Aloha's End Chapter 26: Like Drops of Sweat. (A Rewrite)

Rewritten on 8/20/07

Aloha’s End
© 2007 by Michael F. Zangari
With all rights reserved.

Chapter 27 LIke drops of Sweat
The kiss is long, sucking and deep.
TrueWest nibbles at the lips, as thin and cold as fish lips.
The pinch on his nose is excruciating.
He pulls back in shock as the life guard whacks him hard again with the big orange bologna, “Stay down” he says.
TrueWest covers his head with his hands. The bologna comes down again and again until Momi hops up from her knees in the sand and stops the assault.
“What are you doing?”
“Cock-a-roach” the life guard says, his chest heaving.
He is cut.
His shoulders and upper body are huge. He free dives and surfs. His chest is dusted with white sand. It forms a sash across his red-brown body. He looks like Mr. Universe. His blue trunks hang on his hipbones. The stomach muscles ripple like the corrugated tin of a Quonsets hut.
TrueWest lowers his hands and looks pathetically up at the life guard.
His body is as tense.
His big orange war club hangs in the air like the Hindenburg.
He whacks him again on the legs.
“Next time listen to her” he says.
Momi grabs his bologna and shoos him away
“Shoo, shoo…” she says.
He stomps away.
“He’s ok” she said. “He got an adrenalin spike, that all.”
“I think I have a concussion” says TrueWest.
He checks his mouth for missing teeth and spits salty water into the sand before collapsing back, coughing.
“Man” he says.
Momi kneels beside him like she is paddling canoe. She has a great posture and dignity. She carries the weight of her breasts well.
She unscrews the top of a water bottle and hands it to him.
TrueWest gulps a little down and spits it out. They he drinks some more.
“How long have you two been dating” she asks, “You and da kine…Gregory? The life guard?”
“Not funny at all” says TrueWest. “I’m a homophobe.”
“Oh?” says Momi, looking at his swim suit for damage.
“When you are a celebrity everyone wants a little piece. Everyone touches you like you are public property. I hate getting man-handled.”
Literally thinks Momi.
TrueWest sits up with help from Momi. He feels her breast press against his side and arm as she helps get him up.
It’s like smelling salts.
He’s up, oriented.
He looks into her eyes, green as hell in the shaded sunlight.
They are as dark as bloodstone.
She has that serious look on her face, the one she wears at work. Like the job will never be done. Her thick eyebrows are furrowed over her intense eyes.
“In our culture, there were at least thirteen sexes” she says. “For Pacific Islanders, the mahoo, the gays, were no different than anyone else. Captain Cook wrote in his journal that the chiefs had male and female lovers. He said the Chief seemed to favor the male over the female. There was no homophobia because there was no homosexuality as such. It was just a shade of the possible.”
“Politics” mumbles TrueWest.
“The very female males were used as the battlefield nurses” she said. “They were very courageous.”
“I can’t imagine waking up to another hairy face” says TrueWest.
He shudders remembering the lifeguard hanging over him staring into his eyes breathing on him.
“Yick” he thinks.
“He saved your life” she says.
“What am I supposed to do, kiss him?”
“You did” says Momi.
“Yick” he says.
Momi pours cold water on his face.
He’s really up now, dusting the sand off his legs.
There is a little sandy load in the back of his suit.
He looks like he could use a change.
“Come” she says. “Let’s shower off.”
The sunlight plays hopscotch in TrueWest’s amber eyes at that thought.
He is coming around.
He likes being with her.
Even though it’s like dancing in the ring with a light weight.
For a second he lets it show.
His eyes soft sparkle at her as she speaks.
She feels a little heat rise at his attention.
Her nipples bead like drops of sweat.
TrueWest averts his eyes but smiles up at her again.
“Are you 100% Hawaiian?” he asks her.
“You want to talk blood quotient now?” she snaps back.
“Yes” he says.
“I have a little Filipino and little Chinese and a little Portuguese” she says. ”I’m also Italian.”
She looks him over.
“But I’m 100% Hawaiian.” She says. She looks around for the orange bologna to give one good false crack for asking.
“You know there is not even a word for what happened to our people after the missionaries came with their diseases. The population was well over a million. It was reduced to about ten per cent of that immediately. We were hit with biological terrorism” she says. “It almost wiped us out.”
“In my family, we were temple keepers. It goes back generations. My ancestors refused to convert to Christianity and as a result were all but wiped out by the diseases. You had to convert to Christianity to get medicine. My relatives were among those who hid the Tiki when they were piled up and burned.” He said.
Momi is impressed. “You know some Hawaiian history then.”
“Yes” says TrueWest, I’ve been reading Queen Liliuokalani’s History of Hawaii” and doing other net research.”
Momi dreams over for seconds, coming around to realizing again who she is talking with. Kalani Ku. The Ku man. He is TrueWest news guy.
A very famous man.
A Hawaiian man.
She becomes embarrassed and looks down.
He is very charming.
Unless he is drowning, spitting up water or kissing the lifeguard
She sweats when she thinks about this.
His eyes are like tigers.
He needs to shave.
But he is a famous man.
She is happy to spend time with him.
Even if he can’t surf worth a caca.
She is reminded again that he is famous when the camera man runs up.
The cinematographer sticks out his hand.
“Fantastic” he says.
TrueWest smiles.
Momi adjusts her top.
“You’re Palani Ku” he says “TrueWest.”
TrueWest looks down then up again. “Yes” he says simply.
“I got great footage of the wipe out” he says.
“What”
“Yeah, Yeah, we rushed it back to the station to get it on the air by six.
What a tumble,” he said.
I got some great close ups of you and the life guard too.”
TrueWest wants to be buried in the sand.
“Great” he says.
“It’ll be the lead story” the camera man says. “You know, a slow news day.”
The cameraman looks embarrassed. “Of course you know what that means” he says.
True West pinches the bridge of his nose.
“I have a headache” he says.
“Can I quote you” asks the camera guy.
“Could I stop you?” asks TrueWest.
“No” says the cameraman.
“I didn’t think so” TrueWest says.
Momi is again serious. For the most part.
There is a giggle playing like a dolphin in her throat and down her chest.
Her smile keeps coming up. She keeps pushing it down out of decorum.
The cameraman cocks the camera. “One more shot” he says. “For the archives.”
“Make it through the temple” says TrueWest.