Kahana-The Untold Stories

by Ann Kennedy

  Kim questions him. “You want me to sit on the back of your bike for 1,500 miles?” He pauses for a moment and then says, “That would be so cool!”

  Biker Mike gets on his motorcycle and tells Kim, “We have a few hours to ride until it gets dark. Then we will stop to get gas, something to eat and a cheap motel room.” Kim doesn’t say a word. He just hops on the bike.

  They sit there for a minute or two. Then Kim questions him. “Is there something wrong? What is going on? Why aren’t we moving?”

  Biker Mike snickers at Kim’s remark, and then he says, “We can’t go anywhere until you put your arms around me.” Kim lies as he says, “Oh! I, uh, knew that.” He then puts his arms around him. Once he does, Biker Mike says, “Hold me tighter. Don’t let go of me, no matter what happens.”

  After thirty minutes of riding, Kim feels free. He forgets about everything he has endured. He’s experiencing an inner peace as he stays in the moment. He thought the long car ride with Johnny and Jimmy was great, but this ride is the most incredible experience he has ever had. He is not a passenger riding in a car looking out the window. He’s on a bike and feels like he is part of the road.

  They have left Nebraska behind them and are entering the state of Wyoming. Its terrain is different than Nebraska’s landscape. There are lots of high, rugged mountains, some are as tall as 13, 000 feet.

  After riding about forty-five minutes, Biker Mike says, “We’ll stop to get food and a motel room as soon as I get to the next town.

  Kim says, “Why? It’s not dark yet.”

  Biker Mike answers, “It’s not about the time, but the winds.”

  Kim likes the wind blowing on his face. He is experiencing a wonderful rush as they ride through the mountains. Within a few minutes, the winds are becoming stronger. They are blowing about 45 miles an hour and are picking up mounds of tumbleweeds in their path.

  The fierce winds and the tumble weeds are hammering them. Then an abundance of rain starts coming down hard. It is impossible to see two feet in front of them. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and nowhere to stop. Biker Mike must make it through this wicked storm. He must maneuver his bike to stay on the road, and he does.

  Kim shouts out, “You did it! You did it! We got through it!

  Then they continue riding through the downpour of the heavy showers of rain. It is nothing compared to what they just experienced.

  They ride for another thirty minutes and find a small town with a motel. Once inside their motel room, they begin talking about their adventure. Kim is so excited as he rapidly says, “Wow! That was the best! Boy, can you drive that cycle. A few times, I thought we were toast. But you stayed calm. You kept on driving through that blizzard. Nothing happened to us or your bike. Wow!”

  Kim pauses for a moment and then asks, “How did you learn to drive like that?”

  Biker Mike opens a beer and tells Kim his story. “During the war, like others in the army, I rode a Harley Davidson. We were the messengers and scouts. I would drive miles ahead of an advancing unit to deliver a message from another unit. The delivery of these messages helped close the distances between the units.”

  Biker Mike pauses for a minute to take a big gulp of his beer. Once he satisfies his thirst, he continues talking. “Kim, motorcycles are essential on the battle fields. They are fast and have loads of agility. But it was dangerous to ride one as a messenger. We would have been toast if we didn’t have good judgement and driving skills. We had no protection as the soldiers in the armored tanks did. There were many times we had to ride our bikes through heavy gun fire.”

  Biker Mike stops talking to grab a piece of fried chicken and another beer.

  Kim says, “You are a bad ass. You didn’t ride a bike just for fun! You are a real pro.”

  Biker Mike shyly responds, “Awe, thanks. I respect my mean machine, but it is also my pleasure machine. If I love her and take care of her then she will always take care of me. I do not want to do anything else with my life but fix and ride bikes.”

  He gulps down the rest of his beer and then dozes off to sleep. He is snoring very loudly, but Kim doesn’t mind. He can snore as loud as he wants. It is music to his ears.

  The next morning, Kim wakes up to the bright sun light. He looks around the room and does not see Biker Mike. When he walks outside, he sees him cleaning his bike.

  Kim shouts, “Do you need any help?” Biker Mike hollers back, “No, I’m done. We need to gas up and then go for breakfast.”

