Ova Da Rainbow: HAWAII'S STORY (3)

Making Music

 1973

For the first time since she had gotten home, it was finally time to see her extended family. Some of them had voted for bi-monthly instead of monthly meetings, but many could only afford to make it one day out of the month.

This month was to be held on the island of Lanai. Hawaiʻi had been asked whether she would hold it on Oahu, since that was the most popular, but it was so overrun with Tourists nearly all days of the year that she decided to pass on it.

"So, Miss Kingdom of Tonga, may I say, congratulations for the name change." Hawaiʻi jokingly bowed laughing. "Good to see another independent Polynesian."

Tonga smiled at that, and Western Samoa rolled her eyes. "She was basically independent anyways before then. Britain just made it official, and she's now a Kingdom by herself.

"I am sorry I missed the official family celebration, you know?" Hawaiʻi said, and Tonga waved it off.

"That's fine. You missed nothing important." Tonga said, "Everything that happened that day is better left forgotten anyways."

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot to tell you! Miss Perfect Tonga punched Peretania in the gut!" Western Samoa said.

"I told you not to talk about that." Tonga said quietly.

Western Samoa suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and whispered something into Tonga's ears in Samoan, to which she replied quickly. Western Samoa shrugged, and looked at American Samoa. "Apparently aren't welcome with the old folks anymore. Wanna see how fast we can get banned from Hawaiʻi's beach park?"

"I'm not bailing you if you get arrested for disturbance of the peace." Hawaiʻi said, and her son nodded accordingly.

"Oh don't worry! Cook, Moa and I are probably just going to go see if we can effectively fake a murder scene." American Samoa grinned.

"Sounds fun." Hawaiʻi said, laughing. "Can I join?"

"Actually... Wai, can I talk to you for a little bit?" Tonga asked sheepishly, and Hawaiʻi nodded.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Your loss, Tonga." Western Samoa said.

"Maybe I want to at least pretend to be dignified." Tonga rolled her eyes, laughing.

As their family dispersed, Hawaiʻi couldn't help but smile at the absurdness that came with having so many people. It was a nice, welcoming absurdness.

"So... Punching Britain. I guess we can both check that off our to-do-lists." Hawaiʻi said, and Tonga sighed.

"I didn't mean to do that."

"Either way, good on you." Hawaiʻi said, smiling. "The bastard needs it."

Tonga looked up at Hawaiʻi, her eyes starting to well up with tears, and Hawaiʻi regretted saying that. Tonga wiped them away, trying to keep herself composed by counting quietly to herself. "Taha, ua, tolu, fā..."

"Hey, I'm sorry. I just... I forget you had a somewhat good relationship with him." Hawaiʻi said, sighing. "Why did you punch him, may I ask?"

"Something stupid. He touched my head." Tonga said, looking away. "I've told him hundreds of times that I hate it when he touches my hair and things like that. But he still patted my head like I was one of his children. Like I didn't at least deserve the most basic respect I asked for. I didn't ask him to call me the Kingdom of Tonga, I didn't tell him he had to speak to me like someone above him, hell, even an equal. I asked for one thing, and he couldn't give me that."

"He's just like that. He can't be bothered to show an ounce of celebration, and he probably just saw you as another loss." Hawaiʻi shrugged. "Oh well, his loss. It just means you don't have to be around him as much."