Kalihi
No one who lived in the house could stay for too long. In less than a month of residing in the humble one-bedroom abode, the occupants ran from the domicile screaming for their life, but would never speak of their reason for fleeing.
Thus, no one could ever figure out what it was about the place that drove everyone to near insanity. The first known occupant was a single mother and her two children, a ten-year-old girl, and a four-year-old boy. The mother whose name was Iris survived an abusive marriage that went on longer than it should have. Moving into the one-bedroom house was her new lease on life, a fresh beginning. A month later on a Tuesday morning, the neighbors witnessed Iris with her two children in her arms as she ran screaming from the house. She did not even bother to place the younger boy into his child chair, she got to her car and piled the two kids into the passenger seat and sped off.
Iris never returned for any of her belongings.
...............
Less than a month later a newly divorced single male moved into the one-bedroom home with the hopes of piecing together the leftover shambles that was once his life. The wife planned the divorce is such a way that everything was already in place when she expressed her desire to no longer be married to her husband. She and her new love interest had already found an apartment together and were planning a weekend getaway to Mexico. The only kink in the plan was the husband himself.
The man experienced nothing unusual after living in the house for a month. His life went on as best it could, considering the circumstances. Unknown to him was the fact that his ex-wife and her new boyfriend were no longer together. While in Mexico, she realized that her beloved had designs on a young cocktail waitress and had actually found the two frolicking in the resort Jacuzzi after hours. Realizing the mistake she'd made, she immediately searched for her ex-husband's whereabouts the moment she returned to Honolulu. Finding the address to his new home and following the details of Google Maps, she pulled up in front of the home at ten in the morning. His car was not in the driveway and no one appeared to be inside and yet the front door was wide open. She rang the doorbell first and then began to knock when there was no answer returned from within, she called out, "Shawn? Shawn? Shawn are you home?"
The neighbors across the street would tell the authorities later that day that they witnessed the woman walk into the house and less than a second later they saw her running, screaming from the home as if she'd seen a ghost. She left her car right where she'd parked it and finally called for a cab once she was too exhausted to run any farther. Contacting Shawn at his job she filled him in on the details of her experience, when she was finally able to calm down she also apologized to him and asked if there was a way that they could reconcile? Shawn agreed and forgave her but she insisted that they find somewhere else to live. Until today, she refuses to talk about what happened to her in the one-bedroom house.
.............
No one could figure out who the original owners of the house might have been. The historical records showed that a John Yip Kee built the structure in 1951 but that he never lived in the house himself. It (the house) had passed through the hands of several renters over time without incident. That is until a year ago when a man who lived there suddenly went stark raving mad. One morning the neighbors could hear him screaming at someone or something, "Liar! Liar! Liar! It's not true! It's not true!"
The next morning the occupant was gone and there was not a trace of him left. The agent at Kettle Bell Realty decided to take to herself suitable assistance and went to view the one-bedroom house with another agent. Both women were in their mid-sixties and were ready for a life of retirement. The house had already been checked for mold and any other kind of gaseous admissions or electric towers which may have caused such strange behavior in the last few residents. All tests came up with a negative result and so the two women arrived at the house and let themselves in. Everything was in perfect order and there did not appear to be anything strange or UN-natural about the place.
"No Ghosts here," said the one woman sarcastically.
While making their way to leave, they noticed a unique piece of furniture just off to the corner in the living room. It was an old hollowed-out trunk of a tree that was sanded down and lacquered. The top of the trunk was covered by a large reflective glass which had been cut to fit the shape of the top of the tree trunk itself. It was obvious that it was being used as a table because of the ring stains from soda cans and beer bottles that were left there. "What an odd thing this is," the other woman whispered.
Not less than 10 minutes later, the police converged on the front lawn of the one-bedroom house. They received a 911 call concerning the same two women who were both trying to kill one another.
House 4, humans 0.
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"The house stands empty and void of any life, save for the transient insects and few birds that come and go but nothing stays in the house for too long. Even the homeless and drug addicts do not squat for a normal length of time, something about the house either causes them to flee or they all end up trying to kill one another; so the story goes." Ryder Shimoda said as he spoke into his digital recorder.
“This is an audio journal of our investigation of the old Yip Kee house in....well, I shouldn't reveal the location because of the fact that other paranormal groups may try to converge on this same location and compromise all of my hard work. I'm Ryder Shimoda and I am the founder and leader of P.U.N.K., which stands for, Paranormal Understanding, Noetic Science, and Telekinesis."
