I woke up from my strange dream the next morning. It was dawn when my eyes fell upon the window and the sun was just touching the sky. Mom had been sleeping with one hand wrapped around my waist to keep me from falling off the side of the hospital bed.

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Goosebumps crowded my arms as a faint thought reverberated behind my tired eyes, "So crowded! So crowded!" I shivered as if a bug had landed on me as my mom opened her eyes.

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She looked out the window at the still dark purple sky. She noticed my open eyes and urged, "Xiao Yong, it’s early. You should go back to sleep."

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"Mhm." I nodded.

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I closed my eyes and rested against her soft shoulder. My thoughts had just begun to drift when I heard murmuring, "Ah! Ah!”

Was it the woman on the bed closest to the door? My skin went cold and I felt my ears strain to locate the sound. Was it Xiao Chun’s mother? Was she back?

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Mom saw me stir and followed the noise. She got up slowly, resting my head against the pillow and pulled her arm out from under me. She went to the woman by the door, "Sister, what's wrong?"

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The man on the bed adjacent to us had woken up to his wife’s murmuring. He opened his tired bloodshot eyes and turned a heavy round face towards her, "Honey, what's wrong with you?"

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The woman’s head rose slowly from the hospital pillow. She turned her head, but did not open her eyes and said in a tired tone, "I... I have a headache and I feel cold."

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Mom, standing close already placed a gentle hand on the woman’s forehead. "Oh, sister, you have a fever. Your forehead is hot. Wait here for just a minute. I will call the doctor."

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She walked briskly out the door and we listened to her footsteps clack down the dark hallway. After a distant mumbled conversation the doctor and nurse who were on duty came in, followed shortly by my mother. The nurse took her temperature and followed up with the routine tests.

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“You must have caught a cold,” The doctor said dismissively, “It’s a good thing you called us, there are some nasty bugs going around this season.”

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“Her temperature is 39.5 ℃.” Read the nurse.

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The doctor and nurse went through their routines and admitted the woman next to her husband. Mom climbed back into bed and the room quieted as everyone drifted to sleep. My eyes stood open for a long time, but I eventually joined them in slumber.

I woke up to a low conversation between the woman and my mother. She thanked my mom for acting so quickly and they chatted about the area in a perfunctory, but polite manner.

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I opened my eyes and watched the woman. Just hours ago, Xiao Chun’s mother had passed through her body. Could that have caused her illness? Did the shadow woman follow me to the hospital to punish those around me? What else was she capable of doing?

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“It’s not polite to stare.” The woman said flatly, looking at me like I was a naughty school child. My mother blushed and apologized for me. I started to speak, but the nurse strode in for my evaluation.

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The nurse looked me up and down, prodded my throat with a popsicle stick, and took my temperature before telling us that we could leave. “A full recovery!” She piped at me and smiled at mom, “You can finish the paperwork downstairs.”

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On our way out of the ward mom stopped and pulled my arm, “Let’s go say goodbye to Sun Sheng before we’re off.”

 

I thought to ask about Uncle Sun’s condition and the dream flickered in my mind.

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“It was so nice of, Sun Sheng to visit you when we you were sick.” Mom said.

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“See him.” A voice sounded in my head, “Take him home.” A chill went down my back.

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“No, mom.” I stopped walking, “We should stay in this ward.”

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"Xiao Yong, be polite. Sun Sheng visited you, so you should visit him before you leave. Did you forget how your father raised you?"

Children in the village did not have the right to throw tantrums, and I dared not do so either. We were taught to be respectful and helpful to all and every adult, otherwise we’d be punished. I put my head down and mumbled, “No, ma’am.”

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Uncle Sun was still unconscious and lay silent in the intensive care unit. On the way to his ward, my mom warned me that I should kept silent and not to disturb him. She seemed to have relaxed now that I was no longer sick and had regained her maternal composure. We walked down the barren hospital hallway surrounded by the clack of her heels and approached the intensive care ward.

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I heard Sun Sheng’s wails well before we arrived,  “Father, why must you leave me?!"

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His cries were loud, daunting, and full of sorrow. We heard the traditional humming of loss practiced in our village. I knew before we entered the room that Uncle Sun was dead.

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My mom dragged me to the side and we listened in silence for a while. She wiped her eyes, fixed her skirt and we walked inside.

