In the valley at the bottom of the ridge next to ours is Waimalu Stream, which starts out small but gets to be fairly broad by the time it empties into Pearl Harbor a mile away and a few hundred feet lower.

A while back when I was closing the sliding door which fronts our driveway I made a wisecrack about shutting the Waimalu Stream Monster out, since it was known to prowl up the ridge from the headwaters of the stream. To the best of my knowledge there’s no such legend, but if one starts due to my joke that’s fine by me.

And why would that happen? ‘Cause my niece was over tonight for a little while and as she was leaving I told her I needed to quickly shut the door behind her to keep it out, and she almost took me seriously for a minute. Maybe she’ll mention it to her friends and a new horror story will emerge to join the many that are already out there.