  After breakfast, they get back on the road and continue to ride through Wyoming. Biker Mike lets Kim do some of the driving. After they stop, Kim tells him that he had a blast when he was a passenger on it, but when he drove the mean machine, it was incredible.

  Biker Mike tells him, “You were born to ride.” Kim is genuinely humbled. It has been a long time since he received a compliment. Now, he has received one from this remarkable, man.

  Within four days, they rode through Wyoming and Utah. They are now at the border of Nevada and California. Biker Mike drives for a few miles and finds a large, quiet spot. He tells Kim that he’ll show him two biker tricks. He does a sit-down and then a stand-up wheelie. Then for fun, he does the nac-nac, which is like a stand-up wheelie except the driver places his right leg behind his left leg while he is sticking it out.

  When Biker Mike finishes, he gets off his bike and asks Kim if he wants to learn the tricks. Kim jumps on the bike, as he says, “Yes!” Biker Mike proceeds to give Kim instructions and Kim does both kinds of wheelies on the third try.

  An hour later, Biker Mike gets back on his motorcycle. They both are elated as they take-off and start riding like the wind. Then it is time for them to stop at a small town to hunker down for the night. They find a motel and check-in, and then they go out for dinner at a nearby diner. Several customers walk in together. When they walk past Biker Mike and Kim’s table they are talking about the hum-dinger of a chopper parked in front of the diner.

  Kim and Biker Mike overhear them, and. Kim asks, “Why did those people call your bike a chopper?” He tells Kim, “A lot of us veterans learned to ride Harleys when we served in the war. When we got home, we still wanted to ride. Many of us bought their cheap military surplus. The military’s Harley Davison had weird looking racks, bags, and windshields. None of that stuff was needed anymore. So, we chopped it off our bikes and that’s why the bikes are called choppers.”

  They leave the restaurant and ride to their motel room. Once inside the room, they both feel a powerful sense of sadness because tonight, is their last night together. Tomorrow they will be in Sacramento, and it will be time to say good-bye.

  Biker Mike tells Kim. “You know, you are good on the bike. You shouldn’t give it up. If, you want to keep on riding and be part of a group then San Francisco, Los Angeles or anywhere else in California is a good place to do it.”

  Kim asks, “Is that why you are going to Sacramento?”

  Biker Mike responds, “I’m going to Sacramento for a job. The Harley Davison of Sacramento business is there. It has been an authorized dealership since 1919. My buddy, Joel, works there as a manager, and he told the owner about me. After he talked to the owner, he told me that I’ve got a good chance of getting a job with them.”

  He pauses for a moment and then says, “If, the job doesn’t work out, I’ll go to another part of the state and try to get a job with Harley. There are also new clubs starting up in California around Los Angeles. I can join one of the clubs. Some are good and belong to the AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) and some are not like the ‘Booze Fighters’. That group is known as the ‘Wild Ones’ because of the riot they started in San Benito Valley. There is also a group called the Hells Angels, who are starting up. Don’t know yet, if they’ll be part of AMA or not.”

  Biker Mike pauses and yawns and then says, “Kim, it’s time to hit the sack.” Kim turns off the lights, and they both drift off to sleep.

  They get up early the next morning. They
only have an hour left on their journey. They arrive in front of the Harley Davison of Sacramento at 9:00 in the morning. Biker Mike pulls over and parks across the street from the store. He gets off his bike and gazes at the place like it is a big, chocolate ice-cream sundae.

  They say good-bye and Kim starts to walk away. Then Biker Mike calls him back to give him a hug and Kim hugs him back. Biker Mike tells Kim to take care of himself. Kim knows that he must walk away again, and this time it will be the last time.

  Kim begins to walk away. Then a few minutes later, he turns around to wave good-bye to him.

  But it’s too late, Biker Mike has already faded into the distance.

  Kim will miss his friend.

  Chapter 9

  A Sea Faring Adventure

  Kim walks down the road and begins hitch hiking. Within a few minutes, he gets a ride. He feels lucky when he finds out that the driver is going all the way to San Francisco. He stares out the window and remembers hitch-hiking from San Francisco up to Sacramento with Giovanni. He was not lucky back then. Nothing on that long journey was easy. He suffered a lot of hardships from the moment he arrived in San Francisco.

