The Cries Of A Baby On rainy Day

I joined the planting sector in early 1960 just after my school Certificate Examinations.The rubber plantation was situated some ten miles from Taiping town.In  actual fact the entrance road to the plantation was 8 miles on the main road from Taiping to Batu Kurau.From the entrance road  we had to travel another two miles or so further into the interior on laterite road to reach the plantation proper.

While there I was given a front room of the Manager's bungalow.The Manager occupied the other main bed room.All my life I had never the privilege to  have a bed room all to myself.Sleeping alone in a strange,strange rubber plantation really gave some eerie feelings especially the dark dark and silent nights  when the lights were all out.

Plantation normally  switched off after ten o'clock in the evening.Thereafter I would had to sleep alone.All the windows were opened on all three sides.No mosquitoes could get to  me because all of those windows were covered with mosquitoes proof netting.The evening air  could still  breezed through those netting.

On a rainy night those wind blowing through were really cold.Should the blanket be not thick sufficiently then the evening could damn cold.On  rainless nights the singing of insects of all sort could be heard loud and clear.When used to them  it sounded pretty nice but the hooting owls give cause for alarm. They sounded like a ghost lurking nearby.Rumours had it that  once there was a owl crying at night in the neighborhood could mean that some evil lies around.

Being new planting life I was really scared of them initially.Fear of ghosts maybe but when your position is at stake you just had to bear it,ghost or no ghost.Beggars were no choosers in any case jobs were difficult to come by then.When in such a wretched position the beat option would be to cover without peeping out to find what lies beyond.

I was only there for  just about a fortnight when the inevitable happened.That evening as I turned in for bed it was raining cats and dogs.Very heavy rain storm with the strong wind blowing ferociously.It was nearing midnights with all the lights off then.I tried my best to close my eyes but sleep allured me and I could hardly sleep a wink as the wind was quite cold.The extra clothing I put on did not help much.The noise of the rain storm was lashings all round strongly.

There I laid on my bed trying to sleep.Amidst those rainy sound there came suddenly from the distant rambutan trees the cries of a baby.That send a horrible child throught my spine that very minute.Hearing it for the first really scared me.For in that direction of the rambutan trees were no housing - nothing at all except a few rambutan trees,surrounded by some old rubber on one side while the other side was a nursery filled with young rubber seedlings.

No one were living in that direction either.So a cry from a baby r in the middle of a rainy night  really frightened me.The baby cried some couple minutes and when those cries subsided I slowly peeped out my blanket.Raising my head with eyes running on the direction those cries  came from  I could find nothing or saw any movements.The night was pitch dark with rain falling down all round.However the cries of the baby never  repeated again that night.That relief me to certain extent,

The next morning  I told of my encounter to the Manager.Well,as that was the first time he heard of that he simply shrugged his shoulders in disbelief.Many others too shared his thoughts.That because none of them had heard those cries before.Others belived that those the cries of a baby ghost.Not harmful really as it had not disturbed me either.so allow it be.

Subsequently I herd it on a number of occasion there after especially on rainy nights but I just ignored them.I believed should we not interfere with them they would simply also not disturbed us..Later some one told me that he suspected that some one might had buried a dead baby there,that was why the the crying of the baby existed.The baby could be crying out for the mother.