Aloha's End NEW CHAPTER 33 "Kick Ass"

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Aloha’s End
by Michael F. Zangari
© 2007 With All Rights Reserved

Chapters 31-33 Rewrites. New Chapter 33, "Kick Ass"

Chapter 31: God’s Quiet Man Amplified

True West strolls into the hotel with his jacket over his shoulder.
His hat is tipped back on his head as he crosses the empty lobby past the waterfall gusher that ripples koi pool. He walks along the artificial stream past the front desk. The penny colored koi follow him with open mouths.
It a lot like doing a news shoot in the city.
The same crowd follows him around.
He crosses the burgundy and ash carpet past the pay phones to the elevator and presses the button down that says up.
When the doors to the elevator part, Benny Aloha steps out with his jacket over his shoulder and his hair slicked back. They look each other over with the same cool appraisal.
Benny’s silver and black pomade shines in the lobby lights. One curl hooks on his forehead.
His hair is salted and peppered lightly.
It’s slicked back like a wet otter’s.
In the bright Florissant light his hair is veined with silver and indigo and the fresh comb tracks texture the hair back over his forehead and down the back of his neck.
His hair looks like oiled raven feathers, a little wild from the evening of karaoke at the piano bar at the top of the hotel.
His lavender silk tuxedo shirt is unbuttoned to his thymus and there’s a thin gold chain around his neck. From it dangles a fishbone fishing hook and a gold tree of life.
He catches True West looking at it.
“Sammy Davis Junior planted that tree on me” he says
True West grins. He can’t help it.
“Sammy took it from around his own neck and put it around mine” says Benny Aloha. “He kissed me on the cheek and lingered there with his arms around my shoulder touching foreheads. His one good eye crinkled, the other, the lame glass one, stared off into the twilight zone, far, far away from here.”
True West imagines it.
Benny says “I was a much younger man then.”
He looks at True West who understands.
“Sammy and I were forehead to forehead put there in the tourist jungles of Wai’ki’ki.”
he said. “You know what Wai’ki’ki means don’t you?”
“This area was a swamp originally, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Says Benny Aloha. “Still is in some ways.” He deadpans it to himself under his breath. “It means “spurting water” he says.
“The must of named it for the honeymooners that come here.”
“That’s the way I remember that night” says Benny Aloha, “Our lives, the spurting water, time the dancing dragon, never standing still for even a second. No time to talk, Sam and the rest of the guys jetting in and out. We could get pretty close. Like real pals. I never knew if I’d see them again.”
True West thinks about his friends, the ones he seldom saw now.
He thought about the burdens of the famous.
“I see us then like I am looking down on us from a hotel lanai” says Benny Aloha wistfully.
“I see our young black hair reflecting light like moon on the dark sea.
We are better dressed than most of the street rats on tour. I see Sammy tapping me on the cheek with his ringed hand.
“Grow” he says. That was Sammy Davis Junior as I will always remember him.” Benny exhales softly. He looks away.
“Benny Aloha” says TrueWest. “Aloha.”
“Aloha to you, Ku” says Benny back.
His pale cataract brown eyes search up at True West.
The blue rings around the iris are very blue.
He has the cataracts.
They are as blue as a tattoo.
“I guess my emotions show on my face” says Benny Aloha. He looks up for True West to see.
“Yes” thinks True West.
“Karaoke always me nostalgic. I did “The Summer Wind” tonight. That always gets me in the mood.” Says Benny Aloha. “I’m God’s quiet man amplified.”
True West doesn’t know what to say. So he doesn’t say it.
“Nice hat” says Benny Aloha, suddenly looking up.
He is looking at the hat on True West’s head.
“Thanks” says True West. “I got it the other day at the Poniola shop.”
“Needs feather work” says Benny Aloha.
True West scrunches up his forehead.
“Feather work?” he asks. “You mean like angel wings out of the sides?”
“No” says Benny Aloha rolling his eyes. “Like a real Hawaiian feather work, around the hat band, like peacock feathers.”
He reaches up and takes True West’s hat off his head.
“Hey” says True West. “My hat.”
Benny Aloha dusts it off on the breast of his lavender silk shirt.
True West touch the place on his head where the hat used to be.
The air conditioning hits his sweat damp head and cools him.
“I’ll take care of it” says Benny Aloha. “You’ll love it.”
True West scratches his head. He wants to protest but the words never get out of his chest.
Benny Aloha puts it on. It’s too big, and falls over his eyes.
“Thanks” True West says. He’s not sure if he’s thanking him or not.
He just doesn’t know what else to say.
“Don’t mention it” says Benny Aloha.
True West and Benny Aloha watch people get on the elevator.
Two monks in steel wool burnooses get on last.
The hoods are up. They are hunched over and in a hurry.
A third monk runs into the elevator, his leather sandals slapping the carpet as he gets on and the door starts to shut behind him.
“Hold that” says True West.
The monk’s burnoose catches in the door. It opens again and the monk yanks it inside.
He drops, a little paper mai tai parasol in the process from out of one of his sleeves.
Benny Aloha picks it up and offers it back to the monk.
“Your bumbershoot” he says.
The monk grabs it a little too quickly and says “Thank you.”
“You getting on?” he asks True West.
True West shrugs. “Best be” he says.
Benny Aloha smiles and shakes his head. “Ok cowboy.”