  This journey has been different. Once he went to the foster home in Massachusetts things got better for him. Then when he decided it was time to go home things fell into place. Thus far, he has not met any obstacles. Instead, his excursion across the country has been a joyous experience. It confirms his belief that he has been given a sign that it is the right time for him to go back home.

  As he gazes out the window, he sees two bikers speeding past him. He wishes he was on a chopper, but he knows he will ride again. Not only will he ride again, but he will save enough money to buy himself a Harley. He begins to contemplate the idea that someday he might start a biker’s club in Hawaii.

  It’s early Saturday afternoon when Kim arrives in San Francisco. He is ready to set in motion a plan that he has engineered to get back to Hawaii. First, he goes into the Emporium Department Store on Market Street. He wanders in the store for a while, but their high prices are out of his budget. He then heads to a less expensive, small clothing store and buys a pair of nice, black pants for a dollar, a thin black belt for fifty-cents, two pairs of white socks for fifty cents, a white tee-shirt for seventy-five cents and a long sleeved, white shirt for a dollar.

  He’s glad that he doesn’t need to buy a new pair of black shoes. He had brought his shoes from Massachusetts with him. A new pair of shoes would cost about three or four dollars. He’s almost broke now and would not have had the money to buy them.

  When he is done shopping, he leaves the store and runs to jump on a trolley. He gets off the trolley when it stops at the docks. He finds a small diner close by and drinks a coke, eats a sandwich, and pays his bill. Then he goes inside the diner’s restroom and comes out wearing all his new clothes. He looks like a waiter now. He walks for ten minutes and reaches the San Francisco Port at four o’clock. He arrives on the perfect day and time to implement his plan.

  When he lived in Hawaii, he used to watch the kitchen help report to work on the cruise ships on Saturday afternoons. The ships used to leave on Sunday afternoons for their cruises to the mainland. The passengers got off the cruise ships on Saturdays, and then two weeks later, new passengers boarded the ships on Sundays. He is hoping that this is how it works in San Francisco too.

  Once he is there, he sees a lot of Hawaiians dressed like him. They are carrying bags, trays and boxes of food and other items aboard a cruise ship. Then they come back to the dock and pick up more stuff. He knows he can blend in with these workers.

  About four hundred feet away, there is a young Hawaiian man, dressed like Kim, sitting on a crate. Next to him are two big, wooden boxes filled with kitchen items and food. Kim runs up to him and says, “Take a break for fifteen minutes. I got this.”

  Kim then lifts the boxes up and walks aboard the ship with the other Hawaiian workers. He is not stopped. No one pays any attention to him. He follows the workers into the kitchen and puts the boxes down.

  Then Kim overhears the kitchen workers speaking the Hawaiian Pidgin language to each other. He understands it, and he can speak it. He spoke it in Hawaii when he worked on the sugar plantations.

  The language started during the beginning of the second World War. During that time, there was a shortage of workers, and the sugar plantations needed many immigrant laborers. The plantation owners in the Hawaiian Islands solved their problem by bringing over immigrants from Japan, Portugal, China, and other countries to work for them.

  Even though the immigrants labored alongside the native Hawaiian Islanders, they spoke only their own native language. It was difficult for them to communicate with each other. They solved their problem when they created the Pidgin language. It was like a universal language for them. It blended English and all their different immigrant languages together. It was a way for all the workers to understand and communicate with each other.

  Another good thing for them was that the English-speaking plantation owners did not understand it. Neither does the captain of this ship or any of his crew understand it. As Kim listens to the kitchen workers speak Pidgin, he feels like he belongs.

  Then Nelami, one of the cooks, approaches Kim. He knows a girl with her name means that she ‘can conjure up great power from the heavens.’ She hands him one of her freshly cooked pork rolls and asks him “Wiki wiki, man ono pua’a?

  She is asking him, “You like pig?” He nods his head and tells her in Pidgin how good it is. Then he devours his pork roll.

