Everyone used to wonder why Adnan had not gotten married. Forty years old, and he still had shown no desire for someone to share his life. He was a good man. Always reliable and upright. He had a good job and he was well-regarded by the folks of the village where he lived. His civil, courteous manners never failed to win hearts, and it was no wonder he become a sort of yardstick of good conduct there. Mothers, for one, were fond of citing his example to their misbehaving kids, saying things like, 'Why can't you be like Adnan? Look at him. What a nice, good man he is.' They never stop praising him. It was no wonder too that Adnan had more than a few admirers among the women and even young girls in the village. To the more mature ladies, he was Mr. Right, the perfect dream husband. To the young girls, he was simply wonderful, 'never mind his age!'
One particular young lady who was crazy about him was Kak Jah, his own maid servant. Kak Jah had been working for Adnan for five years, long before he moved into the village, and long enough for her to get completely besotted with the man. Rumors had it that she had tried all sorts of ways to win him, with no results, at least not as far as she could read in his eyes. Not that Kak Jah was wanting in any way. She was only twenty eight, still young and quite attractive to start with. And she knew how to enhance her good looks by always being well groomed and well dressed. As his maid servant, she had been taking good care of his household. Always at the door by eight in the morning, she would prepare his breakfast, cook his lunch, clean and dust the place and prepare his dinner before leaving for home at five. In the five years she had been serving him, she was beyond reproach. Adnan himself was a newcomer to the village. He moved in only recently, when he bought that ancient house up the hill. It was a medium sized, concrete building, the only one of the type in a neighborhood of traditional wooden Malay houses. It sat on a fairly large piece of land, boasting of a lovely garden with a winding driveway hedged on each side by a row of hibiscus. It was in rather bad shape when Adnan bought it but, with some repairs and a new coat of paint, it was now as good as new.
A clerk in a legal firm in Malacca Street, Singapore, Adnan was a hard worker. He was ever ready to bring home unfinished work, to toil over them till lat at night in order to get them ready by next morning. That was how he first heard those strange knocks on the wall. It happened one evening about two months after he moved in. He was then working, as usual, on his files in the study which previous owner used to treat as a storeroom. They were just gentle knocks at first, so he simply ignored them and carried on working. But when they kept getting louder and louder, he began to take notice. He put down his pen and listened intently to determine where they were coming from. The source seemed to him be within the room itself, but what could making such a noise? As far as he knew, there was no one else around. As he kept listening, they seemed to shift to the main door. He got up and went out to open the door. But no one was there either. There was only the humming of the wind through the casuarinas in the courtyard.
He closed the door and went back to his room to finish his work. Moments later, the knocks came back again, softly. It could be the branches of the trees rapping against the windows, he told himself. The knocking went on. Or perhaps it's those village urchins trying to scare me. Stealthily, he got up and tiptoed to the main door. He swung it open in a flash, but no one was there. He closed the door and returned to the study, perturbed, grumbling to himself. Who could be knocking in the dead of night like this? As he stood in the middle of the room, Adnan listened again. When he not hear the knocking anymore, he sat down. But the moment he picked up the pen and began to write, it started again. They seemed to echo softly, as if coming out of the bottom of a canyon.
He rose and this time listened really hard. And at last it became clear. The knocks were not at the front door but inside the concrete wall separating the study and the kitchen! But how could that be, unless there was a ghost, and Adnan did not believe in such things. He told himself, if there wasn't anyone at the front door, and there certainly wasn't anyone in the house, surely there cannot be anyone inside the wall! Not alive! Then they stopped. Adnan could not hear them anymore, even when he pressed his ears against the wall for a few seconds. Everything was silent. All he heard was the pounding in his chest and the rising and falling of his breath. He returned to his desk, collected his papers, switched off the light, and hastened to another room or continue his work.