Chapter 32: To Be Omni-present
The doors to the elevator close.
Benny Aloha reaches out and pushes the button for the seventh floor.
“That’s my floor” says True West.
“I know” says Benny Aloha.
They look at each other.
He’s not sure why, but True West is annoyed.
“Isn’t it a burden to know everything?” asks True West. “To be omni-present?”
“You don’t know the half of it brother” says Benny Aloha. “I’d rather be oblivious to most things. But I tend to be paranoid. Paranoids make great novelists and detectives. We don’t miss detail.”
True West smiles at him. “That’s what makes a great professional.” He says. “Paranoia and finesse.”
“You know, my mother was ethnically Japanese, as I am. Our family lost everything in World War Two. My family was interned in the Jap camps even though my father was ethnically mixed. ” He shrugs. “That influences your perspective.”
“I imagine so” says True West.
“One day I was listening to the radio with my sister and the next day my family and I were corralled like cattle behind barbed wire with every one else of my race. Our home and our property were taken away from us and sold. We were terrified of being separated. The next thing I know some guy in green fatigues with a gun and bayonet was yelling “Banzai” at us at dinner time like we didn’t speak English. It was a very dark scene for a three year old rat packer” he said. “Bizarre.”
True West listens. He is wordless.
“We lived in barracks with some of our neighbors. Some others were missing. The Hawaiian neighbors hid them. My father was taken away and placed in solitary confinement for meditating in the commons. We weren’t allowed to practice our religion during the first part of the internment. The soldiers didn’t understand meditation. ”
“That’s horrible.” Says True West.
“Dad said it wasn’t so bad. At least he could meditate in peace.” Says Benny Aloha. He smiles, showing teeth.
That’s a rare.
“You strike me as a mama’s boy,” says Benny Aloha, “No offense.”
True West has heard that before.
“You a real meta-noid” he says. “Like you’ve been protected all your life.”
“A meta-noid” says True West. “What is that?”
“It’s the opposite of paranoid” says Benny Aloha. “A meta-noid believes the world is conspiring to them a favor.”
“I think my paranoia comes from my Japanese linage. We tend to be more protective and proactive. We survived by knowing things. There is an old samurai saying. It goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“That’s a rough translation?” asks True West.
“Yes” says Benny Aloha. “It is.”
“I have notice that the Japanese have become experts on baseball and other American cultural facts since World War Two” says True West. “They are the largest audience in the world for Blues music and R and B. That wouldn’t have anything to do with the kinds of passwords the American G.I. used during the Pacific War to identify friends and foes in the jungle, would it? Like, “If you’re an American, who won the 1939 pennant.”
“How would I know?” asks Benny Aloha. “I’m an American.”
He looks at True West with his almond shaped eyes and double eye-lids.
True West is embarrassed. He reaches for a comeback but goes blank.
He becomes aware of the two monks at the back of the elevator.
They are looking up from under their hoods.
The monks stand close to one another in their grey wool burnooses with their hands in the sleeves of their gowns. They have on brand new beach sandals.
One speaks.
“It’s a lot like being a monk” he says. “Forgive me for listening to your conversation. Being in the camps must have been a lot like being in the monastery. Only in our order we are punished for our transgressions by removing us from our solitary contemplation. We are made to congregate and have conversations in the courtyard. It’s horrible. It removes us from our studies.”
