When Kanita opened her eyes, she saw Aunt Dari and Mok were standing by her side.
“You wake up,” Aunt Dari said.
Still Kanita seemed to be not yet well from what she went through at the last moment.
“Drink some water,” Aunt Dari said and helped her to sit while Mok handed her a glass of water.
It was better after taking the liquid.
“You can go now,” Aunt Dari said to Mok.
As the driver left, Aunt Dari turned to Kanita and started to narrate the Crow Maison's history.
“Marie is my friend. She is French and she is an artist. She had visited Cambodia and loved it so she decided to move to live here after I came. She built this house and lived with her boyfriend. Around this house, there are a lot of crows. Marie loved birds, so she painted the crows. She planned to make it a crow art museum but things didn't go as she planned. Because of the financial crisis, she decided to rent some rooms to the students who came to do research in this village. She asked me to help since she didn’t know how to manage the work. At that time, there was a group of students from the US. Among them, there was a girl named Lucy. She was young and yes she was hot. Marie’s boyfriend, Jacque, was about ten years younger than Marie. When he met a sexy young girl, how could he bear it? He cheated on Marie with Lucy. Even after she went back to the US, she kept in touch with Jacque and Jacque sent money that he took from Marie. When Marie found out, she was angry and she felt very down. She told me, she cried very hard. I tried to comfort her and explain to her to let him go, but she didn’t because she loved him so much.” She took a pause for a few seconds before she continued with a sad face, “I remembered the night before she died, I stayed with her until late night. She cried a lot and said her heart was still in pain. I tried to comfort her and persuade her to free him as it was like to free herself too. Then she stopped crying and said she knew what to do. I thought she understood, so I went home. The next morning, when I came back, I found nobody inside, then I heard crows’ voices in the yard. I went there and I saw them, both of them died under the tree, full of crows over and around their bodies.”
“They died?” Kanita said.
Aunt Dari nodded her head, “Yes.”
“How?”
“She killed him and killed herself.”
Nothing surprised Kanita since she could sense this type of result.
“Marie hated anyone touching her things - her painting, her dress and her man,” Aunt Dari said. “I forgot about it. If I didn’t forget this point, I might be able to stop that thing from happening.”
“Don’t blame yourself.”
Aunt Dari shook her head. She seemed to feel regret about that story.
“How did she kill him?”
“According to the authorities, Jacque and her might do bed activity for a long hour. While he was sleeping because of exhausted, she dragged him under the tree in the yard then made him drink poison. After that, she drank it and laid next to him, hugging him tightly in her embrace.”
Aunt Dari walked towards the window and looked at the tree in the yard before she continued telling, “This area is full of crows, so, the crow came and ate their body. When I arrived, Jacque didn’t have any flesh, only bones and Marie remained much more than him.” She paused and took a deep breath.
“They became ghosts.”
“It’s been two years already, they are still here.” Aunt Dari nodded. “Before Marie died, she wrote a will that she gave this house to me. I wanted to sell this house, but when I knew that two of them were still here, I decided to keep it. However, I could not support the tax fee and my living was not good at all, so I decided to carry on renting a room for any student who comes to do research.”
“Did they haunt other customers?”
“There were a few customers before you but because they were men, they stayed peacefully.”
“Because I reminded her of Lucy?”
“Yes.”
Kanita was nervous to hear that.
“I told you to stay in the room after 6pm because Jacque liked to go out in the yard at that time to meet with Lucy. And I tried to remind you because Lucy was American and you are American as well, the way you act and Lucy’s were the same - too much self esteem - which towards Marie, it is called rude and disrespectful.”
“That’s why she kept on frightened me scarier and scarier.” Kanita nodded her head. “But she doesn’t haunt you.”
“She is my friend.”
“Well, I wonder why they seemed to be afraid of the crow.”
“Because the crows ate their fleshes.”
“I see.” Kanita wagged her head as she remembered all the events, especially when she was haunted in the bathroom. The ghost lady disappeared after hearing the cry of the crows.
“Did they die?”
“They are ghost. Ghost doesn't die.”46Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUmOT5rdT87
“Then how are they now?”
“You should not care. Today you will leave for the US. I hope you return home safely.”
“Okay.” Kanita smiled.
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