The sudden reminder of her mother made her pause, and she thought guiltily that perhaps she should at least let them know she was alright. She pulled out her phone, her hand hovering above the screen, and then she frowned at it, knowing that with a push of a button she would have to endure the admonishments and recriminations of her father, remonstrations about honor and duty that would only cast a wet blanket of guilt and remorse to what had been, so far at least, the most fun she had had in a very, very long time. Closing the vintage flip-phone with a snap, she replaced it into her purse, checked her teeth for any unfortunate adherences or smears, and then straightened, noticing with a hint of surprise that the room was now entirely deserted.
As she entered the narrow hallway that led back to the dance floor, a hairy arm jutted abruptly in front of her nose. Alani stopped stiffly and looked with apprehension to her left, only to see a gold-rimmed tooth in a huge, lupine smile.
Mako looked down at Alani with a malevolent gleam in his eye, smiling evilly, his words chilling in spite of their outwardly friendly tone and sending a cold bolt of fear through her bowels.
“Hey, Lani- long time no see!”
Chris sipped at the fresh beverage that had just been delivered by a smiling, winking cocktail waitress when the table suddenly rocked and the drinks toppled and sloshed across the table, a giggling, clearly intoxicated Trina bouncing off the high chair next to him and crashing into his lap. She looked up at him with her eyes unfocused and said leeringly, “Well, look who it is! Couldn't stand all that quiet, eh?”
“Oh, Hi! What are you doing-?”
Trina interrupted, her leer twisting into a scowl, “What am I doing here? Should be asking you the same question... So, why are you here? Get a better offer?”
“What? No, I- I just kinda ended up here, I guess... How's it going?”
Trina hiccupped and replied, “All right I guess. You here with someone...?”
“Uh, yeah- Yes, I guess I am. I'm sorry... I didn't mean to-”
The slap to his face came out of the blue, a burst of stars in his eyes, and before he could respond, Trina had righted herself and stalked off, lurching drunkenly from side to side as she left.
Chris held a hand to his stinging face and then pulled it away, fully expecting to see blood. “Sheesh! That went well...” Chris stood, rubbing the sting from his cheek as he started toward the men’s room to clean up the soggy mess that was his shirt.
Alani pushed at the immovable object that was Mako, her face twisting into a disgusted mask of loathing and her voice betraying a distinct undertone of fear. “Hey! Let me go!” She slapped at his arms futilely in alarm as they tightened around her. “What are you doing? Stop it!”
Mako responded with oily menace, “Hey, you can't even say 'hello'? I no see you in what, like eight years-?”
Alani choked back the bile in her throat and snapped bitterly, “That's only because you were in jail! Get the hell out of my way!”
Mako hugged her tighter, rocking her slightly from side to side as if to console her, the sensation gripping her heart in a cold vise as his arms tightened around her and he said, “Hey, relax, jus' take it easy. I'm not gonna hurt you…”
Alani glared at him and hissed, “Yeah? That's what you said the last time- let go of me you sick bastard!”
Mako suddenly whirled and shoved Alani against the wall, her head striking with a sickening thud as he pinned her shoulders to the crumbling plaster and stared at her with a malicious intensity. “Now dere you go callin' names again- you remembah the last time you say somethin' like that to me?” Alani froze in terror as she looked into his dark, soulless eyes, his intentions now frighteningly clear as an evil leer stretched tightly across his face.
Her gaze was suddenly attracted by a flash of movement and flickered over Mako’s shoulder. Her eyes widened in alarm as she saw Chris framed in the narrow opening of the hall, still rubbing his cheek as he approached, blissfully unaware of his damsel in distress.
Chris paused at the entrance to the hallway, a cold nudge in his mind as if responding to a strange telepathic bond. He looked down the length of the dimly-lit passage and saw a sight that froze the blood in his veins- Alani writhing in terror as a huge dark individual leaned into her, a sickening, stomach tightening sight that conveyed nothing good. Before he could even think, much less react, Chris lunged towards them and blurted out, “Alani? Hey-! Hey! Hey!!! What are you doing to-?” He skidded to an abrupt halt as the large Hawaiian released Alani and whirled to confront him- a deadly-looking knife somehow materializing in one hand. Chris backed away quickly, his hands in front of him, saying, “Whoa! Hey! Hey, now, take it easy man!”