In the stillness of the night, as Adnan continued working, the only sound in the air was the muted gliding of his pen. Then, abruptly, he stopped writing. He threw the pen in his hand, as if suddenly it was something repulsive to him. He stared goggle-eyed at the piece of paper he had been working on. He could not believe what he had just written there. Everything was in order until the phrase, '... it is evident therefore that the accused did commit...' And then, inexplicably, appeared words that left him completely flummoxed. He had written them with his own hand.. he must have, who else could have done it? But they simply had nothing to do with the rest of what he was writing! He read them out, '... please remove a brick from the wall that I may be free. I am Mariam binti Mohamad, wife of Mohamad bin Jaafar. I swear that on 17th May 1933, my husband gave me a poisoned cup of coffee, and then...' Adnan lept up in shock, sending the chair crashing on the floor behind him. What had he written? What on earth could have made him write something like that out of the blue? Aghast, he dashed out for the comfort of his bedroom, his nerves frayed. He could not find sleep that night.
next morning, as she prepared breakfast, Kak Jah found Adnan not quite himself. Something seemed to be troubling him. She said nothing, but all sorts of ideas began crossing her mind. she wondered if he was began to feel uncomfortable being alone with her. Could it mean he was beginning to like her, fall for her? Goodness! she thought. At last...! But Adnan simply left some cash for themarketing as usual, and went to work. He hardly said anything. Alone at home attending to her chores, Kak Jah could not help wondering about her employer and his strange mood that morning. She kept telling herself he must be falling for her. She told herself she must now groom herself up, try to look even more attractive, and take even better care of him, so that she would remain in his heart. And when, on his return from work that afternoon, the man came straight to the kitchen to look for her, Kak Jah really thought the moment she had been dreaming of had finally come.
'Cik Jah, would you join me in the living room, please? There's something I'd like to tell you,' he told her. Her heart in her mouth, Kak Jah stopped all work and followed Adnan to the living room. Her face was flushed with embarrassment and the excitement building up inside her made her feel like she was going to explode. Could this be it? Is he going to pour out his feelings towards me? What am I going to say? 'Please have a seat, Cik Jah. t's not nice to let you stand, especially since I'm going to take some time saying what I have to say,' Said Adnan, gesturing her to the seat. 'I'm not sure what you think of me, I bet by the time I finish this story, you;ll think I'm crazy.' 'Oh, why would I think of you that way?' replied Kak Jah. Adnan began relating the spooky experience he had last night. And as the story unfolded, the coy smile on Kak Jah's face gradually gave way to a look of disappointment. Her eyes fixed blankly on the floor below. Adnan's voice grew indistinct to her as her mind wandered. She sighed silently, for it was clear now that her expectations were way off the mark. 'So, what do you think I should do, Cik Jah?' asked Adnan when he finished the story. I'm not sure I can help you there, Encik Adnan. You were probably just hearing things. maybe you'd been working too hard and the pressure is beginning to affect your health. Perhaps you need a rest. Take a day or two off. That might do the trick.' Adnan fell silent for a moment before replying. 'Thank you, Cik Jah.'
That evening, Kak Jah went home feeling blue. All the dreams she had just had that morning were now shattered. She felt like never going to work again. She felt she could never face that man again. But then, as she thought over it, she realized she had no one to blame but herself. She let her fantasies take over her. She let herself dream about the man when he simply had no feelings for her. Back in the house that evening, Adnan did not feel like doing his work as usual. After dinner, he changed and went out, taking a bus to Geylang Serai where he hailed a trishaw to Queen's theater. By the time he arrived there, however, he was no longer sure he wanted to sit through a movie and instead, ended up in the popular coffee shop next door where he ordered a cup of tea and sat down to watch people go by.
