“Maybe you’re just exhausted after three months of worrying and anxiety. Don’t think too much. Let’s focus on enjoying our nature outing. It’ll be fun,” Mia encouraged her with a smile.
As they walked along the pebble path toward the Coastal and Mangrove Boardwalk, Tara was appalled to see the same monkey with a golden headband. This time, the monkey ogled at her lecherously. Tara subconsciously hid her increasingly warm jade pendant beneath her boat-neck top and continued to walk on, pretending to ignore the monkey. Knowing that her jade pendant had heated up, she already had the foreboding premonition that trouble was brewing.
They continued to walk along, the monkey kept moving with them, and Tara kept eyeing it, uneasily. Suddenly, Tara saw the monkey climb up a tall coconut tree and disappeared. There was a man standing underneath the tree, seeking respite from the blinding sunlight. She heaved a sigh of relief and believed that the trouble was averted. However, in about fifteen seconds a huge, green coconut fell right beside the man. If the coconut fell just an inch towards the right, he would have been terribly injured. Tara was convinced that it was the work of the monkey, but did not dwell on that thought.
Soon, they reached the Mangrove Boardwalk and saw an abundance of fascinating florae such as flying seeds of the mangrove wax plant, Nipah Palms, and various fauna such as tree climbing crabs, Oriental Pied Hornbill, otters, and the Weaver ants. Tara was so engrossed in observing how the Weaver ants build their nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk that she didn’t notice the same monkey gawking behind her.
They reached the Jejawi Tower, which was built next to the enormous Jejawi Malayan Banyan fig tree. Standing on top of the tower gave them a spectacular view of Chek Jawa, Malaysia, and mainland Singapore. They spotted many more animals from this height, such as white-bellied sea eagles, squirrels, birds, and monkeys.
While everyone spotted the ordinary monkeys swinging from tree to tree, Tara alone could see the monkey with the golden headband. She was increasingly rankled by that insolent monkey glaring at her impudently. She threw a sharp glance as a warning to the monkey to stop following her.
Ryan and Shi Min wanted to explore the quarry and the fruit orchard, but Tara was not in the mood to continue.
“Mia, I’m not feeling so good. Shall we go back to the main village? We can take a rest at the coffee shop.” Tara said with a frazzled voice.
Sensing Tara’s distraught tone, Mia replied, “Alright. Avery and Brendan, let’s go back together.”
“But mom…I haven’t had enough fun and I still want to explore more,” groaned Avery, shaking her head. “May I follow Uncle Ryan?”
“Okay, you may follow Uncle Ryan, but Brendan is too young, he has to follow me,” said Mia firmly. Brendan nodded obediently.
While they were walking along the pebble path en route to the Chek Jawa Visitor Center, Tara became increasingly aware of the monkey’s presence. Suddenly, the monkey with the golden headband hopped down from the tree and snatched away Tara’s jade pendant in an unbelievably swift motion before scampering back to the forest.
“Hey, you, stop right there!” Tara bawled, chasing after the monkey into the forest.
Mia was momentarily dumbfounded, not knowing what had happened to Tara, as she ran shrieking into the forest.
“Brendan, did you see what’d happened to Auntie Tara just now?” asked Mia, perplexed by the unusual behavior of Tara.
“Auntie Tara was chasing after a monkey into the forest,” Brendan answered.
What Tara told me about the monkey might be true then, Mia thought. Then, something shimmering under the sunlight caught her attention; it was Tara’s donut-shaped pendant lying on the ground.
Picking it up and keeping the pendant inside her sling bag, she told her son Brendan, “Auntie Tara might be in trouble. Let’s quickly go call for help.”
Meanwhile, Tara watched the monkey swing from tree to tree until it vanished into the jungle. She was so focused on chasing after the monkey that she did not notice how long or how far she had gone into the forest. Panting and heaving for breath, she realized that there was no point continuing the chase since the monkey was gone.
She glanced at her watch; it was 12:00pm. The sky was so dark and gloomy that it did not seem like noon to her.
