Kalambret Village

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