His thoughts were still filled with the extraordinary events of the previous night, when he suddenly felt someone tapping his shoulder and heard a familiar voice greeting him. 'Adnan, how are you? What are you doing here all by yourself?' Adnan turned around to find Ahmad standing behind him. A good friend, Ahmad also happened to be the man who arranged his purchase of the house. 'Oh, it's you, Mat. Have a seat. Haven't seen you for quite a while. How are you? Care for some tea?' Adnan responded as he extended his hand. Adnan ordered a cup of tea for his guest, and the two friends had a good chat about old times. inevitably, the topic drifted to the house he had bought with Ahmad's help. 'How's your new place?' asked Ahmad. 'Oh, great,' was Adnan's brief reply. 'That's good to hear. You know, various people have lived there before you, and all of them had complained of strange noises. I don't know. Maybe there is something about the place. But you don't seem to have any problems there, do you? Anyway, what did they expect, huh? It's an old house. Of course it creaks in all sort of places.'
'Right,' replied Adnan. Unwilling to say more. 'You know the previous owner? He's now living in Penang. When he was here, he didn't care about the house. He moved out and simply left it vacant for a whole year. He thought his wife might like to live there again. But she didn't. Finally, he let the place out, and tenants came and went. None of them stayed there long. 'That's why I'm glad to hear you're comfortable there. If there's anything not to your satisfaction, please call me. I'd be happy to help,' said Ahmad. When Ahmad left him later, Adnan felt there were even more clouds in his mind than before. He did not reach home till it was almost midnight that night. He went straight to his study to get some stationery and proceeded to write a letter to his brother to tell him about the happenings in the house and to seek his advice. He wrote at length, beginning from the purchase of the house and until he heard those knocking the previous night.
Two in the morning, and Adnan was still writing. Suddenly, in the midst of a sentence, he found himself staring at his own hand as it wrote '... and then he carried me and dumped me into a hole in the wall of the storeroom, which he then cemented up. That is where I've been buried. I have suspected all along that he had another woman. And I was right. But I never imagined he would do this to me. Now, I can't get out of this hole. Please free me. I must find him, wherever he might be.' Once again, Adnan's instinctive response was to fling the pen onto the desk. 'My God! What is this! Why am I writing these words?' he screamed. His thoughts were a tangled mess. His body shivered with terror. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He tore up everything he had written and rushed to the bedroom to lie down. He was really, really scared this time. But even as he lay in bed, he continued to hear persistent knocking in the wall. He even thought he heard a raspy female voice pleading with him to remove a brick from the wall so that she could be free. They kept him awake all through the night.
Next morning, Kak Jah was shocked to find Adnan looking haggard as though he had been sick for years. He did not say much and Kak Jah did not feel like asking too many questions either. After breakfast, he told her he was going out but not to the office and that he would be home early that day. Adnan went to see Ahmad. he had finally made up his mind to tell his friend about his frightening experiences. he had to find out if he knew anything about what might have happened there. Perhaps Ahmad could help him. For several long minutes after he heard Adnan's story, Ahmad sat back silently in his chair. Then he got up, went to his room, and returned with a file in his hands. 'You might like to read these. You know, you could have told me about it last night when I asked you if there was anything wrong. There's no point keeping this thing from me.' Adnan opened the file and read a newspaper cutting clipped inside. Singapore, 31 May, Local police said they still could not shed any light on the whereabouts of Madam Mariam binti Mohamad, reported missing two weeks ago. The wife of timber mechant, Mr. Mohamad bin Jaafar, she was reportedly last seen by a train passenger at the Singapore railway station, although this could not be confirmed. In fact, railway personnel interviewed said they believed it was a case of mistaken identity. The real Madam Mariam remains untraced to date. Anyone with any information that might assist police in their investigations is requested to see...'
Adnan stared at Ahmad. 'Is this Mohamad the former owner of the house? The one you told me about last night? Now living in Penang?' 'Right. His wife disappeared under inexplicable circumstances and has never been found since. He was supposedly reunited with her about a year later, but it wasn't her. Just someone who closely resembled her.' Adnan left Ahmad later and he was still confused. He reached home to find lunch already on the table. But he did not feel like eating. Instead, he sat in the study pondering what Ahmad had told him, until Kak Jah popped in to remind him the food was getting cold. 'Are you still troubled by those noises? Like I said, it's probably just your imagination. But, can I suggest something? Perhaps it would help if someone else beside you could hear these noises too. If you don't mind, I'd like to stay around a little longer today.' The suggestion took Adnan by surprise. He could not believe that this attractive maid servant of his would spend the night alone with him just to restore his peace of mind. But before he could reply, Kak Jah continued. 'Don't worry. I don't mean to spend the night here. I just wanted to stay around a little longer than usual. In any case, my nephew Omar will be here to keep us company. I'm expecting him at six.'
