Lahilahi, August 1966

Called Cornet Beach for the variety store just across Farrington Highway, its tide pools sparkle clear in the near-cool morning on the school side, across the bay from Mauna Lahilahi.

An animated cluster of brown young people:

“Get um! Get um!”

“Trow’m now. Now!”

“You wen’ got’m! ”

A broad net, weighted at the edge; a spinning saucer hangs across the lava-sharp reef, falls, lands flat, lands true, the piscine struggle at its center inept and in vain. Dey had’m.

The next day, Monday, was my first teaching U.S. History at Waianae High with a degree in English. More days followed.