"Technically then the acronym should be, P.U.N.S.T.K. when you think about it?" Lori Taketa asked.
"No," Ryder was visibly irritated, "It's, P.U.N.K."
"Lori does have a point," Kyle Nishida insisted.
"The POINT is, I'm the leader of the group and what I say goes! Without me there would be no, P.U.N.K., there would be no awards of recognition, no YouTube channel, no morning news appearance or radio interviews! Get it?" Ryder said as he attempted to be menacing.
"True," Lori began to mock Ryder, "and in all of those situations, you made those appearances by yourself, without your team! Maybe you can be a team all by yourself? Then you can just re-name the group and call it, A.S.S."
Kyle howled with laughter but Ryder didn't find it funny at all. All he could do was glare at him.
"The two of you have shown me no appreciation or respect! I began all of this!" Ryder shouted.
"No!" Kyle shouted back. "WE began all of this, the three of us together. WE recorded our first ghost in that house in Kalihi on our cell phones remember? The more we got noticed, the more big-headed you got! I used to have such respect for you and I feared you like how I feared my father, but not anymore, not any more. You're just a jack ass now."
Ryder took a step towards Kyle and Lori inserted herself between the two. "If you think I'm such a jack ass then why are you even here?!?!?!?"
"Because Lori asked me to!" Kyle shouted back.
"Kyle," Lori interrupted, but Kyle ignored her.
"Dude, she can't even stand to be around you anymore. The only reason she answers your phone calls lately is that she knows if she doesn't that you'll end up coming over to her place. She's always been there for you and supported you and did everything for you. Yeah, you may have done all those radio and T.V. spots but it was Lori who set all of that up for you! Did you even thank her once? Just one time? Anyway, tonight is our last night. After this, we're done. We don't want to have anything to do with you. We'll take the back end, you cover the front!" Kyle and Lori left Ryder standing in the dark living room alone as he collected his thoughts.
"Ungrateful," He muttered.
Lori and Kyle were still reeling from their confrontation with Ryder and not concentrating so much on the musty bedroom filled with a kind of dust that seemed to be moving about independently.
"You love him, I know. Otherwise, why you would you be so pissed at him? " Kyle said.
"It doesn't matter," Lori replied, "Let's just get this over with."
"We should just go," Kyle urged. "Otherwise, it will be like beating an old horse."
Lori nodded in agreement and the two made their way to the front door. Ryder was nowhere to be found. His car was still parked out front however; the two figured that perhaps he had just purposely made himself scarce so that he wouldn’t have to deal with them otherwise.
…………………….
A few days passed before Lori decided to give Ryder a call in order to tie up a few loose ends concerning taxes on the P.U.N.K. business license. When he didn’t answer she left him a short message to give her a callback. A few more days passed again before Lori called Ryder who did not answer his phone and again she left a short voice mail concerning business matters pertaining to P.U.N.K.
After another day, Lori called Ryder’s house phone and his mother answered. “Hi, mom!” Lori said, “Is Ryder home?”
“Lori,” Mrs. Shimoda said obviously worried, “Ryder neva come home for few days, I thought he was with you folks, I’m so worried. He no was with you guys?”
“No,” Lori replied, “I mean he was the other night but he left before us, I mean his car was still there but we don’t know where he went. Did you call his phone?”
“Everyday I call,” Mrs. Shimoda replied, “but he no answer.”
Lori could hear that Ryder’s mother no longer contained her emotions and Lori cried along with her. The thought of Ryder committing suicide crossed Lori’s mind for only a second until she realized that Ryder loved himself too much in order to take his own life. Did he walk home? No. The car was the only thing that Ryder loved other than his own looks. Did someone rob or beat him up? A possibility considering that Ryder didn’t know how to fight but he was skilled at talking himself out of any situation. The only conclusion Lori could come to was that Ryder was still at the one-bedroom house.
“Don’t worry Mom, I’ll call Kyle and we’ll go find Ryder ok?” Lori said.
“Okay, Lori thank you so much, you let me know what happened please?” Mrs. Shimoda begged.
“Okay, Mom we will.” With that, Lori called Kyle right away to let him know about Ryder. Needless to say, Kyle was not enthusiastic about reconnecting with Ryder in any way shape or form but the fact that Ryder’s mother was worried sick was enough to motivate Kyle to participate. Everyone loved Ryder’s mom.