True West and Benny Aloha look at the monks.
“And if you’ll excuse me, there is another, rather auspicious coincidence that has taken my attention.”
The second monk crosses himself and kisses the crucifix hanging from his waist on obsidian beads. The sliver links between the beads glow in the Florissant light.
“You see” the monks look at each other dramatically. “I am Father Oblivious.”
There is Shakespearean pause in his monologue.
True West and Benny Aloha clasp their hands at their crotch in a prayerful attitude.
“Holy cow” says Benny Aloha.
True West looks down and notices Benny Aloha in the same prayerful position.
“Must be reflex” says Benny Aloha.
He unclasps his hands and puts them in his pockets.
True West scratches his nose.
“You guys on vacation or what?” Asks True West.
“Yes” says Father Oblivious.
The monk standing next to him removes a tiny parasol from a long gone tropical drink from his sleeve.
“A souvenir” he says.
“This is my brother, Brother Stenky.”
“The drink was a Virgin Mary” of course” he says smiling.
A private joke.
The monks look at each other and barely suppress giggles. “We are allowed only wine in the monastery.”
Brother Stenky speaks. “We grow the grapes, stomp the little suckers into mush, ferment them and bottle the wine there. Then we drink it.”
“I see” says Benny Aloha.
He does.
“We are here for the annual meeting of the Armageddon Committee” says Father Oblivious.”
“Really?” Asks True West. “What do you folks do?”
“Our order looks for the Devil” says Brother Stenky.
“The antichrist” says Father Oblivious. “He’s due at anytime.”
“I’ll order a lei” says Benny Aloha.
“He may already be here” Says True West. “I thought I saw him doing the hula tonight with his shirt off at the bar.”
Father Oblivious whips out a little pad from one sleeve and is suddenly very lucid.
A pen emerges from the other sleeve.
He jots down the date.
His forehead goes up, pushing the hood back.
“Was his name Duck?” he asks.
True West looks at him startled. “No” he says.
“A man called Duck is the subject of the convention this year” says Brother Stenky. “We are told he has many of the traits of the antichrist. We are here to investigate.”
Father Oblivious nudges him with his elbow. “Shut up” he says. “Brother.”
“You folks are Dominicans?” asks True West.
“No” says Father Oblivious. “We are in fact scholars at a different level he says. Our order is not generally spoken of. We are still fighting the crusades.”
“What a coincidence” says True West. “So are we.”
“And you are involved in the End of the World” says Benny Aloha.
“Yes” Says Brother Stenky. “We take it personally.”
“I’m not exactly jazzed by it either” says Benny Aloha.
Duck, he thinks.
Benny Aloha does and then straightens up.
“I myself have witnessed his almost telepathic control over people. It is said he controls the weather and manifests miracles.”
“You think he could pay the check” says True West. “Sounds like a story I could sell.”
“He’s a journalist” says Benny Aloha.
“We know” says Brother Stenky. “We see him on the news when we are being punished.” He glares at True West.
“I’d like to cover the convention.”
The monks look at one another.
Father Oblivious produces a card from his sleeve.
“We meet at midnight” he says.
True West looks at his watch.
It is about a half hour to midnight.
“Where are you meeting?”
“It the convention center” Father Oblivion says. “In the Volcano room. Be there or be rather square and uniformed.”
“I’m hip” says Benny Aloha.
True West sighs his good night sleep into the stratosphere.
“I’m hip too” he says.


