NEW ALOHA'S END CHAPTER 32: To Be Omnipresent

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

Chapter 32: To Be Omni-present (A Slight Rewrite)

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.
Benny Aloha smiles up at him.
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. Our family lost everything in World War Two. My family was interned in the Jap camps even though my father was ethnically Chinese-Hawaiian. ” He shrugs. “That influences your perspective.”
“I imagine so” says True West.
“One day I was listening to the radio and playing ball 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. ”
“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 metanoid” he says. “Like you’ve been protected all your life.”
“A metanoid” says True West. “What is that?”
“It’s the opposite of paranoid” says Benny Aloha. “A metanoid believes the world is conspiring to them a favor.”
“I think my paranoia comes from the Japanese side of my family. They tend to be more protective and proactive. They 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 sandles.
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, 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.”
“I’m hip” says Benny Aloha.