Chapter 37

Waking up, I felt refreshed for the first time since arriving. What with the jet lag and injuries, I hadn’t had the time to unwind and relax.

There was still about an hour before I had to leave, just enough time for a shower and breakfast. I was drinking anything I could as being dehydrated probably played into me passing out the first day. That wasn’t going to happen again if I could help it. Moving also was a bit easier, and in another day, I might be able to ditch the crutch.

Grandmother sent me off telling me how much of an idiot I was, but still gave me two full plates to take with me. Erin came up and said she’d try and come visit me later.

With all the fanfare over I got on my way. When we pulled in, I was surprised to see Tanielu sitting with Henare. Grandfather was introduced to Henare and was given permission to stay for a bit. Tanielu was there because someone from the family was supposed to be there to lend support for the person being tattooed.

I gave the plates of food to Henare so they could be refrigerated. Tanielu laughed, “Glad you didn’t bring one for me, I’m still stuffed from Saturday.”

I laid down as he put went to put the dishes in the house and Henare started prepping my arm.

“We’re most likely at one more day, possibly a little more. I’ll start with the inside of your arm so that way we’ll get the most painful stuff out of the way. After the way the first day went, I plan on taking more breaks and you’ll need to move around some. Not taking any breaks contributed to you passing out last time, along with other factors.”

Grandfather looked at me and I mouthed it was OK. The tapping sound began and there was a slight twitch of my arm as the pain began again. I fell into my meditative state again as I felt Grandfather and Tanielu lay their hands on my ankles. That gesture alone seemed to deepen my meditation and brought a calm over me knowing they were there.

We stopped about an hour or so into the session. Grandfather was heading out, so I said goodbye and grabbed the milk jug I’d filled with water and had some. The pain began again.

I brought my Walkman this time to help relax and started with my breathing again. Thinking about the plan and things I could improve began running through my mind.

Of the whole plan, there was only one thing that I could think of to improve it. When it got time to leave for boot camp, I’d need to see if Bob could find me a plot of land to purchase. I wouldn’t build a house right away, but it would be a good way to build credit and have myself prepared for the future. I’d take a cue from my great grandparents and look for land that was at least 25 acres.

I also thought back on my conversation with Keise about women’s attraction to me and wondered if it was due to the influence of the Agen. And although Kiskan had said there wasn’t anything I needed to do for the Agen. I had a hard time believing they were all that altruistic, then again maybe I was too cynical. There’re two sayings that always kept popping in my mind when I thought of the Agen. Firstly, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” and secondly “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there seemed to be something that they were getting out of this.

Two more breaks and we stopped after about another 3 hours. The inside of my arm was done with what seemed like was a very hard black color, there was no shading in it.

We had stopped to eat, and Henare enjoyed the food, telling me to thank Grandmother for him. After the lunch, we went back to the grind. Following a couple of breaks, I heard a vehicle pull up. Turning my head, I saw Keise’s VW bus and then Erin came running out of the car yelling my name.

Henare stood up, and as Erin hit the stairs, he stopped her. “First young lady, I’d appreciate it if you could calm down, and then second, you must take off your shoes. My name is Henare, what might yours be?”

“It’s Erin, nice to meet you sir.”

“Such fine manners.”

We got back to work with Erin trying to get as close as she could to watch what was going on. Keise sat down by my head.

“How you doing Barnim?”

“Good.”

“Well, I’m going to give you a ride home.” I was glad that Erin was here as she’d give me a buffer from Keise. Looking up at her, I motioned my head for her to come closer. She brought her face close to mine.

I whispered to her. “Stop trying to be a cradle robber.”

“You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

She sat back and I turned my head to look at Erin.

“So, did you have fun surfing today?”

She then went on a 20-minute rant about her day and how she was now a great surfer. Keise was just grinning and chuckling the whole time. Erin just kept rattling on and on about whatever popped into her head. I’d kind of tuned it out when something caught my attention.

“Mr. Henare, can I try?”

Not only no, but HELL FUCKING NO!

“Watch what I do for a little while and we’ll see.”

What the hell was he thinking? This had the potential to go bad, really bad. I could only hope Henare knew what he was doing.

I just closed my eyes. Whatever happened, would happen and I’d just have to deal with it.

All of a sudden there was a super sharp pain in my arm. Looking over, Erin had the striking mallet in her hand and Henare had the needle stick in his hand. Keise was laughing again; this was going to blow.

