The Garden of Tmn Eng Ann Klang

Confession by Eunice

When we moved to the rented house, (I think I spent the best time of my childhood in that house) there was a Datuk shrine in the garden. My grandmother started worshiping it & did all the rituals on thursday as an act of respect. She did it out of love for my dad. People told her that Datuk can help with finances.

One day, my eldest sister brought her boss over. This is the sister that I am extremely close to & she is many years my senior. She was working as a part time model then. Her boss saw the Datuk shrine and told my sister it is not a Datuk that’s living in the shrine now. It is something very sinister. That thing cannot come into our house because our ancestors are protecting it.

My sister after hearing this, of course panicked, but the boss said not to worry he will try to help to clear. He chose a date and told us to leave the place that day and not to return for a few hours.

When we returned, we saw the remains of burnt offerings. He told us the real Datuk left when the previous owners shifted. Something else took residence in the shrine because it needed a home. I remember feeling scared when walking past the shrine but dismissed it as I was still a 5 yr old kid. So my instincts were actually quite (zhun), accurate.

Since then, I am very careful of all these shrines. If the feeling is not good, I will leave immediately.

But that house had another incident.

In the garden, there was a mango tree shoot, and it was growing right in front of the Datuk shrine. After the removal of the shrine, there was more space for my grandma to grow her vegetables & plants. My grandma & my mom have what we call ‘green thumb’. Whatever they plant, will shoot up like crazy. Mom has her orchids & my grandma has her edibles.

So grandma plants vegetables & has a curry leaf tree that is so fragrant that neighbors all would come over for leaves.

Now this mango tree grew under the care of my grandma. The puny little tree started sprouting branches all over. But never flowers and fruit. So one day, grandma took out a meat cleaver, stood in front of the tree and told the tree, "Oi, if you don't start fruiting, I will chop you off next week". Then pretended to slash it.

Wah lau, the next week, the tree started to flower & fruit like crazy. Mind you, these are not normal mangoes. They look like chinese peaches & will turn pink on the sides that got sunned. The aroma is extremely enticing. Even when eaten raw, it is not sour.

Sadly, we had to leave that tree behind when we moved house. The last time I came by too look at the garden, the tree had been cleared by the new owner.

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