Mako advanced slowly, almost leisurely on the retreating form of Chris, the knife waving lazily in space, slow circles reflecting fractured flashes of light as it moved. He smiled his predatory smile and said, coldly and threateningly, “You bettah jus' move on now, Haole boy- I take ovah from here, okay?”
Chris paused in his retreat. “Whoa! Whoa, there- easy, dude! Just- just put the knife down, and no one gets hurt, alright?”
Mako barked a cold laugh and suddenly lunged at Chris, the knife whistling in a high swipe at Chris’ eyes.
Alani’s cry of- “Watch out!!” was unnecessary, for Chris was already moving, his movements a blur as he wove quickly backward out of the path of the knife, and then whipped forward and grabbed the knife hand in a vise-like grip, crashing into the startled Mako and wrapping his other arm around the powerful Hawaiian’s neck, spiraling them both into the wall with brutal force, the violent impact cracking the plaster.
Mako roared like a bull and flung his weight against the form of Chris behind him, smashing him into the wall as he fought to remove Chris’ arm from around his neck. Chris yanked the knife-hand violently backward, slamming it into the wall as he jammed his thumb into the pressure point on the inside of the man’s wrist. The knife dropped to the floor with a clatter, and Mako ripped his hand from Chris’ grasp, reaching back for a hand-full of hair as he again flung himself against the wall, Chris’ head hitting hard, the already cracked plaster now falling in chunks to the floor.
Chris slumped slightly as the impact sent a renewed explosion of stars through his vision, and he tightened his grip on his assailant’s neck, desperately trying to gain an advantage before he lost control entirely. Glancing past Mako’s shoulder to Alani, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw her own gaze narrow into an almost vicious gleam of impending victory, and as he watched her line-of-sight slid slowly from Mako’s face- to his crotch.
Mako flinched with a sharp expulsion of breath as a result of Alani’s well-aimed kick, slumping with a muted groan as he fell to the floor with a thud, unconscious before he hit. Alani stepped back with a look of careful consideration, and then without warning her foot swung again. Mako’s neck snapped back with a sickening crack as Alani’s foot connected with his face and she paused with her hands on her hips as she surveyed her handiwork, a tight smile and a look of cold satisfaction crossing her face as she said softly, “Now we’re even.” Reaching for the hand of the still-dazed Chris, she tugged at him and said with a hint of desperation and anxiety, “C’mon, party’s over. Let's get out of here!”
Chris staggered down the hall as Alani pulled him toward the lights and noise beyond, and he looked back at the crumpled, unmoving body in the shadows and asked with concern, “Uh- Shouldn't we call the cops? Dude had a knife...”
Alani responded tensely, “He won’t be out for long. He’s gonna wake up way before they would get here, and when he does he’s gonna be really, really pissed! Come on!” Alani dragged Chris through the milling crowds, all of whom who smiled and nodded at the pair, blissfully unaware of the mayhem that had just occurred a few meters away, and she strode with a sense of urgency out into the warm, tropical night, walking quickly away from the fading sounds and flashing lights of what Chris realized had just become a most interesting night.
Alani leaned quietly a
gainst the weathered wooden railing of the pier, staring silently at the full, bright Moon as it hovered above the distant horizon. Finally, Chris broke the uncomfortable silence as he rubbed the back of his still-tender head, “So, who the hell was that? Some old boyfriend...?”
Alani laughed bitterly and replied, “No. Not even. He- never mind...”
“He what?”
“He was our star quarterback in High School, the captain of the football team and the big kahuna on campus. He thought that he could have anything- and anyone. In fact, he bragged about it- said that by the end of the season, not only would he score twenty touchdowns, he would score with me. The stupid pig…”
“And- what? What did he do?”
