Stories for Hungry Ghost Festival: A freak accident


Photo: 123rf.com

The government quarters of our good friend, a health inspector, was our “watering hole”. It was a big old, half-plank, half-brick building. We had mahjong sessions and a few other games on Saturdays and Sundays.

One Sunday, many years ago – in the late 1960s, to be exact – proved to be very unusual. My session began at 10am after breakfast. At around five past eleven, our host drew our attention to a group of about 50 people whom he spotted at the nearby railway track. By the look of it, something was very wrong. Games were adjourned and a few of us rushed to the scene.

I saw a PWD (JKR) employee below a short iron bridge, searching for something. He found it – a human head! He placed it carefully between the legs of the headless corpse in the waiting ambulance.

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