NO KAUA
The rains which gather around my home are fine and misty and is often the inspiration for many a Hawaiian chant or mele. How could it not be so since the winds from the back of the valley appear to unfurl the rain as if it were a finely platted mat of Makaloa? In Hawaiian thought, rain is likened to a loved one who leaves a sheen upon your skin like a close intimate companion. Whereas as a deluge of rain may represent sadness or heartbreak.
It is something wondrous to know that our ancient ancestors had such an intimate association with nature that they could keenly gage the very ebb and flow of life by their thoughts and emotions. It was a mutual companionship in which one depended upon the other for their survival and longevity. The wisdom which my parents imparted to me said that man and his environment are not separate from one another but are indeed one and the same. When a man is in conflict with himself his surroundings and all that is in it, suffer. When a man is in harmony with himself his surroundings and all that is in it begin to prosper and flourish. Simple words to live by but very difficult to follow for more often than not, man is his own worst enemy.
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The Blue Bar is a festive location in the middle of downtown which is festooned with garish pictures from the Don Tikki era of our history. It gives the impression that this establishment was thrown together for the sole purpose of opening a bar in the middle of the business district in Honolulu. Any thought in regards to a pleasing decorum was obviously thrown out the window because once one was seated and acclimated to his or her surroundings, one could not help but notice the black velvet paintings hanging behind the barkeep. It was he that Iʻd come to see in answer to his phone call, he is a fine young man who needed my help once while dorming at the University of Hawaiʻi. The unhappy spirit of another young man who committed suicide in his very same room now haunted the young man and his two other roommates, my task was to extricate the earthbound spirit and send him on his way. The young man came from a well to do family and his parents were so happy that they offered me a large sum of money in recompense for any trouble that the effort may have caused me, I refused the money but instead made the young man promise that he would graduate college and become a successful person in life. The Blue Bar turned out to be his success until he unwittingly took on a business partner who ran the bar into the ground, thus I understood that the sudden change in garish decorum was the idea of his business partner.
A sigh of relief came over the young man when he saw me and he uncharacteristically gave me a hug. He ushered me to the back room all the while explaining that he did not know the type of man that his business partner was until strange things began to happen, waitresses who would not go out with him suddenly fell ill. People would appear and hand him large sums of money would also give him a small plastic bag of fingernails or hair, and one night he saw his business partner conjure an orb of blue flames that he sent flying out the door and into the deep night. He was at his wit's end as we finally approached the back room which was separated by a long beaded curtain, certainly this business partner was caught up in a sixties time warp.
He sat with his back to the entrance dressed in a gray silk suit with two bottles of makers mark on the table, a single shot glass, a pair of sliced limes and a shaker of salt. I walked around the table and pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of him, Rodney Salavessa. Half Portuguese, half Hawaiian, he was one of the last great Kahuna who was skilled at removing curses and sending them back, he took no payment for his work but only asked that people would plant a fragrant flower in their yard in thanks for his services so that he could continually pray for their safety and protection. It was known that Rodney indulged in marijuana before conducting his rituals and that eventually he tired of the cannabis and wanted something more, thatʻs when he found Crack cocaine. He quickly fell out of the favor with the few Kahuna who were left and became ostracised, never to return on the pain of death. I, however, had a personal stake in this story, Rodney along with another hapa Hawaiian boy named Dale Shapely were the only two students that were taught by my parents outside of our family circle. They were both good boys with a natural affinity for otherworldly talents such as sending curses back to people who sent them. Years later when word crossed Dale's ears in regards to Rodney's lifestyle change, he personally appeared at Rodney's home to reprimand him for his wayward ways. Rodney's response was to brandish a handgun and shoot his brother from the old days right between his eyes. He fell Dale dead at his feet and did not blink an eye, how fortuitous that I of all people was called to handle this case. When his eyes met mine and he realized who it was that sat in front of him, he recoiled in his chair with his knees up to his chest and began to hiss and moan, he fell to the tiles and began to writhe on the filthy back room floor until he undulated toward the exit. I cut off his only way out of the establishment and grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and tossed him across the room until he hit the wall and fell hard. He immediately stood up and assumed a crouching position with his newly formed scales covering his face and a black forked tongue darting in and out of his mouth. He charged at me full force as his fingernails now took on the form of razor-sharp talons, I timed his momentum up until the last possible second and I quickly shot my fingers into his sternum until I could find his liver and tear it out. It was a well-practiced strike which Lua practitioners used with such brutality that anyone near would be dumbstruck, such was the blow that I implemented. Upon removing the liver, as was custom, I offered the liver in symbolic deference to the God of Lua named, ʻKuʻialuaʻand while Rodney Salavessa was still alive, I ate his liver right in front of him before he fell dead to the floor. However, my task was not complete, in the back room was also a storage closet where Rodney kept closed calabashes, one piled on top of the other. I removed each one and dashed it to the floor where they split open, from within those calabashes came the ghosts of people who Rodney trapped in order to use them as emissaries for his curses. They were let go and sent back to their final rest, no longer under the black thumb of Rodney Salavessa, they were free.
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The young owner of the Blue Bar became successful again after taking down the horrible decorations and bringing on new business partners, his parents. Today the establishment is more family oriented and the bar is filled to capacity with families of all types who enjoy the atmosphere and good service. The ownerʻs name is Devon Blue and his parents are Jack and Martice Blue, a fine family with a very very bright future.
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My father once told me that man cannot fight what is meant to be because if he does, he fights against his own nature and he will get lost and become sick. Is this what happened to Rodney Salavessa? Who knows? But certainly, if one knows who he is, then there is no reason why he should not be content with all that he has become.
Hanson Boy Napualawa
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Don't miss Mysteries of Hawaii's Ghost Hunters Midnight Tour
Saturday, October 28th, 11:45pm
For more information, check it out HERE
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