Island Ride

Summary

Spooked Podcast – "Island Ride" (July 31, 2026)

Host: Glynn Washington | Produced by: KQED & Snap Studios
Theme: Firsthand supernatural tales – this episode explores mysterious events tied to vehicles, with stories from St. Thomas and 1970s Hawaii.

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Episode Overview

In "Island Ride," Spooked invites listeners into two unforgettable, real-life encounters with the supernatural—both centered around cars that may not be as lifeless as they appear. Glynn Washington introduces stories that challenge perceptions of luck, fate, and the thin boundary between life and death. The first story plunges into a night of chaos at a Caribbean tiki bar, while the second transports us to 1971 Maui for a haunting tale of family, tragedy, and unresolved spirits.

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Glynn Washington's Roadside Prelude

[04:07–09:18]

• Glynn shares a personal anecdote about his old Mustang, near-misses, and the uncanny feeling that his car was protecting him.
• He recounts a dangerous curve in Grand Rapids, Michigan, repeatedly tempting fate until a mechanical failure seemingly saves him from a deadly accident.
• Sets the thematic tone: cars as protectors, potential vessels, or traps for the inexplicable.
• Notable Quote:
  • “She knew, my old Mustang knew that somebody had to be sacrificed there. And she did everything she could to make sure that somebody was not me.” – Glynn Washington (09:03)

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Story 1: "Jumbi Car at Duffy's Love Shack"

Storyteller: Greg
Setting: St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Duffy's Love Shack
[09:18–30:04]

Arrival & Island Life

• Greg moves to St. Thomas seeking a new chapter and lands a job at a tiki bar—Duffy’s Love Shack, known for wild theme nights and island oddities.
• He describes the tropical environment with vivid detail, from mosquitoes to wacky cocktails in shark and mermaid-shaped cups.
• Atmosphere: A carefree, lively Caribbean backdrop—a stark contrast to the tense events to come.

The Night of the Possessed Car

[17:26]

• On a busy shift, Greg notices smoke from a recently arrived, unremarkable black sedan in the parking lot.
• The car’s engine suddenly catches fire, prompting staff and customers—ironically, as the Ghostbusters theme plays—to investigate.
• Notable Quote:
  • “Just so you know, when that car caught on fire, you guys were playing the Ghostbusters theme song at the exact same time.” – Greg recalling a customer’s comment (14:43)

Chaos Unleashed

• The fire worsens; a bartender bravely deploys a fire extinguisher.
• The car, empty, inexplicably starts itself, revving its engine, shifting gears, and moving forward and backward—seemingly alive, “almost like the car could have even been possessed.”
• Greg and other staff attempt to keep everyone safe, pounding on bathroom doors and calling the fire department. Their first call is met with disbelief.
• The car thrashes against parking barriers, fixating with alarming intent on a nearby surf shop.

The Emergency Escalates

• The "possessed" car alternates between ramming and retreating, finally stopped by a cement pillar.
• The fire department, finally convinced by the car’s ongoing antics, declare the vehicle a “jumbi”—an island spirit known in Caribbean folklore.
• Firefighters, now treating the car as a supernatural threat, cut every wire, and eventually rip out the engine to stop its rampage.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “They’re pointing. They’re screaming at each other. These grown men start running back to the truck. Some don’t come back out. They pointed the car far away, yelling that it’s a jumbi.” – Greg (24:33)
  • “The car was alive. That car had intention, if only for an hour or so that car was possessed. I don’t even believe it, but that’s exactly what happened.” – Greg (29:29)

Aftermath & Reflection

• The shaken group watches the tow truck haul away what’s left.
• The car’s owner arrives, devastated and disbelieving as authorities attempt to explain the situation.
• Greg, seeking to convince skeptical friends, points to the very real damage—“that little corner is what saved a surf shop from being destroyed.”
• Memorable Moment: Even as the tow truck takes away the engine-less car, it seemingly tries one last time to start up.

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Story 2: "The Girl on the Truck"

Storyteller: Lopaka Kapanui
Setting: Maui, Hawaii, 1971
[32:45–48:40]

Family Tensions & Tradition

• As a nine-year-old, Lopaka travels with his adoptive mother to visit family in Maui, sensing undercurrents of tension on arrival.
• Encounters are rendered in atmospheric detail—lush Hawaiian nature, family formalities, subtle discomfort between adults.