Chapter 33 Kick Ass

Up in the room, Father Oblivious blesses the neatly folded burnooses, underwear and socks laid out on the bed. “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit….”
True West and Benny Aloha nod solemnly. True West crosses himself.
Father Oblivious asks for the wood caskets they have in stashed in the bathroom, with the extra soap, shampoo and face cream. They have also been collecting chocolate and coffee, choosing to save it rather than use it. They have some pretty freaky assignments in places without any extras, Brother Stenky reminds the Father. Best save supplies for the back satchel. Little luxuries will get you through the exorcism rites after all. Brother Stenky finds sucking chocolate helps defeat the devil in his realm, the spiral of the coca into the brain for the buzz, like an L.A. Laker in for the layup. The way the chocolate sharpens cognition and muscle is almost angelic in it’s biophysical intervention. It makes you feel swollen with power. It is of the earth, of course. It is absolutely demonic. But you must command the demons.
He favors letting the chocolate melt on the tongue, and seep in at the base, like a communion wafer. It transubstantiates the sugar and caffeine into elixir and transforms the simple country brother into a Cherubim shield banger, surround by whirlwind and firestorm, his six pairs of wings spread and his soul swooping into battle. The flaming swords twirling in front of him like home coming parade batons.
He feels wicked in his need, but justified.
Shall he not be in an enflamed state for the meeting?
He digs out the chocolate.
He has bought a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts at the ABC Store and brings them out with the small cedar chest.
He lays both on the bed before Father Oblivious, True West and Benny Aloha.
He solemnly lifts the lid.
“Chocolate?” he intones deeply.
“Of course” says Benny Aloha. “It’s one of nature’s best nootropics.”
True West is on with this one. “Chocolate a fine smart drug” he says, “But the holy and hotter n’ hell Texas jalapeño is the real thing for tweakin’ brain showers. You take the two of them together, and make a good ole mole and you got one super charged brain dip. It makes your hair look like Einstein’s and your brain waves sizzle like a high hat on honky tonk. You attention snaps to it and the pupils of your eyes dilate and take it all in….”
“Yes” says Brother Stenky. “I am glad you understand me when I say that the devil has had his chocolates.”
Father Oblivious shakes his head.
“You must fight Satan as naked as a child” he says. “I prefer to go astral sober.”
Brother Stenky feels guilty. He washes himself in another chocolate covered nut.
“We don’t all have your skills, father. Some of us are not unlike Elmer Fudd when we go astral.”
True West looks at Benny Aloha for answers.
Benny shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know” he lips-syncs.
Father Oblivious looks at his pocket watch.
“It’s getting late” he says.
He opens the wooden casket.
He reaches in and takes out the belts and sheaths.
“Here” he says. “You better dress.”
True West and Benny Aloha suit up.
The straighten the sleeves and put up the hoods.
They knot the belts, and adjust the sheave.
True West put his in front.
Father Oblivious corrects him. “No. On the side, like this” he says.
What is the sheaf for?” asks True West.
It’s a good place to keep pens during the workshops” says Father Oblivious.
“I see” says True West.
“But tonight is special.” Father Oblivious looks from True West to Benny Aloha.
“Tonight is the keynote.”
True West and Benny Aloha pay attention.
They can still taste the chocolate in their mouths.
Father Oblivious takes the first obsidian dagger from the case and holds it up to the light. It is blue green obsidian from Pompeii. The blade is glass sharp and goes to deep blue as it thins to an edge that would cut paper like it wasn’t there.”
He hands it to True West. He hands another to Brother Stenky and Benny Aloha. He takes a black obsidian dagger for himself, kissing it and blessing it before sliding it into his sheath.
“If you meet the devil along the way, kill him” says Father Oblivious chuckling. “I stole that line from my true friend, a Buddhist Monk.”

“If you meet the Buddha along the way, kill him” says Benny Aloha. “I know that one. It means that if you run into your desire, your illusions, your concepts of what a Buddha is, let it go. Cut the thoughts. Come back fresh to your experience. That’s where the religion can be found. You have run into an idea, not an experience. Buddhist are more concerned with the spirit found in the thing itself. Not an idea.”
“What does that mean to a Catholic?” Asks True West.
“Kick ass” Says Father Oblivious.