That evening after dinner, Adnan, Kak Jah and her nephew Omar, adjourned to the study to see if they could hear the knocking. They did not have to wait long. 'Cik Jah, Omar, do you hear that?' asked Adnan, drawing their attention when the knocking began. This time, they sounded gentle and unhurried. Kak Jah and Omar nodded their heads to confirm that they too heard the knocking. They stared at the wall where the sounds appeared to be coming from. It was clear to everyone now. Adnan had not been imagining things. 'Get some tools,' Kak Jah suggested all of a sudden. 'What? Whatever for? asked Adnan. 'Lets break down this wall and see what's behind it. That's the only way we'll ever get to the bottom of this,' she said confidently. Soon, the three were busy hammering away at that part of the wall they heard the knocking. No sooner they begun when they noticed the knocking had stopped. Finally, with a lot of effort, they managed to removed a brick and instantly, a blast of cold air rushed out, briefly surrounding them. It took everyone by surprise.
'You're welcome,' Adnan said, out of the blue. 'beg your pordon?' asked Kak Jah, staring uncomprehendingly at him. 'I said you're welcome.' 'Did I say something?' The quizzical look was still on her face. 'You said thank you, right?' asked Adnan, his face now mirroring Kak Jah's look. 'No. Did I?' 'But I thought I heard you... I thought I heard someone, a woman saying...' 'What did she say?' asked Kak Jah. 'She said thank you!' The three of them spent a few moments staring at each other. Resuming work, they pounded around the hole they had just made. Brick by brick, they broke down the wall until it revealed its long held secret, a human skeleton, long hair still on its head,a full set of teeth still in its grinning jaws, and a woman's clothes still covering it. Adnan immediately instructed Omar to call the police while he and Kak Jah stood guard over their macabre find. He was quite shaken, but Kak Jah looked surprisingly cool and collected. There was no sign of fear in her voice when she remarked with a coy smile, 'Well, I'm sure you can have your peace of mind now, now that this thing is over. No more noises to trouble you in the middle of the night. But that's the thing, you see. You've been working too hard. You must take good care of yourself. This time, we happened to be around to help you. But who'll look after you if you fall ill the next time?'
Adnan listened to her with gaping mouth. He felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach and blood rushing to his feet. Kak Jah had never spoken to him like that before. The tone, the sentiments they revealed, were like a bombshell to him. And they knocked enough senses into him to make him take notice for the first time. A month after the incident, a swarm of guests descended upon Adnan's house to help him celebrate the end of his bachelor days. the bride was, of course, his maid servants of five years. It was three days after the wedding. the happy newly weds were in the kitchen. Kak Jah preparing breakfast, Adnan browsing through the morning papers. Listen to this, Jah. 'Penang, today. The local police are investigating the grisly murder last night of a well known local timber merchant, Mohamad bin Jaafar, who was found strangled at home. Police are still hunting for the killer, believed to be a woman with long fingernails.' 'What a weird story,' Adnan continued, as he folded the paper up. 'Well, all kinds of weird stories make this world, dear. Remember that woman...?' said Kak Jah, smiling. 'Right. Poor woman. My goodness! Ten long years imprisoned within that wall.'
Same here, thought Kak Jah. Five long years in the cold, knocking at the door to your heart, getting no response. You didn't notice a thing, did you? Work was all you thought about. Thank God you heard at last. And thus it seemed, when Adnan demolished that wall in his study that fatefull night, he set free not one, but two long suffering souls.
