Ghosts Next Door

Ghosts Next Door
by Lopaka Kapanui

Jul 31, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #93

Weight For Me


Deena and her son Noah Sampaio sat at gate 54 at the airport waiting for their flight to take off. It was an impetuous decision to make, but the second the ink was dry on her divorce papers with her ex, Mitchell, she sold the house and her car and packed their bags so that they could move to Virginia with her new boyfriend. Noah sat there crying to himself after arguing with his mother as to how unfair it was that he never got a chance to say goodbye to his friends or at the very least, have a goodbye party. ‘It's my turn to be happy’ his mother hissed in his face

Jul 30, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #94

Tonkotsu


On late cold rainy nights, the noodle house in Kalihi is empty save for the man who appreciates the only pleasure in his life that is given to him through the delectable bowl of Tonkotsu. The owners of the establishment seem nervous and jumpy as their eyes go from the male customer to the clock on the wall and back to the male customer again. They don’t want to appear as if they are rushing him to leave but every minute on the dial, the owner's wife graciously approaches him to see

Jul 29, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #95

Uncle Leonard


The Wai'anae of my childhood memories are like old black and white pictures that only exist in antiquated family photo albums or in the hush of late night discussions with the adults huddled around the dinner table. Raw corned beef on a plate with Hawaiian salt and onions were the evening pupu along with an open can of sardines and a large bowl of poi. As if that were not enough, a pot of Portuguese bean soup with home made sweet bread was always available should the smaller hand foods not be enough.

As the winds from the ocean unfolded down the length of Kaukamana street,

Jul 28, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #96

Maunu


One early morning at a pond which sat at the foot of a waterfall in the back of Honolulu, a young man spies a little Hawaiian girl crying in frustration as she seems to have a measure of difficulty catching fish with her little bamboo pole. The young man, rather than offering to help the little Hawaiian girl, tells her instead that there are no fish to be caught in the pond. The little Hawaiian girl insists that there are indeed fish in the pond, but the young man laughs at her and calls her a silly child. The little Hawaiian girl contemplates her plight for a second and says to the young man, "Maybe I'm using the wrong bait?"

Jul 27, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017 #97

Fixing a Hole


I moved to Kaua’i and found a small one bedroom apartment in Lihue, the place didn’t seem like much but the most important thing was that there was a 7-11 close by. I was also surprised to have found a job within the first week of moving to the garden isle seeing as how it’s such a small community; jobs are not easy to come by. Fortunately, Kaua’i was a growing town because of foreign developers who were buying up parcels of land. Sure, the Hawaiians and the locals were not happy about any kind of development but in the end, money talks. The job I got is simple, dig a hole and place the dirt on the back of a truck or pile it on the side and let the crew do the rest. The crew is a bunch of good guys, simple. Never been anywhere outside of Kaua’i and never planning to go anywhere else or be anything more and that’s cool. I acclimate myself to them because I want to be no one and go nowhere. The only troublesome thing is seeing the ghosts of road

Jul 26, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #98

Onmyo


Every weekend parishioners of the temple come on their own time to help clean the grounds and maintain the grass and do general upkeep. One of the families who always drove in from Kahalu'u had a lovely daughter who was part Japanese on her father's side. She was all of sixteen years old and very kind and filled with an inherent grace that only served to make her countenance even more appealing. In our phone conversation, the head monk said that on one Saturday, she and her family sat with the monks having lunch and that the girl had excused herself to use the bathroom. An hour had passed, and the girl's mother went to check up on her and found her daughter on the

Jul 25, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #99

Energumen



Tabby’s body was lifeless and gray, her eyes were masked with duct tape, as was her mouth with a large swath of the silver adhesive stretched across it. Both holes of her nose were stuffed with Kleenex and taped over, the orifices in her lower body were filled with tampons, over that, her undergarments were securely taped in between her legs and around her waist. Her ear canals were tightly stuffed with earbuds which Tabby normally used for her iPhone, and the outer layer of her eardrum, the tympanic membrane was covered tightly with duct tape from the same roll.
When the unclean spirit of a cannibalistic child molester named Neil David came to possess her body

Jul 24, 2017

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2017! #100

Unwanted


What is the word ‘adopted?’ What does that mean to a boy who is all of eight years old? 

From the moment that my father could see that I was cognizant enough to comprehend language and conversation, he immediately took it upon himself to inform me that I was adopted. As he explained it, he and my mother were not my real parents, my natural mother had given me up because she did not want me. This is what I was told. The word, which meant to legally take a child and raise it as one’s own meant nothing to me, it was the fact that I was now being told that my parents were not my parents and I couldn’t stop crying. 

My mother was upset at my father and he,