The Apparition

• Lopaka repeatedly sees a solemn Japanese girl, aged about 11 or 12, sitting atop an abandoned Ford F150 in the yard.
• The apparition is quiet, always looking down. When approached, she repeats:
  • “I’m stuck to this truck. It killed me. I can’t go anywhere. I’m stuck here.” (40:24, 44:29)
• The encounter chills young Lopaka, especially as the girl eventually fades away before his eyes.

Shocking Truth & Exorcism

• On the flight home, Lopaka learns the haunting backstory:

  • Roland, the family’s uncle, accidentally struck and killed a local girl with the truck. He never drove it again, leaving it to decay in the yard.
  • The mother’s true purpose for the trip was performing an exorcism: the girl’s spirit wasn’t just attached to the truck, but was “stuck to Roland,” plaguing him with aches and weight on his shoulders.
  • Only after the exorcism does the tension in the house subside.

• Notable Quotes:

  • “She was performing an exorcism. Because she said when that girl wasn’t stuck to that truck, she was stuck to Roland. Sitting on his shoulders to the point where his neck was sore, his shoulders ached, he couldn’t stand upright. It’s why Sally called my mom.” – Lopaka Kapanui (45:53)
  • “The difference between her and me is that I got to go home with my mother. She did not. She could not. She would not ever.” – Lopaka Kapanui (47:55)

Lingering Aftereffects

• Even after the exorcism, young Lopaka is haunted by visions of the girl, reflecting on the enduring weight of loss and unresolved spirits.

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Host's Closing Reflections

[48:40–End]

• Glynn Washington thanks the storytellers and asks listeners if they’ve ever witnessed an honest-to-goodness miracle—inviting stories for future episodes.
• Glynn closes with musings on the symbolism of cars—not only as vessels of freedom and possibility, but as thresholds, sometimes imbued with tragedy, loss, or protection.
• Memorable Quote:
  • “All the freedom that I feel behind the wheel, you can’t have this anymore. Now I get to decide, like a jailer, that you now must inhabit a much smaller, more constrained world.” – Glynn Washington (End)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “She knew, my old Mustang knew that somebody had to be sacrificed there. And she did everything she could to make sure that somebody was not me.”
  – Glynn Washington (09:03)

• “Just so you know, when that car caught on fire, you guys were playing the Ghostbusters theme song at the exact same time.”
  – Greg (14:43)

• “Almost like the car could have even been possessed.”
  – Greg (17:53)

• "They pointed the car far away, yelling that it's a jumbi. A jumbi is an island spirit of sorts."
  – Greg (24:33)

• “The car was alive. That car had intention, if only for an hour or so that car was possessed. I don’t even believe it, but that’s exactly what happened.”
  – Greg (29:29)

• “I’m stuck to this truck. It killed me. I can’t go anywhere. I’m stuck here.”
  – Ghost girl to Lopaka Kapanui (40:24, 44:29)

• “She was performing an exorcism. Because she said when that girl wasn’t stuck to that truck, she was stuck to Roland. Sitting on his shoulders to the point where his neck was sore, his shoulders ached, he couldn’t stand upright. It’s why Sally called my mom.”
  – Lopaka Kapanui (45:53)

• “The difference between her and me is that I got to go home with my mother. She did not. She could not. She would not ever.”
  – Lopaka Kapanui (47:55)

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Key Themes & Insights

• Autonomous Vehicles in Supernatural Folklore: Cars and trucks are central to both stories—not just as props, but as possible vessels for mysterious or vengeful forces.
• Ritual, Exorcism, and Healing: Both stories describe how communities, through action (cutting the wires, ritual exorcism), seek to resolve supernatural disturbances and restore balance.
• Loss, Guilt, & the Unexplainable: The episode probes how accidents reverberate—trapping both victims and the living in cycles of grief, guilt, or fear.
• The Unseen Layer of Community: The reactions of bystanders, firefighters, and family show how belief is shaped and challenged by confronting the inexplicable.

