DEAD BOY BENEATH THE WATERS

Tale from John Kawikonu

"The village of Ola'a on the Island of Hawaii is a quiet community. An outside observer would never guess that this was the site of a tragedy that still haunts the village's children. In 1947, while neighborhood kids were playing on the shore of a local pond, one of them fell in and disappeared beneath the surface of the water. The boy, whose name was Tanaka, did not resurface. His companions rushed to find help, and when divers entered the water, they were disturbed by what they saw.

The dead boy was at the very bottom of the pond, sitting upon a rock with his arms by his sides. His eyes and mouth were open. His body was swaying back and forth with the currents. It was as if he had calmly sat down on the rock and waited to die. The divers retrieved the corpse, and everyone tried to put the strange and tragic death behind them. But the drowned boy refused to let them forget. People who traveled by the pond complained that something would tug at the bottom of their pants as they walked. One boy was actually dragged into the pond.

Rumors spread that the boy's spirit is trapped beneath the dark waters and tries to pull unsuspecting victims into his watery grave. Nowdays children are warned to avoid this pond. Who knows when the spirit will become restless once again and claim another young life?" -John Kawikonu

Tale from Glen Grant

from his book, Obake Files, Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawaii
(Mutual Publishing Company, 1999)

"On some evenings the villagers could hear a cry emanate from the pond in the middle of the night. At first everyone believed that the haunting cry was the wind blowing through the tall sugar cane fields. But a few of the older people said they knew better. The high-pitched whining was not wind but the spirit of the Tanaka boy-cold, wet, and desolate at the bottom of the pond. The soul was crying out for help and deliverance. Trapped in this world by accident, he sought someone's spirit as a substitute. They would take his place at the bottom of the pond so that he could be free to go on to the otherworld.

"Those who were present at the second accident swear that the other boy was pulled into the water against his will. It was the noon hour. He was walking about 50 yards behind his father along the edge of the pond, occasionally picking up a flat stone to skim across the water. When he fell, he screamed out to his father that something was pulling him into the pond. He clawed at the earth, trying to hold on, to fight back. But in what seemed like an instant, the force tugging at his legs pulled him into the watery depths of the pond. By the time the young boy's body had been located, it was found sitting naturally on a rock on the bottom of the pond. He seemed so natural sitting there-arms placidly at his sides, eyes and mouth open, swaying gently to and fro in a light current. Fortunately, the rescuers were able to bring him to the surface in time to be resuscitated.

"A Shinto priest was brought from Hilo to bless the waters, and the haunting cries finally ceased. Yet, on peculiarly dark nights when the evening skies seem bathed in black ink, those who live closest to the pond say that they sometimes here the Tanaka boy's cry. But are the cries melancholy or sinister? And will the Tanaka boy ever find peace?"