The Disallowed

3 Pee Pob Heng-1

they weren’t really feasible. Unfortunately, we are left with the very same proposals that you made several hours ago.”“Yes, I thought that that is what you would say, but to be total y honest, this is not an easy problem to solve. I, too, have drawn a blank in my meditations, but it is already getting late in the afternoon and I have become tired, so could one of you kids give me a lift home and we can al sleep on it?”

They waited for Den to come back before having a bite to eat, checking on the animals, taking it in turns to shower and spending the last few moments of the day together prior to going to bed early, for they were al drained emotional y. However, the truth of the matter was that none of them wanted to go upstairs alone with a vampire up there, so they preferred to al go together.

Wan didn’t even want to sleep with him, but she felt duty bound to, so being the eldest, she led the way, candle in hand with the children hiding behind her quaking.

They stopped at the matrimonial bed and stared. Heng was sitting bolt-upright in bed, his pale skin and coral-coloured eyes glowing in the darkness.

“Good evening, family!” he said in a low, gravelly voice.

The three of them got into their respective beds, but they could not take their eyes off Heng, who never moved, but just stared out before himself.

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3 PEE POB HENG

When they did wake up in the morning, having fallen asleep eventual y from exhaustion, Heng was completely covered by blankets with a pil ow over his head.

Everyone got up and went downstairs as soon as they possibly could, passing by his bed quickly.

“Wow, Mum, did you see Dad last night?” asked Den. “His eyes and his skin fair lit up the room, but it was his eyes though, wasn’t it? They used to be black on white like ours, but now they are red on pink… It must be because of al that blood, I suppose.”

“I don’t know, my dear, but I suppose you’re right. You’d better get some more and take your sister with you to get some more milk. Do you

remember how your aunty got the blood?”

“Yes, Mum, I’ll take it from a different bil y goat though, shal I, to al ow the last one to heal?”

“Yes, good idea, Den. Use a different bil y goat every day for blood and Din can fol ow her normal milking routine. For the time being though, al the goats’ milk is for your father, OK? He needs it far more than we do and we don’t want him getting hungry in the middle of the night, do we?”

“No, Mum, definitely not! It took me ages to get to sleep last night. I was scared stiff that Dad was going to get and start walking about, maybe looking for something to eat – or someone.”

“Don’t you worry about things like that for now, Den. I’m nearer than you, so he’l go for me first, but if you see a shrivelled up, bloodless sack of skin in his bed, move out. Same if you see four red eyes looking out at you from behind our mosquito net one morning.”

“You bet, Mum! I’ll go and get that blood right away. Where’s Din?”

“I don’t know, perhaps she has already started. You get on with your job and I’ll go get Aunty Da on the motorbike – I think we’l stil need some help with your father. You and your sister wait for me to get back before you go up to see him, al right?”

“Yes, Mum, you don’t need to tell me twice, but what do we do if he comes down here?”

“I don’t think he wil … he was fast asleep when I got out of bed, but we won’t be long anyway. If he does get up though, just don’t let him kiss you good morning.”

Wan returned ten minutes later with Da, who had been sitting on her own table waiting for the inevitable visit from someone in Heng’s household. When they got back, Heng had not come down, Din had col ected the milk and Den was almost ready.

“OK,” said Da, “for now I recommend 50-50 goats milk and blood with a teaspoon of basil, half of coriander and a sprinkle of this. Give it a good stir and there you are. Give him a half litre in the morning and the same at bed time. That should be enough for now. Oh, and never give him any garlic, it is very bad for vampires! Let’s go up and see him now.”

“Before we go up, Aunty Da, I ought to tell you that he spent most of last night sitting bolt upright in bed gleaming like a beacon with pale skin, and pink eyes with red pupils. Oh, and when he spoke to us! Oh, my Buddha! I’ve never heard anything like it. He said ‘Good evening, family’

in such a strange, deep voice… it was really scary.”

“Never mind that now… let’s go and have a look at him.”

They went upstairs with their flask of milkshake and entered the

room. Al the shutters were closed, so it was pitch-black inside. Wan stepped outside again, took a candle from its holder, lit it with the lighter that hung from a string nearby and re-entered the room to join Da, who had ventured closer to the bed where Heng slept.

The candlelight revealed nothing new, so the ladies tied up the mosquito net and sat either side of the bed. Wan pul ed the covers back and there he lay, on his back, n***d, arms spread wide like Jesus on the cross, eyes open, two deep-red circles in pink almonds set in a ghostly, expressionless mask, his lips, two smal streaks around his mouth.

Wan looked questioningly at Da, who was studying her patient. She put the back of her hand on his forehead and was not surprised to find it at room temperature.

“How are you today, Heng?” asked his wife.

“Hungry… no thirsty,” he said, the words tumbling out of his mouth like boulders rumbling down a mountain in a rockslide.