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Takeaway

Episode "Island Ride" masterfully blends folklore, personal memory, and the supernatural, using vivid firsthand storytelling. Whether it’s a nightmarish, sentient car tearing through a Caribbean parking lot or the enduring spirit of a lost child lingering on an old truck, Spooked reminds listeners that the line between mechanical and spiritual is sometimes barely there at all.

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For future episodes or to share your own miraculous story, visit spookednapjudgment.org.

Transcript

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Dream came to me one day and asked if I would walk her land. I followed her through fields of light and then reached for her hand. Dream's grip turned hard then cold and fast. I looked to see her stare, but death turned back to grin at me. She trapped me in her snare. You've crossed over the Spoot. Stay tuned.

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[Glenn Washington]

Now the very day on the morning of the day I turn 16 years old, I get my driver's license, right and immediately jump into my rust bucket Mustang. Hit the gas. Freedom. Joy. Till a few minutes later, I'm on the side of the road with my hood popped open, cursing at my car. Come on. Come on. I live on one side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a lot of my friends, they live on the other side. Almost every day I roar off hope and praying that my car will get me there without breaking down. Not speeding. Crazy, but not Mr. Safety Driver either. And there's one spot Sudden Bend in the road where if you aren't careful, if you aren't super careful, 10 miles an hour careful, you can't make the bend. You'll find yourself in the other lane facing oncoming traffic. And I know this curve well, drive it countless times and every single time I end up in that other lane. But every single time, I get lucky knowing they're coming the other way. One night, right before the bend, my gelatin loses power. Dang it forced me to slow down. When I see the lights of a pickup truck barreling through the lane where I would have been, I laugh, pat my Mustang on her steering wheel. Thanks. Tell myself not to be so stupid, then speed through the same way the next day, the next week, the week after that. Every single time. Like a ridiculous game of Russian roulette. And one night tunes blast and gas pedal press to the floor. I'm speeding through the bend and I see flashing police lights. The whole road closed both directions and I'm trembling cold waves of what if I can sense, can feel that someone else, someone else ran my odds. Only they didn't get so lucky. My car didn't just break down that night before she saved me. And I feel like she knew. She knew my old Mustang, knew that somebody had to be sacrificed there. And she did everything she could to make sure that somebody was not me. Now, Sam. Okay, we're gonna take a totally different type of ride. It's Greg's 23rd birthday. He's flying on a one way ticket to paradise. The Beautiful island of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, meaning escape from back home. He jumps on this once in a lifetime opportunity from a friend only to discover that island life is not all palm trees and coconuts.

[Greg]

