Do Your Parents Feed the Frogs?

Informant: Male/26/Filipino

Location: Wainaku, Big Island

I have a bunch of family that live in this small, tight-knit community: Wainaku, Big Island. Grandparents, numerous aunts, and relatives live around the block. While playing video games in a relatives home, my brother and I got a phone call from my mother saying it's getting late and we should head to another aunty's home for dinner.

My brother and I picked up our kick scooters and headed up the road. At the fork of the road, a tall, barefoot old lady wearing a long white out-of-style dress, danced in the middle of the road holding a tray of food. I told my brother to ignore the lady as our aunty's home was at the immediate left of the fork. The old lady faced me and asked, "Do your parents feed the frogs?" That ridiculous question made me stop to answer her no, and I was curious why she asked that question. She said she will feed the frogs what was on her tray: guacamole and tortilla chips. Dumbfounded, I said yes when she offered me and my brother to taste her guac, which was delicious. She then ran into the middle of the fork, into the dark, yelling, "Frogs, this is for you!"

I told this story the next day to relatives and people in my Aunts street. Not one person said that an old lady of that description lived in the neighborhood.

The fork on the road? It was actually a bridge over a river that conjoins two streets. Some say a church used to be next to that bridge...