WAHI: I KE ALA NUI HOKELE
1
As a kid, I used to ride past here with my father. Even back then, it seemed seedy and antiquated as if all the dirty parts of its past cluttered itself in this one part of town.
I never liked it; there was just something repulsive about the whole place. That is the reason why I never imagined that I would find myself waking up in one of those second-story rooms off of Hotel Street. Here I was, with not even my eyes opened and already feeling the onslaught of the worst hangover in all of creation. I take that back, I can't blame nature for my headache because I'm the one who created it. Maybe all it took was a mixture of bad booze and bad company. Damn, lousy company; that's right. I slid my hand across the wrinkled sheet until it met with the smooth, warm flesh of someone's backside. Rolling over slightly, I cracked my left eye open, and there she was, whoever she was. Shoulder length hair tousled around her bare shoulder like a voracious waterfall frozen in time. Brown skin, she's local or Asian or something. I don't know.
I can't remember one detail from last night, not that it matters. I sit up out of bed, and my feet touch the cold bare wooden floor. For a moment, I find myself wondering just how many other feet have imprinted themselves in this same space? I put my undershirt on, and then my blue flannel over it. I stand up and step into my jeans, and then my boots. I head to the bathroom to clean up. It's not a five-star hotel bathroom, but considering the demographics, it's clean. I'm mindful enough not to use her toothbrush, but I do put some toothpaste on my tongue and swish some water from the spigot around in my mouth. Real high germ killer tastes in that one; she must use it a lot. When I go back to the bed to retrieve my waist belt, which I left wrapped around the bedpost, I see she's already awake and sitting up with no clothes on. I look at her and chuckle, "I forgot to shower the sex off of myself."
"We didn't have sex, nothing happened." She said matter of fact.
"Nothing happened?" I questioned.
She shook her head and raised her eyebrows. "Not a thing."
"Well," I sighed, "fair is fair." I took my wallet out of my front pocket and removed three one hundred dollar bills and placed on the sheet in front of her.
"What is this?" She's confused now.
"Even if we didn't have sex, I mean still, it's your time," I reasoned.
"Oh my god," she put her head down and laughed. "You don't remember anything, do you?"
"Maybe when this hangover goes away, I will," I replied. "Besides, we both woke up with no clothes on, how did we not have sex?"
"You really don't remember?" She asked.
"No," I shook my head. "I don't."
"Well, first off, you should get going. Secondly, I will call you in three days, you'll know it's me because I already punched in my name and number on your phone. Third, if this were any other situation and you went to give me money the next morning like you just did? I would have beat your ass; now get out."
2
Like clockwork, she called me three days later on the dot. I mean, like a literal second after midnight. The name Kara Manners showed up on my phone, I figured it had to be her? Even before I said 'hello,' she was already talking. "I'm outside, open your door."
I could hear her voice echoing right outside my thick, reinforced wooden door, so I opened it. Again, no, hello, how are you? Or go straight to hell, she just walks right in and stops in the middle of the living room floor. She turns to look at me first, and then she looks at the timer on her phone. “You're gonna drop dead in five seconds, when you come back to life in the morning, I'll explain everything."
"What the hell are you talking about? You come into my place and start feeding me this bullshit?" I asked. Simultaneously she's counting, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Dammit to hell, if she wasn't right, I dropped dead right on the spot.
.............to be continued
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