3.01.2015

Dried Akule

Informant: Male/52/Japanese ancestry 
Location: Ele'ele, Kauai 

My boy was about five years old whent this happened. Every Thursday night, my wife used to take him to the library. On their way back, he said out of the blue, "All our ancestors are in the car right now!" My wife thought, oh crap. So she asked who was there. My boy started listing off aunts and uncles who had passed away, and named my brother, who had passed away one or two years prior. My wife asked what they wanted, and my boy said they just wanted to say hi. 

He said when they got near Ele'ele McDonald's, all of the spirits left the car, except my brother. My boy asked him, "You not going to go get McDonald's too? You don't want to eat a cheese burger?" My brother told him, no, cheese burgers hurt his stomach. My brother was extremely lactose intolerant, I think maybe he had irritable bowel syndrome. But he hated cheese burgers. I knew this, but there's no way my boy would have known that. My brother then told my boy that he didn't like eating dried akule either, because the salt on it dried out his lips. I didn't know about this, and there's no way my boy would know, so I called my mom to ask. 

I told her what my boy had said, and she said, "You know, I knew that he didn't really care for dried akule, but I never knew why." I told her, "Well, now you know."