Untraditional Pt. 02

Again, I turned my back on my wife as she simply stood there hurt and shocked. On some level, she must have considered what I did as one possible outcome because she chased after me. The others were also shocked by what was playing out and they held back.

"Rob, wait," she cried out. "Can we talk?" Mel came up behind me with Jon in tow. She held his hand, dragging him along. He didn't look pleased. When I stopped so did she, about ten or fifteen feet away. She didn't let go of Jon's hand and still, after so long a time, I think that may have hurt me more than anything she'd ever done. It sure felt that way just then. It was clear the hand-holding was some attempt for both of them. I saw it as a united front. It was a message. Even as she saw my eyes look at their hands, she didn't let go.

"Fine," I sighed deeply. Might as well get this over with.

"I'm sorry. We've..." she struggled with the words. We've... I've hurt you. I..."

"Bad way to begin, wife," I warned. "Sorry that I'm hurt but not sorry about what you've done. Anyway," I paused for effect. "You've got my curiosity up. What have you done to hurt me?"

Oddly, the question seemed to trip her up. The rapid eye movement spoke volumes as did her inability to formulate an answer. Just then, Aleki arrived, also stopping several feet away, gasping loudly as she saw what was unfolding.

"Because we've had... union," Mel finally said in a raspy voice as though someone had suctioned all the saliva out of her mouth. "Because we continue..." She thought better of her next words and just stood there, helpless.

"Let me help you out, dear." I jumped in sarcastically. I noticed Jon hadn't moved. "Cheating on our vows is the least of your crimes, although that deeply wounded me. Besides your cheating, you're a liar, a conniver, and a colluder. You've ultimately disrespected me and I'm sure deep down you know exactly how you've done that."

"Hold on there, Rob," Jon decided it was a good time to interfere and maybe assert his domain. "Don't talk to her like that. I know you're upset, man, but you're wrong. She loves you. Big respect and mana, Brah. No one, especially us, has taken anything from you." He extended his thumb and little finger in the universal sigh of Mahalo. He'd clearly been thinking about how he'd handle our reunion.

"Fuck your mana!" I was done with the conversation. "And fuck you, Brah!" The crowd had grown and were rooted to their spots, speechless and perplexed.

Jon moved forward as if he might hug the anger out of me. As he got close, I lost it and stepped in like he and Steve had taught me all those years ago.

I didn't telegraph my punch, either. They had both taught me that, too. I jabbed up into his jaw with everything I had in me. I heard a good crack and my hand immediately hurt like a sonofabitch. Some might have considered it a sucker punch. So what?

Jon - the great Puko - let out a little yelp, went down, and immediately rolled back toward me, on his ass, leaning on one arm in the sand. I'd known him and seen him in action many times before. I was sure he'd pop back up to his feet but he didn't.

Then a smile broke across his face, as he wiped his bloody lip. He spoke with difficulty through his teeth. "That feel good?" His tone was snide. He was playing the crowd. That was unexpected.

"Don't talk to me, asshole," I sneered at him. "We're at war - you and me!"

Jon slowly rose to his feet, standing to face me, his head up high and his chest puffed out like a peacock. His face looked to be in a race with his chest. I suddenly felt a hand grab my arm. My instinct was to pull away but I heard Aleki's voice.

"Come on, Rob," she commanded. "Right now."

I turned toward her frightened face and knew I needed to go with her. She literally dragged me away as villagers spoke in hushed tones pointing at me.

When we got to the docks, she stopped abruptly and turned to face me.

"What was that?" she hollered. "You've made a grave mistake, Rob."

Aleki explained to me that by declaring war against the village's god-man, I'd become open season for anyone who wanted to defend Jon's honor.

"Now," she said wildly, trying to think, "we've got to figure something out quickly because we don't have much time before, how you say, all hell breaks loose."

I sat with Aleki while we formulated the outline of a plan. Well, she outlined it for me and I listened but she knew better.

Not forty minutes later, Moana was making her way toward the docks and us. She looked like she had murder on her mind. She gave Aleki a filthy look as she got close and waved her entourage to stay back.