“Al right, my dear, sit up then. We have some more lovely milkshake for you.”

The ladies rearranged the pil ows for him, helped him sit upright and then covered him with a blanket.

“Drink this, my dear,” said Wan, “it’s the flavour that you liked the most yesterday.”

Da poured some into a tumbler and popped a straw into it for him.

Heng drank two glasses of the pink liquid with a green froth of herbs and seemed to perk up. He pul ed himself upright and looked around as if for the first time.

“You like that, eh, Heng?” asked Da. “I can see that you are a lot livelier now than when we came in. Do you think that you’ll be able to come downstairs today? The sunlight might do you some good… you look a little pale… you’re not used to staying in are you?”

Heng looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language and then looked at his wife.

“Do you want to go to the toilet, Heng? It has been a while, are you feeling all right down below? Do you want to go to the toilet now or shal I bring a bucket up for you?”

“Yes, good idea, I want to go to the toilet downstairs, but first some more milkshake.”

Since neither of the women knew how much he should be taking, they let him drink as much as he wanted and Heng finished off the whole litre. Da sat back and observed while Wan helped him get dressed. As the milkshake took effect, Heng became more active.

“Come on then, dear, let’s get you dressed and downstairs.”

The ladies took an arm each and helped the trembling man to his feet.

He was like a bicycle with a wobbly wheel. When they got him outside onto the landing, he flinched a little at the bright light, but so would anyone have after spending a day and a half in a dark room. Den and Din watched their father descend the stairs like a dipsomaniac assisted by his aunt and wife.

They were horrified that he looked so frail and so different. Heng had always been thin, but now he was gaunt, as white as snow and with two red almonds for eyes. They moved over when he perched on the table for a breather.

“Den do you stil have those old sunglasses? I think your father needs them today, because his eyes are a little sensitive.”

Da said, “Can you get Heng to the toilet alone, Wan, or do you want Den to help you?”

“No, I think I can manage.”

She led him away, Heng using his free hand to shield his eyes. When they put him back on the table fifteen minutes later, he seemed exhausted by the effort.

“Din, nip upstairs and get a sheet and a couple of pil ows, wil you, please? Your father is going to rest down here today to get some fresh air and sunlight. He has never spent so much time indoors in his life, so his body is not used to it. Look at the state of him…”

Al the while, Heng was looking from one speaker to the next, but not seeming to comprehend the conversation. They made him comfortable with the bedding and Den produced the sunglasses with jet-black, mirrored lenses that he had been so proud of a decade ago when they were fashionable.

The result was that Heng looked like some weird bird propped up against a roof support in his glasses wrapped in a white sheet.

“Well, children, I think that you had better go and prepare some more milkshake for your father. He seems to be very hungry today and that is a good sign. It shows that we are doing something right!”

“You’re feeling a lot better today, Paw, aren’t you?”

They al waited for his reaction and then he nodded, looking remarkably like an owl. Den and Din left giggling, finding it very difficult to equate the creature on the table with their father of only twenty-four hours ago.

“Do you think I should cook Heng something to eat this evening, Aunty Da?”

“It won’t hurt him, if he’l eat it, but it’s no substitute for the

milkshake.”

“Heng, wil you be wanting something to eat with us later?”

Heng c****d his head from side to side and stared at his wife.

“What are you cooking tonight, Wan?” asked Da.

“Chicken or pork… whatever he likes.”

Heng continued to look from one speaker to the other like someone in a country where he doesn’t speak the language.

“Why not ask him? He hasn’t become stupid, or at least I don’t think he has.”

“What do you want to eat this evening, Heng, pork or chicken?”

He looked at her for a few seconds and then said:

“Kid…”

“Which one? Anyway, Heng, you can’t eat the children… it wouldn’t be right.”

“Not our children… Goat children… We have a few or not?” said Heng

“Yes, we stil have a few, but I thought that we were going to keep them to add to the flock.”

“Just one kid.”

“Yes, well, al right, Heng, seeing as you’re sick, I’ll cook you a kid chop tonight and the rest of us wil have some pork.”

“I want mine rare, barbecued, not curried, Wan. I have a hankering for some meat, real red meat.”

The children were most relieved that their father had no intention of eating them just yet too.

When it looked as if Heng had gone to sleep to wait for his dinner, Den asked his mother whether she thought that he would want to eat them one day.

“Oh, I shouldn’t think so, Den, not if we keep his appetites satisfied, not that we know what they are yet.”

“Aunty Da, what do you think of Heng’s condition?”

“I think that it is very interesting… very interesting indeed. You wil observe that yesterday, Heng was knocking on Death’s Door, but now he is becoming more active by the hour, although he does not appear to be the same Heng that we al knew and loved so well.

“We shal have to see what this new Heng turns out like or maybe we’l just get the old one back once he gets used to his new diet and recovers from the time he had without any real blood in him.