100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2024. #34. Eric

 A man named Eric purchased a home on the Big Island that once belonged to a large family that had lived there for years.

Their parting words to Eric were that he should take care of the red banana patch that grew in their backyard and leave a bundle of the red bananas on the kitchen counter every night before he went to sleep. Eric worked overnight and never had time to leave out the red bananas. Soon, little footprints began to appear on the kitchen floor, the walls, and the ceiling. Then, a rock wall that Eric began building would be dismantled the following day with the rocks scattered everywhere as if little children had been playing with it. He began to think it was his imagination that from the corner of his eye, he saw little faces peering at him from under his kitchen table or beneath his stairs.

 

Finally, he’d gotten ahold of the family he bought his house from and asked them about the strange happenings in and around the home. The previous owners told him the house was part of an ancient Hawaiian village that fed Menehune in exchange for laborious tasks that would take too long for any human undertaking. So, in one night, the Menehune would build old temples, massive fishponds, or rock walls for terraced taro patches and the like. Even massive war canoes if needed. All they asked for in exchange were particular kinds of red bananas, fish, or shrimp.

 

“Which is why we respected the Menehune and left out a bushel of red bananas as often as possible,” the previous owner told Eric. “We’ve never had a bad day, not once. Our children grew up healthy; no one ever got sick. We had a good life because we provided for the Menehune who were here before us,”

 

Thus, Eric began to nurture the Red Banana patch thereafter, feeding the Menehune as often as possible. He had a good life and married a good woman. They had many children together until the house became too large for his family, and they sold the house and moved to a bigger place, but not without telling the new owners about the Menehune and the red banana patch.