The Catherine Lim Collection (23 page)

She slipped again into sleep.

“Oh, I hope it won’t come, I pray God it
won’t,” murmured Angela fervently, thinking of the telegram Boon had received
that morning from Australia. But it did, and it exceeded all the other requests
in the intensity of its urgency.

“Send for Ah Siong. I must see him.”

“Ah Siong is coming, mother. He says he’s
coming. We received a telegram from him this morning.”

“Ah, then I shall see him before I die!”
said Old Mother with a sigh, and closed her eyes.

Angela held a quick urgent consultation with
the others. They had seen Ah Siong or rather Brother Toh’s telegram, for he
would be known by no other name now.

“What shall we do?” said Angela helplessly.
“She doesn’t know it. He’s sure to kill her, with all his maniacal obsession of
converting people on their death-beds.” For indeed, the telegram spoke of
death-bed conversion, the ultimate triumph of good over evil, the final
snatching of a soul for the Lord on the brink of its damnation.

“Perhaps he won’t arrive in time,” said
Boon. “She’s sinking fast.” Wee Nam said nothing; Gloria had returned home from
hospital, but had to be hospitalised a second time, owing to complications
resulting from her miscarriage. Wee Nam looked wan, lost.

“What is this thing about the police in
Australia going after the sect?” asked Wee Tiong. “Perhaps that will prevent
him from coming.”

“It seems that a lot of complaints were made
by parents whose children had been drawn into the sect,” said Angela. “The
children were running away from home or holding prayer meetings and even
exorcism sessions in school. Ah Siong is in the thick of it. Somebody tells me
that he’s intent on converting his former lover, the Australian divorcee. He’s
found her and gives her no peace.”

The discussion ended with no more than the
general hope that the youngest son would not return in time, and with their all
going, in a body, to reassure the old one that he would.

“Please God, help her, don’t let anything
more happen to disturb her peace of mind,” prayed Angela in the fullness of
sorrow and pity.

They received another telegram that evening.

AM COMING HOME. MARILYN BROUGHT BACK TO THE
LORD. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED FOR CHRIST. NOW FOR HOME. BROTHER TOH.

“The Lord Jesus comes to save!” cried Brother
Toh, holding aloft the cross of salvation on which God hung in desolation,
crowned with thorns, nails driven into His palms and feet. “The Lord Jesus
comes to save!” Brother Toh’s voice quavered with the passion of conviction and
with pity for sinful brethren, resisting the Lord’s love.

His hair, parted in the middle, hung stiffly
to his shoulders; the straggly moustache and beard, and the gaunt features gave
him the aspect of a saint, an ascetic sallying forth from his hermit’s cell in
the desert to love and save. The white long-sleeved robe, fraying at the edges,
and the rough sandals, road-worn, spoke of tireless efforts in the fields of
harvest, to garner yet one more soul for the glory of the Lord.

“Where’s Mother?” demanded Brother Toh,
cross still held high. “Where is she? The Lord Jesus Christ calls to her. He
will save her! He will save her from the darkness of superstition and sin in
which she is engulfed and bring her forth into the light! Where is she?” Nobody
dared to tell him that Old Mother was at that very moment in the temple,
offering gifts of fruit and scented flowers to the Thunder deity, clasping
reverential joss-sticks before the deity on his altar.

“Ah, you too, Satan is in you! Begone,
Satan!” exclaimed Brother Toh as the idiot appeared and moved towards him,
gurgling, childish curiosity provoked by the sight of the cross with the Christ
figure, by the sight of the gaunt, erect, white-robed figure with long hair and
straggly beard. The idiot slobbered, gurgled, made to touch the white robe.

“Satan, begone!” Brother Toh’s voice
quavered imperiously.

