Of ghost and man.

In my previous post, I was going to continue with this story, but decided to separate them for reasons which will be obvious.

When I was a young officer in the Air Force, I was quite mischievous and a practical joker. ( My conscience tells me that I still am!). When we had our first air crash, I lost two of my colleagues, Satchi, whose room was just next to mine, and Ong Eng Hai, whose room was three away from mine. Sadly, Ong Eng Hai, replaced me on that ill-fated flight, because I was already rostered on another flight that day. The crash dealt a sad blow to all the pilots.

About a week later, when things were getting back to normal, both Mat Ngah and myself decided to play some pranks to liven up the Officers Mess. It was a Saturday afternoon, when most of the chaps had finished lunch, and stripping themselves to their briefs for the afternoon nap. We stuffed some pillows into a flying overall, which is a one piece suit. Placing it on Satchi's bed, we brought the two sleeves on the chest with a pair of flying gloves. At the leg end, we stuffed a pair of boots. For the head, we positioned a pillow with a pair of sunglasses stuffed on it. Leaving the room, we left the door partially open. We returned to our rooms quietly.

A moment later, we heard this tremendous scream coming from Satchi's room. One of the woman servant, Ivy, an elderly woman had stumbled into Satchi's room. Her scream woke up the sleeping chaps and everyone rushed out to see what was the commotion. Both Mat and myself quietly joined in laughing away. It really looked grotesque! When Ivy found out it was a hoax, she started to laugh as well. We left the effigy on the bed, which scared the Mess Steward, who refused to walk past the room.

One night, I was alone in my room and feeling bored, I decided to liven things up. I had this hideous rubber mask which I had bought from London. Putting this on, and wearing my black jacket front to rear, I held my torch light in front of my stomach so that the light was shining on my face. Walking quietly into one of the rooms, which was quite dark, I saw Charlie lying on the bed, and Merican sitting at the table. They did not notice me and I stood there quietly switching on my torch light. Suddenly, Charlie jumped out of bed really fast and when Merican saw me, he screamed until I took off my mask to tell him it was me after all. He frightened me as I thought he was hysterical! We had a good laugh.

I then went into the bathroom when I heard someone showering. I gave my friend such a fright. He told me he was really frightened. Walking back to my room after all the 'haunting', I had to cross a small grass area. Suddenly, a car with lights on caught me running away. My colleague got out of the car thinking I was an intruder, gave chase. He was about to punch me when I took off my mask to show him who I was. Finally we all got together for a good laugh. I was accused of having nothing else better to do. That was true really!

Till then....