"Get yourself back to your house," she ordered me. "And talk to your wife and Puko. Straighten this out. You've got the entire village in an uproar!" She was breathing fire.

"I demand ho' o'ponopono Kupuna!" I told her sternly.

"You demand nothing!" she gave me right back. "Your wife is a blubbering mess and you are going to fix it, right now!"

As we'd discussed just before Moana arrived, I ran out toward the onlookers, many more who had gathered with the others in the last minute.

"Makemake au Ho' o'ponopono Kupuna." I screamed like a warrior to the people, looking them all in the eye as I turned to each repeating myself over and over. Moana stood there, staring at her daughter, ready to spit nails.

I'd quickly memorized what Aleki had taught me and I'd asked, maybe demanded, a hearing of my grievances in front of the elder council. Two hours later, we sat in a close circle around a large bonfire, with many of the villagers sitting in a concentric ring farther out.

I wasn't about to attack their traditions. Who was I to do that? Instead, I focused on the lies and deceptions that had been heaped upon me, even laying out how both were callously done just to get me to the island. I made it clear that I would have never left home had I known what they were planning.

I also made sure to explain that both Mel and Jon were multi-cultural, meaning that they, of all people, knew how I'd feel. Then I told them how I felt.

Jon sat proudly in the inner circle, his soon-to-be rightful place. Mel cried the entire time. I was way past caring what she thought. When I'd finished, I sat down in the sand next to Aleki. She held my hand as the elders discussed, either in a show of solidarity or to evoke some emotions in her sister, letting her know exactly what she'd done to me.

The main elder, I guessed, spoke up as they broke conference.

"Rob," he said. "Your grievance has been heard and accepted. What is it that you wish?"

Aleki prompted me to stand. "I wish," said as I cleared my throat. "I wish to return home."

"And may we assume that you wish to return home without Mele, your wife?"

I nodded, surprised that they'd so readily agreed. Then I remembered the important part.

"Excuse me," I addressed the entire council. "Not alone. I wish to have Aleki accompany me." There were sounds of shock or awe before I could finish. Mel looked at me like she didn't know me. Now she was getting it.

"Aleki, as most of you know, I think, has a talent," I stood my ground like a lawyer. "Her talent has been stifled - her mana taken from her by the death of her father. I humbly ask permission to help strengthen and restore her mana, to get back what she has lost. We both feel that her going to Boston with me can accomplish that. I give my word that she will be well cared for, that I will protect her." I all but ignored Mel.

The elder spokesman did not seem surprised by the request. Moana sat with the elders making her case in their own language.

"What is she saying?" I asked Aleki.

"She's pitching a fit," Aleki said with a sad smile, as though she was seeing her mother for who she was for the first time.

I cleared my throat. "I have one other request," I told them, standing tall. "Aleki will never take part in the solstice ritual. One family member is enough."

Jon leaped to his feet, upset and ready to intervene. The older man motioned for him to sit down.

The elders seemed to chastise Moana. Then the man turned to Aleki. "You want to do this?" he asked her, already knowing the answer.

Aleki stood proud and told them all, "Yes, I do."

"Granted," the man said. He looked back at me. "You will stay in my home, as my guest, until the ferry arrives. Aleki will gather your things for you."

That was the end of that. I ate and drank with his family and taught the elder's grandchildren how to play solitaire with an old deck of cards they had in a drawer. The two nights as the sun set on the island, the Elder named Akuma, which was akin to English for Adam, spoke of their rich traditions. He also explained how they had come to their decision. In short, his world was not aligned with the West, not back then, not now. He made me promise, on our new-found mana, that I would guard Aleki's safety with my life. I could tell by his eyes when he mentioned Mel that he knew we'd never reconcile.

Monday morning arrived and with it, a great deal of sadness for me. Sadness for what Mel and I had and how she so carelessly discarded it. She stood, once more, hand-in-hand with her lover near the dock as Aleki and I boarded the ferry. Fewer tears were shed by her that morning, I supposed, resigned to her fate and, perhaps, free to expand her relationship with her lover.

My new fate would begin with Aleki and I nicknamed her Alex on the ship, so the people I introduced her to wouldn't stumble trying to pronounce her name. We'd brought exactly three of her favorite paintings.