Alani blurted out, “NOTHING!!” But a slight welling of tears built behind her lovely eyes, giving away the truth of a painful, repressed memory as she continued, “It's none of your business, okay?” A single tear broke free, trickling down her cheek in a glistening wet track and disappearing into the corner of her mouth. She took a deep, shaky breath and looked deep into Chris’ eyes, finally saying, “I- he- never mind. I'm okay, he didn't- hurt me, okay? Just leave it alone... It doesn't matter anymore.” And then a stuttering sob wracked her shoulders and she leaned onto Chris, an unexpected flood of tears now dampening his collar, the pent-up emotion now pouring from her in shaking waves as she broke down and cried uncontrollably.
Chris was caught off-guard by this sudden outpouring of emotion, and patted Alani awkwardly on the back, trying to smooth over what had just become an extremely uncomfortable situation. “Hey! Hey! It's okay... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- Are you sure you're okay? Do you want to go home?”
Alani replied defiantly, sniffing back tears and smiling a forced, pained smile, “No! Not now, not yet. Chris, listen! I said it doesn't matter! It was a long time ago, anyway- doesn't matter…”
Chris hesitated, unsure of his next move. “Alani? You know, you can tell me, if it will help...”
Alani whirled on him in anger, a wail of frustration edging her voice, “Why do you even care!? What the hell is in it for you?!”
Chris responded forcefully, his own voice now charged with emotion, “Why does there have to be anything in it for me? Can't I just be there for someone else for a change? Just once, just to listen...?”
Alani broke, conceding to Chris’ entreaty, “ALL RIGHT! All right, if you really want to know...? He RAPED me!! OKAY?? And no one will ever care, because they won't have to, because no one will ever know, because it was all- my- fault!”
“But-!”
“NO! I was young, and stupid and drunk- Okay!?” Alani broke down completely now, sobbing almost incoherently, her shoulders shaking and breath shuddering as she wept.
Chris held her tightly, unspeaking as he waited for her racking sobs and heaving breaths to subside. And then he asked gently, “What- what happened?
Alani sniffed, wiped away a final tear and flung it onto the breeze. “We- we were at a party- after the game, one time. Anyway, he was drunk- we all kind of were, I guess, and- we just kind of started making out, and- he started to get carried away, and then I got scared, and then, I tried to stop him, but he didn't- he wouldn't stop, and I told him 'No', but he wouldn't stop, he just kept- he just kept- he kept on…” Alani bit her lip in memory of the pain to still its quivering, took in another deep, shuddering breath and then continued, “And then, I guess I finally must have screamed or something, because all of a sudden all of my friends were in the room, and they pulled him off me. It made him really angry, being humiliated like that in front of his team and all, and he never forgot it. He tried to blame me, said I came on to him, tried to make like it was all my fault, but everybody really knew the truth.” She paused, and then smiled, a bittersweet remembrance of the past.
Chris prodded gently, “What happened after that?”
“Well- eventually Buddy found out. It’s ‘ohana’, nothing stays a secret for long… Anyway, Buddy beat the living shit out of him- almost killed him, like- for real- to 'teach him a real lesson' he said. And then he never said another word about it. That was the last we saw of Mako- until tonight.”
“Why? Where's he been?”
Alani smiled ironically, “Jail- assault with a deadly weapon. Go figure, right? Looks like he got out early for good behavior.”
“Some guys never learn.” Chris looked back at the twinkling lights in the distance and mused, “Man, sometimes you wish that Darwinism could be just a bit more- selective.”
Chris and Alani sauntered along the shore, shoes in one hand and pinkies again clasped demurely as they walked along the whispering foam-laced waves that washed around their ankles. Alani pointed down the length of the beach, indicating a brightly-lit structure in the distance. “...and you see there, down past the Royal Hawaiian, the Pink one? Waikiki runs past there, stops just a little ways beyond.”
“That's it? Really? I always pictured Waikiki as being a lot- wider, bigger, longer...”
