The Invisible Friend

The soft chapping of the geckos and the chorus of crickets reverberated through the forest. An owl hooted in the distance. A soft wind was blowing. Leaves rustled. Tok Abu, the village shaman, used to the nocturnal sounds of the jungle was on a mission to retrieve a special herb that gave out maximum aroma during the full moon. This particular herb was used as an antiseptic for a mass circumcision ceremony that was scheduled the next day.

When he heard the demonic call of a barking deer, Pak Abu knew it prophesied a bad omen, but he ignored it. When he tried to retrieve the precious herb growing in clumps at the river bank, he lost his balance and fell into the river. Cursing under his breath, he tried to stand up, but the mud underneath his feet weighed him down and he fell back into the water. After a few tries, he gave up and sat in the calm water, hoping for someone to come to his rescue. He regretted that he had never learnt how to swim. He made one last attempt to get up but failed.

A distinct sound distracted him. Standing above him on the riverbank, was a strange figure of a pixie (unseen and unheard of in recent years). It was about two feet in height with an enormous head, pointy ears and beady eyes. It slapped its thighs and laughed out loud, thoroughly amused by Pak Abu’s dilemma. Then, without warning, the river water rose, swift undercurrents gathered momentum and swept Pak Abu away.

‘Help! help! I cannot swim,” he said.

The pixie skipped along the riverbank, his laughter echoing through the forest. Pak Abu, overpowered by the strong undercurrents, spluttered and flayed his arms about in an attempt to keep afloat. He did not know for how long he was in the river but when he opened his eyes, he was resting on the river bank with the pixie peering down at him.

“I saved you and now you must help me. Otherwise, I will throw you back into the river. “

Angered at being blackmailed, Pak Abu, a tall wiry man, challenged and rebuked his saviour. The pixie, without hesitation, twitched his nose and Pak Abu was back in the water, hands and legs flying about. Unnerved by this experience, Pak Abu relented and from then on, an alliance was formed between the two. Everywhere Pak Abu went, the pixie followed. The villagers, however, were unaware of this invisible friend.

The next day, during the circumcision ceremony, an altercation broke out between the Pak Abu, the shaman and Hamid, the village headman (a loud uncouth man). Hamid wanted his young son to lead the procession but according to tradition, the lead was always the oldest boy in the group and as such, Hamid’s ten-year-old son did not qualify. In the midst of the argument, Hamid’s sarong mysteriously vanished, leaving the red-faced headman stark naked in the centre of the crowd. Angered and ashamed, Hamid placed a banana leaf on his nether regions, ranted and raved and swore revenge before hastily returning home.

After the circumcision ceremony, lunch was served. The hungry villagers devoured it in no time. Dessert, however, was not what they expected. All the trays of local delicacies and cakes were either half-eaten or bitten. The cooks and their assistants were blamed for this fiasco but everyone denied it. The villagers returned home disappointed. Pak Abu suspected who the culprit was and once indoors, he gave the pixie a ticking off. The pixie rolled on the floor and laughed out loud. Pak Abu managed to extract a promise from him never to repeat his shenanigans.

The next day, Rahim Bakar, the farmer was furious. A cluster of ripened bananas meant for the market the next day was missing from his orchard.

“It must be the monkeys from the hill? They are always hanging around the village foraging for food.,” said one villager.

“Don’t be silly, the monkeys will not steal a whole cluster. It’s probably someone among us who is the thief,” said another.

“I think one of Rahim’s underpaid workers stole it and sold it for extra cash,” said a third villager.

It was decided to have a house-to-house search for the missing banana cluster. When the search party entered the headman’s son’s room, they found a bunch of banana peels under his bed. The headman argued that the banana peels were all shrivelled and dried up and hence could not possibly be from the stolen cluster.

When Pak Abu heard the news, he immediately suspected his house guest. He knew that this was his modus operandi. He searched his home for evidence of the stolen bananas and found them concealed under several chicken coops. When he confronted the pixie, he denied any involvement but later smiled sheepishly when the evidence was shown. Another stern warning was issued, and another meaningless promise was made.

The next week was uneventful. The villagers went about their business as usual. Pak Abu was relieved to know that his shadow friend was behaving himself. Everything appeared normal until some items went missing from the village grocer the following week. According to reports, the inventory was checked the previous night and by the next morning, some of the listed items had vanished without a trace. Among them were: toy cars, marbles, chips, coca-cola cans, sweets and chocolates. The blame game started. Many of the villagers blamed the drug addicts from the next village but there were no witnesses to testify to that. The police were called and a report was made but no action was taken for lack of evidence.

A frustrated Pak Abu confronted his shadow friend who again vehemently denied having stolen the items. After searching beneath the floorboards of his room, the shaman was aggrieved to find the missing items. He threatened the pixie and the pixie promised to return the stolen items.

The next morning, there was a commotion in the village. Mak Minah, the village moneylender had lost a substantial amount of cash and jewellery. Her house had been burgled the previous night and she was livid.

“This was a peaceful village once, but recently, weird things have been happening. Hamid’s sarong vanished without a trace, the half-eaten desserts and delicacies, during the circumcision ceremony. Who could have done that? You all are aware of the disappearance of Rahim’s banana cluster and the items stolen from the village grocer. Who do you think did that? Now, the disappearance of my cash and jewellery. Anyone knows who did it?  I believe this is the work of a toyol. Someone here is keeping a toyol and we should get rid of it before more harm befalls us,” she said.

The mention of toyol made the villagers shiver. They had heard stories of unsolved robberies, kidnappings and even murders by toyol from nearby villages. Upset and disturbed, they decided to take action.

An emergency village council meeting was in session the next morning. The villagers who were the victims explained the problems they faced. The village council of Elders was discussing it when Pak Abu, the shaman approached them and returned the jewellery and cash belonging to Mak Minah. There was pin-drop silence. The villagers were waiting for an explanation. Pak Abu bowed his head in shame. No one spoke. Then without a word, Pak Abu brought out a concealed mirror from underneath his shirt and held it behind his back. Within seconds, the figure of the pixie appeared. Everyone gasped. A loud piercing scream was heard throughout the village. The apparition of the pixie became contorted and shrank before it finally disappeared in smoke. Pak Abu apologised to the council and the villagers for the trouble he had caused and related that he was under great duress as the pixie had saved his life and he had made a pact with it. The villagers accepted his explanation and took a vote not to banish him. The pixie was never seen or heard of again and life returned to normal in the village.

Toyol - a mythical creature from South East Asian folklore. It is believed to be the ghost of a foetus that is invoked by the black magic practises of a shaman.