By Mimi Syed Yusof

IT was the second day of Hari Raya. We stayed at a three-bedroom apartment at this B&B in Melaka which had quite a commanding view of the Malacca Straits.

Had a restless night, though.

All night long there was humming and people playing marbles on the top floor, at the neighbour’s unit and outside our door, and, the sound of chairs being dragged across the floor.

Hubby said he didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in the master bedroom (it felt claustrophobic-like) so we dragged the duvet out to the living area and slept on the L-shaped couch.

Sometime about 3am or 4am I woke up to go to the bathroom which was in the master bedroom.

Saw the shape of a figure on the bed, didn’t think much of it, just went to the bathroom, did my business and went outside to sleep.

Saw hubby outside on the couch snoring away…. Hmmm, who was in the bedroom?!

I turned back into the room, switched on the lights … no one… but the bed was rumpled!!

Hmmm… must be my eyes playing tricks and went back to sleep on the couch.

When I told hubby and the girls about it the next morning, they were like, “What??!!”

I did, however, googled about marbles, B&B and apartments and this is what I found:

“… the marble sounds are because of a phenomenon called hydraulic shock, or, commonly known as water hammer, which occurs in water pipes when water flow is suddenly cut off”.

Andy Piacsek, a scientist with the Acoustical Society of America suggests that these sounds might be coming from trapped air inside water pipes. As the water flows away or as the air dissipates, the sounds that happen might be altered as it moves through the building.

Hmmm… a scientific explanation, you think?! But how do you explain the humming, the figure on the bed and the sound of chairs being dragged across the floor?

Ahhh!! Suatu hari di Hari Raya