My mother was trying something unorthodox... (P1)

The story happened when I was 7 years old. The father of a classmate told my mother that he had a relative who could help…

I have been sitting here for almost two hours. On my knees. I am too afraid of stretching my legs out. Before leaving me here alone, my mother said that I should try not to do anything disrespectful otherwise “he” would not appear to cure me. I was told to wait here until my turn.

In front of me, on the big altar, tons of fruits are presented in an eye-catching way. Dragon fruits, bananas, apples, oranges, melons, red chilies, etc. Roses, yellow and white chrysanthemums are interleaved on the altar shelves. They all look so nice and smell so good.  Incense smoke is floating weirdly in the air. Around me people are muttering things that I find hard to catch up. The sound of a wooden tocsin is diffused rhythmically, which even turns the room into some mysterious and apparitional place. In addition, I am really thirsty and sleepy.

A young lady wearing an oversized silky costume in pink is sitting close to the altar. She turns her back to us. That is the person who is striking the tocsin and saying prayers in some language that I have never heard before. She has an impressively low voice. By a very quick move she stands up, turns to the carpet on which we are sitting. She starts to speak about somebody’s dead relatives and what they had done when they were alive. She stares at people who are on their knees in the middle of the room. Those people had already been there by the time I arrived. By pointing a finger at them she starts to say things about their family. They are nodding furiously as if no one could ever say anything more precise than that. It seems like that young lady is saying out loud everything that the family is trying to hide. Her name is Chin.

About half an hour passing, Ms. Chin suddenly turns back to the altar and utters a sharp scream. She collapses to the crowd. An old woman runs immediately to where Ms. Chin is standing in order to catch her. I have no idea since which moment that old woman has been sitting there. One thing I can be sure of is that everything happened within only a few seconds and all the timings are as exact as they have been doing that for life. Ms. Chin opens her eyes and looks at us dazedly before running to the door. She was saying something I cannot hear clearly. I have noticed that her voice has changed into a common woman's voice now. I feel totally awake by just witnessing the entire scene. The old woman looks at me and says slowly: “It’s your turn now”.