Ghosts Next Door

Ghosts Next Door
by Lopaka Kapanui

Oct 28, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #98. Adele.

  It was the monthly meet-up at the ancient Hawaiian site, where volunteers from the community came armed with weed whackers, sheers, and various other gardening tools.

Oct 23, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #93. I, Me, Mine.

One morning, my Mom and I sat at the kitchen table discussing overdue bills and how I could help pay them.

Oct 17, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023 #87. Time After Time.

 This case was separate from my wheelhouse, so to speak, so I needed to understand why my presence was required in the beginning.

Oct 16, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #86. Leimaliko.

 Hoʻoleiʻupena is the act of casting out the fishing net as you would a lei around the shoulders of a beloved person.

Oct 15, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #85. Tiki Bar.

 There was nowhere else to go after the Saturday night; nightlife died down, and I went to sleep, except for an old Tiki bar on Hotel Street.

Oct 12, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #82. Perfect Rice.

  The Rice family lived at the end of the block where Lumialani and Lumi'au'au Street met. Everyone who grew up in the community knew Lumi'au'au by its more notorious name, Suicide Hill.

Oct 11, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #81. Knock.

Mara and Tianna were having a late-night dinner, mulling, regretting, and crying over past failures in relationships and the like.

Oct 10, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #80. Mili.

 Mili told me there was a time when she was absolutely frustrated with her parents and their old, strict Japanese plantation ways.

Oct 9, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #79 Phantom Guard.

 A veteran told me that years ago when he was stationed at Ft. Shafter, he would usually have sentry duty at the gate.

Oct 6, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #76 Take.

 John Kenai, his wife Alyssa, and their daughter Kylie became houseless when their landlord decided to sell the house at the last minute.

Oct 4, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #74. Only.

 Being the only sick kid on the small property of four houses, two toward the front of the old dirt road and two toward the back near the river, gave me a lot of time alone.

Sep 30, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #70. Hole Waimea. Pt. 4

 Later that evening, Lehua and Malani perused the aisles at the KTA superstore, looking for a late-night snack to enjoy while they watched a movie in the comfort of Malani's living room.

Sep 29, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023 #69. Hole Waimea. Pt. 3

Lehua's bowl of pasta salad sat between her and Malani, as well as the bowl of freshly made poi, along with poke' and pulehu meat.

Sep 28, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween #68. Hole Waimea Pt. 2

 "What's on the agenda tomorrow?" Malani asked while spreading his blanket out on the trunk of the Dodge. 

Sep 24, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #64. Chances.

Erin and I moved into this simple two-story condo newly built on the slopes of Punchbowl Crater town facing side.

Sep 22, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #62. Penny.

School is where you assume you'll be safe from the things that make themselves known to you in your home.

Sep 21, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #61. Spiriting.

If I were a circus act, I'd be the clown juggling different size bowling pins and other assortments of bowling balls.

Sep 13, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #53. Hauola Pt. 6.

More often than not, and more often than I cared, Dominic Watase appeared in Leipili's glass-enclosed cubicle, nodding with every word he said.

Sep 11, 2023

Sep 6, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #46 Spirit.

 Time was all I had. Time to sit with her, to watch her go from crying to crawling to taking her first step.

Sep 4, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #44. Anting-Anting

 After the spark of light has left the body in a month or longer, there's a chance that peace and quiet will return to the old house again.

Sep 2, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #42 Cutlery

 By the sound of it, someone in the kitchen systematically removes cup after plastic cup from the shelf and lets it fall to the linoleum floor.

Sep 1, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #41. Champ.

 My wife is out there right now in the living room watching our grandchildren while our adult children are at work.

Aug 31, 2023

Aug 30, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #39. Lori.

Jealousy lived in our household because of old family grudges we inherited from our parents, and their parents, and so forth, and so on.

Aug 29, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #38 Raynelle

 An encounter with a spirit came to Norman Reifsnyder in a dream that was so vivid that when he woke up, he could still smell the personal musk of that spirit on the sheets and pillows.

Aug 28, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #37 Hanging Out.

The old courthouse in town would be torn down in a few days, but because of a few concerns and worries from the developers, the powers that be gave me and my team precisely eight hours to do what we needed.

