Kalambret Village

By S. Yoga

Sekar Tanjung turned up at one end of the village. His eyes and nose were swollen and bruised, apparently the result of being hit by dull objects. With unkempt hair, cracked lips and seriously injured hands, he swayed, heavily dragging both feet. He kept his mouth shut although scores of people were around him, asking him one question after another. He remained completely tight-lipped about his condition.

A month earlier, Sekar Tanjung was the center of attention in Kalambret village. On a Tuesday night, he was declared missing. All the villagers looked for him for three full days and nights but it was useless. There was not even the slightest clue to his whereabouts. His father asked the police several times for help, but to no avail. The villagers believed the young man was kidnapped by evil ghosts, especially since Kalambret village was said to be haunted with occasional spirits roaming here and there. So all the villagers agreed that Sekar Tanjung was kidnapped by ghosts. There was no one else to blame.

Yet, Pak Sentot, Sekar Tanjung's father, could not believe this. He kept asking the village head, who was responsible for village security, to see to the return of his son.

"Be patient, Pak Sentot. The case of your missing son is being investigated now. Apparently, this young man has made a gross mistake: he has violated the village's traditional custom. When the ghosts are disturbed, misfortune will befall the perpetrator," the village head said.

"Village head, I don't believe my son has disappeared because he has been taken away by ghosts, as you have just said. Obviously, he has been kidnapped," Pak Sentot said firmly.

The village head was smart though. He asked Pak Sentot whether or not he wanted his son to return home. If you would like to see your son again, just leave everything to me, he told Pak Sentot in a threatening tone. Since Pak Sentot wanted his son to return, he decided not to argue with the village head any longer.

In fact, Pak Sentot did not want to follow all the procedures suggested by the village head to search for his missing son. The reason was not that he was unwilling to fork out any money for the rite. One thing was clear: he was once a member of an Islamic school with a dorm where such a belief was alien. Yet he also understood why the village head and the local people strongly believed that ghosts kidnapped his son. The village was known as abangan, where people continued to profess Islam although they did not practice the religious services. These local people were still fond of gambling, including cock-fighting, womanizing and drinking. His background was different. He always obediently practiced religious services. Eventually Pak Sentot decided to compromise with the prevailing belief in this village as long as his only child would return home. Now that he had no luck with the police, who obviously showed unwillingness on the grounds that they could not find any trace of the missing young man, his only hope now rested with the village head, who promised him that he would see the return of Sekar Tanjung.

The next day, a rite for the redemption of Sekar Tanjung's sins was held. Pak Sentot spent no less than Rp 500,000, an amount that was expensive for him because he was only a farmer with a small plot of land to work on and like everyone else, he was in the grip of the economic crisis. However, he was ready to part with this sum of money for the sake of the apple of his eyes. The rite took place solemnly under a banyan tree on a village hill, where the village elder was buried. He was better known as Eyang Ageng (The Great Grandpa) and was believed to control the ghosts in this area.

True enough. The next morning Sekar Tanjung turned up from one end of the village, though in a sad condition.

Ten days after his reappearance, Sekar Tanjung began to say a few words. His memory did not seem to work well. He had undergone heavy torture. A month, three months, five months and then a year went by without any significant progress in his recovery. Indeed, he was getting better physically, but mentally not. He was torn to pieces by his torturing trauma. He even talked like a mute.

On the other hand, the police stated that they had completed an investigation into who would be responsible for the disappearance of Sekar Tanjung. The conclusion was it was true that he had been kidnapped by ghosts.

Pak Sentot, however, could not accept what the police said. He did his own investigation along with the help of a former university friend of his son. It was a coincidence that this friend was on holiday in the village at the time Sekar Tanjung went missing. And Ujang, so he was called, had a grandmother in Kalambret village. He would stay in the village to keep his old grandmother company.

The afternoon prior to the disappearance, someone saw Sekar Tanjung at Joni's stall, having some coffee. The stall owner said Sekar Tanjung talked a lot that day about a housing project which would be developed on farm land in the village. Afterwards, only the village head, Pak Legowo, saw him again. He said he saw Sekar Tanjung enter the village graveyard during the night. The next day some villagers found the grave already destroyed. At that point, Sekar Tanjung was declared missing.

