Obake (Ghost) Stories

The Crying Baby

My father was a deep sea fisherman. He had his boat anchored in Haleiwa Harbor. On moonless nights he would fish for akule(mackeral) . There were different "grounds" he would go to where the schools of akule were .As he was anchored outside of Haleiwa one night, smoking his pipe and waiting for the moon to set, he heard a strange sound on the water. At first he thought it was a night bird crying. Peering out he listened again......nothing....... all he heard was the sloshing of the water against the sides of the boat. Thinking nothing of it he went on smoking his pipe. Suddenly he heard it again....... this time he swore it sounded like a new born baby crying. A baby crying in the middle of the ocean? He was a couple of miles out from land, all alone on his boat. There was no explanation for the piteous crying. The crying was repeated over and over. It was a sad and lonely sound. It sounded like the baby needed help. My father, brave man that he was, broke out in chicken skin. He gathered up his gear and headed for home. Later he told my mother that he was never so scard in his life There have been other numerous strange happenings out on the waters of Haleiwa that other fishermen could not explain. One story they tell is of fireballs out on the water close to Kaena Point. These, they say, travel on the horizon towards the point. Sometimes these lights are accompanied by what they described as a squalling sound

Note
Hawaiians believe that Kaena Point is the jumping off place from this world to the next




Who Was In The Kitchen

My Uncle used to be a luna (field supervisor) for Dole Pineapple Company. He and my Aunt lived in a "camp" with several other families in the middle of the pineapple fields. Being childless, my Uncle and Aunty would drive to Haleiwa on weekends to take my older sisters to the movies or a drive to town (Honolulu) . My two oldest sisters told me this story last year:
After a day of going to the chicken fights in Waialua, with Uncle and Aunty, my sisters went home with them . They had dinner, and got ready for bed. Uncle and Aunty went to their room, while my sisters were left to their own devices. They settled down on their futons in the living room, and fell asleep. In the middle of the night they woke up to the sound of someone in the kitchen. Someone was pacing the floor wearing what sounded like straw slippers. Every so often they would hear the floor creak, and then more footsteps pacing back and forth, back and forth. They could hear Uncle and Aunty snoring in their room, next to the living room, so who could it be in the kitchen? They dared not wake Uncle and Aunty for fear of a scolding. But they could hear SOMEONE or SOMETHING in the kitchen. They were terrified...what should they do? They finally got up in terror and risked a look into the kitchen....there was no one there! They didn't want to spend another minute in that house! Hurridly they got their blankets and went outside, opened the door of Uncle's car, and tried to get comfortable in the back seat. When morning came, they sneaked back in the house and pretended that nothing had happened. They never told anyone of this. It was their own secret, until last year when they related it to me. They still had chicken skin while they were telling me the story. (And so did I)




The Green Light On Rabbit Island Diver's Tale

Rabbit Island Lies Off Shore On The Windward Side Of The Island Of Oahu. It Is Uninhabited

Diver and his buddies make frequent night dives everywhere off the island of O'ahu. Before ever going into the water, they always gather together for a prayer and an oli (chant). Sometimes the chant is done in Micronesian, or Samoan, but most often it is done in Hawaiian. One night they were at Pumps, the area close to Makapu'u, in front of Sea Life Park. Diver remembers the night as very dark, with favorable conditions for a night dive. They were suiting up and getting ready for the oli, when all of them saw a long green light moving fast on the flat surface of Rabbit Island. It moved in no particular pattern, it went haphazerdly along the rocky shore. They saw no boats on the ocean. Everything was dark except for the green light,................. moving....moving....moving. All of them were dumbstruck for ten minutes, until one of them said, "bruddahs. let's go someplace else". They left Pumps and went to Magic Island, on the east side of O'ahu. Diver remembers the stars in the sky and a wind blowing, and as the oli was spoken, the hairs on the back of his head stood straight up. He dosen't remember what they got that night. After the dive, Diver told the the bruddah who had said the oli, ...."I dunno if its cold or what but I got some serious kine chicken skin right now". They never dive off Pumps any more and when they talk about the incident (which is seldom) they try to say that it was a fishing boat shining its light on the island. (But of course they never saw any boats that night)







A Picnic For Bruddah Iz



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