share this army story of mine.
During my younger days when I was still a secondary student I stayed in Bukit Merah area which has a lot of Chinese temple activities most of the time. I was a member of the Singapore Boy's Brigade and therefore I was required to attend church service on every Sunday. Not only that, because my English was weaker, I chose bible study as my religion subject in school so that I could improve my English with more English lesson. Despite my rojak religious environment I never take religion seriously. Beside going to school, I spent most of my time with a group of pig friends dog mates 猪朋狗友. One of my dog mate was Jack, his home is a Chinese temple and his father is a medium. Sometimes when his temple needed manpower to play drum, we would be mobilized to take up the role. Among us, there were muslim and catholic friends but they won't really care. We were all doing it only out of fun and for companionship.
I'm closer to Jack because we attended the same secondary school. Because of his family back ground, Jack can see, hear and feel spiritual around him. He knew I can't and therefore he never want to frighten me and would only tell me after we were away from the scene. I remember one incident happened inside the lift of his flat. Jack and I were on our way to his home after school to fold incense papers for his temple's festival. Just when we were walking out of the lift, jack asked did you see something? I replied see what? Jack whispered this in my ear while walking towards his home a man wearing a white long sleeve shirt standing at the rear of the lift looking on the floor. Hmmm
I don't remember seeing anyone inside the lift beside both of us. Anyway, I dare not to use that lift when I was going back from Jack's home that night and I never use it alone again.
Coincidentally, Jack and I were enlisted to the same unit, same platoon and sharing the same bunk in the army. Our unit was 30th SCE and it was located in the Khatib Camp in Yishun before the unit was moved to Jurong later. Discipline was highly demanded even when we were just a recruit because we would be trained to handle explosive after we passed-out. And because of our tough training we were going through during the day, all the recruits were required to attend water parade, putting a mug full of plain water into our stomach before we go to bed. This is to prevent us from getting dehydration from the tough training the next day. However, due to the mug of water, we usually have to wake up in the middle of the night for the toilet. Because of our tough disciplinary training, we were not allowed to walk in the unit. We must jog to make us move with sense of urgency. Not only that, we were required to greet and ask permission before we passed every officer or corporal on our way. So one morning, as usual, i woke up in the middle of my sleep dragging my tired feet jogging toward the damn bloody far toilet situated right at the far end of the corridor. I passed through many other dark bunks with only sound of pig's snoring like an orchestra along the corridor before I realized I came to an officer wearing a white shirt standing outside a bunk with his back facing me. Although I was very tight at that time, I still managed to stop to greet him and asked for permission to pass-by. He remain silent, no answer from him and he remain facing at the glass vision panel on the bunk's door. I thought since he is not looking at me, why not I just run across him and most likely he won't know was me. So, to save some time for sleeping, I simply run acrossed and went for my business. Few minutes later when I came out, he was gone from a long corridor that has only an exit staircase beside the toilet I was using. But I don't remember I hear any foot step sound walking past the toilet while I was using. But anyway, I was too tired with the training and anything imaginative would not crossed my mind then. I thought - Whew! Lucky that the officer did not wait for me outside, if not I might be punished for not asking for permission to pass-by him.
The next day, while we were having a short break in between training out in the field, I broke the incident I came acrossed in the morning to my platoon mates. I said hey hey, you guys better watch-out, I saw an officer standing outside section one's bunk trying to catch some monkeys smoking when I was going to the toilet this morning. Our conversation was later over heard by a corporal who was quite closed to us. He asked me did you remember any of our white shirts in our unit has no logo? Yes, all of our unit t-shirt comes with a polar bear logo behind except the one I saw this morning. Now, the corporal reminded me something. The corporal must have known something we don't know. What the hell, how am I going to release my water from my bladder this morning after hearing this!!!!???
As usual, we went to bed after the water parade. But tonight, I have a deal with Jack, I will wake him up to go with me if I got the call from my bladder in the morning. I scare mah! So that morning, I wake him up to attend the call with me. The sound of pig's snoring was business as usual but the officer in white shirt was not there. Anyway, this was going on for the next few days without anything strange happened.
One Sunday evening, while we were gathering around a table in our bunk after we had tidy up our cupboard from the weekend break. Jack suggested something very constructive. He suggested that we play - plate on the paper game Die Xian 碟仙 inside the bunk to see if spiritual really exists in our company. Everyone in the platoon knows the background of Jack because sometime Jack ask to excuse for attending urgent matter in his temple (Geng One lah). We were not prepared for the game in advance therefore we didn't prepare an original Die Xian 碟仙 from the Chinese book store. However, we use a 50 cents coin and a piece of plain paper to draft words from A - Z and numbers 0 9 onto it. We have at least about 20 platoon mates inside our bunk now but only 4 players were required for the game. Jack, me, Ken and an Indian name Kuma. All 4 of us placed our middle finger on the 50 cents coin. We were then instructed by Jack to read our name out one by one while moving the coin with our fingers onto it in circular motion on the plain paper. After 4 of us had read out our name, Jack asked the first question. He asked any soul around 有灵魂在吗 ? The coin went round and round and suddenly it stopped at 2. Everybody start cursing at each other for moving the coin intentionally. Well whether was intentionally or not, nobody know but one thing for sure is Jack started to hear foot steps sound coming toward our direction but never reached. I was told by Jack later after the game that the sound of the foot step he heard was very strange. Why strange? Because it was sound of someone walking with a pair of boots, army boots! Who would wear an army boots on a Sunday evening? No, everyone was wearing slippers when we were playing that game in our bunk. With the unusual silent from all the spectators eyeing on the coin plus the weird questions, it does attribute some spooky atmosphere in the bunk. The second question Jack asked Male or female? The coin moved to - male. Jack asked How old are u? The coin moved to B. Jack asked What is your name? The coin moved a round and come back to B again. This thing went on with irrelevant answers for awhile before we decided to call off the game. By the way, up to this point we were not told of any strange thing from any of our senior pertaining to our unit. So, whether was there a spirit or 2 spirits was still a question mark to me and Jack. But Jack was convinced that there is at least a spirit in our company judging from the foot steps sound he heard earlier. So, Jack decided to make his own investigation. His own because I would not followed.
to be cont...:devil: