Chapter 38

Wednesday and Thursday were going to be fairly innocuous days with Erin planning on going surfing with Keise both afternoons and I’d just tag along those days. Just lazy days at the beach.

I went with them on Wednesday, and my leg was well enough that I had swum for a little before it started getting sore and I had to stop and rest.

There was no shortage of Keise teasing me during the afternoon. When I got out of the water, she came up behind me while I was on a beach chair, leaned down placing her head next to mine.

“So, I hear you scared poor Aline with that big dick in your pants?”

Well as they say, “If you can’t beat’em, join’em”.

“I wouldn’t want to split you in half and sacrifice another young woman at its altar.”

She snorted. “Only little dick guys brag like that. Aline probably ran cause you’re packing a cocktail weenie.”

“Probably so. Look, I’m trying to read, so go surf or something.”

With a huff she took off towards the water; not a great ass, but OK. I figured that was the end of it, though I was proven so spectacularly wrong on Thursday.

Keise brought some snorkel gear on Thursday because Erin wanted to look at what was causing the waves to form. It wasn’t interesting to me, so I begged off.

It was almost flat calm, no surfing, when they went snorkeling. I went out to about 8ft of water and was bouncing off the bottom and treading water. I lost track of them and decided to head in.

Once I could stand, I looked to see if anyone was messing with our stuff when all of a sudden, my shorts were around my ankles. Guess I should have tied them tighter.

I saw something dark in the water, then noticed something a few feet away. It took my brain a few seconds to process this, then there was an “OH FUCK!” thought echoing through my head. With some fumbling, I was able to get my shorts up and head in.

This was not good. If I thought I was going to get killed for the tattoo, Mom would flay and dismember me for this. I could hear a “sorry” behind me as they surfaced. Keise was apologizing the whole time, and Erin just kept calling my name. I sat down in the chair with my hands in my head. Erin broke the silence with something I did not need to hear from my sister.

“Keise, why is Barnim’s peepee so big?”

FUCK ME! This was going to be so bad.

“I’m curious too Barnim.”

“Keise you need to stop. You’re the reason this whole thing started. Just so you know, when the heat for this comes down, I’m throwing you under the bus.”

I then explained to Erin, that if anyone shows her their peepee that she wasn’t supposed to be looking at them, no matter who it was. She needed to tell Mom, Randy or an adult right away. I was even more shocked when she said that she sees Randall’s peepee all the time.

I was going to castrate that boy, I mean really, your 7yr old sister, what the fuck was he thinking.

I asked her what she meant by that. “Well, he never gets dressed after taking a bath, so I see him with no clothes on in the hall all the time. While we’ve been here, he comes back into the room naked so he can get dressed.”

At least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Though I would need to have a conversation with him about common decency. I looked at Keise, who at least had a look of being ashamed on her face.

“You know we’re both fucked right?”

“You’re not, it’s my fault and I’ll take the blame.”

They went back to surfing while I sat and contemplated my impending death and having a conversation with Randall.

We finished up the day, and I figured Keise would bolt right after dropping us off. I have to give her credit, she went right in and explained everything to my grandparents. I then explained about Randall to them and made my exit stage left.

I could hear raised voices as I went outside to empty our stuff out of the van. Waiting at the front of the van, Keise came out and I could see she was on the verge of tears. I gave her a hug and reassured her it would be fine. Then I decided to mess with her.

“So, do you want to get sacrificed on the altar right here, or go somewhere?” Looking up, to my surprise she had a gleam in her eye. Well, looks like I underestimated her. So, I cut her off.

“Don’t answer. If I’m ever back here and we’re both single, you get first crack. Now go.”

She kissed me on the cheek and took off. Walking in the house I could hear the chastising of Randall, mention of the strap was made. Dinner was a quiet affair, with nothing being said while Erin seemed oblivious.

Sammy called before I went to bed and said I was to meet him at the Marina at 1pm to get the gift I was after.

Friday’s agenda was full, though not so jam-packed as to have to rush from one thing to another. First for the day was a visit to Henare. I took the two big tusks from the hog I killed with me.

He began looking over my arm and seemed to think it was healing nicely. He gave me another tin of the ointment to take with me. I handed him the tusks and could tell he liked what he saw. They were about 7 ½ inches including the piece of attached jawbone.

“What are these for Barnim?”

“They’re a thank you for the awesome work you did.”

“I can’t accept these, as they are from your first hog, and are a sign you’ve become a man.”

I had to think fast as I had underestimated the intrinsic ceremonial value that was placed on the tusks in the Samoan culture. The idea I came up with would have to suffice.

“Henare, I know you use boar tusk in some of your needles. Take them as down payment for finishing my arm tattoo at a later date.”

I think we both knew that it was payment for something that might or might not ever happen. He told me to go before he had to spank the child I no longer was.

When we got back to the house, Grandfather took us to lunch at one of his favorite places before dropping me off at my appointment with Sammy. It was a pretty good lunch at a small mom-and-pop burger joint.

As I got dropped off, I had no clue as to what was going to happen. Walking towards the Anjo, I could see that it was already fired up and ready to go. I boarded and Sammy had me cast off then we headed out towards the east.

I was told we were going to visit one of Sammy’s friends on Molokai and it would be about an hour and half ride to the other marina. On the ride, he explained about how this would work.

Lalo, his friend, ran a fishing charter and also an oyster/pearl farming business. He produced normal, and Tahitian pearls.

“So how does he produce Tahitian pearls in Hawaii?”

“Well, it’s actually a specific type of oyster that produces Tahitian pearls which are a shiny black in color. Those oysters are from Tahiti and Lalo has a ton of them.”

“How’s that work? Why would they sell them to him?”

“I don’t know and don’t ask, that goes for you as well. Got it?”

“Got it.” The rest of the trip was peaceful, with little conversation of anything important.

We pulled into a rickety marina that looked like it had seen its better days. There were half a dozen large looking Samoans waiting on the dock for us; hopefully, they were friendly. We docked and they met us as we came off the boat.

The first question seemed inevitable. Lalo wanted to know why Sammy brought a white boy along. I was told to pull up my sleeve and show my tattoo.

“Damn Sammy, your family is really scraping the bottom of the barrel bringing a white boy into the family.” Guess this was going to be a reoccurring thing now.

Sammy explained the story of what happened and then Lalo wanted to see the aftermath of my encounter. I pulled my shorts up and peeled the bandages back. There were a bunch of “wows” and “damns” from the group. Then it seemed it was time to get down to business.

Lalo was wondering what I was looking for as we walked to the marina office. It seemed Lalo owned the marina and kept it looking like it was in disrepair so people would stay away. It all seemed a bit sketchy to me, but if I got a deal out of it, I’d be okay.

I told him I was looking for a necklace for my younger sister. He went into a back office and came back out with a big case. It had tons of drawers, both big and small.

Pulling them open, Lalo showed me smoky black pearls of different sizes, both loose and finished necklaces of different lengths. Then he showed me several necklaces that were about 12 inches in length, with “Akoya” white pearls that were 6mm and perfect for a little girl.

Looking at them, I figured one would work. Then Lalo went into full used car salesman mode.

“But I can also cut you a good deal on one of these Tahitian pearl necklaces for your favorite girl. So whatcha say?”

I looked at him and told him to give me a price. I held back a choke when he told me $1k for the Tahitian pearl necklace. Before leaving, I had talked to Grandmother, and she gave me tips and estimated prices.