“You
wouldn’t do that if you really loved me.”
“But,
I just had to Mira, I had no choice.”
Aliff
remembered the last conservation he had with his ex wife last December. It seems that the month is the month that sky
cries a lot. It had been six months since they split, but he still couldn’t
get over it. Aliff was deeply in love with Mira, she was his first love, his
first high school sweetheart he married to.
It
was three years ago when Aliff and Mira were solemnised, he was one of the happiest
men on earth. They were blessed with a pair of twins and now since they’ve
divorced, Mira took the children with her. Aliff didn’t fight for his kids when
their marriage case and custody of children were being settled in Syaria Court. He thought it was useless
to raise the kids without a mother, so he just let Mira took over.
Aliff
was fired last month for bad attendance and performance at work. He was warned
for thrice but he ignored it. He had turned to a complete miserable man after
five months his marriage collapsed. He realised that he had lost everything he
used to have.
He
took a deep breath and stood up from his bed. He walked to a long mirror and
told himself that he had gotten skinnier. He could only see bones.
“I
still love Mira. Mira. But she moved on. Aliff, why Aliff? Why are you
torturing yourself?” He asked himself.
***
There
was something infuriated Aliff this morning. A provocation. A provocation that
he never thought would hit him. Aliff was working again, he was a mechanic at a
car workshop near to his house. Mingling with most guys especially, and to add,
same-minded people.
His
friend, Johan, suggested him to go to bomoh
so he could be with his ex wife again. Johan suggested this because he knew
that Aliff was still thinking about Mira and his kids, mostly Mira.
“I
know a bomoh from my kampong, I heard
about his success of reuniting couples, or making girls you like to fall in
love with you. He’s a legit professional. You want to try? ‘Cause I see you’re
so sick with your ex wife.”
Aliff
gave a killing look to Johan. He was extremely shocked and mad.
“You
are nuts. I am still a Muslim. I know my limits. Johan, I thought you were my
friend. You are fucking stupid.” He shouted at Johan and threw the wrench he
was holding on to the floor. It sounded like a bowling ball fall from the sky
and hit the floor. Everyone was looking at them. Stunted.
“Like
I don’t know you, Aliff! I fucking know you!” Johan replied but Aliff was
leaving the workshop.
***
Aliff
couldn’t sleep that night. He remembered how lovely Mira’s hair smelled, her
beautiful, sometimes awkward smile she gave to him and her seducing voice and
laughter. He missed getting laid with her.
He
closed his eyes and what he could see was sweet memories he had with Mira.
Aliff and Mira kissed for the first time when they were sixteen, it was behind
a school block after school, a sin, a pleasant sin that Aliff thought was fine
to commit.
Not
a day went by without remembering Mira.
***
Aliff woke up at nine in the morning. He missed fajr, morning prayer again. He had neglected God, his responsibilities as a servant, and mostly, to himself.
After
taking a quick shower and putting on his work uniform, Aliff rushed to work
with his kapcai motorcycle he bought
for RM 250 last month.
It
was almost 9.45 a.m when he arrived and saw Johan was fixing a punctured tire
of a red Proton Wira. Suddenly Aliff remembered his suggestion about seeing bomoh, this time, he didn’t get raged
because he had decided to take Johan’s idea. To bomoh his ex wife.
“Johan,
I’m sorry, I was stupid for saying that yesterday.”
Johan
didn’t respond, pretending he didn’t hear what Aliff was saying.
“I
am sorry, Johan. You hear me? I’m fucking sorry. Now let’s me get something
straight. Just bring me to the bomoh
you told me yesterday.” He told him, half whispering.
“I thought you were still a Muslim?” Johan
asked sarcastically and laughed but before Aliff could interrupt and get mad,
Johan added, “but it’s okay if you changed your mind. As long as you have some
money, it’d settle.”
“OK.”
***
That
night, Johan drove Aliff to the bomoh’s
house he told Aliff. Aliff hadn’t had much money to spend on a bomoh’s service, but he just had to. He
had barely enough money to eat but he had missed Mira terribly, the urge to be
together with her back was high.
The bomoh’s house was fifty minutes from
Ipoh, the town they lived and worked. It was in Johan’s kampong but he didn’t
even worry if any people saw if he was heading to the bomoh’s house.
They
didn’t talk much in the car. One of the questions that played in Aliff’s head
was why Johan was willing to help him but he would rather just shut his mouth
before Johan changed his mind.
***
Mira
grabbed a newspaper on the coffee table in her house. After the divorce, she
stayed with her parents because she had no job to support her own kids on her
own.
“Two men found dead bloodlessly on a road” was the headline on the day after. Mira didn’t find it interesting until her eyes skimmed on the deceased’s names.
“Two men found dead bloodlessly on a road” was the headline on the day after. Mira didn’t find it interesting until her eyes skimmed on the deceased’s names.
“…victims
are Muhammad Johan Bakri and Aliff Osman…”
Mira
was shocked that she almost fainted. Her head was dizzy, her eyes started to be
watery and at the end, she shouted calling her mom.
After
Mira woke up from the faint, she shouted her ex husband’s name, Aliff
countlessly. She started to cry after awhile, even though she was comforted by
her mother, she couldn’t stop. Then it became worse. She shrieked, like a pontianak. Her kids were watching, their
eyes were opened wide, barely understood what was happening.
Mira’s
mother tried her best to calm her down. Nothing seemed to work.
That
night, Mira’s hair was standing, miraculously, in a strange, scary way. She
stopped shrieking, shouting and crying, but she started smiling. Eerily.
Mira’s
mother remembered fine, Mira once told her that she had enough with Aliff. It
became a question when she acted that way after she knew Aliff’s death. She
would be sad that the father to her kids passed away, but it shouldn’t be
terrible, as terrible like this.
***
The next morning, Mira’s condition became even worse. She peed around and tried to scratch anyone who came near to her. She laughed hysterically and murmured in a language no one in the house knew.
***
Mira’s mother called an ustaz, to treat Mira. When the ustaz arrived and saw Mira’s condition, he instantly said that she was under a spell. Mira’s mother knew she would have guessed that but she put it down because she hated to accuse anyone for her daughter’s sickness.
The ustaz said that he couldn’t help Mira to
threw the demon that was sent to her because he had zero knowledge on it but he
told her about a case similar to hers where a mad guy who was obsessed with his
ex wife bomoh her, but he died some
time after that and his ex wife suffered the same thing Mira was suffering.
The rule of the spell: if the sender dies, the
receiver dies too, but slowly…
