The Princess and Ming-huá

Chapter 3

During the night Ming-huá could think of nothing else than the appearance of Hang Li Po. Princess Hang Li Po. Why! The road where the house her family bought was named Jalan Puteri Hang Li Poh. There was a well called Perigi Puteri Hang Li Poh. So many stories about her from long ago, in fact Hang Li Poh lived more than 500 years ago. How could she be still alive and appear in a room that was locked. It must have been the spirit of Princess Hang Li Poh. It could not be a real person. But the fan she left behind. It was real. Ming-huá took the fan from her backpack. It was real. She was holding it in her hand.

Ming-huá quickly put the fan back in her back pack when she heard her mother call her for breakfast. They were staying in a hotel while they were in Melaka. It was time for breakfast and then they were going back to the house on Jalan Puteri Hang Li Poh.

When they arrived the architects were already there. Today they wanted to look at the first floor and access what needed doing to restore the house.

This frightened Ming-huá as she did not want them to discover the room she had found. She accompanied her parents and the consultants to the first floor and they looked over the first rooms to the right. They then came to the door on the right hand side of the hall way.

Ming-huá's heart thumped. Her father put his hand to the door handle but found it locked.

"That is strange. This door is locked. I do not have keys for anything except the front gate." He said, turning to the Architect.

"Let me see." And the Architect tried. It would not budge. The Architect had a key he said was a master key.

"This master key will unlock almost any lock like this one." And he began to try. He was slightly frustrated by the fact that it took so long to open the door. Eventually it yielded and he pushed it open.

Ming-huá gave a gasp when she looked inside. The room was a mess, just like all the others in the house. Gone were the curtains and the paint hung peeling from the walls. There did not appear to be a doorway at the end of the room where she had passed through. There was just a rough set of double opening closet doors. No curtains hung in front of them. All was a mess.

The architect strode toward the doors at the end of the room followed by Ming-huá's father. Ming-huá held her breath. The Architect flung open the door only to reveal shelves inside the closet. Ming-huá as amazed. How could this happen. She walked back to the entrance door and into the hallway to make sure she was not imagining all this. Was it the same door she entered only yesterday? It was.

But what of all the other doors on the right hand side. Where did they lead? What happened to the enormous room she had entered yesterday where she met Hang Li Poh? What happened to the Alter Table and the rest of the furniture?

The Architect and her parents came out of the room and looked down the hall. Ming-huá followed her parents and the Architect to the next door on the right hand side of the hallway. It was ajar. Her father pushed it open. Just the same mess as all the other rooms.

Ming-huá became quite frightened but tried not to display her feelings to her parents. She could not stop wondering. What was happening? Was she dreaming?