The school was like the fire, and Hauola couldn't understand why his grandfather always tossed him from the frying pan, not that the frying pan was better.
Franchesca broke his heart after being his girlfriend for less than a month; she dumped Hauola and moved on to Wayne Gomes. He couldn't understand it; Wayne Gomes was the biggest turd drug dealer in the school. What did Wayne have that he didn't? To make matters worse, Franchesca went from proclaiming Hauola as the love of her life to completely ignoring him and then publicly ridiculing him whenever she and Wayne passed him in the school hallway. He'd had enough; thankfully, the sub-layer of his online gaming community provided him with what he needed, two handguns, and a bunch of ammunition. "I'll kill Wayne first; that way, Franchesca can watch," he told his friend Thom over the speakerphone. "Maybe I'll kill her, I dunno, we'll see.""You can't be wishy-washy with this kinda thing, you gotta be all in, otherwise if you hesitate, you'll get killed yourself," Thom urged him.
"Alright then, you kill Wayne, I'll take care of Franchesca," Hauola replied half-heartedly.
"It's better if I do it," Thom insisted. "There's too much of a chance that you still have feelings for her; we can't take that risk, Ola. You do Wayne; I'll do the girl, it's not up for discussion."
"Alright, I'll see you behind the woodshop at seven," Hauola confirmed.
"Seven," Thomas agreed. "Sharp,"
~
6 AM
Hauola has two clips stored in his pocket, and the .45 tucked in his school backpack. He was halfway down Democrat and Kalihi street when his mother's truck drove up, "Get in,"
"I'll walk, I walk every morning, I don't need a ride," he growled at her.
"Ola, get in right now, it's important," Melinda was insistent. Hauola saw the look on his mother's face, and he got in the truck. For a brief second, he thought about loading the gun and shooting her somewhere along the way, but he changed his mind. He could probably do it after or much later. "I caught the news right after you left, do you know a Franchesca Rose?"
Hauola eyed his mother carefully; he began scratching the top of his left hand before answering. "Yeah, what about it?"
"Somebody found her body last night. Somebody partially buried it in the grass on the side of her house; they arrested her boyfriend as a primary suspect," Melinda looked at her son, not blinking once. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you, but your grandfather was busy on a call."
Hauola bent forward with his head in his hands and began to wail so deep and so mournfully that it gave his mother chicken skin. She rubbed his back and offered as many sorry's as she could muster. He kept rocking back and forth, wailing the whole time. Without warning, he pushed her away and fumbled for the gun in his backpack; it was gone. "You're looking for this?" Melinda removed it from the back of her waistband and held it close to her chest. Hauola grabbed for it, and his mother quickly loaded the clip and pulled back the hammer, pointing the gun right at him. Hauola's eyes went wide, and he put both his hands up. "I'm fucking sick and tired of this life, too," Melinda began. "I'm sick and tired of hurting because all I want, all I ever wanted was to have your father back because he did so much for me and so much for us that I didn't know what to do after he died. I didn't know how to live without him. I was a wreck, Ola, a complete fucking wreck; I had to send you to stay with your grandparents. I was no kind of mother back then, but that cult, I didn't see that coming. They got me when I was raw. I can see you're hurting too, Ola, and you blame me for it, and that's fine, I get it. We can stop the hurt right here, and now, I'll take you with me, and we'll be together for all eternity, and I can finally be the mom I was supposed to be. I kill you first, then myself," she pointed the gun right between his eyes. "Any last words?"
"I don't care if I die," Hauola began. "I'm not afraid of being shot; today, I was planning on it. But I want to know why?"
"Why?" Melinda asked.
"Why did dad leave us like that? Why? Didn't he love us?"
"Of course, he loved us," Melinda confirmed.
"Then why did he let himself get killed? He's the best of the best with all those medals, awards, and commendations?" Hauola asked through his tears. "It's not fair; I didn't get to know him, and you left me, and I love grandpa, but he's hurting too. Everybody is so busy hurting that we don't know how to help each other; if you're going to kill me, then do it! I wanna die anyway; I don't care anymore, I don't fucking care,"
Melinda held on to her son and cried with him until there was nothing left. She took him back home and called the school; he wouldn't be coming in for a while until he and the rest of his family got better. The night before, Melinda stood outside Hauola's door and heard his whole conversation with Thom. She waited until he was asleep and snuck into his room and removed the gun from his backpack. The next morning, she called the principles office to let them know that a boy named Thom Vuoy was armed with a weapon; he planned to shoot and kill a student. Melinda hung up the phone immediately after. Thomas was found on campus by the police and arrested. Melinda had her late husband Pi'i to thank; he came to her in a dream the night before and urged her to stand outside Hauola's bedroom door and listen. There was never a plan to kill herself, or her son. She just needed to shock him into opening up. Later, Melinda went to seek out a ho'oponopono practitioner who helped herself, her father, and her son to heal.
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