Mr. Ballin

And then sure enough, late that night, he heard a knock on the door.

He hustled over to the door and he made sure he looked okay.

And then he opened it up.

And standing in the hallway is this unbelievably beautiful woman who's flanked by these two men that he didn't know.

And immediately, Maslin is just completely drawn to this woman.

She had long, dark hair, this huge smile, and her eyes, I mean, they sucked him in.

It was like she was, you know, hypnotizing him or something.

I mean, she really looked like a celebrity, at least as Maslin imagines celebrities look up close.

This woman's name was Mona Fandi, and actually, to some degree, she was a celebrity.

Back in the 1980s, she had released a pop music album that had been very popular all over Malaysia, and so she was, like, kind of famous in Malaysia.

Now, in the early 1990s, Mona was done singing, that part of her life was over, but she had launched this brand new second career, post-music, that, to some people, it seemed like that actually made her more notable and more famous than her singing had.

These days, Mona was a highly sought-after professional shaman.

So in Malaysia at this time, shamanism was pretty popular and mainstream.

Shamans were these people who claimed to have supernatural powers.

You know, they could heal people and bring them prosperity.

And so it wasn't uncommon for the really well-known shamans to be called upon by very powerful people, like, you know, politicians, let's say, to sort of leverage their powers to increase their clout and their influence.

And so Maslin saw Mona, who at the time was arguably the most famous shaman in the entire country, he saw her as his meal ticket.

She was going to be the way that he reclaimed the power he needed so he could be appointed as the state's mentri besar.

And so Maslin very excitedly welcomed Mona and the two men, who were her husband and her assistant, into his home.

And, you know, even though Maslin had expected to see Mona tonight, I mean, he knew she was the one who'd be performing this ritual tonight, he still couldn't help but feel totally starstruck by her.