Heading back to the main village of Chek Jawa was her top priority. Initially, she walked briskly, confident that she could soon find her way back. But as she trudged along the forest, seemingly in a never-ending circle, no exit was in sight, no matter how hard she tried. It was confusing. The trees looked all the same to her. Worse still, she was scratching her arms and legs, swatting at the mosquitoes feasting on her juicy blood.
What Tara did not know was that the monkey with the golden headband was a mischievous tree sprite who was playing a prank on her. It snatched her necklace and cast a spell on her to trap her in the forest.
After trudging in circles for hours, the forest became denser and denser until it resembled an Amazon rainforest jungle instead of forest woods. Tara had accidentally stumbled out of the human world into a parallel universe, but she wasn’t aware of that.
She checked her watch again; it was still 12:00pm! Her eyes opened wide in disbelief; how could her watch be out of power at a critical moment such as this? It was impossible! Finally, she stopped being in denial and admitted to herself that she was completely lost in the jungle.
Maybe I can call Mia for help, she thought. Rummaging in her brown rattan sling bag, she found out, to her dismay, that both her purse and the phone were gone! It must be that rascal monkey who pilfered my purse and phone! Tara was livid.
A hotchpotch of fear, panic, and confusion gripped her. With her purse and phone gone and her Omega watch out of order, Tara was in a quandary, not knowing what to do next.
As she kept trudging aimlessly in the jungle, she stopped short when she came across a cobweb-filled, gargantuan banyan tree glinting like thousands of sparkling crystals in the twilight. She gawked at the giant tree. What a gigantic tree!
Staring at the banyan tree for a while made her feel so much peace and calm that she realized the extent of her exhaustion. She decided to take a break under the tree.
As she crouched down and covered her head with her arms, her thoughts drifted to her late mother whom she missed dearly. Memories of her mother and the promise she made came flooding back to her, making her heart ache with a twinge of pain. Tara, promise me you will wear the pendant at all times.
“Mommy, I’m … I’m so sorry to have failed you,” Tara cracked and choked. “I lost the jade pendant and … and … broke my promise to you.” She wallowed in her own misfortune and blamed herself for getting into such a quagmire of predicament. Tears gushed down like a broken dam as she tried to stifle her sobs.
She thought of her husband, Prakash. “Honey, I miss you so much! How can you leave me just like that? You promised to love me and be there for me forever and ever. How can you just break your vow and leave me alone?”
Then she heard her late mother speaking inside her, “With faith and resilience, you can overcome all obstacles.” Hearing the voice of her deceased mother made her perk up with a glimmer of hope.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and focused on her mindful breathing. Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I find the strength in me. A vivid image popped into her mind: the Guan Yin’s statue that she saw at Mia’s home suddenly came alive. In her mind, it was no longer just a statue, but a lady in a flowing white robe radiating golden light.
She remembered what Mia and her grandmother told her about Guan Yin’s immeasurable power of compassion in trying times. Verses of Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra came back to her: if living beings are trapped in afflictions and tormented by immeasurable pains, think of the wonderful wisdom and power of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, they will receive deliverance from suffering.
While others might be skeptical of anything miraculous, Tara believed in the divine powers of the Buddha
s-Tathagatas. She learned about the six supernatural powers of Shakyamuni Buddha and His disciples in the Pali Canon, the power of walking on water and going through the walls, the power of divine ears, the power of telepathy, the power of knowing one’s past lives, the power of divine eyes, the power of destroying all suffering.
Trapped in the forest, with no phone, no wallet, and no food, and she was left with zilch except her power of faith. Cowering under the giant banyan tree, Tara knew she had to awaken the divine power of the Buddha within her.
She closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and implored for a miraculous saving grace in the name of Guan Yin, “Guan Yin, I’m stuck in this jungle, not knowing what to do. Please, Guan Yin, please help me escape from this predicament.”
The next moment, she noticed her watch was shaking violently. She opened her eyes and saw her watch dislodging itself from her wrist on its own accord. It was then lifted into the air and suspended there for a moment before vanishing.
