INIA Waqa was a young boy when he was told a story by his grandfather who was a pastor.
The story was about a section of a mountain breaking loose and killing some children.
It now sits by the highway, on the right if you are travelling to Rakiraki from Tavua.
It is covered by bushes and can barely be seen.
Relatively unheard of now, it carries a story that has somehow been passed by word of mouth over the years.
“I remember it as an ongoing story from elders. I was a young boy when I heard it from my grandfather who was a talatala,” Mr Waqa said this week.
“He was the only one from whom I heard the story. I haven’t heard it from anyone else.”
Mr Waqa, 56, was born in Vitawa Village in Rakiraki, and apart from the time when he was employed, he has lived there most of his life.
He worked as a police officer and also for the Ministry of Education before retiring and fulfilling his duty to his clan members.
“According to the story told to me by my grandfather, there was a pond next to where the Kings Rd is,” he said.
“One day some children from Vitawa Village went to the pond for a swim. They were making noise while swimming and causing a disturbance.
“All of a sudden, a piece of the mountain opposite the pond split into two from right on top and went tumbling down.
“The last turn that it made covered the pond. From that day there is no pond and the boulder is still sitting there as it cannot be moved.”
Mr Waqa said he was not told by his grandfather about the number of children who were swimming in the pond when the boulder covered it.
He said the noise created by the children while swimming could have disturbed some spirits, resulting in the section of the mountain top breaking off and falling into the pond.
“The children were from my village and I don’t know if any of their family members are still around in the village,” he said.
Narayan Singh, 40, of Wairuku in Rakiraki said he was about 10 years old when he heard about the incident.
“I was living at Tova then and I remember hearing that three children were crushed to death by a boulder that came tumbling down from the mountain,” he said.
“The incident happened when I was about 10 years old. I heard three children were crushed to death while they were returning from school.
“But I cannot really say whether they were returning from school or what, as I only heard the story when I was a small boy.
“I didn’t go and see the place at the same time but I went there later.”
Mr Singh said from what he heard, the three children’s bodies were never retrieved because the boulder could not be moved from where it sits now.
The boulder is metres away from a bend on the Kings Rd between Vitawa and Narewa.
It sits enveloped by silence.
There is no inkling of any tragedy linked to it.
The years have seen foliage slowly cover it.
The boulder cannot be clearly seen from a car as the front has been hidden by branches that someone left there.
However, anyone travelling in a high vehicle would be able to see the boulder or even by taking a few metres walk from the road.
Mr Waqa also said during the construction of the new Kings Rd some years ago, clean water was discovered in a drain on the left side at the bend.
“There’s always water there even during the dry season when other areas face water problems,” he said.
“It is clean water and I think it’s from the pond that has been covered by the boulder.
“Since there was a pond where the boulder is now, then definitely the water source still exists underneath the boulder.
“And in my point of view, this water could be coming out in the drain on the left side of the road, somewhat opposite the boulder,” said Mr Waqa.
The remaining part of the piece that broke and tumbled down sits on top of the mountain and is clearly visible from the road.
While it looks dangerous, people living around hope that it does not fall one day and cause another tragedy like the deaths of the children.
* NEXT WEEK: The rock, the clan and the school.