Aug 27, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #36 Waiwai

Children can't and don't know how to fight back when abused; the external leaves signs and marks of the abuse. It's the internal that leaves the most traumatic impressions. 

Aug 23, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #32 That Ain't No Way To Have Fun

 The head of the well-noted secret society exited from the second-floor stairway of his establishment, dressed in his signature suit.

Aug 21, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #30 Speak.

 My years of growing up toward the end of the plantation era in Hawai'i provided me with many spiritual encounters and rich stories from other ethnicities, such as Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Okinawan, Portuguese, Puertorican, and Hawaiian.

Aug 18, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #27 Flying.

The scent of Pikake lei, interspersed with the aroma of jet fuel, is simultaneously pleasing to the senses and revolting.

Aug 17, 2023

Aug 16, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #25 Blaine 2.

 Doralei was a military brat who led a nomadic life following her father from South Korea, where she was born, to Germany, Texas, North Carolina, Fort Bragg, back to South Korea, and finally Hawai'i.

Aug 15, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #24. Blaine.

Blaine Shibuya grew up in the neighborhood just past the Fort Shafter on-ramp on Ala Mahamoe Street. 

Aug 13, 2023

Aug 9, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #18 Papa Lua Pt. 4

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Tita made a life for herself in Vegas. Indeed, she knew there was a significant presence of ex-patriots from Hawaii who lived in and were moving to her county in droves.

Aug 8, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #17. Papa Lua Pt. 3.

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Marilyn fell in love with Naua at first sight and had been trying to find an effective means of communicating with my brother without luck.

Aug 7, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #16 Papa Lua Pt. 2

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Colin's parents had already told Tita's parents about her pregnancy before she could break the news to them. Needless to say, they were beyond upset.

Aug 6, 2023

Aug 5, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #14. Too Loud.

 The Chrysler van, with surfboards pilled on the roof, pulled up into the parking lot and out came the mother and her five children.

Aug 4, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #13 Kalani

The local paranormal investigator had great connections, so he could get into many places that no one else could. Like city hall, the municipal building, the DOT, and many remote yards for Hawaiian Tel.

Aug 3, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #12. Reese.

 The Martins, the Corderos', and the Medeiros were our neighbors on that small plot second to the corner house at the end of Kaukamana Street, crossing Kula'aupuni Road.

Aug 1, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #10. Ten Guitars.

 Jay's snoring was something to behold if you could stand being in the same room with him while he was doing it.

Jul 30, 2023

Jul 28, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #6 Mc Carthy

 McCarthy

By

Chris Grant

 

His boots no longer made any noise on the sun-baked caliche outside the warped-wood saloon in the small west Texas outpost.

Jul 25, 2023

Jul 23, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween. # 1. Serah Wong 2023.

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(Continued From 2022)


Ivan's life hovered at the sharp edge of a scalpel, held at the ready by Serah Wong, who was prepared to scoop his eyes out with surgical precision.

Jul 10, 2023

All Things Must Pass


I exist as a hermit only because I've exhausted all other means of living what should have been a normal, everyday life: wife, kids, house, car. It should have felt right, and life should have been beautiful. But as time passed, so did this feeling that I was not in the right place; I was living a lie.

Jun 30, 2023

Burt's Pill Box


My brother Martin was a great storyteller. I was his rapt audience of one. Well, so was Laura, his girlfriend, but I was his younger brother, so I came first. He could share detailed information right off the top of his head with no problem. I could never figure out how Martin knew so much.

May 31, 2023

Pineki

1

My brother Kili was allergic to peanuts, so none of those products could be in our house.

Apr 25, 2023

Hapai Ia'u

The old house, as quaint and humble as I remember it, was always filled with people at one time or another.

Jan 29, 2023

Perfect For Rice 2022

 The Rice family lived at the end of the block where Lumialani and Lumi'au'au street met. Everyone who grew up in the community knew Lumi'au'au by its more notorious name, Suicide Hill.

Jan 2, 2023

Union Brotherhood

Believe it or not, stretches of old roads still exist on 'O'ahu, like Kiona'ole.