ANALIA MOKUNA 'ELUA
"Who's gonna make that first mistake, all the way to fire lake?"
-Bob Seger
On the day that I sent a text to Velma Ka'ula convincing her that her husband Henry had sent me to the house to bring over some Chinese food from #1 restaurant she came out to the car and saw me sitting there with a gun pointed at her. I already planned to shoot her the second she showed any signs of trying to run, but I was surprised.
She was smart, she knew her time had come and she accepted her fate. She got in and we drove off toward the Menehune fish pond, she actually thanked me for not killing her in front of her house because Analia was still home. Velma was wrong though, Analia wasn't home, she had actually passed us as we headed to Menehune fish pond and saw her mother in the passenger seat of Carlton's vehicle with whom she thought was Carlton himself. Somewhere in between finding out that her father and brother were murdered and that her mother's body turned up dead three days later, she also figures out that the body at the base yard with the face blown off was not me but actually Carlton. On the inside of his left thumb was a homemade star cluster tattoo that she had put there herself, she knew this because she and Carlton were having an affair. That was the real betrayal and not the betrayal that Velma Ka'ula convinced Henry about. Knowing now that I was alive, her next mission was to find me but where would she be able to locate me on the island of 'O'ahu? All of her father's connections were on Kaua'i but that's where she started, first with the local P.D. and then by moving to 'O'ahu. She actually saw me by pure chance one day when she was driving through Salt Lake on Likini street. I was standing outside of a house belonging to a woman named Sherry. That's when she began to follow my every move until the time came for her to strike and strike she did, but the who, what, where, why, when, and how of it all was still the question to be answered and that would happen in just a few minutes as I waited in Boy's office for his return.
............
Analia sat in her car across the street from the office knowing full well that the man her father and his work crew affectionately called Kaimuki was upstairs on the second floor. She couldn't touch him there, the place was a Pu'uhonua, a sanctuary or kapu. Kaimuki or whoever he really is, was smart enough to duck into that Japanese cemetery until the large black limo came to get him. She couldn't touch him there either because any cemetery or graveyard is considered holy ground, all she could do was watch and wait.
............
KAUA'I EARLIER THAT SAME MORNING
"I haven't seen you since that thing with Joe Black, I offered prayers for your Mama, may she rest in peace," Elena the head of the Kaua'i and Ni'ihau office placed a cup of guava juice in front of Boy with a larger plate of eggs, bacon, and toast. "Maybe that's why you've been so busy, how are your uncles and your aunt? Have you married yet?"
"Uncle Ivan and Tiny and Aunty Rita are fine, and I haven't married anyone but I did hanai a girl who lost her family, she's coming along very well." Boy knew that this was the kind of conversation that needed to take place before the real reason for his trip to see Aunty Elena was revealed.
"Hanai?" Aunty Elena looked at Boy for a second and then smiled, "is this a baby girl?"
" 'A'ole aunty, she's sixteen now. We were her caretakers after her father and brother were killed but things took their course as they usually do and I filled out the paperwork for her adoption." Boy said as he took a sip of his juice.
"Almost the same way in which your folks took in Rita and made her a part of the 'ohana," Aunty Elena continued. "And now you continue that aloha for the girl who is your daughter, what is her name?"
"Tabby," Boy replied.
"Hawaiian girl?" Aunty Elena asked Boy knew where this was going.
"Yes," Boy nodded. "Her last name was Kahana."
"Have you trained her in kapahia'u? That weapon was your mama's specialty; the girl will do very good." Aunty Elena poured Boy another glass of guava juice. "Now, as for the matter that you have come to see me about...."
...........
LATER THAT SAME DAY
Analia sat in her car and rolled the small cylindrical bamboo container back and forth in her hand, still trying to figure out a way to get to Kaimuki without having to enter the office. Her prayer would soon be answered. A hand came through the window and grabbed Analia's hand while she held onto the bamboo container, the grip of the hand was so tremendously strong that it crushed the bamboo container into sharp thin shards. The pain was unbearable but before she could scream, another hand covered her mouth. It was Boy just back from an early morning trip to Kaua'i, "You can follow me upstairs to the office and live, or you can die right here in the front seat of your car. No one's going to figure out you're dead until they start seeing your flesh rot. Which one is it going to be?"
Analia pointed to the office building, Boy opened the driver side door and yanked her out of the car. In the last move of desperation, Analia grabbed another bamboo container with a finger bone in it from her pocket and threw it at Boy, the modern day kahuna caught it and smashed the bamboo container and the bone in his hand. Boy saw the look of confusion and fear in Analia's face and held his fist out to her and then turned it from left to right. The lower intestines in her stomach began to twist around violently and Analia dropped to the ground screaming.
