100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2024. #18. Claymore.

Claymore Laukahi sat silently on the banks of the old stream in the depths of Paoa Valley, tossing a few large stones in the water. Something on the other side of the stream caught his attention. It was a Hawaiian boy and girl seated on the bareback of a horse, staring intently at him as if they were waiting to be acknowledged. He raised his hand and gave a slight wave, but rather than return the salutation, the boy gently kicked his heels into the horse's sides, causing the animal to lumber forward. Claymore watched the horse gingerly walk into the stream until it was more than halfway to his side. Without warning, a massive surge of water appeared out of nowhere, slamming into the horse and its two riders, sending them tumbling downstream until it reached the ocean. Claymore had no time to react, think, or feel about what he just witnessed because of how suddenly it happened. The whole tableau was gone. On the other side of the stream, near the banks, there were no footprints from the horse that Claymore could see. Yet, the horse reappeared less than a foot away from him with the same two Hawaiian children riding it. All three went into the stream and were again swept away by the massive surge of water. How could something like that be possible when the stream has always been ankle deep? Crossing back to the otherside, Claymore decided it was time to go. Could the whole thing have been the result of heat stroke since he hadn't eaten anything all morning? Or perhaps the sun reflecting off the surface of the water caused a mirage to take place? Before he could work out the problem in his mind, the horse with the two Hawaiian children manifested a third time, and were again swept away by the tremendous surge of water.

Claymore never found out who the two children might have been no matter how many old newspaper articles he researched. Nor, was there any available obituaries regarding drownings in Paoa stream. Claymore also tried for a few years to go back to the stream at the exact time and place where he first encountered the manifestation, but nothing worked. He finally 72 to let it go.

In 1972, Willy and Clara Laukahi were up the depths of Paoa Valley crossing a stream while on horseback. Looking up, they saw a strange man on the opposite bank of the stream which made them pause. Just then, a huge rolling surge of water appeared out of nowhere, missing the two of them by mere feet, saving them from being swept away, and drowning. Which explains why Claymore couldn't find any records of anyone drowning in Paoa stream, because it never happened. Willy ended up becoming Claymore's father. Clara, Willy's sister, raised and trained horses in Kamuela along with her husband Kempfer.