Crossroads 2022

Parking was packed everywhere.

Every stall at Restaurant Row was taken. Every booth on the street was filled. Kaka'ako, Ward, and most of South Street and Mission Lane. I got lucky, though; a stall was open on Punchbowl next to the old State I.D. building. It was a fireworks night at Ala Moana Beach Park, and every person and his mother was there. Finally, the restrictions were lifted, so Oahu's citizenship went nuts when they discovered that a celebration of fireworks would be held at every beach park on the island. It's crazy, yes, but everyone came out for it. It was 7:30 pm when I found the parking stall. The fireworks start at 8 pm, and parking is free after 6 pm. Such luck. I walked down to the crosswalk at Punchbowl and Queen Street, waiting for the walk signal, when a strange thought entered my mind. Although looking at the configuration of the intersection, I thought to myself, "This looks like a crossroads," the next thing I knew, someone or something I couldn't see began choking me in a full-frontal assault.

As invisible as the force was, I could feel the sinew muscle on the forearms when I grabbed it. It felt like steel cables. It wouldn't let go, no matter how much I scratched or pounded with my fists. I finally let loose with a front kick to the general area of where this entity's crotch should be. Eureka! We have contact! It let me go, and I heard it let out a guttural moan; that's when I ran back to my car and drove off. Fuck the fireworks for tonight, I suppose. I'll just drive up to Tantaulas and watch it from there. It was indeed a crossroads when I thought about it. In fact, history tells us that criminals who were executed by hanging were buried at that very intersection of Punchbowl and Queen Street. Very much the same way that they did in European countries. Crossroads were places with terrible juju all around, and as we all know, that's where you went to make a deal with the devil. Where your soul is the bargaining chip, so to speak. But why was I attacked? I was on the way to watch a fireworks display. Then I remembered the sage advice my mother imparted to me. "Once you recognize evil, it recognizes you."

Credit: City and County of Honolulu