From BAMBOO RIDGE Issue Number 74, THE BEST OF HONOLULU FICTION

Triggers for November:

1. I wanted to surprise you
          From Ka Ho`i `Ana: The Returning, by Alani Apio

2. things were that weirdly festive
           From The Centipede of Attraction, by Pamela Ball

3. this isn't anything to worry about
           From Akiko Buries Her Son, by David Choo

4. she would never do it their way
           From Old Kimono, by Marie Hara

5. there is also much I do not understand
           From Hanalei, by John Heckathorn

6. let me try
           From The Brilliance of Diamonds, by Nora Okja Keller

7. he laughs at the memory
           From Moon People, by Wendy Miyake

8. not another word
           From The Year of the Black Widows, by Graham Salisbury

From Honolulu Hand Grenade R and R, by William D. Steinhoff

           We were so young, ignorant, and violent then. Now my anger has faded and I can see some bizarre justice in Clark giving Barbara Jean a hand grenade for a wedding present. We were in Honolulu on R and R from the Vietnam War, and more specifically, he gave her an anti-personnel concussion grenade. You see, Clark thought he was going to marry Barbara Jean in Honolulu, and I was going to be the best man.
           Originally, Clark was going to send the grenade back home with Barbara Jean, so she could give it to his brother. But Clark changed his mind about the hand grenade after Barbara Jean told him she was pregnant and was going to marry Harley Featherstone, who had an upholstery shop for cars in Flint Michigan, called Harley's Cool Seats.
           Getting back to the hand grenade, nobody know Clark had it but me, and I thought he was going to send it to his brother Charleton.(Clark's mother named all of her eight kids after movie stars.) Clark said Charleton was going to throw it into a gravel pit and see if it would blow up some fish.
           Clark still wanted to marry Barbara Jean even after Madame Magyar told him not to, the night before Barbara Jean arrived in Honolulu. But he never married Barbara Jean, then or later. And I forgot all about the hand grenade until after Clark sort of killed himself. . . .

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