Honey turned away, making certain that Blue could not see her tears as they stained the pillow she rested her head on. "It's just a song," Blue whispered. "It has nothing to do with us. I'm only going away to school. I'll be back."
"Promise?" Honey said, holding back the building torrent.
"Of course," Blue said. He gently turned Honey toward him and kissed her on her forehead
and was already holding a gold chain with a heart-shaped locket at the end of it in front of her.
He quickly placed it around her neck and even before Honey could say anything, "Don't cry yet because I want you to hear what I'm going to say alright?"
Honey nodded.
"I could get in trouble with my Mother for doing this but I felt it was Pono because of how much I love you. You and I are already like one person. You're a part of me, everything about you is now absorbed through the pores of my skin. I know your smell, your laugh, I can pick out your voice in a room full of women talking at the same time. I thought of all the things that I could buy so that you would know how much I love you while I was away at College, but nothing seemed to be right for you.."
"But you got me this locket?" Honey interrupted as she rubbed her fingers over the gold piece.
Blue shook his head and held both of Honey's hands in his. "It's not the locket itself, it's what's in it."
Honey instinctively went to open the locket but Blue held on to her hands even tighter and looked deeply into her eyes.
"The only thing I could think was that I should give you a part of me. My Mother believes in the old Hawaiian ways and.........well....she would say this was dangerous but, I love you. I trust you and I know that you would never hurt me." Honey followed Blue's eyes as he looked at the locket. She held it in the palm of her hand and opened it. Inside of the locket was a single strand of Blue's hair. Now she knew what he meant. It would be dangerous to Blue if she was someone who had meant to harm him. Others would have taken something like this to render a curse on someone else or even worse, take their life. For Honey, this meant everything. It meant that Blue was giving of himself wholeheartedly. Hawaiians give everything or nothing at all, Honey knew this while growing up in Nanakuli.
For the brief moment that it took Blue to give Honey her gift was the moment when love had renewed itself and had allowed the two to share in yet one more embrace of intimacy.
It was the earlier part of the afternoon when Blue finished packing his bags and put them in the trunk of his car. Honey insisted on driving. Otherwise, she would have spent the whole way to Honolulu Airport crying and she didn't want Blue to keep pulling the car over to the side of the road in order to comfort her. The car drove down the length of Nanakuli Avenue for the last time with its owner now in the passenger's seat. With the car idled at the stop light for a brief moment, Blue tried to change the somber mood into a lite hearted one.
"I don't want to get any phone calls from my folks telling me that some guy is driving my car around Nanakuli okay?" Blue laughed.
"Hey, shut up! How do I know that you won't end up with some Haole
girlfriend up there huh?" Honey narrowed her eyes at him as he continued laughing.
"That's my hair you have in your locket. If I ever do something like that, you can curse me."
"That's not funny Blue, this is meant for love, not evil."
"I know." Blue sighed. "I was just joking."
Blue turned the radio on and leaned back into his chair as Johnny Van Zant crooned in his Southern
drawl, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on now...
..there's too many places I've got see..."
Honey held his hand in hers and kissed it gently.
"Love you," she said looking at him.
"Love you, Honey. Always." Blue smiled.
Love was such a powerful emotion that for a moment it prevented Honey from noticing that the traffic light had already changed from Green to Red. She drove into the intersection to make a left turn.
….………
Johnny Boy Martin spent most of the night at his Kaukamana Street home drinking a potent mixture of beer and whiskey. His eyes were bruised and his cheeks were swollen and bloodied after the beating he had just received from his father, John senior. It was the beating of many beatings that he had suffered throughout his 22 years of life, but this was the last. Something deep within Johnny Boy Martin unleashed itself and he lashed out. The punch he delivered was not meant to land in any specific place on his father's body but somehow it found its mark. Johnny Boy Martin caved his father's sternum in with one blow and killed him. When he realized what he had just done, he wasn't sure if he was happy or sad. He just sat there for the rest of the night, staring down at his Father's lifeless form. He began to drink from his father's beer and whiskey stash until everything was gone. It was just past noon when Johnny Boy Martin stumbled to his old man's Corvair and pulled out of the driveway spraying dirt and gravel everywhere. Speeding up Kaukamana Street he catapulted into traffic barely missing a Plymouth station wagon filled with 8 children and a screaming mother in the driver's seat. The tears began to hamper his vision as he drove past Nanaikapono Elementary, it was only at that moment when Johnny Boy Martin saw the Blue Mustang cross the intersection right in front of him that he realized it was too late.
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