From BAMBOO RIDGE Issue Number 70: MORE KAUAʻI TALES, by Frederick B. Wichman

From BR #70:

Triggers for September:

1. then there would be much laughter
2. we have no strength left
3. the night was the longest
4. I did not see them
5. a little angry and a little frightened
6. his bitterness knew no end
7. we need to know more
8. what is she doing here?

From “Ke Kahua o Mali’o”:

           Kekoa strode qickly along the Koai’e Stream, trying to escape the words of his parents still buzzing in his ears.
           “It is time you married,” his father had said.
           He was not old enough, Kekoa had protested, and he had no home ready.
           “It is time you married,” his mother had said. Her words were a command. Kekoa knew that his parents were looking for a wife for him at that moment, but she might not be good look upon.
           He forded Hapalau Stream where it flowed into the Koai’e. Further up, he crossed over Ka-wai-iki and was not even aware his feet had gotten wet.
           He came to Kala’aloa, where ferns grew that were gathered as an offering to Laka, the goddess of the hula. Here Kekoa picked three fronds and wove them into a circle. This lei he placed on a rock and said a prayer.
           “Laka,” he pleaded, “let my wife be someone who will delight my heart all my life.”
           Still caught in his gray misty thoughts, Kekoa continued up the valley. His foot slipped on a moss-covered boulder and he fell into the pond that lies at the foot of the Kamaliu Waterfall. He emerged blowing and puffing.
           Laughted echoed from the surrounding rocks.
           Kekoa looked around, ready to attack. But instead of someone he could fight, there was a young woman staring at him from a rock beside the waterfall, her mouth wide with laughter. . . .

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