Alex and me? Well, those first six months were some of the best of my life. Within three days of our arrival home, we'd transformed our guest room into an artist's studio to give her something to do while I worked. My boss wasn't too happy that I'd short-changed my sabbatical, especially since they'd hired someone to cover my absence.

Because of the new hire, I negotiated a situation where I worked from home two days a week. That took a lot of pressure off Aleki as she began acclimating to a completely new environment.

On the weekends, I introduced Alex to the art scene. I was a novice myself but enlisted the help of some of my more experienced friends who took to Alex right away.

The art stores and galleries helped ignite Aleki's lost passion. On the third day of the second week, we'd returned home, I walked in the door to a very excited woman holding up a painting of the Boston skyline. She'd done it from our vantage point on the sixteenth floor of our condo. Like her other work, I found it spellbinding, the way she'd brought the city to life with her brush.

Alex had been staying on the sofa at night. That first month she was, like all of her fellow islanders, bound to remain celebate in order to strengthen the mana between Jon and her sister. I didn't expect us to have sex after the solstice but had to admit our relationship was advancing organically. Some nights, we talked after watching TV and both fell asleep there. It was reinvigorating to talk to someone about any and everything. We'd already done a lot of that on her island so I was pleasantly surprised that there were still things we hadn't covered.

Over that first month, I was a mess, despite the incredible company. I knew it and felt it, just below the surface, so having Aleki there was a godsend. We were more compatible in almost every way than Mel and I ever were.

On the final day of the solstice, Aleki attacked me the minute I arrived home. Her clothes were already missing. Every magical thing about that evening made me glad that we waited.

We spent hours that night getting well acquainted, in a Biblical sense. For someone who was just a month shy of her twentieth birthday, she sure knew what she was doing. We repeated the event every night that week and if I hadn't been so beat up from the street up, down below, we would have added to our streak.

All in all, it was a strange experience. Mel and I were toast. I mourned the relationship, the nine years, but not the loss. I think a psychologist would have found fault with that. At the same time, I did have that super-charged version of Mel in my house and bed. Without all the conflicting emotions, I could have easily declared it the best time of my life.

Beyond that, Aleki saved me. I could never understate that. She should have been given some kind of medal for keeping my mind off my troubles and focused on her. The way she kept my focus on her was done passively. She was the new kid on the block, she needed a guide, and that gave me a newfound sense of purpose. Our time together was carefree.

One of my friends from work had a relative who was a curator at The Museum of Fine Arts - Boston. I took Aleki there for a meet and greet, not a job interview, but an hour later, she had a job as an assistant. The curator came out with her and thanked me, then gave me the names of a few art galleries that might be interested in showing Aleki's work.

I'd given my solemn promise to keep her safe so I didn't want her making her way downtown all alone. She took the offered rides when I worked from home but otherwise, she insisted on taking an Uber.

There were plenty of times I still thought about Mel - on my commute to work or home - and while Alex was working in her makeshift studio. During those first confusing days, all I'd wanted was to exact my revenge, to get my pound of flesh. Oddly, the searing pain centered around a possible pregnancy diminished as I began to see it as more of a punishment to her. Regardless of her tradition, she knew what she'd have done to me. Did I leave too abruptly? Should I have stayed and found a way to humiliate them? I kept coming back to 'no'. Leaving her without giving her any opportunity to explain her actions away was the ultimate punishment, maybe a fitting counter.

Our first six months together flew by. Being with Alex, whom I now called her more often than by her true name, was drawing me in like a moth to the flame. Several times in the sixth month I considered asking her to marry me.

What stopped me from doing so was the fact that I was still married to her sister. As the first day of Autumn arrived, I noticed a change in Alex. She wasn't sad; we were too busy for that, but she was withdrawn, not unlike her sister was upon her return from the funeral. I asked her several times that week and she told me she was starting to become homesick but that we'd discuss it before week's end.

That put me on edge. I didn't want anything to endanger what we'd established and I looked up online how to get a quick divorce if that was what might be stymying her.

Saturday night after we made love, she went to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She looked ready to talk.

