Pressing on, the Hotel Hell is packed to the gills. Back to Alarm Bureau for 24 'morrow. Water time today lasted as long as my shower. (no swell anyways, so WTF?) ... ..
Kim Chee II Fire -
The Kim Chee II was a restaurant in our area, when I was at my beloved station 5. 5 is haunted. I loved it. The spirits never bothered me, but many times guys got 'pressed'. This means that for some reason, you wake in the night to be unable to move, with a large weight atop your chest. There is nothing there. The rote answer to this has always been to swear at it, to make the spirit leave. So unnerving as it may sound, yelling in the middle of the night at the firehouse can be a good thing. The temporary guys, or relieves that come, they always ask about our 'friends.' I never yelled at 'em when I got pressed. The reason being is a kahu (Hawaiian priest) came to the station for a blessing after we had a bunch of 'pressings' in a row.
He asked what you do when pressed. All answered the same - swear, yell at 'em. The Kahu said "why?"... No one could really answer that. Just because, I guess. "That's what everybody says"...Etc. The Kahu was not too impressed with the commonality of the answers. He seemed to ignore us for a while, and went up stairs to the dorm. Being niele (nosy) I had to follow and bother. Kahu just kinda looked around, and seemed to be listening to the wind, or what was here in the station with us. He walked right up to my bed. My bed is the closest to the heiau (place of worship) behind our station. (that's a story for nother time) He looked at me and asked "whose bunk is this?" - I think he knew the answer, but I told him anyway- "It is mine."
Kahu blinked, looked away and mutter some Hawaiian phrase that I could not hear. When he turned back to me, he said - "why do you yell or swear at the spirits?" - I gave the same moronic answer as we all did.
Then Kahu said this -"what if I told you that the spirits here are good, that they are here to help, and keep you safe?"
"What would you do then?"
"I would be greatful, and glad, I guess"
"They are looking out for you, the children from the past, the women from the times gone, the ones from the heaiau behind your station"
Chicken skin...(goose bumps) ..all up and down my spine.
Of course we got an alarm in the next few minutes, negating anymore conversation with the Kahu.
Late that night, we had the Kim Chee II fire. 2AM, building just going all ablaze. JB and I had the entry, as well as the attack line. The kitchen was in the rear of a long, rectangular shaped restaurant. JB and I bust in, head to the flames. Cant see squat, and it is extremely hot. We get to the kitchen and it is just doing the fire house boogie. Flames are shooting out of the kitchen, fed by the gas lines busted. There are things exploding in the kitchen, waves of heat come with them, so down to the ground go JB and I. Trying to make headway, trying to communicate, not going all that well. We blasted the entry for a moment or two, and pretty much, the entire wall to the side gave way. JB and I were on hands and knees a moment ago, right there. Pushing into the kitchen, you could feel the majority of the heat to our right. We push further, getting about 15' into the kitchen itself, probably 50-60 feet into the restaurant, total. The way the kitchen was set up, there was a counter to our right, maybe 3 feet high. We would stand, get a stream towards the fire, and hunker back down as the fire turned the water to steam and the increase in heat made it unbearable to stand. 2 or 3 times of this, and we were pretty much toasty. Couple more blasts, and it shoud be darkened down, I think.
I swear to God, that a little voice, like that of a child, said 'dont go back up'.
It startled me, it was so ...attention getting.
JB was going to stand, And with the hose line, in my one hand, I reached up and grabbed his turnout, and yanked him back down. It was only to a squatting position, from a standing, but the explosion that sent metal shrapnel from a pot or somenting, flew right over our heads.
I tend to pay attention to those little voices much easier, now.
Work. Everbody does it some way, somehow. We wonder when the breaks come, when the day will be over, when is payday.
On somedays, the break is IN the work.
Aloha.
2 comments:
Now I've got chills. I am familiar with these visitors, too.
I once did some reading on sleep paralysis to find out the psychological explanation for this often frightening experience of a presence that paralyzes people upon waking up or falling to sleep. It's a universal phenom that dates back to the earliest writers.
The first time it happened to me I immediately began to do what I had been trained to do when faced with evil: recite prayers of praise -- the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be. I did that, and the paralysis subsided, but I was exhausted, just ... drained.
Imagine, after having experienced this without warning a few times, that one night, in desperation, I actually asked for the spirits to come in order to show me something I needed to know. I was trying to make a decision about a relationship that either needed to change courses or come to a close.
So, when I went to bed for the night, I meditated and asked to be shown the true nature and intentions of the person in question.
The paralysis came fairly quickly; I began my prayers. I opened my eyes in order to see whatever would be shown. To the left of the foot of the bed, suspended toward the ceiling was one dark figure struggling agains two white figures who were holding it in check. I was very confused, to say the least. I then felt a powerful current vibrating through my body and heard a buzzing in my ears sort of like loud static over a radio. I just kept praying. Then, the currents intensified in the area of my breasts and crotch. Tell me I wasn't freaking out! But I just kept praying. Finally, all of the energy or current suddenly began to rush out of me at the three most intense points. It was sort of an ecstatic feeling combined with fear -- somehow like an orgasm, but nothing like any orgasm I'd ever had, and at least ten times more intense.
Slowly, I was able to move again. I got up -- I had been laying down for less than an hour -- for a glass of water and felt quite weak.
I didn't give the question much more thought. I broke up with the guy, and yes, I told him exactly why. He didn't seem at all surprised.
So. Listen to those voices, Mark.
And peace be with you.
WOW. That was chilling. Keep listening to the inner voices. Renee
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