In the stillness of the night, as Adnan continued working, the only sound in the air was the muted gliding of his pen. Then, abruptly, he stopped writing. He threw the pen in his hand, as if suddenly it was something repulsive to him. He stared goggle-eyed at the piece of paper he had been working on. He could not believe what he had just written there. Everything was in order until the phrase, '... it is evident therefore that the accused did commit...' And then, inexplicably, appeared words that left him completely flummoxed. He had written them with his own hand.. he must have, who else could have done it? But they simply had nothing to do with the rest of what he was writing! He read them out, '... please remove a brick from the wall that I may be free. I am Mariam binti Mohamad, wife of Mohamad bin Jaafar. I swear that on 17th May 1933, my husband gave me a poisoned cup of coffee, and then...' Adnan lept up in shock, sending the chair crashing on the floor behind him. What had he written? What on earth could have made him write something like that out of the blue? Aghast, he dashed out for the comfort of his bedroom, his nerves frayed. He could not find sleep that night.
next morning, as she prepared breakfast, Kak Jah found Adnan not quite himself. Something seemed to be troubling him. She said nothing, but all sorts of ideas began crossing her mind. she wondered if he was began to feel uncomfortable being alone with her. Could it mean he was beginning to like her, fall for her? Goodness! she thought. At last...! But Adnan simply left some cash for themarketing as usual, and went to work. He hardly said anything. Alone at home attending to her chores, Kak Jah could not help wondering about her employer and his strange mood that morning. She kept telling herself he must be falling for her. She told herself she must now groom herself up, try to look even more attractive, and take even better care of him, so that she would remain in his heart. And when, on his return from work that afternoon, the man came straight to the kitchen to look for her, Kak Jah really thought the moment she had been dreaming of had finally come.
'Cik Jah, would you join me in the living room, please? There's something I'd like to tell you,' he told her. Her heart in her mouth, Kak Jah stopped all work and followed Adnan to the living room. Her face was flushed with embarrassment and the excitement building up inside her made her feel like she was going to explode. Could this be it? Is he going to pour out his feelings towards me? What am I going to say? 'Please have a seat, Cik Jah. t's not nice to let you stand, especially since I'm going to take some time saying what I have to say,' Said Adnan, gesturing her to the seat. 'I'm not sure what you think of me, I bet by the time I finish this story, you;ll think I'm crazy.' 'Oh, why would I think of you that way?' replied Kak Jah. Adnan began relating the spooky experience he had last night. And as the story unfolded, the coy smile on Kak Jah's face gradually gave way to a look of disappointment. Her eyes fixed blankly on the floor below. Adnan's voice grew indistinct to her as her mind wandered. She sighed silently, for it was clear now that her expectations were way off the mark. 'So, what do you think I should do, Cik Jah?' asked Adnan when he finished the story. I'm not sure I can help you there, Encik Adnan. You were probably just hearing things. maybe you'd been working too hard and the pressure is beginning to affect your health. Perhaps you need a rest. Take a day or two off. That might do the trick.' Adnan fell silent for a moment before replying. 'Thank you, Cik Jah.'
That evening, Kak Jah went home feeling blue. All the dreams she had just had that morning were now shattered. She felt like never going to work again. She felt she could never face that man again. But then, as she thought over it, she realized she had no one to blame but herself. She let her fantasies take over her. She let herself dream about the man when he simply had no feelings for her. Back in the house that evening, Adnan did not feel like doing his work as usual. After dinner, he changed and went out, taking a bus to Geylang Serai where he hailed a trishaw to Queen's theater. By the time he arrived there, however, he was no longer sure he wanted to sit through a movie and instead, ended up in the popular coffee shop next door where he ordered a cup of tea and sat down to watch people go by.
