Some things you're never taught or prepared to learn because a moment happens where it's suddenly thrust upon you and you have no choice.
Kinda like the choice, I didn't have. I'm on the hunt now, I'm hunting down the person who has been my teacher and my mentor. I'm hunting down my mother.
.............
A MONTH AGO
Alfred and Carmen Launui took long evening walks in the hope that most of his memory would come back to him. Alfred suffered a tremendous loss of memory after attending the possession of a middle-aged man who was in need of an exorcism. The demon released its hold of the man and took possession of Albert. Carmen was late in her arrival and by the time she performed the rituals of exorcism on Albert and removed the demonic force, the damage was already done.
This evening the long walk around Kapiolani park is soothing and quiet and it helps Alberts recollections slowly resurface to his conscious.
"I remember my proposal to you Menna," Albert's voice was hesitant because he wanted to make sure that he recounted the details correctly.
"Oh?" Carmen was pleasantly surprised. "I'd like to hear it."
"We were two years out of high school and we had both gotten paid that afternoon. We were walking through the old GEM's department store and I told you that I had to go to the bathroom and that I'd be right back. On a whim; because I had the money, I went and bought a ring for you. I left you in the cracked seed section and I came back and surprised you. I think I proposed in front of the giant Ka-Hing-Chee jar? " Albert laughed to himself and shook his head.
Carmen stopped and looked at him and asked, "Are you remembering anything else?"
"All of our kids were easy births, except for Georgie. He took a while and you always accused him of ruining your girlish figure," Albert blurted out.
Carmen's eyes widen and tears fell from her face. "What else Al? Is there anything else?"
"I'm remembering Teddy's first girlfriend, she broke his heart and he was sad for a long time. Sherelle would get Rocky Road ice cream for him and they'd just sit there and eat it together. Pretty soon Georgie and Micheal would join in. Those kids of ours were always there for each other even when they were at odds." Albert mused as he put the back of his thumb to his lips.
"Go ahead Al, go ahead," Carmen encouraged her husband.
" I always loved your smell Menna, you're musk, you're aroma. Every time you sat down next to me I got horny because I could smell you. It's our mornings I remember most.....when I'd wake up and see you sitting at the edge of the bed. You were so perfect and so beautiful and I didn't want to touch you because I was afraid you'd disappear. I loved the feeling of you near me and I always knew when you were in the room even if I didn't see you right away, but I could feel you. We've always been so deeply connected Menna." Albert looked at her with such seriousness that Carmen thought he was going to give his last will and testament. Large duty trucks sped by on their way to set up tents at the bandstand for the Okinawan festival. The sudden distraction took Albert's focus away from his wife for a second.
"Don't stop," Carme begged. "Go on,"
"I remember the day I was possessed, I remember how powerful that demon was and how it made the wood rot in that Auwaiolimu house. I remember when it took a hold of my body and I could smell the pungent odor of sulphur.....the strange thing was that I didn't feel fully possessed. I felt like I was on layaway like it was just putting me on hold until something better came along. That something was you, Menna, that demon was waiting for you. You didn't exorcize it from me, you never got the chance, It jumped in you before you could even blink....it's still in you now." Albert removed a handful of Hawaiian salt from his pocket and a clump of braided Ti Leaf from the other. "I've been pretending to have memory loss all this time because I was too weak to defend the kids from you....whoever you are. I had to be patient. I had to wait until the moment was right."
There was no speech given by the thing that possessed my mother like how they do in the movies. It just grabbed my father by his shirt collar and threw him in the path of the duty truck convoy which was headed to the bandstand.
His death was gruesome as he tumbled under the dual tires where his body was crushed and mangled several times over.
.............
NOW
That's my story folks and like I mentioned earlier. I'm on the hunt for my mother or whatever it is that has a hold of her. I gotta be careful because everything I know, I know from my mom. I don't want to end up being the hunted. Wish me luck.
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