"Shall we try this again?" Boy growled through his teeth while picking Analia off the ground. A few minutes later she was seated in Boy's office, less than a foot away from her was Kaimuki. She was seething with vengeful anger and was more than prepared to sacrifice her own life just so she could at least scratch his face out with her fingernails. Looking across the desk at the young girl, Boy would be the only one to speak. Behind him sat Uncle Ivan, Uncle Tiny, and Aunty Rita. "The gentleman sitting next to you is 'Roof' short for Rufus, he had the contract to kill your mother but your father and brother got in the way, collateral damage. It was business that's all, you're going to drop this whole matter and go back to Kaua'i and live out the rest of your life. Don't worry about dropping the curse, it's already been taken care of."
"And what if I decide to find some other way of killing this 'Roof?' Analia still hadn't let it go but Boy was going to help her understand.
"Then I will find you and walk into your house in the middle of the day and gut you like a pig in full view of everyone you care for," Boy was dead serious. "You can leave now."
Analia quickly got up and walked toward the door, she paused for a second and looked back at Roof and said, " I thought you were different, of course, you're way older than me but at the very least it felt like you would be the one who could take me away from that life, the life my father lived and the life that my brother and mother died for. I was wrong, you weren't different, you were just like them except that you came wrapped up in a nice ribbon but you were still a piece of shit."
.............
KAUA'I EARLIER THAT SAME MORNING
Aunty Elena finally took a seat across from Boy at the breakfast table and began eating her bacon first before anything else. "My Kaua'i police department friends tell me that the girl who put a curse on your friend did some very extensive research. She went as far back as a man named Edmond Poli and was able to find out who his killer was. After that she was also able to find out which police officers on the force were on Edmond Poli's payroll, that's when she made a phone call and pointed those detectives in your direction, she was the seed of it all."
.............
NOW 10 PM
Four hours later Analia sat in her car at the cell phone free zone just off of Nimitz highway. Rather than touch her dinner plate from Zippy's she just sat there staring off into space. Her purpose was ripped from her and now she felt completely empty as if she'd been carrying a child in her womb the whole time only to have it given away the second it was born. Everyone on Kaua'i knew who Aunty Elena was but certainly, no one was going to approach her as to how a curse such as the one that she was going to cast on the man named Kaimuki should be done. The cost for such a thing was too much, but Aunty Elena did have a nephew that Analia was able to be friendly with. One night while parked on the side of a dark road in Hanapepe, while things were getting heated, Analia suddenly stopped the poor nephew from going any further until he agreed to help her with something. That something was spying on his Aunty Elena while she cast curses on other people and that's how she learned to do the curse of the bamboo container with human bones inside. She was able to leave one in Roof's house and another in his car, she hadn't counted on him to be so resilient. Boy said the curse was already taken care of, did that mean the curse that she cast was lifted or that it was being sent back to her? She wasn't sure and it made her very nervous, she reached into the council and grabbed a stick of gum and popped it in her mouth. Leaning back against the headrest she took in a deep breath and felt a hand over her mouth and simultaneously felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck. It was the last sensation she felt before her spinal cord was ruptured by a swordfish bill piercing her throat from behind. Her body slumped into her chair and her back door opened and was shut very gently. No one saw Tabby calmly walk across the width of the Nimitz underpass where an unmarked car idled just in front of a city and county bus stop. Aunty Elena asked Boy if Tabby had been trained in the method of fighting with a swordfish bill as a weapon (Kapahia'u) Tabby was a well-seasoned fighter long before she came to live with him, her skills were never in question. She got into the back seat of the Imperial Crown and gave Kealoha the signal to drive off.
As the vehicle merged into traffic, Kealoha looked into the review mirror and asked, "Miss Tabby, has your father told Roof that they are brothers yet?"
"Not yet," Tabby answered as she cleaned off her weapon. "He's happy about it, I just think that he's afraid of some kind of jinx where he'll lose Roof if he tells him that they are actual flesh and blood brothers."
"I think your father has expressed that worry in regards to all of us," Kealoha answered with a serious look on his face.
"That's why he's so overprotective, it's not easy being his daughter but I give it my best every single day," She wrapped her weapon up in a large red mechanics hand cloth and tucked it into her handbag. "Maybe if we all give it our best it might help him worry less, what do you think?"
"I think you're right," Kealoha smiled.
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