登陆注册
15319600000009

第9章 ON THE MAKALOA MAT(9)

"Through all the confusion and excitement, Lilolilo, at the rail, who must say last farewells and quip last jokes to many, looked squarely down at me.On his head he wore my ilima lei, which I had made for him and placed there.And into the canoes, to the favoured ones, they on the yacht began tossing their many leis.I had no expectancy of hope...And yet I hoped, in a small wistful way that I know did not show in my face, which was as proud and merry as any there.But Lilolilo did what I knew he would do, what I had known from the first he would do.Still looking me squarely and honestly in the eyes, he took my beautiful ilima lei from his head and tore it across.I saw his lips shape, but not utter aloud, the single word pau" (finish)."Still looking at me, he broke both parts of the lei in two again and tossed the deliberate fragments, not to me, but down overside into the widening water.Pau.It was finished..."For a long space Bella's vacant gaze rested on the sea horizon.Martha ventured no mere voice expression of the sympathy that moistened her own eyes.

"And I rode on that day, up the old bad trail along the Hamakua coast," Bella resumed, with a voice at first singularly dry and harsh."That first day was not so hard.I was numb.I was too full with the wonder of all I had to forget to know that I had to forget it.I spent the night at Laupahoehoe.Do you know, I had expected a sleepless night.Instead, weary from the saddle, still numb, I slept the night through as if I had been dead.

"But the next day, in driving wind and drenching rain! How it blew and poured! The trail was really impassable.Again and again our horses went down.At fist the cowboy Uncle John had loaned me with the horses protested, then he followed stolidly in the rear, shaking his head, and, I know, muttering over and over that I was pupule.The pack horse was abandoned at Kukuihaele.We almost swam up Mud Lane in a river of mud.At Waimea the cowboy had to exchange for a fresh mount.But Hilo lasted through.From daybreak till midnight I was in the saddle, till Uncle John, at Kilohana, took me off my horse, in his arms, and carried me in, and routed the women from their beds to undress me and lomi me, while he plied me with hot toddies and drugged me to sleep and forgetfulness.I know I must have babbled and raved.Uncle John must have guessed.But never to another, nor even to me, did he ever breathe a whisper.Whatever he guessed he locked away in the taboo room of Naomi.

"I do have fleeting memories of some of that day, all a broken- hearted mad rage against fate--of my hair down and whipped wet and stinging about me in the driving rain; of endless tears of weeping contributed to the general deluge, of passionate outbursts and resentments against a world all twisted and wrong, of beatings of my hands upon my saddle pommel, of asperities to my Kilohana cowboy, of spurs into the ribs of poor magnificent Hilo, with a prayer on my lips, bursting out from my heart, that the spurs would so madden him as to make him rear and fall on me and crush my body for ever out of all beauty for man, or topple me off thetrail and finish me at the foot of the palis" (precipices), "writing pau at the end of my name as final as the unuttered pau on Lilolilo's lips when he tore across my ilima lei and dropped it in the sea....

"Husband George was delayed in Honolulu.When he came back to Nahala I was there waiting for him.And solemnly he embraced me, perfunctorily kissed my lips, gravely examined my tongue, decried my looks and state of health, and sent me to bed with hot stove- lids and a dosage of castor oil.Like entering into the machinery of a clock and becoming one of the cogs or wheels, inevitably and remorselessly turning around and around, so I entered back into the grey life of Nahala.Out of bed was Husband George at half after four every morning, and out of the house and astride his horse at five.There was the eternal porridge, and the horrible cheap coffee, and the fresh beef and jerky.I cooked, and baked, and scrubbed.I ground around the crazy hand sewing machine and made my cheap holokus.Night after night, through the endless centuries of two years more, I sat across the table from him until eight o'clock, mending his cheap socks and shoddy underwear, while he read the years' old borrowed magazines he was too thrifty to subscribe to.And then it was bed-time--kerosene must be economized--and he wound his watch, entered the weather in his diary, and took off his shoes, the right shoe first, and placed them, just so, side by side, at the foot of the bed on his side.

"But there was no more of my drawing to Husband George, as had been the promise ere the Princess Lihue invited me on the progress and Uncle John loaned me the horse.You see, Sister Martha, nothing would have happened had Uncle John refused me the horse.But I had known love, and I had known Lilolilo; and what chance, after that, had Husband George to win from me heart of esteem or affection? And for two years, at Nahala, I was a dead woman who somehow walked and talked, and baked and scrubbed, and mended socks and saved kerosene.The doctors said it was the shoddy underwear that did for him, pursuing as always the high- mountain Nahala waters in the drenching storms of midwinter.

"When he died, I was not sad.I had been sad too long already.Nor was I glad.Gladness had died at Hilo when Lilolilo dropped my ilima leiinto the sea and my feet were never happy again.Lilolilo passed within a month after Husband George.I had never seen him since the parting at Hilo.La, la, suitors a many have I had since; but I was like Uncle John.Mating for me was but once.Uncle John had his Naomi room at Kilohana.I have had my Lilolilo room for fifty years in my heart.You are the first, Sister Martha, whom I have permitted to enter that room..."A machine swung the circle of the drive, and from it, across the lawn, approached the husband of Martha.Erect, slender, grey- haired, of graceful military bearing, Roscoe Scandwell was a member of the "Big Five," which, by the interlocking of interests, determined the destinies of all Hawaii.Himself pure haole, New England born, he kissed Bella first, arms around, full-hearty, in the Hawaiian way.His alert eye told him that there had been a woman talk, and, despite the signs of all generousness of emotion, that all was well and placid in the twilight wisdom that was theirs.

"Elsie and the younglings are coming--just got a wireless from their steamer," he announced, after he had kissed his wife."And they'll be spending several days with us before they go on to Maui.""I was going to put you in the Rose Room, Sister Bella," Martha Scandwell planned aloud."But it will be better for her and the children and the nurses and everything there, so you shall have Queen Emma's Room.""I had it last time, and I prefer it," Bella said.

Roscoe Scandwell, himself well taught of Hawaiian love and love- ways, erect, slender, dignified, between the two nobly proportioned women, an arm around each of their sumptuous waists, proceeded with them toward the house.

WAIKIKI, HAWAII.June 6, 1916

同类推荐
  • 本草纲目拾遗

    本草纲目拾遗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 比丘尼受戒录

    比丘尼受戒录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 济南纪政

    济南纪政

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 中朝故事

    中朝故事

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 三身梵赞

    三身梵赞

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 星界

    星界

    寒星不知为何没有遗传家族的天赋,学技能总是比别人慢,或者说不管他如何学,技术都是不过关的。然而,他并不笨,比家里的任何一个孩子都聪明。可是他为什么学不会一个简单的技能呢?
  • 抗日之龙腾万里

    抗日之龙腾万里

    那个年代,人民生活在血雨腥风之中,犹如一叶扁舟在风雨中飘摇。那个年代,日寇侵我河山,占我家园!在日寇铁骑践踏之下,我国危矣!而就在这个时候,他横空出世,所到之处无不令日寇闻风丧胆!这也让他身边出现了各种各样的美女,演绎了一段美女配英雄的佳话……
  • 校花的贴身内医

    校花的贴身内医

    小野哥说,我们不追求校花,我是校花的制造者。小野哥还说,我们不崇拜异能,我们批量生产异能。曾饱受欺辱的转学新生李小野,无意间获得完美世界之树,从此,开启一段不一样的人生。霸道女总裁觉得自己不够漂亮?送你一颗魅力果实;隔壁班花想要马甲线?不必刻苦锻炼,小野哥有完美身材散;你说你要打我?看来我得喂你吃颗智商果实了。
  • 都是男保姆惹的“火”

    都是男保姆惹的“火”

    因家贫和母病中途辍学的大学生赵正辉,因母病重住院治疗欠债而南下至深川市打工,由于其所学专业的局限,他择业艰难,无奈选择做了新加坡回国投资侨商孙素琴家的男保姆兼中文家教。孙素琴14岁时与有妇之夫的段再东偷吃禁果,产下了私生子博儿。由于舆论的压力及其他原因而母子分离,情侣隔绝。几经波折,她孤身流荡新加坡沦为富商蒋鹤仙的小妾。23岁时,孙素琴思子心切,便以回大陆投资办企业的方式寻找亲生儿子。实为其子的赵正辉投入她家做佣人,赵的形象与她昔日的情侣酷似,为了查证与辩认赵到度是不是她的亲生,演出了一系列动人而新奇曲折故事。……
  • 千里寻

    千里寻

    它是一只特工猫,自小在主人身边,却因为一次主人朋友的背叛为主人挡子弹而死,落入地狱,走错轮回门,来到一个名叫千叶的大陆,却不想穿到了一位少年的身上,开始一段寻主之旅。化猫为人,只为千里寻你——潇之珏
  • 梦回千年恋如情缘

    梦回千年恋如情缘

    莫名奇妙的穿越,乱七八糟的职位。。还突然来个未婚夫!!什么啊!!劳资要闯江湖~~~~~
  • 诛天道卷

    诛天道卷

    八荒乱起,六合唯一。在这个神秘的世界,他如何立足。以‘我之剑,斩天斩地,唯我最强’的信念。用‘不屈的灵魂,诠译人生真谛’的勇气。纵横异界、、、、、、、
  • 斗炎圣帝

    斗炎圣帝

    传说中的东玄域,圣域,异界,远古大陆在洪荒之期战事不断直到异界宫主与远古大陆王者展开了生死决战!大战过后大陆分离,再度和平。殊不知时空破碎,魔兽肆虐,人类存亡之危急!林衍会不会成为大陆之上受人敬仰的圣帝,为大陆解除危机....
  • 灵异战争

    灵异战争

    一个高中少年因迷路侮辱森林之中的峡谷,同时也误遇了渡劫成仙失败的千年紫貂,这使他以后的生活发生了巨大的变化,拥有神奇力量的右手,各种僵尸鬼怪的追杀,他又将会如何面对?请关注《灵异战争》。
  • 女总裁的透视神医

    女总裁的透视神医

    异世大仙穿越到地球,化身一名小医生,身怀透视能力,能给美女总裁做人工x光……从此世界震动了。没钱?福布斯榜富人排队送钱上门。没名气?不用我陆冲的头像做封面的杂志注定会倒闭。没地位?出门万辆豪车接送,一会排N形一会儿排B形。没女人?每天最头疼的就是翻哪个美女的牌子……且看陆冲如何玩转都市,登上人生巅峰——装逼一句,吊打三天;美女三千,我只取一瓢。