Ghosts Next Door

Ghosts Next Door
by Lopaka Kapanui

Sep 20, 2023

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2023. #60 Drip.

 I'm exhausted this morning.

Still, I brought the laundry out for washing and drying, which will take a few hours. Had a healthy meal, a sub-way sandwich, one of my favorites. Checking e-mails, voice messages, and texts. In my mind, I need to be in the garage using all of that exercise equipment, or at the very least, doing Shiko and taking the dog for a walk. What the mind wants and what actually happens are two different things. Therefore, I sit here, sharing this tale with you about tricks of the mind.

*

I had no clue it was there until one night when I purchased a drive-thru meal and then went to find a quiet place where I could eat it. I had driven for an hour when I finally came upon Pu'iwa Park in Nu'uanu. There were two other cars parked there, but they were at opposite ends of the parking lot. I chose the space facing the Boy Scouts clubhouse. I rolled the window down and felt such a cool, comforting breeze filtering through my car that it made me relax to the point where I felt like I would doze off. I finished my meal and my drink and settled in. That's when I heard it, not realizing it was there the whole time. 

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. 

Everything blacked out, and when I came to, I was sitting in my bathtub, slowly dying from the cancer that ravaged the last of my body. This wave of pain was so intense that my mind removed me from it and brought me to a moment of comfort where the world was perfect, if only for a few seconds. In a dark parking at Pu'iwa Park, where the winds cradled me like a child, I found peace and tranquility, but in reality, I was at home soaking in my bathtub, my life waning away like the setting sun as water slowly dripped from the faucet. Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip.

*

Time to take the mega men plus vitamins and down it with a flask of water. Perhaps after this, I should go to the garage and exercise, but there's my mind again, finding excuses not to. It's too hot, watch your time because you have other things to do. Check in the laundry, see if it needs to be put in the dryer, and so on and so forth. The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but it's also your own worst enemy.



No comments:

Post a Comment