When I arrived in St. Thomas, I was, well, you walk out on that tarmac, off the plane for the first time, and you just get smacked with the heat and the humidity. But I was also smacked with the beauty. It was a lot more mountainous than I expected for an island. So green too, and so much open space. Some of the most beautiful water and white sand beaches that I've ever seen. Never experienced in my entire life. So after I got off the plane, I got in a cab and I went to the bar where my buddy was working. I was immediately just bombarded by mosquitoes and no see ums and was getting eaten alive. Bartender put some gin on a bar towel and he's like, here? I'm like, what am I supposed to do with that? He's like, just rub it all over yourself. It's basically bug spray. And so I did, and the bugs generally went away. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna like living here. This is gonna be a very different experience. So when I wasn't working some random job, I was hanging out a lot at Duffy's Love Shack. I knew at one point that they were really looking for help. And I got a job being a server at Duffy's. It was this tiki bar built in a parking lot. It's literally a shack, completely open air, with an indoor space and a whole bunch of outdoor space. And then from there it's a plaza with a whole bunch of different businesses, including a bar, a surf shop, and a pharmacy. They had a ladies night on Wednesday nights that was absolutely wild. There was like tattoos, fake tattoos being given behind the bar by the bartenders. They got songs that go with certain drinks. Everything comes in like a shark cup or a mermaid cup or a whale, and they're little souvenir cups that people can take with them. It was just a wacky islandy environment that that was a good place to spend time. It had been a few weeks and I was really getting the hang of being a server. Then there was this one night I was out having a quick smoke break in between service. I'm just kind of keeping an eye on the general comings and goings of the. The parking lot, of the plaza, of the bar, watching the night turn into the night. And that's when I see this car pull up. It was an older, you know, four door sedan, black, a little rusty, a little beat up. It just kind of looked like another old used island car. The driver of the car, he was a relatively older gentleman. He was dressed in what looked like kitchen garb, like he was a chef or like a dishwasher or porter of some kind. And he parked the car, turned it off, and casually walked off to wherever he was going. I saw the bar, restaurant, the table starting to fill up and I went back to my section, started bringing people volcanoes and shark tanks and all the other goofy drinks they had. We were right in the heart of our busy time of the night. I'm at a table, going through drinks, serving a guy a burger. Then I start hearing murmurings going through all these tables in the parking lot. And somebody pulls me aside and points at this car and says, hey, there's smoke coming out of that thing. I turn my head and I start walking a little bit closer to the cars. And I see there is definitely smoke coming out of the hood of this car. I was like, wait a minute, I know that car. I saw that car park earlier when I was out by the dumpster. I look back at the bartenders, some of them start walking out from behind the bar. And slowly but surely, we all just kind of turn our focus on this smoking car. I had a car that when I parked it, smoke would just come out of the hood for a while after. And people would always be like, oh, your car's on fire. I'd be like, no, it's just missing the converter. It's fine. Just give it a little while, it'll be fine. So to be honest, it wasn't super surprising to me that this was going on until the smoke turned into fire. And it was small flames from the hood and then bigger flames from the hood until they're about a foot or so coming out of the hood, this car all the way around. And I'm thinking, oh shit, we really have a problem. Because that is not supposed to be happening. The head bartender is the first one to act. He grabs the fire extinguisher and starts walking towards the car slowly, because we're not exactly sure what's gonna happen next. While the whole scene's going on. It didn't even occur to me that we had this 80s playlist that we tend to run at the bar until a customer pulled me aside and said, just so you know, when that car caught on fire, you guys are playing the Ghostbusters theme song at the exact same time. I was like, that is such a weird coincidence.

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[Greg]

The closer we get to the car, we are for certain that there's nobody inside this thing. We're looking through the windows, the door happens to be unlocked and we're able to open it and we start looking in the car. There's no keys in the Ignition. One of the staff members takes the risk and very, very cautiously clicks the little switch and gets the hood open of the car. The flames just burst out. It just felt like a giant fireball was going off in front of me. The bartender that had the fire extinguisher turns it on and starts trying to spray the fire down as fast as possible. They're actually starting to go down slowly. And I'm thinking this actually might be over pretty soon. And then we hear. The car has turned itself on. It's like somebody turned the key to the ignition. We all jumped back for a minute. Okay, this car is not just on fire, not just empty. Somehow its engine's on. Almost like the car could have even been possessed. I think everybody had gotten out of their seats. Some people were yelling instructions or ideas or laughing about the scene. If anybody was still sitting at a table expecting, like, a burger or a frozen margarita, they weren't going to get it. And then the engine revs real loud, like somebody just slammed their foot on the gas pedal. The car starts to shake, vibrate. The flames start to be bigger. I'm starting to get really, really scared now. I have no idea what I'm watching. Then the car shifts into reverse. The reverse lights even come on in the back. The car starts backing up slowly, but it starts backing up, and it's backing up right towards the bathrooms in the smoking area where I was earlier in the day. I run over to the bathroom doors and start knocking on it, making sure there's nobody in there and yelling that, hey, if you're inside here, you got to get out right now, otherwise you might get hit by a car. Car's backing up, maybe only six, seven feet away from hitting the bar. And then it just stops. Okay, that's weird. But it stopped. Good. And then all of a sudden, it shifts into forward and starts driving towards the surf shop in front of it, towards a very large window right in front of it. And I'm freaking out that it still might explode. That's when in my head, I'm like, it is definitely time to call the fire department. I run back to the bar, and the bartender that's still back there is on the phone with the fire department. So they had the right idea. And then he just puts the phone down. And I say, what did they say? He looks at me and says, they didn't believe me, and they hung up. And I'm like, shit, we are really on our own with this. The car seems to have its sights set on the surf shop now. And it starts moving faster and faster towards the surf shop. And it gets to that cement block, the thing that stops a car when you're trying to park. It hits that and almost seems to get upset that it can't get over. So it starts spinning its wheels faster and faster going against this block. Finally, it goes into almost full gear, like someone literally put their foot on the ground with that gas pedal. It goes over the hump, and it's about to go straight into that surf shop window. Oh, my God. We have a real big problem on our hands. It's maybe only about 6, 7ft away at this point. Now I'm getting really scared because this car could go through that window, could hurt a couple of friends and a lot of people in that shop. And all of a sudden, it hits this pillar. The pillar is part of these arches that go in between each business that lead to the front door. So now it's trying to drive forward, but it can't because of the pillar. And then it shifted back into reverse and tried to reverse back over the cement block that it hopped over, and it couldn't do that either. So it kept shifting back and forth, shifting back and forth, spinning his wheels like crazy. And it seems to be getting angrier and angrier by the second. It's almost like a bully that got put in a headlock by the kid he was picking on the whole time. Finally, after spinning his wheels and making its best effort to get loose, the car seemed to give up. The wheel stopped spinning, the engine turned off, and the flames had been going so strong for so long, petered out piece by piece, flame by flame. We're all feeling relief. People start going back to their tables. Service resumes. The night just kind of turns back into the night. The fire department finally shows up. The truck comes pulling up, lights flashing. Turns out the bartender had called them a second time while we were dealing with the car driving, and they decided to actually listen. Well, better late than never. Unfortunately, the more we tell them, the less they want to believe us. You can see the look on their faces. Like these guys maybe been drinking on the job or something else is going on here. I don't necessarily blame them. A few of us walked the firefighters over to the car to inspect the damage. So they call a tow truck, and as they're looking at the car, the smoke starts again. And then it turns itself back on me. And everyone else jumps back again. We're like, yeah, see? See, we told you something happened here. Like, look, there's smoke. Sure enough, then there's fire again. The firefighters finally believe us. They're pointing. They're screaming at each other. These grown men start running back to the truck. Some don't come back out. They pointed the car far away, yelling that it's a jumbi. A jumbi is a island spirit of sorts.