Two years passed and the details surrounding Sekar Tanjung's disappearance still remained a mystery. But the villagers began to forget the incident. Even Ujang could not find any information to help answer the questions. He was known all through the village as a young man of great courage to intensely protest an elite housing project by some investors from the city who had obtained the village head's approval.

It was Ujang who brought the villagers together and told them that the project would disadvantage them. Low compensation would lead to social envy with the indigenous villagers. As this project was incompetently designed, the houses of the indigenous villagers would be flooded every year after it was completed. The housing project, which would be built on raised ground level, would block the flow of the river. So the next day, Ujang planned to launch a protest against it.

That next day, however, the villagers were shocked to hear that Ujang had disappeared. He had not been seen since the night before. That morning the villagers gathered in the house of the village head, who said he happened to catch sight of Ujang entering the village graveyard the previous night. Again, the grave was damaged, just like what had happened prior to Sekar Tanjung's disappearance. No sooner had the village head said a few words than Udel, the goat shepherd, shouted loudly from the direction of the farm land. He said he had seen a dead body floating in the river close to the graveyard.

Upon hearing this, the villagers flocked to the location. The dead body was in a very bad condition. The skin covering the palms and the face had come off so that the corpse was beyond recognition. Yet, the shirt and the trousers betrayed the owner: it was Ujang.

There was a great stir among the villagers. They condemned this savage and inhumane act. Their anger was vented at the parties who could not maintain the security of the village. It was no use to have security if the villagers were always terrorized. Kidnapping, murder and what else the next day. Confronted by angry villagers, the village head and security personnel only turned red in the face. The police, as usual, came late and only promised to thoroughly investigate the murder. Suddenly, the village head shouted loudly, asking the villagers to gather near the graveyard.

"All villagers, which I hold in respect and love, I hope you can keep your heads cool in the face of a situation like this. Do not make careless and quick accusations. Look carefully at the contents of the grave of Eyang Ageng over there. See, the roof is upside down and the grave itself has been ransacked. Who else but Ujang could have done this? I saw him entering this place last night. So, if Ujang has come to a tragic end, don't blame other people. This is indeed in line with what he has done!" the village head said firmly and fierily in an attempt to calm down the villagers.

The villagers looked at one another as if they understood what the village head told them. They dispersed, afraid they would be cursed if they did something bad in front of the grave of Eyang Ageng.

The next day, Pak Sentot asked the village head to reveal who killed Ujang. "If you cannot, you yourself are the killer!" Pak Sentot threatened.

Again, the villagers were shocked. The next day Pak Sentot was found dead, his bowels were spread here and there near the grave of Eyang Agung, which was dug into about half a meter deep. All the villagers and security gathered at the old grave. The village head instructed some people to remove the dead body. Suddenly, however, Sekar Tanjung shouted very loudly and rushed towards the corpse. The villagers were surprised to see Sekar Tanjung, usually quiet, rush to the dead body of his father and cry without tears.

The village head approached him and lifted his chin. Sekar Tanjung looked at him sharply, his two eyes wildly shining.

"Ghoooooost!!!??? Ghooooooost!!!??" Sekar Tanjung shouted and then jumped up. Shouting "Ghost! Ghost!" continuously in the direction of the village head, he ran away from the crowd. The village head obviously became awkward as the villagers looked hard at him.

"Don't take this seriously. He is mad! This is the grave of Eyang Ageng, isn't it. It was here that he had his punishment because of damaging this grave and thus holding Eyang Agung in contempt. He is simply hallucinating as if I were a ghost. Ha .. ha ... ha .... ha .... ha ....," said the village head as he tried to neutralize the villagers' suspicions.

If you come to our village now, you will see the elite housing compound squeezing out the houses of the indigenous villagers, which will always be flooded in the rainy season. And you are sure to come across a man carrying a small lantern night and day who speaks to himself once in a while.

"There is a kidnapping ghost! There is a kidnapping ghost!" he warns.

Legend goes that this ghost can transform itself into a human being. What distinguishes the ghost from being human is that it is sly, greedy, cruel and power hungry in addition to justifying all its means to reach an end.

Surabaya, 1999

Glossary:

Pak: Mr.

The writer, a graduate of the sociology department of the School of Social and Political Sciences at Airlangga University, Surabaya, where he is domiciled now, is also a poet and essayist.

-- Translated by Lie Hua