My siblings used to say that they always hear repeated sounds of something hitting a metallic object somewhere just outside of our house, every night after midnight. It sounded as if something was hitting against metal railings outside, and my brother said it’s due to “things that our naked eyes cannot see.” My less superstitious but equally scared sis tried to put it down to the wind and the trees. Oh, speaking of trees, our neighbour across the street owns a mango tree, and according to folk beliefs it’s one of the surefire hang out places for “things that the naked eye can’t see.”

Anyway. I on the other hand did not hear a thing; my brother said I’m just too oblivious to anything not staring in my face.

It’s only when they went overseas and I had to sleep upstairs alone that I heard those sounds they were talking about. They go “ting, ting,..” or “clangg…clangg…” depending on your vocab. Pretty unnerving.

Yesterday I heard it again, and my dad was in the room so I asked him if he knew anything about those metal-banging.

“Oh, those are simply the neighbourhood patrol going around telling the turn of the hour. The number of beats denote the current hour: once for one o’clock, twice for two o’clock, and so on.”

So much for mysteries.