Lost world

The end

I knew that something wasn't right the minute my eyes open the next morning.

 First, I woke up with a terrible headache. I could hardly turn my head. I never had a head ache or migraind as sever as that. It took, almost half an hour for the pain to subside.

 Second, Melor wasn't up yet and it was 7 am. That was weird since she was normally the first one to wake up in the house for the morning prayers. Melor was lying on her side and she wasn't moving when I called her name. I shook her shoulder and noticed how warm she was. I gently turned her to lie on her back. Her clothes were drench with sweat. Her face was deathly pale. I touched her forehead and it was burning hot. I quickly rushed to find Mom. Together we changed her into drier clothes and put a wet clothe on her forehead to reduce her temperature. Melor kept calling Malek's name.

Mom rang the village midwife to the house.

It was pouring rain ourside. An old lady came to our house  with an umbrella , her  whole clothes was wet.she shook the water off the umbrella before coming into the house. 

"Theres going to be a storm, unusual strong, we haven't had this type of weather for years."

The midwife was an old lady in her 70's who like to chew on tobacco. She sat beside Melor and checked her pulse. She asked Mom to get a basin of water.

"Is she going into labor?" I asked.

"It seems like it but she seems so weak and the baby is not as active as it's supposed to be, "said the worried midwife. "I think we need Farouk here as well."

Farouk was Rafique's brother and he was also the Rembau town's doctor.

"Yes, give him a call Sofia. Poor man, no minute of peace. He stayed up all night because that strange man has been acting up again. Yesterday he tried to escape and wrestled one of his relatives. They managed to sedate him but he was shouting and screaming like a wild animal. Farouk had to make sure he was stabilized."

I was dialing Rafique's number when I heard all of this.

"What man?" I asked the midwife. The midwife told me that there was a man in town that had disappeared almost ten years ago without a trace. His parents and sibling had searched for him everywhere in Malaysia, and even the neighboring countries. They couldn't understand how he could vanish into thin air. They didn't believe that he had run away. Malek was a responsible man and work hard to care for his family.

Huh, so  Malek WAS   his name.I felt like hitting my head. Of all the people, why oh why we never asked Rafique's brother! But then again , it would have been a realllly short story. 😋

The last time they saw him, he was heading to one of the lakes in Rembau with a fishing rod in hand. They had never seen him again. Seven month ago, he reappeared but he was rambling about his wife and a beautiful place where everyone was nice and friendly. He rambled that he was in an istana and the sultan wasn't in favor of his marriage. People had seen him wandering around town and villages looking through trees and bushes searching for a door. His family thought that he had gone mad. They summoned a 'bomoh'. The bomoh told them that he had disappeared into the Bunian world and had lived among the people. Fearful, that they might lose their son again and not believing in the Bunian stories, his parents had him locked up in the house. It was only a few days ago that the man had been having dreams and started acting violently to get out of the house. Farouk was called in to restrain him. The family was thinking of moving him to Kuala Lumpur to get medical help.