There were some instructions on how hard to hit, and Erin started tapping away. She was grinning while tapping the needle stick. This went on for about ten minutes before Henare took over for a few minutes and then finished. The equipment got put away and I was allowed to sit up as he began cleaning my arm.

“Barnim, we’re done. I think it’s complete, although I need you to stop by on Friday morning so I can take a look at it and see if anything needs to be touched up.”

“Henare, so what do I owe you?”

“The family coming of age tattoos are never for money. Sammy and Fiti already made the barter agreement, so you don’t owe anything.” I’d need to have a conversation with those two.

We piled into the car and I took the backseat. Erin was talking a mile a minute in the front. When we got to the house, Keise said she couldn’t stay. I gave her a hug and she tried to pull me down to kiss me, I was able to turn my head in time and she got my cheek. I heard laughing from the veranda, Grandmother was standing there watching.

“Come on lady killer, in the house.” That’s all I needed was for this to become a reoccurring theme. I went in and grabbed a drink before sitting down at the kitchen table.

Grandmother came in and began looking at my arm. It was a very scrutinizing inspection, there was no hint of what she might be thinking. She let me stew for a couple minutes.

“Well, I don’t like tattoos; I tell your grandfather that all the time. It does look nice though. I’ll just wait to see when your funeral is and make sure I have a nice speech written for the occasion.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your funeral after your mother kills you.”

Well, it was a distinct possibility as the fallout once I got home was going to be immediate. Mom didn’t like tattoos even less than Grandmother. The punishment was going to be fast and brutal. I made a choice and would deal with whatever she came up with.

Grandmother went back to making dinner, and kept up the current theme of how big of an idiot I was going.

When we all sat down, Erin proceeded to regale everyone on her surfing prowess. As usual she went on and on. Everyone was curious when she told about how she was able to help with my tattoo. Mariana was shaking her head, I guess she was one of those people who judged those with tattoos no matter how nice of a person they were. Randall thought it looked cool, though said he’d have fun watching Mom kill me. That seemed to be the common retort.

Grandfather thought it was an excellent tattoo, and he began to expound but got cut off by Grandmother. She said if he came home with another tattoo he’d be sleeping on the couch until the divorce was finalized. A little harsh, but hey it worked for them to the tune of 49 years married. The conversation stayed cordial and there wasn’t any yelling.

I slathered on the ointment Henare gave me, one of the side effects of it was there was a bit of numbing when I applied it. I got to bed early after a bit of reading.

Taking my morning shower, I got worried as there were large flakes of what looked to be black skin coming off my arm. The washcloth was full of them, Henare was going to kill me for scrubbing so hard.

Rinsing off, I went and looked in the mirror for any blank spots in the tattoo, there weren’t any. It had to be the different method of tattooing. It wasn’t this bad when I got tattooed in the first go round. Going out to have breakfast, I thought about what to do for the day. There wasn’t much else planned for the week other than Saturday. Erin had another day or two of surfing planned with Keise, so I thought I might tag along for a day of that for some beach time.

Feeling better, I left the crutch in my bedroom, got some juice from the kitchen and went out to the veranda I sat down on the big wicker chair. Pulling an ottoman over to prop my feet up, I sat back looking forward to enjoying a warm day reading. I’d gotten through about 10 or so chapters when there was a bunch of grumbling from my stomach, signaling it was time for lunch. When I entered the house, grandmother was packing up a bag with towels and some other stuff.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re taking the kids to go to Hanauma Bay Nature preserve. Do you want to go with?”

“No, I’ll just stay here and read or take a nap.”

“Well, we’ll bring some dinner home for you.”

“OK.”

I looked in the fridge and didn’t see anything that stuck out to me and decided to go with the old faithful PB&J with a glass of milk. Reading while I was eating lunch outside, a wave of sleepiness hit me. Pushing the plate forward, I relaxed back and took a nap.

Something was brushing against my face causing me to wake up. As my eyes opened, there was a lot of hair in my face. Next thing I knew, Aline’s face came pushing through the hair. She turned around putting her ass on my stomach and put her face next to mine while looking over her shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She slid down, letting that ass slide down into my crotch; it was starting to have the intended effect. Aline popped back up putting her hands in between my legs. Bent at the waist looking at me, she began shaking and gyrating that lovely ass.

“You know exactly what I’m doing. I felt some movement. So, I know it’s working, are you going to give me what I want?”

“Aline, you know the answer. You are beautiful and sexy. To be honest, I’d love to bend you over and fuck you into oblivion. That’s not going to happen.”