It was almost 7 pm and the sun was slowly setting as darkness began to take over the streets of Ketengah Jaya... I was sitting at the counter reading a few comic books, looking after dad's grocery store when suddenly I heard a guy screaming...

Hmm... apparently, it was not a fight... felt a little bit disappointed coz I thought I might have seen some action going on, u know, a little bit of adrenaline rush and some bashing and punching, blood splitters on the tarred road... but it was just some guy yelling at something... and I had no idea at who or what he was yelling at...

Dark coloured, skinny, slightly bald, tall and yet, definitely not handsome... My first impression was he was either a junkie high on drugs or an angry mad man... and I neither of those I want to be in my store...

After some yelling and wailing down the road, he finally stopped in front of the store... God, why? why? of all places he HAD to stop there... and after a few minutes of staring at the dimmed sky, he made his way into the store... swell...

I seek shelter behind the counter and hid all possible objects that could be turned into a weapon... knifes, pens, rulers... but, on a second thought, if u're a junkie who has years and years of experience with crime... in a grocery store, anything can be used as a weapon... gulp...

Well, I kept my calm face... as many self-defence experts would say, in a face to face situation with a criminal, always remain cool and calm...

Yes, even entering the store, he was still yelling... I tried to look at the direction of his yelling however all that I could see was houses and trees...

and then, suddenly...

"Tauke! Rokok Dunhill 20 sebungkus!"

...

I asked him, do u got any money? and he quickly grabbed a few ringgit bills from his pocket and started counting the money before throwing nine pieces of 1 ringgit bills onto the counter...

As he was opening the pack of cigarette I just gave him, I thought to myself... "if he's insane, then how come he can count? Can mad people count? I never seen a mad person counted before... hmm... maybe he is sane... he was yelling because he's high on drugs... I've definitely seen high people counted money before... but... if he's high on drugs, how come I can see him walking on a straight line right now? maybe I should consider other possibilities.. like what? Hmmm... ahah! maybe he's seeing something supernatural! like a ghost or makhluk halus... Damn, that's creepy..."

After lighting up a cigarette, he, still yelling and cursing, made his way out of the store... but he managed to grab a packet of small karipaps and without paying, he walked away from the store... slowly his yelling vanished into the dark as he was getting further and further... Fiuhh, I wont want him to come again...

and yet, he did come again... still yelling, and this time, without paying, he managed to grab a tin of Coca Cola... swell again...



the next day, I got the info that the guy was actually insane... he took a bus to my place from Kuala Terengganu and has been living under the bus station for quite some time... but the bus station now is under renovation so no wonder he is wandering around the neighbourhood... yelling his a** out...

So much for supernatural stuff...


FACT : Jumlah pesakit mental di negara ini terus meningkat apabila sebanyak 400,227 kes dicatatkan tahun lalu berbanding 346,196 kes tahun sebelumnya. Menteri Kesihatan, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai berkata, statistik juga menunjukkan sebanyak 11.2 peratus daripada pesakit mental terdiri daripada mereka yang berusia 16 tahun ke atas.

"Lebih membimbangkan jumlah kes bunuh diri berpunca daripada sakit mental turut meningkat dari tahun ke tahun''

Daripada 400,227 pesakit mental yang dicatatkan tahun lalu, seramai 379,010 orang terdiri daripada pesakit luar, manakala pesakit mental yang menetap di hospital seramai 21,217 orang...