X-Files : The Mini Door Guardians

X-Files : The Mini Door Guardians

Back in the sixties my grandmother used to live in a large wooden bungalow in a village in Klang. The bungalow was built on a large piece of land and there was another bungalow a few yards away. It had a perfect countryside setting. 

Like all other Chinese homes in the olden days, my grandmother's bungalow had a large wooden door which opened at the centre. Each side of the wooden door was pasted with a colourful and imposing drawing of the "guardians of the door". 

As children, we visited our grandmother often and stayed over for long periods during the school holidays. We loved to play around the large compound of the house which was shaded by trees and shrubs. The wooden door was never locked and there was no grille. We were free to run around both inside and outside the house and played with the neighbour's children as well.

One fine day, while all of us were running around and happily chasing each other, we noticed my second brother was staring at the floor around the front door, deeply engrossed and absorbed in whatever he was staring at. We called out to him and his reply was "Shh, keep quiet !. Don't disturb the little people".

What little people? We looked, but we couldn't see anything except the empty floor. Later, he described to us that he saw two tiny figures, exactly like the two door guardians that were pasted on the door. The two tiny guards were marching around the main door, purportedly guarding the door! They were wearing heavy armour and armed with big swords. My second brother was surprised that only he could see them and we could not.