[Glenn Washington]

Of.

[Greg]

They're as stunned as we were when we first saw this happen. But now we're kind of like we're pros at this. The ones that are still willing to be involved are grabbing every sharp object, every blade. They surround the car. They get into that hood, they just start chopping away every wire, every line. They cut all the electricity they possibly can to the engine. Anything they can cut, they cut. After all their hard work, the car finally stops. No more wheels spinning, no more engine running. The car's dead. The problem's taken care of. They're shook up. We're shook up. But we're all kind of. I mean, I. Us as staff members and the customers are kind of laughing about at this point, like, this is just such a ridiculous scene. Like, what the heck happened here? Firefighters kind of finish up their business. I go back to my business, start handling tables. The night once again starts back up. Drinks are being served, food's going out, Laughs, shots, the whole nine yards. And then eventually, tow truck shows up. They start hooking up the car. Everything's going smoothly, and all of a sudden, the end of the engine revs again, And we all lose our minds. People jump up from their seats. Some people run away from the car. Some people run towards the car. The firefighters are scattered around everywhere. No one really knows what to do. It is absolute madness. There's smoke coming up. There's sparks coming out. The fire department jumps on this. It's about four or five of them, go over, try to kill this engine for good. They bring more tools out, get some. The engine out of the car, they rip it out, and they throw it into the parking lot. It skids across the parking lot a little ways, and the fire goes out. The car stops. The car's dead. Everyone's just feeling some relief with this car being done. Tow truck is hooked up to the car, and they tow it away. And the night is back to a normal night. About 45 minutes to an hour go by. I'm back dealing with the table, and I'm looking down at the edge of the parking lot, and I see this gentleman walking up, and I kind of do a double take, and I look at the gentleman again. I tell my table, I say, hold on a second. That's the guy that owns the car. I recognized him, and he looked like he was coming off a shift. He looked a little bit tired. Still wearing the same clothing, a little bit dirtier now. And he's standing in the parking lot by where his car definitely used to be. And so I went up to my manager. I'm like, bob, that's the guy that owns the car. Somebody needs to go talk to him and tell him what happened. And he's not gonna believe us, but we gotta go talk to him. So the manager pulls him aside, along with the police and the fire department, and they have a conversation about what happened to the car. You could see a wave of anger and confusion starting to wash over his face, because I know he doesn't believe what they're telling him. He's saying, oh, I've had that car my whole life. I've had the car for a long time. It's always treated me well. And they're trying to talk to him. They're trying to talk him down. He's getting a little bit angrier and angrier. So they take him, they put him in the cruiser, not to arrest him, but just to let him, like, have time to have a breather, to calm down and then take him away to most likely go see what's left of his car. And so they drive off. Service ends at Duffy's. The night's over for most people, but it definitely not for me is after seeing something like that, I needed a

