X-Files : Harbinger Of Death

X-Files : Harbinger Of Death

This strange incident happened during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya when my late mother was a small girl. It was twilight, my mother was playing on a low table which was facing the main door. Back in the old days, people left their doors wide open. The entrance of the door faced a long dirt road with houses beyond. 

As she played on the low table, she twisted and turned and hang her head upside down at the edge of the low table. It was at such a position, with an upside down view that she saw a man wearing a black flowing cape walking down the road towards one of the houses beyond. Now, back in the day of the Japanese Occupation, you don't get to see a man wearing a decent suit, much less a lone strange man wearing a black flowing cape walking on the road at twilight in the poorer parts of town. 

Being a curious child, my mother jumped down from the low table and rushed after the man, hoping to get a better look. She went into the house which the stranger had entered. She searched from room to room and asked her friends and neighbours whether they had seen such a man. Alas, but, nobody had seen him.

Since it was getting dark, my mum had no choice but went home disappointed. On the way back to her own house, she suddenly felt very afraid. She felt goose bumps all over her small body. Luckily nothing happened to her.

The next morning when she awoke, she learnt that a child had died during the night in the house which the black caped man visited. And apparently the child died without a known cause.

So, who was this strange man with the black flowing cape ?

A harbinger of death ? The Grim Reaper?