt and decadent ways. He always felt as though they looked down on him because he had chosen to start work as a policeman instead of pursuing a degree. He was also sure that they looked down on him for being conservative and traditional. They would never appreciate that his father had raised him to be aware and respectful of his roots and he had no intention of disavowing the man’s teachings.
Ramli bowed his head and rubbed at his brow furiously. He still had not figured out what his mother was trying to tell him. No matter how hard he tried, it was still not coming to him. The only thing he could be sure of was that it was a Malay word. His mother had never been fluent in English.
It was almost dawn and yet there was still no sign of his sister. Ramli fought to push back the rage that was building inside him. He would have to teach her a lesson much like how his father would have done when alive. She had gone too far. Ramli regretted not enforcing his father’s wish to forbid Rafeah from attending university. Wanting to cut Rafeah a little slack, he had allowed her to attend a local university instead.
But the old man had been right about her being corrupted.
As the man of the house now, Ramli saw that he had been short sighted in giving in to his sister’s wishes. She might have run away from home had he denied her as their father had. But there were other ways to prevent that and keep her at home. He resolved to talk to his mother about withdrawing Rafeah from university and making other plans. It could wait until she was discharged and in better shape.
Their household was built on authority. Rafeah needed to re-learn the importance of respecting that authority.
Letting out a huge sigh, Ramli buried his face in his palms again and proceeded to try and rub the fatigue out. He had not closed his eyes and rest for just over twelve hours and he was determined to stretch out every bit of energy he had gained from the half-hour nap from yesterday afternoon.
Ramli heard the sound of the swing doors opening and saw Rafeah walk in. Just as Ramli was about to call out to his sibling, he was distracted by a weird yellow shape darting past his head. He jerked around quickly wanting to see what it was. He had barely caught sight of it at the periphery of his vision. There was also a ringing in his ears. It was akin to a chorus of crickets or grasshoppers. Ramli wondered if the stress of the last few hours had finally gotten to him. There was no way that a hospital could be infested with pests like his estate had been. He was still lost in his thoughts when his sister came up to him.
“How is she?” He wondered if his sister really cared. As much as he tried to contain his rage and frustration, Ramli could hear the venom in his voice. “See for yourself. Thankfully, it wasn’t a heart attack. Just shock. Extreme shock.”
“Are you alright?” Ramli almost smirked at Rafeah’s hypocritical query. If she truly cared, she would have arrived earlier. No, she would not have left home at all the night before. He decided to let her question go unanswered and just stared at the wall. He didn’t want his face to betray his plans tom his sister.
Ramli watched as his sister turn and walks towards their mother’s hospital room. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, and decided to search the web for clues as to what his mother had been trying to say. On a whim, he keyed in the search terms ‘grasshoppers’, ‘crickets’, ‘scary’, and ‘Malay’ .
The top result sent a chill down Ramli’s spine. It was about a demonic creature called the pelesit.
That was it. His mother’s message.
Pelesit.
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