I Slapped My Mother Once, Or Maybe More

I wasn't joking when I said that (the title). I really did it.
This is what happened.

I was 16 (or maybe 14), I can't exactly remember when. My mother and I lived alone. All of my brothers were married, two of them moved out while the other one was staying at his in-law's. It was 1.00 AM, in the dark morning. I was sleeping, and so was my mother.

Then suddenly, I heard a scream. A very loud scream. Hysterical scream. "Waaaaaaaaaaaargggggghhh..!!!!!!!". I was damn scared, and I asked myself, "what the hell is that?? (pebende pulak ni??)". Then I noticed that the scream was coming from my mother's room. I went out of my room and ran towards my mother's. While running, I told myself, "this is not good, be ready to see something horrifying! (benda tak baik ni. Bersedia untuk nampak benda xbest!)". In my mind, I was already thinking that my mother saw 'something' (that was the reason for her screaming, I thought). The image of ghosts had already come into my brain.

I went into the room. I looked everywhere, I saw nothing. No ghost. Then I looked at my mother. She was sitting on the bed, screaming so loudly with her wide eyes, as wide as you can imagine. I panicked. I held my mother's arms and asked, "what's wrong?? Mom?? (nape ni?? Mak??)". She didn't respond and kept on screaming. In panic, I slapped her!

Nothing happened. She was still screaming! So I slapped her again and again. She didn't budge. So I started reading (saying) some of the Koran (Al-Quran) verse (Qursi), but I forgot the last verse of it! I had been reading the Qursi every night before I went to sleep, but I forgot at that very moment! Then my mother started speaking, very vaguely. She said, "call your aunt.. (panggil alang... (makcik))". Then I rushed towards the telephone. I dialed the number. And again, I forgot the last two numbers! (I swear to God these are what happened at that moment, I kept forgetting things. And I'm pretty sure that 'panic' was the reason.)

So I went outside and called for help. My uncle, my neighbours and my eldest brother (he lived in the same area) responded in shock. They said that they DID NOT hear a sound. In my heart I said, "are you kidding me?? Mom was screaming like hell and none of you heard it?? You guys are living next door! (gila ke apa?? Mak jerit bagai nak rak, sorang pun tak dengar?? Korang duduk sebelah rumah je pun!)"

So five of us (me, uncle, brother, aunt and neighbour) held her tightly, together. At the same time, another aunt of mine (yes, we family are staying close by) called my eldest uncle (her and mom's eldest brother (do I need to explain this?)). He came, and thank God, he knew what to do (or read). And everything was back to normal.

After being checked by the expert (my distant aunt), she said that the 'thing' that attacked my mother was originally from my late grandmother (in our culture, we called it 'saka', some sort of heritage (in a spirit form)). After my grandmother passed away, 'it' started to feel 'lonely' and wanted somebody to listen to 'it'. My mother was the 'lucky' winner. And the innocent me was the 'lucky' witness.

I kind of lost my 'courage' for a month after that incident. I became 'phobic' at night. But later on, somehow I managed to cope with it, and thank God, I'm a better man now. And my mom, she said she didn't feel a thing when I slapped her. Hee.