As a child I often had to look after my younger brothers while my Mother was busy with her household chores. One particular activity I remember very clearly was rocking one of my younger brothers in a cloth hammock. I have 3 younger brothers. I still remember clearly the daily scene. I was probably about 6 years old. My brother who is 1 year+ younger than me would be playing around, another younger brother would be carried by my Mother on her back in a baby carrier made of cloth (while she went about doing her chores) and I would be tasked with rocking one of the brothers (either the second youngest or youngest) in a cloth hammock.
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| cloth hammock |
Our house was a wooden house on stilts. The kitchen was downstairs. To reach the kitchen we had to go down a long flight of stairs at the back and pass a long corridor. Whenever my Mother had to go downstairs to wash the clothes or cook she would not leave us upstairs but instead bring all the 4 of us downstairs.
It was again one of those typical days. My mother set up the hammock outside the kitchen door. I was tasked to look out for my toddler brother and to rock the hammock. She carried another brother on her back and did her cooking. The only difference that day was the presence of a construction worker who was on the roof repairing the leaking roof.
While I was rocking my brother I noticed a man looking and smiling at us from the window upstairs, next to the long staircase. However what was strange about the man was the size of his face. His face was huge and actually filled the whole window. When my Mother came out to check on us I told him about the man with the big face. She look terrified because she actually did not see any face. She then called out loudly to the worker who was repairing the roof and asked him whether anyone was with him. She told the worker what I saw. The worker responded " Oh, your daughter can see him? Then I'll ask him to go home first". The big face then disappeared.