“I think it used to be, a long time ago. It seemed so much bigger when I was a little girl... it's so- small, now. Some people say it's just because the islands are slowly sinking- maybe the weather, the waves? Global warming? I don't know any more...” Alani laughed softly, an ironic coda to her last, and said, “Half the time I wonder if it isn't the old Hawaiian gods, taking the islands back from us to show their anger at how- how…” She paused and smiled ruefully, and then continued, “Never mind, it's silly.”
“How what?”
“How our culture is disappearing. Not just us either, but the whole world, you know-?”
“Not sure I do. What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s like- like ‘ohana’. We talk the talk, and sort of walk the walk, but we never truly- I don’t know, believe… And then there’s the idea of ‘Aloha’. Translated literal, it kind of means both ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’, together with ‘see you again’. We put it on bumper stickers, signs on the road- ‘Live Aloha’, ‘Drive with Aloha’, blah blah blah, and so on... We act like its’ some universal form of unconditional love, and then we turn our backs on each other and scramble and scratch for our own selfish survival. If I were the Gods, I’d sure be pissed at us.” She turned from him and paused in reflection of her admission, her glossy locks stirring in the breeze, and then addressed the distant horizon, “Why do we do that? Why do we have to be so crazy? It’s- depressing.”
As Alani lapsed back into a disconsolate silence, the unexpected sound of a faint crystalline tinkling of wind chimes echoed almost magically down the beach. Alani suddenly smiled mischievously and started to peel off her dress, a colorful set of bikini-style bra and panties revealed beneath. She looked sideways at Chris and asked, “Wanna do something crazy?”
Chris looked almost genuinely aghast, and then a roguish smile creased the corner of his mouth. “What? Right here, on the beach?”
Alani threw her dress in his face and replied with playful scorn, “Don’t even think it, you not gonna get that lucky.” She waded out into the dark water, her ankles disappearing. “You ever go body-surfing at night?”
“I’ve never been body surfing at all…” Chris dropped his shoes onto the sand and quickly peeled off his shirt, tossing it away on the breeze as he stepped out of his pants, flinging them in the general direction of his discarded shirt, and yelled in her direction, “Is this even legal?”
Alani hollered over the crash of a wave, now up to her hips in the warm embrace of the sea, “Technically- no. But only if they catch us!” And with that, she dove into an onrushing wave and disappeared.
Chris loped out to follow and dove over the wave that had consumed Alani, plunging into the water and washing away the cares of the night with the warm loving balm of the ocean.
The foamy wavelet splashed over Alani and Chris as they lay entwined together in the shallow surf. They broke from their final salty kiss, laughing as the water washed over them, the low-glinting gleam of the now-setting Moon sparkling like
a pearlescent path to the horizon. The water subsided, racing around them in miniature rivulets as tiny crabs scuttled away in the luminescent glow. Chris playfully pecked Alani once more on the lips, rising from the waves and pulling her to her feet as the powerful beam of a flashlight illuminated their sodden forms. They grinned sheepishly like a pair of adolescent teenagers, and Chris smiled contentedly as he grinned at her sideways and said, “Come on, we've had enough fun for one night... let's go home.”
As Chris and Alani approached the now-quiet club, the warm tropical breeze slowly dried their once-sodden underclothes. It was late, the crowds at the entrance now dispersed into the night, the lights at the entrance flashing impotently at the deserted scene. But something was different. They both suddenly stopped across the street from the silent disco as they mutually noticed the incongruous splashes of red and blue bouncing off the walls of the surrounding buildings. As if on cue they both glanced at each other with curious frowns pasted to their faces, and then as one they looked to the parking lot in the distance, and the mysterious source of the lights became clear.
The car-park valet sat forlornly on the ground, a blood-stained rag held gingerly to his head as the police leaned in to inspect his wounds. In the background behind him the once beautiful Mustang was being dragged like a deteriorated carcass onto the greasy and stained flat-bed of a tow-truck.
As Alani and Chris drew cautiously nearer, the details of the once-glorious vehicle became clear. The convertible top was now slashed to ribbons, as were the flattened tires. Long, jagged scratches scarred the length of the glittering red paint and the side mirrors hung sadly from their moorings like nearly severed limbs.
Over the Rainbow - Book One - 'The Gathering Place' Page 16