Tara’s eyes opened wide in disbelief. Rubbing her right wrist repeatedly, she wanted to confirm that her watch was indeed gone, completely gone. What had just happened? Am I dreaming again?
During that moment of distraction, someone grabbed her hand and said, “Come with me.”
Startled, Tara looked up and saw a mysterious man of giant stature. Muscular and incredibly tall (2.5 meters), he wore a blue-and-grey ancient Japanese outfit with a conical bamboo hat. A bamboo flute was clasped on his left waist and a brown calabash was hung on his right. His whole body seemed to shimmer with golden light.
“Who are you? Where are we going?” asked Tara fearfully.
She was reluctant to follow someone whom she had not met before, especially a stranger who appeared out of nowhere in the jungle. He was walking with incredible speed and she was unable to keep up with his pace. She looked up and squinted, trying to get a closer look at his face, but his conical bamboo hat masked his facial features.
“We are in a parallel universe now. I just did a time-lock using your watch so that you could return to the human world in the right timeline in the future,” said the mysterious man in a dispassionate tone. “A spider is pursuing us; we need to get out of here immediately.”
Having said that, he broke into a sprint. He ran so fast that Tara barely touched the ground; she flew above the ground as she was pulled along with him, ducking and bending towards different sides to avoid crashing into branches.
A parallel universe? I thought that was only in the Bermuda Triangle, Tara thought. She was baffled as to how she could have stumbled into the parallel universe in the first place.
To make things more eerie, rustling of leaves and crackling twigs followed in their wake; something colossal and fast-moving was lumbering behind them. It was a gigantic, yellow-spotted, spiky black spider with nine ruby eyes.
“Aaaah…” Tara shrieked, seeing an enormous spider crashing through the trees, frantically chasing after them.
“Don’t look back!” the mysterious man snapped. “Stay close to me!” He held Tara by her waist and sped up.
The black spider was shooting out poisonous reddish purple venom everywhere. Having dodged a few of the spider’s venomous shots, the mysterious man cast a shield spell to protect Tara from the spider’s attack.
Suddenly, a gigantic wooden spiral staircase with ornate brass railings appeared, standing right in the middle of the jungle. It spiraled up toward the sky where it was covered by a layer of white cloud.
“A spiral staircase in the middle of the jungle?” Tara blurted out with bewilderment. “How could it be possible?”
Without further delay, the mysterious man quickly entered the staircase. The moment they were inside the portal, the shield spell that was protecting Tara faded. However, the spider continued to shoot venom and a streak of reddish-purple venom hit the back of Tara’s thigh.
“Ouch!” Tara winced and let out a howling wail of pain. The excruciating pain was so unbearable. She felt like thousands of cold icicles pierced deep into her bone, followed by hot, burning lava splicing her skin. The whole area that the venom made contact with instantly turned black and it started expanding rapidly. She instantly felt weak and limp; her life force dwindled rapidly.
The mysterious man turned around and shot a few debilitating blue sparks at the black spider, and they hit the spider’s eyes. The spider screeched in pain, stopping in its tracks and retreating immediately.
He embraced her whole body immediately, covering the injured spot with his hand, purging out the venom and transferring his vital energy to her.
Tara felt a warm tingling sensation flowing into her body. The natural sandalwood aroma emanating from him brought a deep sense of calm and bliss to her.
The man dashed up to the top of the spiral staircase with Tara wrapped in his arms until they entered the white light and vanished.
While they were inside the white light, Tara felt as if time had completely stopped. In the midst of the white light, she witnessed snippets of life from various people who went through the perpetual cycles of life and death. It dawned on her that good thoughts, good words, and good deeds generated happiness and peace; unwholesome thoughts, speech and actions arising from greed, anger, and ignorance resulted in misery.
CHAPTER 5
THE BURNING CASTLE
The spiral staircase was an interdimensional portal that teleported Tara and the mysterious man to the Land of Naga and Garuda[3]. In fact, they found themselves falling into the middle of a cave with a loud thud, crashing into the ornate four-poster bed and splintering all four wooden legs. Disturbed by the loud crash, the bats hidden inside the fireplace flew out haphazardly in all directions. But to Tara’s mortal eyes, it appeared as if she was inside an old and dilapidated medieval chamber. During the fall, she bumped her head into his muscular chest, and her nose was filled with the most exquisite sandalwood scent, making her heart skip a beat. What kind of a charming perfume brand is he using? Then she thought he couldn’t possibly buy a perfume in a department store; it must be his natural, distinctively charming body odor.
