The Voice of the Corpse

This story was told by one of my close friends. He is a worker at a port. I don't know if his story was real or imagination, but it is an interesting story. I will tell the story in the first person point of view just so it will be easier.

I am a worker in a port. My daily duty is to discharge and to load cargo to the vessels. Three years ago, I lived in one of the slums in Manila and it was a really poor neighborhood. The house I was staying in was made of wood and its walls were covered by layers of scrap tarpaulin. It is a very small house. There were two rooms in the house. I lived in a room of only twenty feet wide. I think the other room was a same size like my room.

Actually, I rented this room from a young man who was about twenty six years old. He was a taxi-driver. His parents were working in the province and he was their only son. He and I had a good relationship. He was a gentle young man and had a soft voice. Our two rooms were divided by tarpaulin as most of the houses are in the slums in Manila.

We sometimes meet in a small bar to drink a little. At that time he told about his family and his girlfriend. He said the parents of his sweetheart would not recognize him as a prospective son-in-law because of his bad habits in drinking. Another obstacle was that the girl came from a rich family and they did not want to give their daughter to the hands of a taxi-driver. He said he was felt bad about this and he must elope with his girl as soon as possible. He said he will take her within three days to his home. These were his words while we were in the bar.

2 nights after that,I came home from my work. The time was about 9:30pm. I went to my bed as usual. I needed to go bed early because my shift the next day was very early. As soon as I lay down, I fell asleep. Suddenly, I was awakened by a voice. It came from the room behind my head. I was sure it was a voice of a girl singing a song. I know the song that she was singing because it was a very popular song in Manila. It was sung by a famous woman vocalist.

I was surprised because I realized that the room where the voice was coming from was a room of my taxi driver friend. There were no other people, only the taxi-driver. But later, I remembered the words of the taxi-driver that he was planning to elope with his sweetheart. I thought this was his girlfriend's voice who was taken by him sometime ago. Suddenly, I smelled a foul odor that was like the smell of a dead rat. But soon, it disappeared on the breeze.

I fell asleep again because my body was tired after many hours of labor. The next morning, I prepared to go to work and I glanced at the taxi-drivers room, meaning to ask him about how he and his girlfriend were doing. The room was locked as usual. The taxi-driver always leave early at the break of dawn so I shrugged it off. My question was forgotten the whole day because I was busy with my work. I worked the whole day at the port and that evening I came back home. I slept immediately and I got up at noon the following day and since it was my rest day, I went outside to visit somewhere in the suburb.

I came back home when the time was about nine. I went to bed and tried to sleep. Suddenly, I heard the voice of the girl singing a song like the previous night. I thought the taxi-driver was home already and his sweetheart was doing housework. At that moment, I smelled that bad smell like the previous night. I thought there was dead rat somewhere and the foul smell was coming from it. I tried to ignore it and soon, I fell asleep. I spent three nights like the same. Whenever I look for him (the taxi driver), his room was always locked and I couldn't even see his shadow.

Then one morning, I got up from bed hearing the noise of the people outside. I found many people gathered in front of the house I was renting and there was an ambulance. I went towards them and asked what's the commotion about? One of the neighbors said there was a corpse of a girl in the taxi-driver's room and it was discovered by a child. The child was trying to get inside the room to steal when he saw the ROTTING CORPSE OF THE GIRL. You can be sure, I was horrifed and felt really sick with what I heard. I felt that I was at the gate of death because the corpse of the girl was lying behind the walls where I was lying and sleeping. There were only three or four feet between us.

Then, another shocking thought hit me: Whose voice have I heard these past few nights? I couldn't begin to think about what it meant.

However, one week later, the taxi driver was caught by the police. He was the killer of the girl whose corpse was in the room next to mine. The story was that one night the taxi-driver had an accident on a street where there were no other people. His car run over a girl, killing her instantly. He took the girl in his car and tried to go to the hospital but he began to fear that it was his fault and he might go to jail. He drove his car to his home and put the corpse in his room near the wall where I was always sleeping. Then he ran and hid somewhere in the city.

Three days later, the corpse began to rot and the bad smell was coming from it. I could only assume that it was the girl's ghost singing the song in the room next to mine. Of course, I had to leave the house and look for another place to live after that.



Charmedwishes...

Blessed be!