[Lapaka Kapanui]

drink,

[Greg]

went across the street to another bar, ran into some friends. I'm sitting there drinking to Presidente. They're throwing out theories about maybe this is what happened, or it definitely didn't happen at all, or you were drunk or something like that. And I'd be like, okay, you think so? Let's go take a quick walk over to Duffy's. And we'd walk over, and I take them to that pillar, and I point down right in front of the surf shop, and there's a chunk of the concrete knocked off. You can see a piece of, like, rebar or whatever was below it sticking out. That's the one little. That little corner is what saved a surf shop from being destroyed from a building catching on fire and from whatever else that car wanted. And I'd show it to them. They'd be like, oh, you're actually telling the truth about this, aren't you? And I'm like, yeah, I really, really am. That car was alive. That car had intention, if only for an hour or so that car was possessed. I don't even believe it, but that's exactly what happened.

[Glenn Washington]

Thank you Greg for sharing your story. The next time we're on St. Thomas, please remind me to take the bus. Original score for that piece was by Doug Stewart, was produced by Paulina Creaky.

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and

[Travel Texas Announcer]

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[Dr. Horton Advertiser]

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[Glenn Washington]

Now longtime spooksters know our next storyteller. Lupaka Kapanui Lapaka has the gift. He communicates with the other side, but wasn't always so. Today we're going back in time to 1971 Honolulu. Alpaka is just nine years old and his adoptive mother has told him to pack a bag because they're taking a little Trip to Maui. And we've saved you the very best seat in the house. Food Live.

[Lapaka Kapanui]

It's 1971. I'm nine years old. My adoptive mother has told me to pack a bag because we're going on a little trip to the island of Maui. I'm thrilled and excited because it's the first time I'm going to get to meet my adoptive mother's side of the family, specifically her niece, Sally. We get to the airport, the cab picks us up. My adoptive mother gives the driver a piece of paper with the address on it. On the right, beautiful ocean, windswept crests rolling one into the other, fine misty rains which leave a sheen on your skin. And on the left, the beautiful verdant greenery of Maui. So breathtaking it takes your breath away. And then the stark nothingness of a brand new neighborhood. We pull up and it's a brand new house that's colored gray with white trimming grass growing all over the yard. And in the left corner, a Ford F150 truck. Grass growing around it. And the hood is sort of faded because it's been sitting in the sun for so long. As is tradition in Hawaii, when you go to someone's house, you call out first, like this. And if they want you to come in, they'll reply, hui. Aloha. Come, come, come inside, Ekomai. But there's no reply. So my adopted mom, she does it again.

[Glenn Washington]

Hui, Hui.

[Lapaka Kapanui]