He made the idiot kneel at his feet, which
the idiot did, first turning round to look at the others, with his imbecile
grin of pleasure. Brother Toh laid his hands on the idiot’s head, closed his
eyes and said in clear, ringing tones, his face lifted to Heaven, “O Jesus
Christ, Our Saviour, have mercy on this man, the humblest of your creatures.
Drive out the evil one in him and restore him to your love and mercy, O Lord
Jesus Christ. Let not the evil one gain ascendancy in the soul of this, your
humblest of creatures – ”

Brother Toh’s eyes opened suddenly; the
glint of the metal cylinder on the red string round the idiot’s neck must have
penetrated his eyelids. With a roar of wrath, he yanked the evil object from
the idiot’s neck; then holding it high for all to see, he cried out,
thunderously: “See here, see the symbol of Satan’s power. In one hand is the
symbol of mercy, love and salvation and in the other, the sign of Satan’s evil
and of his power on earth! What shall I do with it? I shall trample upon it, as
I shall trample upon the most poisonous of serpents and crush their very heads!
There!” Brother Toh flung down the cylinder, still with the red string
attached, and stamped on it, repeatedly. Panting, he turned to the idiot one
and cried, in a voice of triumph, “There, Brother Bock! You are saved now! The
Lord Jesus has saved you! Satan has been vanquished and he now flees, howling,
back into his den of darkness and iniquity. But be careful,” he warned, eyes
glittering, “be alert, for he comes back, soon, to see which souls he can
snatch away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Be vigilant, my brothers and sisters!
Now, Brother Bock, we shall kneel down together and pray to thank the Lord for
your deliverance from evil.” But the idiot, on whom the loss of his beloved
cylinder had finally dawned, began to howl. He made to retrieve the object, but
Brother Toh kept it resolutely under one foot, eyes glittering menacingly. The
idiot grovelled on the ground, made piteous sounds, but was each time beaten
away by the crucifix-wielding Brother Toh. Finally he got up, still howling,
and went to Michael for comfort.

“Oh please, oh God, why is all this
happening – ” gasped Angela.

Brother Toh’s eyes swept over them; they
alighted on Michael, on the spot where the shape of a cylinder showed beneath
his tight-fitting sports shirt.

“Aha, you too, Michael!” he cried, and
rushed toward the boy, forced his hand into the shirt and pulled out a similar
metal cylinder. With a tug, he tore off the red string easily.

Oh, no, thought Angela, feeling very sick. I
threw that thing away into the dustbin, how did Mikey retrieve it?

“Satan, Satan everywhere!” thundered Brother
Toh, trampling on the second cylinder. Now his wrath broke forth in all its
power. “Satan in the midst of my very own family, my very flesh and blood? What
is to be done? I’ll tell you what must be done! Come forth, all you who have
transgressed, who have conspired with the powers of darkness, come forth,
confess and be cleansed!”

“CONFESS AND BE CLEANSED!” The room
reverberated with the roar; the idiot, shaken, clung to Michael who held tight
to him. Angela was weeping. Gloria tried to hide behind her, terrified by the
fury of this man of God.

“I myself was once a sinner,” said Brother
Toh, looking around the frightened faces with defiance. “I gave in to the lusts
of the flesh, I was Satan’s follower. But Jesus Christ has redeemed me, and I,
as his true follower, will redeem you, you my own family, trapped by the powers
of darkness and superstition.”

“You too,” he said, turning his eyes on
Gloria who gave a little scream of terror. “Come, give that to me! It’s a
superstition, a symbol of servitude to the powers of darkness!” He wrenched the
rosary from her and flung it out of the window. A strangled sob escaped from
Gloria.

“Gloria, Gloria,” said the fervent man of
God, touching her on the shoulder. “Come to the true God. Give up your charms
and amulets. They are the work of superstitious priests and are a blasphemy to
Jesus Christ the Lord!”

“And you most of all!” he cried, advancing
upon Angela with such ferocious zeal that she stepped backwards with a little
scream. “You, you, dear Sister Angela! You in whom I had placed my hope. You,
who could have been such a helper to me, in the Lord’s vineyard! But you have
committed yourself to the powers of darkness too! I shall wage war with your
geomancer, Sister Angela, for he, more than any other, is the greatest agent
for evil! Under cover of respectability, he is drawing more and more to the
Devil. He cast out his net, and you swam into it, Sister Angela, and now you
are in his power! But listen, Sister Angela. It’s not too late. I can call upon
the powers of good to destroy the works of the powers of evil! Your restaurant
will crumble into ruins! See, it’s already crumbling! It will be a mass of
ruins, but out of those ruins, Sister Angela, you and my brother Boon will
rise, restored, saved, utterly cleansed!”