“Would be like him,” Kyle said, “Make his mom worry.”
“That’s enough Kyle, just meet me at the one-bedroom house.” Lori scolded him.
………………………………..
The night of the big argument with Lori and Kyle is when Ryder took a breather and went for a stroll around the block in order to clear his mind. He had no idea that the two had already left and so it was a bit sobering to return to a dark empty house. Conducting the investigation himself, he found nothing that would validate the reputation of the house itself. It was not until Ryder came upon the wooden stumped table that he would find himself riveted to the spot for the next several days, completely unable to move.
…………………………………
The neighborhood was quiet save for the sounds of conversations and a television from a few houses away. Ryder’s car was still parked in front of the mailbox just outside the driveway of the one-bedroom house. Lori and Kyle separated and made their way through the empty house three times with no result. As they met in the kitchen, they happened to find their way out the back door and into the yard where a mango tree towered over the house; there they found Ryder. He hung himself from one of the lower branches of the mango tree with his belt. Slightly tucked in the waistband of his black jeans was a note that was folded in half. Lori’s scream was filled with the anguish and grief of the love that she would never be able to convey to Ryder but, more than that was the heartbreak of having to tell Mom Shimoda of her son’s fate.
Kyle cried too but it was out of the frustration of seeing a life so full of potential wasted. Was Ryder’s ego so overblown and yet so fragile that it caused him to take his own life? As Lori fell into Kyle’s arms and continued to cry, Kyle himself reached up and removed the half-folded piece of paper from Ryder’s waistband. Opening the paper now while holding Lori, he carefully read Ryder’s last words.
“I saw myself as I would be in the reflective glass of the wooden stumped table in the corner of the living room. I was fat and gluttonous and alone, very alone. Then the reflective glass showed me the image of Kyle and Lori, married and successful as they had started their own paranormal group, which gained farther-reaching notoriety than when I was in charge. I realize now, why so many people could not live in this humble one-bedroom house. The problem was never with this home itself but in the reflective glass, which was cut and designed to fit the unusual tree stump that holds it up. Where the tree stump comes from I know not but I believe now that it causes the reflective glass to show a person their true nature so that when a person or persons sees this, the result is too overwhelming and the truth of who someone really is, is more than they can bear. Now we know what has caused many people to flee with madness from this place. So it is with myself, I cannot stand the truth of what I am and of what I will be and, rather than be ruined with this unkind madness like all the others before me, I have resigned myself to the only logical conclusion that taking my own life may perhaps break this cycle. I suppose that he who is true to himself in all aspects of his life has nothing to fear from the reflective glass. However, let all be warned to have their priorities in order before gazing into the mirror of truth. My priorities were placed elsewhere when it should have been laid in trust with the only two true friends I’ve known. Apologies to you Lori and Kyle, and please, tell my mother that I love her and that this son has done only that which would save her from any shame that I may cast upon her.”
-Ryder-
“Oh my god,” Kyle whispered.
Lori looked up and took the letter from Kyle and read it herself, the conclusion caused her knees to buckle as she fell to the red dirt and cried with even greater grief. When they were able to gather their composure, Lori and Kyle went back into the one-bedroom house and found the tree stump table. It was exactly as Ryder said; the reflective glass cast back the same truthful image that gazed into it.
Kyle separated the reflective glass from the table and took it out back and shattered it into pieces. The wooden stump he took into the tall grass just beyond the mango tree where it would never be used again except as food for the termites. The house itself would eventually be broken down and replaced with a Korean Christian Church in the middle of Kalihi.
……………………………
Mom Shimoda was able to contribute several pans of her best Jello deviled eggs to Kyle and Lori’s wedding reception a year later. The two decided to hold the reception in the back yard of Kyle’s parent's house where the entire neighborhood was invited. A year later, Lori would give Kyle a baby boy who weighed eight and a half pounds with a full head of hair. The following year, Lori and Kyle started their own paranormal group, which was specifically designed to help people help themselves. Not long after, the two were offered a contract to star in their own reality T.V. show based in Hawai’i where they had full control of the direction in which the production would go. Theirs was a life motivated by truth, integrity, hard work and love. Their efforts cast an honest reflection for their son to live by for the future.
Thank you so much for this story! Very deep and moving. Mahalo
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