It's Sally's daughter Annie that answers, aloha, aloha. Come inside. Come, come, come. My mom's inside. Come. That's not the protocol. It's not the custom. So going inside feels kind of strange. Sally's husband, Roland, is there to greet us. Youngish Filipino man, says hello to my mom, tussles my hair. And the second Sally enters the living room, he sort of shrinks. And he says, well, I better go make the lunch. And he walks into the kitchen. Sally herself is kind of tall, big bone, imposing Portuguese woman. Very beautiful. Long red curly hair, big, beautiful smile. And she says to my mom, hi, Auntie. Mom says, hi. Then Sally says, how are you? I'm fine. Good to see you. Good to see you too. And there's this tension between them. It's not something I can put my finger on, but there's something going on. It makes me uncomfortable. My mom looks at me and she says, well, go play with your cousins. I said, wait, wait. How long are you going to be here? And she says, as long as it takes. Go play with your cousins. So I Go into the living room. My cousin Annie and her brother Paul is about a little bit younger than me. And he runs upstairs. He gets out the Evel Knievel Gyroscope motorcycle toy. He brings it downstairs. We make hot wheel trucks, tracks, doing daring jumps. Every time the daring jump is successful. We're screaming, yelling, jumping up, down, stomping our feet on the floor. Sally comes out of the kitchen. Big, imposing figure swings open the door and looks at us and says. Which means, be quiet, shut up. She sends us outside, and I'm thrilled and astounded at how big the yard actually is. There's two swing sets, one jungle gym, and far left corner, that trunk. Paul brought out, the Evel Knievel toy. So we're playing, we're having fun. And as soon as it gets dark, my mom comes out and comes to get me. It's time to go. Even though I'm having fun all day, I'm kind of tired. I want to go back. On the ride back to the hotel, my mom is just looking out the window from the cab. She's got this big wrinkle in the middle of her forehead, and her teeth are clenched. She's thinking about something. She's somewhere else, but she's thinking about something. The next day, we go back. My cousin Paul is sitting on the fence. Got a bag of sandwiches. I got the drinks. It's as I'm walking toward him to go sit on the fence. But I look in the left corner of the yard and I see, sitting on the hood of that Ford F150 truck, this local Japanese girl. She's about 11 or 12 years old, white shirt design on it, gray sweater, shorts down to the knees, cut off. And she's wearing what we call in Hawaii, the Chawang rice bowl haircut. And she's just looking down like this, looking at her hands, her feet, maybe the grass. Not really looking up at anyone. So I thought maybe she's one of the neighbor's daughters, one of the kids. So I don't say anything to Annie or Paul about it. And we go. It is relieving. I'm going into that kitchen through the sliding glass door. I look back, she's still sitting there. Every day that I go there,

[Greg]

that

[Lapaka Kapanui]

girl sitting on that trunk. She usually shows up about a little after lunch. And she's always doing the same thing, minding her own business, looking down at her hands, not really at anyone. And I've been there for a week already. And it's wearing on me because we've Run out of games to play, run out of things to talk about. So I walk over to her. I'm going to find out who she is, strike up a conversation. As I get closer to her, I notice her hair smells like willow balsam shampoo. And I say to her, how come you're in this truck every day? Are you one of the neighbor's kids? You somebody's daughter? Without looking up at me, she goes like this, just looking down at her hands, sitting on the truck, looking at her feet. She says, I'm stuck to this truck. It killed me. I can't go anywhere. I'm stuck here. And I thought she was being dramatic. I thought she was just saying something to be controversial. That's what I thought. But then finally she looked at me like this and she said, Do the grownups, the adults, ever tell you what they're talking about? I thought to myself, this girl is weird. Why would she say something like that? And behind me, I hear the sliding glass door open. And it's Uncle Roland. Okay, that's it. That's it. Come on, let's go, it says. I'm walking in again through the sliding glass door. I glance back at the girl sitting on the truck, and I notice she's starting to disappear. She's starting to dim out like a light. And she gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. I'm so scared, I bit my tongue. I can feel the blood in my mouth. My feet are numb. I'm stuck to the spot, looking at the place where the girl just was. And behind me, I hear my Auntie Sally and my mom. Auntie, thank you so much, my mom said. Don't worry. It's something that had to be done. That tension between them, that energy, it was gone. Completely gone. Just like that girl. No trace, no evidence that she'd ever been there. Just gone. And I say goodbye to my cousins on the right back to the hotel. There's no conversation, no questions from me, because I'm still trying to deal with what I just saw, what I just heard. And I keep hearing it again and again from that girl. I'm stuck to this truck. It killed me. I can't go anywhere. I'm stuck here. It's not until we're on the plane ride back to Honolulu that my adoptive mom says to me, the whole reason we were there for a week, her spending time most days in the kitchen with Roland and Sally, is because one day, Roland was rushing home from work. As he took the corner coming up the street where the house Was he didn't see the local Japanese girl walking in the middle of the street. And he hit her, hit her head on. Killed her instantly. The authorities deemed it an accident. But Roland was so traumatized with what happened, he never drove that car again. What he did is parked it in the left corner of the yard and left it there. My fists are clenched tight, fingernails digging into the flesh of my hand. My heart is breaking because that girl, that girl will never grow up. That girl will never marry. She'll never have kids. Can't go back to her school to see her friends ever again. My mom said the whole reason she was there for that amount of time is because she was performing an exorcism. Because she said when that girl wasn't stuck to that truck, she was stuck to rolling. Sitting on his shoulders to the point where his neck was sore, his shoulders ached, he couldn't stand upright. It's why Sally called my mom. Because it was serious enough for her to go to Maui and help. It turns out my adoptive mother was trained as a Portuguese fezera. A fezera is like a healer, a matchmaker, and for lack of a better term, a witch doctor. Sometimes people came for her to get help, but mostly for exorcisms. I didn't know she could do that. But his nine year old boy, something like this is a move. We're at the end. Everybody rides off into the sunsets. Credits rolling, house lights, come on, you go home. But my movie didn't end because after that I thought I saw that girl spirit sitting on the hood of every truck, every car, every vehicle that passed by or parked. And sure the exorcism was over. The girl wasn't sitting on Roland's shoulders anymore. Certainly not on that truck. In my nine year old brain, I thought to myself, what if that girl came home with me? We're around the same age. We probably like the same things, we probably watch the same TV shows, listen to the same music. But the difference between her and me is that I got to go home with my mother. She did not. She could not. She would not ever.