"Rob," she started after pouring, "it's time for me to go home." I thought I'd prepared myself for those words but I just sat there, caught up in how direct she was. She picked up on it.

"And I think I'm holding you back from living your life." She sat patiently waiting for my counter. She already knew me so much better than Mel ever had.

"I was under the impression that we were building a life together," I chose my words carefully. "Surely you feel the way I do."

There was no sigh, no looking away. She kept eye contact but I knew she was also choosing her words.

"My feelings for you are strong, yes," she hesitated just a moment. "Unlike my sister, though, I have no intention to hurt you."

"But your leaving will hurt me and I am living my life... with you" I sounded pathetic, I knew, but she was being so decisive and I'd expected a balanced conversation.

"I'll miss you exactly as much as you'll miss me," she stated, with little emotion. "I could even say that I love you. I know that my feelings for you are much deeper than Mele's ever were. But I don't belong here Rob, and I'd never be so selfish as to expect you to leave everything and join me in Vanuatu. One sister's mistake is by far enough."

The conversation wasn't going well at all. I panicked. "Please don't go!" I cried out. "I love you!" That got an unexpected response. She set down her glass and took mine, then embraced me tighter than she ever had.

"In a different place and time," she whispered tenderly, her lips brushing my ear, "it would be you and me against the world. But, Rob, my place isn't here and it never will be. I could never hurt you like my sister did and eventually, that's what would happen."

She had no idea what she was doing just then. My heart was constricting from lack of oxygen and the pain was unbearable.

Alex held me and rocked gently back and forth for several minutes until I was able to get myself under control.

"We can figure something out," I'd become desperate and wasn't listening to the meaning of her words. "Nothing is impossible... in love." I'd come up short there. Plenty was impossible in love as I'd recently experienced first-hand. She was right, damn it! As much as I wanted to will it not so, she was right.

"Shhh," she whispered again, realizing that I'd had an 'aha' moment. "Let's just hold each other."

Alex fell asleep shortly thereafter, likely relaxed at unburdening herself. I couldn't sleep. I wanted to scream - to lash out at something, mostly the entire Kealoha family. After two more glasses of wine and out of things to consider, I stumbled back to bed.

In the morning, over breakfast, Alex and I planned the details of the end of us. There was a strange calm in the room. Alex had sold two pieces of her art and used some of the money to buy plane tickets. I wondered how much her pieces sold for if she only used 'some'.

"We have the art exhibit in two weeks," she said. "I hope we can attend together but I'll understand if you don't want to. My flight leaves the following afternoon. My deepest desire is to remain your dear friend, for life, if possible."

She went into the bedroom and returned with an envelope. "I received a letter from Mother," she hesitated. "This was inside for you." She handed me a letter and I recognized the handwriting right off. "Do you want me here with you while you read it?"

I shook my head. I was in no shape to answer her. Reading a letter from Mel was the worst thing that could be heaped upon me that morning.

Rob,

For months I've tried to do this and failed. I can't find the words to convey what I want to say to you, so I've decided to just get it all out. I'm counting on the fact that after nine years together, you may be able to make sense of it all. I also hope, finally, that Aleki has helped reduce or remove the pain that I put on your heart.

While Puko and I were in solitude those first six days, he told me a story of when you were young and were jumped by some older kids. Later, after you and Aleki got on that ferry, he gave me more of the details, I think to help me understand what had happened.

I now believe that in those weeks and months leading up to our trip, I was like you and Puko, playing on the ice, unaware of what danger lurked around the corner. In my head, you were my life partner, and although I knew for a fact that you'd be angry, hurt, and all the other emotions, I did not doubt that we'd come out stronger in the end.

Mother started asking me questions the week before the solstice began, and that's when I started to notice those big mean kids coming our way. I explained our lives together, some of your upbringing, and our American customs. Mother looked at me when I finished, like a mother does, giving that 'You stupid girl' gaze. Then she simply said, "You should never have brought him here."

That's when those kids threatened me and made me give them the money. I fought with Mom that day, ferociously. I fought for us. I told her she didn't know you like I did. She didn't fight back, but I left her home feeling like she might know something I didn't. That night I attacked you, willing myself to believe that all would be okay.