The chamber they were in resembled a haunted house that people set up during Halloween. Musty, damp, and pitch dark, there were no windows and just one miserable wooden door. Tara began to examine the room and noticed that the stone walls were decayed, pillars were crumbling, and the wooden beams were hanging perilously.
Tara was feeling weak and limp, so she tried to place her hand on the wall for support, her palm passed through clumps of dusty cobwebs that laced the walls. Creeped out, she immediately regained her balance and retreated her hand immediately. Then, she noticed that cobwebs eerily adorned the four-poster bed, the ornate wardrobe, the broom, and the spinning wheel, joining to resemble a ghostly figure hovering around. There was a set of cobweb-covered knightly armors standing alone; their helmets dangling side-ways. Though the room looked like it would be chilly, it was actually warm and cozy, which surprised Tara. Though there was a fireplace in the room, it wasn’t ablaze, and a medieval portrait of an unknown king, who appeared gaunt and surly, was hung on top of it.
The arms of the mysterious man still embraced Tara tightly. Lying down on the huge torso of the man was such divine bliss that, for a moment, Tara was tempted to indulge in his warm embrace forever.
Had it not been for the natural shimmering white light radiating from the man, Tara would not have been able to see anything at all in an environment of complete darkness.
Moaning in a feedback voice, Tara grimaced while holding her thigh in pain. When she struggled to shift her body and turn her head, her lips unintentionally met the lips of the mysterious man, sending an electrifying shock of euphoria through her body. With her heart thumping rapidly and her face blushing with embarrassment, she was stunned and frozen in this moment, unable to move an inch, totally forgetting about the pain in her thigh.
Tara was spared from this awkward moment when the mysterious man carried her to the musty linen bed. It was another awkw
ard moment for Tara when the man examined the wound on her left inner thigh. The wound was still black and swollen. He knew that Tara might perish from the slowly spreading paralysis if the leftover venom was not expunged entirely.
Taking out a bamboo vial from his grey square pouch hanging around his waist, he poured out an oval pill that resembled an ebony seed. After helping Tara to sit upright, he placed the seed into Tara’s mouth, “Eat this; it will neutralize the spider’s venom.”
The yellow-spotted spiky spider was no ordinary spider; it was a magical spider transformed by the Banshee Queen of the Banana Tree back at Pulau Ubin. Fortunately, the man purged out most of the venom at the eleventh hour, saving her life. However, some remnant venom managed to seep into her bloodstream, resulting in the numbness of her left thigh.
Tara experienced a surge of fresh energy charging through her body. Her pale lips and cheeks turned rosy-pink. He placed his right hand on the wound and channeled his vital force to seal up the wound. The black area shrunk until it became a scar resembling a tiny star.
“Drink some water.” The mysterious man took out a bamboo calabash and helped Tara to drink. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes, I’m so much better,” Tara said gratefully. “Thank you for your help, but I still do not know your name. I am Tara, how about you?”
“I am Bo,” he said, his body glowing even brighter.
Beau? For a moment, Tara distractedly thought how wonderful it would be if he indeed was her beau. The mysterious man in front of her was extraordinarily handsome; in fact, she had never seen such dashing eye-candy before in her life. His face was so pristinely fair and smooth, as if a ray of moonlight shone upon him forever. His golden blonde medium length hairstyle with a natural quiff made him look irresistibly charming. To top it off, his endearing baby blue eyes resembled the most exquisite of lapis-lazuli gemstone, glowing and sparkling with gentleness.
Blushing with embarrassment, she realized how silly she was to think of him as her boyfriend when both of them were trapped in the morass of uncertainty.
Tara Zenyora : and the Seven-Jeweled Lighthouse Page 4