“No! No! No!” sobbed Angela, and she thought
she actually heard the thunderous sound of concrete blocks tumbling, saw
pillars melting like wax to the ground.

Brother Toh invited all those present to
come up, denounce Satan, and throw at his feet all the secret charms, amulets,
prayer paper, joss-sticks, prayer beads and other signs of servitude to the
forces of evil. The room suddenly filled with people. Angela felt herself
jostled here and there, as people surged forward towards Brother Toh in a wave
of new fervour and threw the symbols of evil at his feet. Little metal
cylinders on red string or silver chains fell to the ground with sharp clinks,
stacks of prayer paper or ghost money, joss-sticks, some hardly bigger than
match sticks, some as huge as batons were flung in a heap. A large urn for
joss-sticks crashed and broke to pieces, spilling out ash, yellowing pieces of
paper with charm words written on them fluttered about, then settled on the
ground at Brother Toh’s feet. A little metal cylinder rolled close to his feet,
it broke into its halves and a small shrivelled piece of flesh tied with red
string fell out.

“Oh, my God – his umbilical cord,” gasped
Angela, and she saw him stoop and light a match. The shrivelled piece of flesh
sizzled in the flame and was gone, leaving a blackened patch on the floor. Then
the flames spread and engulfed metal cylinders, urn, prayer paper, joss-sticks
in a brilliant flash of fire which died down in a few minutes to reveal a
desolate pile of black ash on the floor. “There!” cried Brother Toh, his eyes
shining. “All vanquished! The powers of darkness have been beaten back. Praise
the Lord! Thanks be to the Lord!”

The room reverberated with Halleluiahs. “But
where is Mother?” cried Brother Toh suddenly. “How is it that everyone is here
except my mother? Where is she?”

Angela prayed, Please, please, don’t let him
find her! He will kill her! She will die of a broken heart to see her youngest
and favourite son like this!

“I know where to find her!” exclaimed
Brother Toh with a cunning gleam in his eyes. “I’m going there, and I’m going
to destroy all the forces of darkness that are enslaving her! I’m going to free
her!”

He strode off, white robe flapping in the
breeze, crucifix firmly clasped in his hand.

Angela could see him rushing into the
temple, picking up the earthen and brass deities on the altar and dashing them
to the ground, cleaning the altar table of the rows of joss-stick urns with one
mighty sweep of his arm, trampling on the altar offerings of fruit and flowers,
holding aloft the crucifix for Old Mother and the temple priests to bend their
knees too.

“Poor mother, poor mother,” sobbed Angela.
“But it’s too late now! I can’t stop him.”

The clock showed 4:30; Angela had gone to
bed at three, she had slept a bare one and a half hours – a one and half hours
of pure terror, so that now she sat up on the bed, panting, holding a hand to
her chest. Boon was snoring nearby, in the deep sleep of utter exhaustion.
Angela got out of bed silently, heart still beating very fast. She was now
aware of a violent headache; she went to the bathroom cabinet and gulped down
two aspirins.

She got out the telegram and read it again.
There was no mention of flight time. Was there hope yet? Would the police or
Marilyn keep Ah Siong back for some time and earn their gratitude forever, for
saving the old one from torment in her last hours on this earth?

They all agreed later that the expression on
the old one’s face, both in the last few minutes before her death, and during
the period that she was laid out in her death clothes, was one of ineffable
peace and sweetness.

When it was known that her time was near,
all her children and the older ones among her grandchildren were gathered
together around the bed. Old Mother seemed to be unaware of everybody except
Mark. The boy was now very tall and stalwart, like a man.

“Ah Siong,” she said with a smile that
actually lit up the dying face. “Ah Siong.” She made to touch him. Angela
gently nudged Mark forwards, lifted his hand and laid it on the old one’s. The
boy did not resist. The tears welled in his eyes.

“Ah Siong,” rasped Old Mother again. Mark
looked to his mother, unsure when he could remove his hand. Sobbing, Angela led
him away, and then it was over.