We saw Sun Sheng and his wife crying beside the bed. His wife saw us first and spoke with tears in her eyes, "Sister Fu, he opened his eyes an hour ago,” She gestured to Uncle Sun’s body. “But he was gone again after only a few words. We could not wake him again.” She tried to speak more, but seemed choked up. Sun Sheng stirred, not looking up from the body, “The doctor tried to rouse him again, but something went wrong. My father is dead."

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Sun Sheng’s wife buried her face in her hands. Her tears were flowing, but I didn’t feel sadness from her.  Sun Sheng didn’t take his eyes from his dead father’s face as he openly wept.

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My mom nodded and spoke softly, “He was a good man. What will you do now?”

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“I have called the families.” He told us, “We will bring him home by car and prepare for the funeral. Everything is being prepared in the village as we speak. Don’t worry.” He put his arm around his wife, finally taking his deep sad eyes from his father’s face. “We will be strong.”

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“We will join you in the village to bury your father.” My mother told him as she placed a kind hand on his arm.

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“Thank you. You should take my car and head there now. It will be faster than the bus. We will wait for the family to join us and deal the hospital release forms.”

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“Uncle Sun’s body was in that car,” I thought. “I don’t want to take that car-“ I began saying out loud. Sun Sheng and mom looked at me like I had broken a precious vase.

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“Mind your manners!” She told me. She thanked Sun Sheng and told him she wouldn’t want to be a bother, then pulled my arm, dragging me towards the door.

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As we walked towards the door leaving the intensive care ward, I turned my head back almost unconsciously. I was curious, was Uncle Sun really dead? When my eyes skated across the room I stopped walking and my hand slipped out of my mother’s. I felt frozen and terrified, because I saw Uncle Sun sitting up behind Sun Sheng and his wife. The dead man was staring at me blankly.

I wanted to scream out, but I felt my throat stick shut. I could not speak, I could not move, and then I saw Uncle Sun rising from the bed. He tumbled and moved through his son’s body, walking towards me with a speed that he never had in life.

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He was ghost, just like Xiao Chun’s mother. I wanted to cry, or shout, or run, but I couldn’t because I was so scared. I was a coward. I realize that now. I was only six years old, but I should have done something, anything.

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Mom hadn’t noticed when I’d let go of her hand. She walked to the exit and turned around to see me standing alone in the middle of the long ward hallway. I wanted to warn her, but I could not make a sound. It was as if my mouth didn't belong to me any more.

Uncle Sun marched toward us without any expression on his pallid face. I looked past him, through him, and I still saw a dead Uncle Sun lying on the bed.

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"G...ghost." I screamed out in the depth of my heart.

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Seeing me standing dumbly in the room, my mom walked back and stretched her hand to turn my head, "Come on, Xiao Yong. Don’t look back."

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With my mother’s help I turned away from the stomping apparition that was Uncle Sun. As my eyes crossed the room and found the exit, I came across something worse than the thing behind me. My eyes fell upon a hunchbacked woman dressed in a black shroud before me. Her face was wrinkled and smiling a wicked smile. When our eyes met, her face almost collided with mine.

It was Xiao Chun's mother again. It was the woman who had been bothering me.

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Mom’s hand pulled me forward a step, though I wanted to stop. The wrinkled face mere inches from mine smelled rotten. Her nose stopped centimeters from mine and I thought, “I’m being eaten…”

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I closed my eyes and felt a cold sickening drop in my stomach as Xiao Chun’s dead mother moved through me. My body lamely walked along, being pulled by the hands of my mother.

 

I strained my neck with all my strength to try and see behind me.  I found I could move my head, but my legs continued on with their own agenda. Behind us Uncle Sun stooped to carry Xiao Chun’s mother on his back in a macabre phantom piggyback ride.

Uncle Sun’s face was still and expressionless, almost a relief next to Xiao Chun’s mother’s widening grin.

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“I know that must have been hard,” My mother said to me, “Seeing death is always hard, sweet one. Are you okay?” She looked down at me thoughtfully.

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I tried, but could not speak. I couldn’t make a sound. Still, I heard a voice, my voice, slowly articulate the words for me, “I am fine."

“What just happened?” I screamed inside my head. “I kept silent. Who was controlling me? Had the ghost possessed my body? Who? Was it Xiao Chun’s mother or Uncle Sun? They were both still behind me. Was there another ghost?”

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None of these thoughts left a mouth I could no longer control. I yelled inside a head that would not move to my commands and looked out of eyes that were no longer mine. I was trapped in my own body.

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