When Grandpa A Mao died, the village was showing a movie. He died horribly, falling from a walking tractor. His brains were blown out, and his face was mangled beyond recognition. Grandpa A Mao was the village's master butcher, famous for slaughtering pigs. His wife said it was because he had taken too many lives in his lifetime. The evening before he died, an owl on the hill behind the village hooted miserably until dusk. The village elders said that when an owl calls at dusk, someone will die. It was a curse.
There were many things in the village that people couldn't understand. No one could explain them, and fear, dread, and unease hung in the air.
Strange things often happened at school, too. Most were terrifying hallucinations caused by students or teachers being under too much pressure.