His thoughts were still filled with the extraordinary events of the previous night, when he suddenly felt someone tapping his shoulder and heard a familiar voice greeting him. 'Adnan, how are you? What are you doing here all by yourself?' Adnan turned around to find Ahmad standing behind him. A good friend, Ahmad also happened to be the man who arranged his purchase of the house. 'Oh, it's you, Mat. Have a seat. Haven't seen you for quite a while. How are you? Care for some tea?' Adnan responded as he extended his hand. Adnan ordered a cup of tea for his guest, and the two friends had a good chat about old times. inevitably, the topic drifted to the house he had bought with Ahmad's help. 'How's your new place?' asked Ahmad. 'Oh, great,' was Adnan's brief reply. 'That's good to hear. You know, various people have lived there before you, and all of them had complained of strange noises. I don't know. Maybe there is something about the place. But you don't seem to have any problems there, do you? Anyway, what did they expect, huh? It's an old house. Of course it creaks in all sort of places.'
'Right,' replied Adnan. Unwilling to say more. 'You know the previous owner? He's now living in Penang. When he was here, he didn't care about the house. He moved out and simply left it vacant for a whole year. He thought his wife might like to live there again. But she didn't. Finally, he let the place out, and tenants came and went. None of them stayed there long. 'That's why I'm glad to hear you're comfortable there. If there's anything not to your satisfaction, please call me. I'd be happy to help,' said Ahmad. When Ahmad left him later, Adnan felt there were even more clouds in his mind than before. He did not reach home till it was almost midnight that night. He went straight to his study to get some stationery and proceeded to write a letter to his brother to tell him about the happenings in the house and to seek his advice. He wrote at length, beginning from the purchase of the house and until he heard those knocking the previous night.
Two in the morning, and Adnan was still writing. Suddenly, in the midst of a sentence, he found himself staring at his own hand as it wrote '... and then he carried me and dumped me into a hole in the wall of the storeroom, which he then cemented up. That is where I've been buried. I have suspected all along that he had another woman. And I was right. But I never imagined he would do this to me. Now, I can't get out of this hole. Please free me. I must find him, wherever he might be.' Once again, Adnan's instinctive response was to fling the pen onto the desk. 'My God! What is this! Why am I writing these words?' he screamed. His thoughts were a tangled mess. His body shivered with terror. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He tore up everything he had written and rushed to the bedroom to lie down. He was really, really scared this time. But even as he lay in bed, he continued to hear persistent knocking in the wall. He even thought he heard a raspy female voice pleading with him to remove a brick from the wall so that she could be free. They kept him awake all through the night.
Next morning, Kak Jah was shocked to find Adnan looking haggard as though he had been sick for years. He did not say much and Kak Jah did not feel like asking too many questions either. After breakfast, he told her he was going out but not to the office and that he would be home early that day. Adnan went to see Ahmad. he had finally made up his mind to tell his friend about his frightening experiences. he had to find out if he knew anything about what might have happened there. Perhaps Ahmad could help him. For several long minutes after he heard Adnan's story, Ahmad sat back silently in his chair. Then he got up, went to his room, and returned with a file in his hands. 'You might like to read these. You know, you could have told me about it last night when I asked you if there was anything wrong. There's no point keeping this thing from me.' Adnan opened the file and read a newspaper cutting clipped inside. Singapore, 31 May, Local police said they still could not shed any light on the whereabouts of Madam Mariam binti Mohamad, reported missing two weeks ago. The wife of timber mechant, Mr. Mohamad bin Jaafar, she was reportedly last seen by a train passenger at the Singapore railway station, although this could not be confirmed. In fact, railway personnel interviewed said they believed it was a case of mistaken identity. The real Madam Mariam remains untraced to date. Anyone with any information that might assist police in their investigations is requested to see...'
Adnan stared at Ahmad. 'Is this Mohamad the former owner of the house? The one you told me about last night? Now living in Penang?' 'Right. His wife disappeared under inexplicable circumstances and has never been found since. He was supposedly reunited with her about a year later, but it wasn't her. Just someone who closely resembled her.' Adnan left Ahmad later and he was still confused. He reached home to find lunch already on the table. But he did not feel like eating. Instead, he sat in the study pondering what Ahmad had told him, until Kak Jah popped in to remind him the food was getting cold. 'Are you still troubled by those noises? Like I said, it's probably just your imagination. But, can I suggest something? Perhaps it would help if someone else beside you could hear these noises too. If you don't mind, I'd like to stay around a little longer today.' The suggestion took Adnan by surprise. He could not believe that this attractive maid servant of his would spend the night alone with him just to restore his peace of mind. But before he could reply, Kak Jah continued. 'Don't worry. I don't mean to spend the night here. I just wanted to stay around a little longer than usual. In any case, my nephew Omar will be here to keep us company. I'm expecting him at six.'