  She is pleased that he likes it and then she calls one of the waiters over to her to show Kim around. Then the most unimaginable thing happens. The waiter, who Nelami called over to her, recognizes Kim. He greets Kim and says, “Do you remember me? I’m Ikaia.” Kim does not know him very well, but he does remember seeing him working in the sugar cane fields. He also knows, in Hawaiian, the name Ikaia means, “God delivers.” Kim takes this as a good sign and believes Ikaia will help him.

  Ikaia tells Kim to follow him and they venture down to the bottom level of the ship. It has three large areas. No passengers ever see these areas because it is where the workers stay during the cruises. The first two areas are where the workers sleep. In both areas, the cots are filthy and are sandwiched together. About twenty feet away from their sleeping quarters are two large bathrooms.

  The third area has many sinks and lots of dining chairs and tables. This is the area where the workers talk, eat, drink, and play music.

  Ikaia tells Kim, “When you’re not working, you come down here. It is our area and we call it the dungeon. None of us can be seen on the ship unless we are working.” He then asks Kim, “Where will you be working?” Kim does not understand what he is asking. He says, “I don’t know. I can work anywhere.”

  Ikaia says, “Jo-Jo, the big boss, demands that all the new workers stay on the first level of the ship. The other two levels are for the rich passengers, and only the most experienced waiters work up there.

  Kim tells him that he never met Jo-Jo. He lies as he says, “A guy I met at a diner told me to show up on the docks and I might be able to get work on one of the ships.”

  Ikaia is not surprised. He shrugs his shoulders and tells Kim. “That happens a lot. On this cruise we will have 815 passengers. That would not have been too bad if ten workers did not show up. It left us short-handed. So, we can use all the help we can get!” He pauses and joyfully says, “Welcome Aboard!” Kim is about to explode with happiness. He cannot get over that everything is working out so easy for him.

  Over the next few days and nights, Kim works in the kitchen washing dishes and doing prep work. On the floor he serves the food from the banquet tables or waits on tables. Kim does not care how hard he works because he knows that he will be back in Hawaii in two days. Then on the last night of the cruise there is an incident.

  There is a group of drunken veterans and their girlfriends seated at a large, round table. It is 1:20
in the morning and the last call to get an alcoholic drink is approaching. Art, one of the veterans, grows tired of waiting for a server to come to his table. He and his friends want to order four more pitchers of beer. It is obvious the group has already had enough to drink. All night long, the boisterous group has been demanding and rude to the staff.

  Art stands up and shouts at the waiters, “Hey, what’s wrong with you people? We want to order our beer now! Why aren’t you coming over to us?”

  Ikaia wants to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible before it escalates into a major problem. He walks over to Art’s table and politely tells him that he will bring his pitchers in a few minutes. He explains to Art that he first must take care of the people at another table.

  Kim cringes when he hears what Ikaia has just told him. He knows Art will over-react and become enraged. People like Art never want to be in second place.

  Art goes into a rage and shoves Ikaia and then slams him into a wall. He is hungry for a fight and does not want to stop beating on Ikaia. He puts his big hands around Ikaia’s neck as if he is about to choke him.

  He gets in his face and gives him an ultimatum. “I want to be served within the next five minutes or else! Do you get my drift?” Ikaia nods his head that he understands, and Art releases his hold on him.

  Kim is at the bar when he hears Art hollering to Ikaia. Kim yells to Art, “Leave him alone. I’m getting your drinks.” He quickly pours beer into two empty pitchers. Then he walks over to Art’s table holding one pitcher in one hand and one pitcher in another hand. He places the two pitchers down on the table.

  Art hollers at him. “What kind of game are you playing? I ordered four pitchers and you know I did.”

  Kim calmly explains to him that there are no more trays. Then, with disingenuous humility, he says, “I could only carry two at a time. I will be back with the other two in a few minutes. Art shouts at Kim many obscenities with his dirty potty-mouth as Kim walks away.

  Kim is fuming with anger and his fiery, temper is about to explode. He marches back to Art’s table with two more pitchers of beer. He slams one of the pitchers on the table. Then he pours the second pitcher of beer over Art’s head.