By Bernice Cheng

Reckless, stupid and heedless.

That was what I would describe myself as a young child. I was a nightmare child to raise. Always in my own head and living in my own world. It really took quite a few interesting incidents (and scoldings) to transform me into this more cautious version of myself that I am today. 

I was around eight or nine when my family went on a 7 day trip to Taiwan with a few other friends. One of my friend’s dad, who was a naturalist of some sort, suggested we book a night at a log house in the woods. He said that it would help us learn more about the wilderness and its beauty. The other parents obviously agreed. After all, who wouldn’t love a little adventure? It would be a perfect escape from the busy bustling city of Hong Kong.

When we arrived, I was absolutely bewildered by everything. The woods were huge and abundant of varying trees and flowers. It smelt like wet earth, lilies and jessamine. The whole place was a whirlpool of colour, brimming with life. My friends and I stayed there for the entire afternoon, aimlessly wandering around. It was such a rare opportunity to be so close and in touch with Mother Nature.

Later that day, it was getting dark. We decided to retire back to the little log houses. Then, one of the kids, Maeve, had this brilliant idea: what if all the children spent the night at one log house all by themselves? As we were young (and stupid) kids, we loved the idea and we begged our parents to let us do so. Eventually, they gave in. We were absolutely overjoyed. Everything was going to be perfect.

Or was it?

Eventually, the sky darkened into black tranquillity, a canvas to which the bright sparkling stars scattered among it. The bright full moon was hanging in the silky black velvet sky, weaving among the almost dismissible clouds. It was a magnificent scene, a beautiful painting carefully drawn by Mother Nature. 

Back in the tiny little log house, we children were huddled up on the large queen-sized bed. There were 6 of us: Maeve, Chloe, Ellie, Isa, Lauren and me. We were having such a great time. We played charades, pictionary and chess. We gossiped and ate snacks until it was almost midnight. 

Then came the most exciting event of the night - the scary storytelling time. In which we were all holding hands and dramatically telling stories that made our skins crawl.  

“-as the shadowy figure approached, she felt cold chilly wind blow against her back and-“

BAM! 

There was a loud bang on the door, causing us all to jump. Chloe, who was telling the story, stopped talking immediately. The air suddenly grew cold. There was pure silence as we stared at each other in alarm. All of us were clearly thinking of the same thing- WHAT. WAS. THAT. 

BAM! 

There it was again! Another loud bang; a clamorous noise that heavily contrasted with the silence of the night. I gulped in fear, blood was pounding behind my ears, triggering my fight-or-flight response. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see Lauren and Chloe huddling even closer together. 

Then, BAM! 

The third banging on the door. This time, it was even louder, causing the door to bulge a bit. My heartbeat raced and my chest was pounding. It was as if all the air was temporarily knocked out of my lungs. I clustered tighter with the rest of the girls. We were all clearly frightened to death. Tears were running down Ellie’s eyes as she grabbed the log house telephone and panickedly punched the number of our parent’s lodging. 

BAM!

“Please answer, please answer, please answer… ,” whispered Isa pleadingly as she huddled closer to Ellie, begging our parents to somehow just pick up the phone. 

But they didn’t. Ellie looked up from the phone in distress, wordlessly telling us that the call was not successful. 

I couldn’t help the feeling of fear and shock that was growing in my throat as tears started to coat my eyes. Who was knocking on our door? What was happening? 

BAM!

The continuous banging noise sounded for a minute or two then it… stopped. And for another minute, a cacophony of sounds took over; the rustling of leaves against the cabin window, the croak of crickets from outside, along with my own tensed breathing. We all sat on the bed, wary of the banging on the door; carefully listening for the next “BAM”. Yet, it never came. 

“Wait here. I’ll check to see if there’s anyone outside the door.” I told my friends, who were hiding under the blankets for safety. 

Reluctantly, I slipped out of bed and tiptoed towards the door. The floorboards were creaking with my every step as I swallowed down my nerves. I have no idea what I was thinking. I don’t know why I had the guts to do that. ANYTHING could be outside!! Yet, I completely ignored the risks. Perhaps I was too sleepy to comprehend just what I was getting myself into… or I could just be plain stupid. 

“What are you doing?” whisper shouted my friends, desperately gesturing for me to not get to the door. “It’s dangerous!!” 

But my stubborn self ignored them. My trembling fingers found the doorknob as I mentally prepared myself. Hesitantly, I turned it and flung the door open. 

That was when I saw… the thing. 

It was a large stocky wild boar with gloomy red eyes that loomed in the darkness of the night. It was of dark brown colour and had shiny white tusks that were glinting. And it was rushing… towards me!! 

The initial reaction was shock. When it wore out, active adrenaline took over. A harsh, disbelieving shriek expelled from my parted lips as I let her eyes fall upon the mammal that was bolting towards me. 

I could hear the girls screaming for me to shut the door. I could also hear a head-splitting voice in my mind screeching “Moveee, you idiotic imbecile!!”. But fear had rooted me on the spot, I was too stunned to move. 

Suddenly, I felt a hard tug at my wrist and heard the loud slam of the door just before the wild creature slammed its body against our cabin door again. 

Then I stood there, too frazzled to comprehend what had happened. I stared at Lauren, who helped slam the door, and at Chloe, who had pushed me out of the doorway. 

What. Have. I. Done. 

And for the 5th time of the night, my friends and I stood in complete quietness… Until the shrill ringing of the telephone broke the silence. My friends and I looked at each other in alarm and immediately dashed to answer the phone. 

Turns out, my blood-curdling scream had woken up the whole entire cabin camp. The person in charge of the log cabin had found out about the boar outside our lodging and was calling to check on us. He reassured us that, if we don’t open the door, we’ll be fine and the boar would go away eventually. The person in charge  also told us to calm down and get some sleep. Hopefully, the boar would be gone by the next day. My friends and I all let out a sigh of relief and went to bed to get some sleep. 

The next day, the boar was indeed gone. Upon discovery, we all rushed out of the cabin and went bawling and blabbering to our parents about the horrible incident of the previous night. My parents, who were extremely worried, warned me to be careful next time and scolded me for making such rash decisions. I apologised to everyone, of course, for I have potentially endangered everyone that night. Who knows what would have happened if Lauren hadn't slammed the door in time!?

After this incident, I have learnt my lesson: ALWAYS think before acting, for the consequences wouldn’t always be good. 

Perhaps someday I would be able to look back at this incident and laugh. But I shall certainly never forget how my recklessness would have potentially caused not only my life but also the lives of those I love.