That evening after dinner, Adnan, Kak Jah and her nephew Omar, adjourned to the study to see if they could hear the knocking. They did not have to wait long. 'Cik Jah, Omar, do you hear that?' asked Adnan, drawing their attention when the knocking began. This time, they sounded gentle and unhurried. Kak Jah and Omar nodded their heads to confirm that they too heard the knocking. They stared at the wall where the sounds appeared to be coming from. It was clear to everyone now. Adnan had not been imagining things. 'Get some tools,' Kak Jah suggested all of a sudden. 'What? Whatever for? asked Adnan. 'Lets break down this wall and see what's behind it. That's the only way we'll ever get to the bottom of this,' she said confidently. Soon, the three were busy hammering away at that part of the wall they heard the knocking. No sooner they begun when they noticed the knocking had stopped. Finally, with a lot of effort, they managed to removed a brick and instantly, a blast of cold air rushed out, briefly surrounding them. It took everyone by surprise.
'You're welcome,' Adnan said, out of the blue. 'beg your pordon?' asked Kak Jah, staring uncomprehendingly at him. 'I said you're welcome.' 'Did I say something?' The quizzical look was still on her face. 'You said thank you, right?' asked Adnan, his face now mirroring Kak Jah's look. 'No. Did I?' 'But I thought I heard you... I thought I heard someone, a woman saying...' 'What did she say?' asked Kak Jah. 'She said thank you!' The three of them spent a few moments staring at each other. Resuming work, they pounded around the hole they had just made. Brick by brick, they broke down the wall until it revealed its long held secret, a human skeleton, long hair still on its head,a full set of teeth still in its grinning jaws, and a woman's clothes still covering it. Adnan immediately instructed Omar to call the police while he and Kak Jah stood guard over their macabre find. He was quite shaken, but Kak Jah looked surprisingly cool and collected. There was no sign of fear in her voice when she remarked with a coy smile, 'Well, I'm sure you can have your peace of mind now, now that this thing is over. No more noises to trouble you in the middle of the night. But that's the thing, you see. You've been working too hard. You must take good care of yourself. This time, we happened to be around to help you. But who'll look after you if you fall ill the next time?'
Adnan listened to her with gaping mouth. He felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach and blood rushing to his feet. Kak Jah had never spoken to him like that before. The tone, the sentiments they revealed, were like a bombshell to him. And they knocked enough senses into him to make him take notice for the first time. A month after the incident, a swarm of guests descended upon Adnan's house to help him celebrate the end of his bachelor days. the bride was, of course, his maid servants of five years. It was three days after the wedding. the happy newly weds were in the kitchen. Kak Jah preparing breakfast, Adnan browsing through the morning papers. Listen to this, Jah. 'Penang, today. The local police are investigating the grisly murder last night of a well known local timber merchant, Mohamad bin Jaafar, who was found strangled at home. Police are still hunting for the killer, believed to be a woman with long fingernails.' 'What a weird story,' Adnan continued, as he folded the paper up. 'Well, all kinds of weird stories make this world, dear. Remember that woman...?' said Kak Jah, smiling. 'Right. Poor woman. My goodness! Ten long years imprisoned within that wall.'
Same here, thought Kak Jah. Five long years in the cold, knocking at the door to your heart, getting no response. You didn't notice a thing, did you? Work was all you thought about. Thank God you heard at last. And thus it seemed, when Adnan demolished that wall in his study that fatefull night, he set free not one, but two long suffering souls.
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