Menehune

Sometimes (alright, practically every night) we hear the sound of little feet, padding down the hallway. thump thump thump. Sometimes it sounds like they are running down the hallway. thudthudthudthudthud. You can hear them very clearly, and it only happens late at night.

We wait, expecting Lucy to round the corner at any moment. We wait a little longer. Hm.
We go to check, see where she has stopped, if perhaps she is asleep on the sofa in the keeping room, or just wandering, or using the potty, or hiding from the lights.

We walk down the hall, looking, wondering...and when we get to her room and peek in, she is fast asleep in her bed, all tucked in the way we left her.

The house has been recently remodeled. We added an addition, so our small square house is now an L-shape. Right after we finished the renovations, and opened up the doorway between the original house and the new "wing", I spent a day getting the kids rooms ready. Arranging furniture, making beds, dusting away the construction dust, organizing bookshelves. And while I was busily working away, I heard those little footsteps. I stopped, confused, because Sami had taken the kids out for a while so I could work in peace. Why were they home so early ? I looked up, and saw a little girl with dark hair standing in the doorway watching me. At first glance, I thought it was the little girl from down the street - all of the kids wander in and out of each other's houses around here, and it's not unusual to discuver a random 5 year old in your bathroom or rooting around in the fridge. So I wasn't surprised, or startled, to see her there. I went back to making the bed, and said "Hi sweetie, Lucy and Max will be back in a little bit". There was no answer. I looked up again, and she was gone. And I had some major goosebumps. There was no sound of footsteps walking away. I walked out to the hall.

No one was there.

I thought hard for a minute, trying to figure out who I had just seen. And then I realized it wasn't the girl from down the street. The little girl I had just seen had a darker complexion, and vaguely Asian features......I realized I had no idea who - or what - had just been standing in the doorway watching me. After a few phone conversations with friends, we came to the conclusion that it was probably a spirit of some kind. I know that sounds really woo woo and airy-fairy, but really, it's the only explaination. And shit like that HAPPENS here in Hawaii. There is a really deep spiritual force in these islands, and it is not to be screwed with. You just have to go with it.

The footsteps continue to echo down our halls each night, and I assume that it is the same little girl, just checking out the new space, peeking into the kids bedrooms, coming down the hall to see what we are up to. It doesn't scare me anymore, though it used to. Now we just acknowledge that it's the menehune (little people) or maybe a child from the plantations that were on this land many years ago, and get on with our lives.