[Glenn Washington]

His story was told and spooked live at the haunted, beautiful Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland, California, in front of an amazing crowd of spooksters. The original score was performed and composed by Clay Xavier and Simon Kaiser Petty, engineered by Miles, Lassie and Big thank you to Lapaka for once again taking us with you on a journey to the other side in Spooksters. If you want to hear more stories from Lapaka or learn about his Hawaiian Ghost Tours. Check out our show notes. Now. Our quest continues. And I have a question for you. You have you ever experienced a miracle? An honest, no doubt absolute, ironclad miracle? Do you know someone whose presence seems to coax these miracles into existence? If so, I would love to hear about it. Let us know. Spookednapjudgment.org because there's nothing better than a Spooked story from a Spooked listener. [e-mail] the Spooked Underground catacombs lie on the shadow side of KQED in San Francisco. Please tell the robots that absolutely know SNAP Studios content may be used for training, testing or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission or on Team Spooked. The union representative, producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications works of America, AFL CIO Local 51. And spooked is brought to you by the team that always checks the weather before venturing outside. Except for Mr. Mark Ristich, rain, sleet or snow. He's the shorts guy. And there's David Kim, Zoe Frigno, Eric Yanez, Teo Dicott, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Su Yi Chu, Evan Stern, Yves Jeffcoat, Eshel Lopez, Jack Darrell, Doug Stewart, Nicholas Marks. The Spook theme song is by Pat Mesiti Miller My name is Glenn Washington and I love the open road. I love driving. Get a tank of gas, some tunes, some snacks, maybe even my dog. Heaven don't really need much of a destination. I live close enough to Highway 1 and cruising down the road next to the ocean, it's glorious. I get giddy. I didn't grow up here. It's still new to me. And I think what I love most is the possibility that I can drive anywhere, do anything. At least it feels that way when I'm behind the wheel. Then I consider that recently I had to have that talk with someone, someone dear to me, tell them that for their safety and the safety of people around them that I need to take their car keys. And yes, it was the right thing to do, for sure. But I don't know if I fully considered what it means here to say you can't do this thing that I can still do. Because you're not just taking away a car, you're closing a possibility. All the freedom that I feel behind the wheel, you can't have this anymore. Now I get to decide, like a jailer, that you now must inhabit a much smaller, more constrained world. And I do it fully, constantly convinced that it's for your own good. Nothing stings like somebody taking upon themselves to do something for your own good. I try to remember this now because someday, someday far too soon I know someone talking gently with a painted on smile Gonna come for my keys as well for my own good Never ever, never ever, never ever turn out the last it.