A Singaporean In Australia

When my wife and daughter stayed for an additional week in Singapore a few months back, I experienced something unusual. I had nightmares. Like every kid, I used to have occasional nightmares when I was a young boy, especially when I was running on high fever. Once I entered adulthood, the nightmares disappeared. Well, perhaps not disappeared. They entered my realities in a different form, if I may put it this way.

During that week when I lived and slept alone, I had nightmares (kid style) every single night, for five straight days. The peculiar thing was that the nightmare was essentially the same throughout, just slight variations in each version. In the nightmares, I would be doing some forgettable stuff and always ended up looking at a mirror checking out why I felt uncomfortably choking. I would then see chunks of thick human hair swarming out from my mouth. That jolted me from sleep. Who wouldn't? Once or twice the nightmare repeated after I went back to sleep and I was left perplexed.

On the 6th day, the eve of her departure from Singapore, my wife called back and told me that her grandfather passed away. My father-in-law urged her to attend the funeral. My wife was asking me if she should. I considered for a while. I am rarely the superstitious type but after our last miscarriage I found myself being paranoid like a silly auntie, carrying out some practices with no logic just to keep my mind settled. There was a dilemma but eventually I gave way and consulted my Grand Council, which consisted of good women younger than myself.

"Can a pregnant woman attend a funeral?"

The robustness of their responses surprised me a little. Comments shot in fast and furious. Basically, they meant the same thing, "Hell no! For the safety of the unborn."

But I already did the forbidden - telling someone about it before the second trimester - the urban myth that it tends to cause miscarriages.

"You didn't tell us, you typed it," came one reply. They laughed.

That night, my nightmare stopped. Odd, but true.