From: Punahele@aol.com
To: drunken_m0nk@hotmail.com
Subject: Babies crying in the dark
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 17:30:20 EST
Hi!
I have my own stories I wanted to share with you, that's why I haven't
written in so long. I keep putting it off (from before last year!) so I
told myself next time I write I'll tell you. And like a babooze I end up
not writing.
There's some stuff with the Kalihi house (Fernandez St.) ever since the
house was built. Anyway, the "things" with Kalihi house seem to be around
the front door--the stairs inside and outside. When were were having the
house blessed, that part--the outside stairs--was skipped because we
couldn't get the door open from inside. I can't say anything is related
to that, but ******* got injured there not long after they moved in. I
don't think there's anthing eerie about it. He was carring his tricycle
up the stairs (he was about three) and sliced his finger enough to need
stiches.
The eerie stuff seemed to happen around the inside stairs (near the door)
and the downstairs bedroom that's next to the stairs (that's the bedroom
that wasn't Cabral's.) Mostly voices. My cousins *** and ****** said they
came over once when no one was home and everything was dark. In the
darkness as they were going up the stairs around the turn by the front
door they could hear voices like a bunch of people talking, but muffled.
They said they got scared and turned around and left.
Later on, when I was living there and in that downstairs bedroom, I awoke
late in the night to the sound of people talking. It was also the muffled
sound of many people talking, but I couldn't make out any of the voices
or any of the conversations as I tried to listen. My first thought was
there was a party or something going on outside my bedroom downstairs,
but I knew it was late and I could see from that little space under the
door that the lights were out. My next though was that my sister, ****** was hanging
out in my room with her friends while I was sleeping which got me kind of
ticked off, so I go up to tell her go outside. But I couldn't get up. I
could move my head and look around the room, but I just couldn't get up,
roll over, or even move my arms or legs no matter how hard I tried. As I
kept trying to move the voices stopped and then right next to the bed by
my head I heard a slow, gutteral laugh almost like a wheeze. I stopped
and listened wondering what the heck was that. It sounded like it was
just inches from my head. I tried to slowly roll over, but I still
couldn't move my body, so thought about it and figured heck, if
something's going to get me, it's going to get me because I can't move.
So I figured I'd just turn my head the other way and try to fall asleep
because if somethings does happen and I can't protect myself, I'd rather
be asleep when it happens. So I turned my head, shut my eyes. It took a
while but eventually I fell asleep, and when morning came I awoke to a
bright quiet room.
There's some other things with the room, but you need to ask ***** or
********. I think ******* was awoke one night to a young girl in the
room. Later when ******* was looking through some pictures she recognized
one of the girls in the picture as the one who was in the room. It was a
picture of our Aunty Anna (my grandma Lum's sister) who died in 1941 when
she was 11 years old.
Another experience I had was while I had my apartment on Lusitana Street
near Punchbowl. I used to go riding my bike around at all hours since it
was so close to town. One night I was out riding late at night. I was
going down King Street just past the Kapiolani/King/Beretania split near
the newspaper company when I was approaching the old cemetary just before
TGIF. The cemetary has a mausoleum right near the front. Whenever I
passed by on the bus I wanted to see it up close, but I never did. This
time I was on my bike so I decided now's the time. Without giving myself
a chance to change my mind I veered into the entry and right to the
center of the cemetary. One of the first things I noticed was that the
cemetary was darker than it should've been because it was shadowed by two
big buildings on the Dmd Head and makai sides. The mausoleum was also
smaller than I thought now that I was standing right next to it. I
checked my watch and it was right at midnight. Really! (oooooh!) That was
just a coincidence. I rode my bike a little farther in and stopped
because I started to hear the very faint sound of a young--almost
newborn--baby crying. The building on the makai side of the cemetary
looked like apartments or condos so I thought the crying baby was from
one of the units there, but the sound wasn't coming from that direction.
As odd as it seemed, it sounded like it was somewhere near me. So I moved
around trying to pinpoint the source of the crying and it seemed like it
was coming from below me. I figured maybe the acoustics of the buidings
and headstones were playing with the sounds, so I leaned lower and lower
(I was still on my bike) trying to pinpoint it. Finally I had to get off
my bike and I crouched down to listen. Finally I had my ear all the way
down on the ground and the crying was still lower. I though maybe
something was in my ear so I turned my head and sure enough, it was still
only in that direction. When I sat up, I noticed I was sitting right on a
grave so I tried to make out to headstone in the darkness. It was the
grave of a newborn baby. It wasn't scary, just sad. I looked around at
the other graves and realized a lot of the graves there were of young
children and babies, even groups of young siblings. About a year later
one of my friends in nursing was doing research about diseases in Hawaii
and she told me that there was one epidemic in particular (smallpox or
influenza or something like that) that killed a lot of children who were
all buried together. That cemetary was one of the graveyards that was
used for the children who died in that epidemic.
I haven't had any other "other worldly" experiences. I've kept my eyes
open, but I think when things happen they'll just happen. That is,
they'll find you, not the other way around. Once during a camping trip on
the Hana side of Maui, our group camped in a little park that had a very
old cemetary. Since we were camping there we went out just before
midnight (on purpose) to see if we could see anything weird. We were
sitting on the wall and nothing happened, so I got out my camera and took
a picture of the darkness just for the heck of it. When I developed the
pictures...nothing. Wish I could say there was something weird, but it
was just a picture of the headstones illuminated by my flash.
And that's it. Sorry it took so long for me to write those little
stories! Hopefully I won't have any more stories like those to write...or
maybe not. They're kind of neat to experience.
Aloha a hui hou,
Scotty
Go back to the collected.
