Feather

Ewa

It was like dreaming with my eyes open, I felt a pull in my head, or at least that's what I thought it felt like. Like someone had their hands covering my ears, though the sounds still slipped through their fingertips to my eardrums. "Remember..." I felt the breeze from my window, about a foot above my bed "Remember". My hand dangled from the edge of the mattress and I wished some one else's rested there. The cool air made my tiny lose curls tickle the right side of my nose. Pushing my front hairs back and out of my face, I slowly sat up to look out the window. It was barely dawn and Bane stand there on the other side of my window, "Auwe, you just wash up from a hard barrel? Wake up its almost sunrise". Still waking up and trying to grasp the idea of reality- and the absurdity of it- "Mmmm, then why you wake me now you lolo? Can I sleep until then or what?" I said miserably, while laying back again. I started to turn over, pulling the pillow over my head. "Ewa!" He sighed "did you not 'member girl? Hellooo! We gots to go to the ledge before sunrise, LOLO!" reaching in through the window to grab the pillow and hit me in the head with it.

Ah, I forgot.

Bane is my bestfriend. My lolo, fob bestfriend from Paia, Maui. Tikes ever since I could remember. Well, considering my thoughts have always been a bit hazy. I guess you can say we've known eachother our whole lives kind of, if you don't count the three years apart from each other.

Lani, my ma, and my pa, David, were as close as pages in a book with Aunty Joyce. Pa says they've all been bestfriends since they were about my age. But Aunty moved to Maui with her family.

There, five years later, lolo was born.

Yeah, Bane, haha.

Aunty Joyce moved back to Nekha Falls when I was about three years old, bringing Bane with her.

Little Bane was chunky, freckle-nosed, sandy brown haired with pale grey eyes. A little funny looking kid if you asked me, but that's why I wanted him to stay. His face intrigued me. His smile intrigued me. But his eyes intrigued me most. Though eighteen year old Bane of present day looks a little different than the one I think of in oversized tan khakis and sunflower seeds hiding in his hands. I think of little Bane to get the Present day Bane to blush at his old chubby self. Just for laughs. Or just to get back at him for making fun of my other non-existent memories tha float around in my head like shredded pieces of paper with smudged ink on them.

Bane lives next door to me where his home is half shack half house. I loved the way the food smelled that Aunty Joyce would make for dinner. He'd always tell her, "ah mom, this is nasssy!" He'd make an ugly face after stealing a piece of coconut kalo, then stick the whole thing in his mouth and smile at her and she knew he was only joking. Bane loved aunty's food. Man, I loved aunty's food.

~~~

The breeze came rolling in smooth across my face like the waves over my toes in the shallow end of the water on warm days. My right leg folded over my left, landing on the wooden floor and my body twisted off the bed and plopped on the floor. "Eeeeeeeh" I moaned in agony. "Aye, ya drunk? Hurry up sleepy head, da kids are waitin' for us up at shore" I heard Bane snicker at the fish-out-of-water move I'd just pulled, and walk up to the shore, the sand whispering "shhh shhh shhh shhh" under his trotting feet.

I moaned repeatedly as I tried to stand. Getting myself up in pushup position, I moved slowly so that I wouldn't get any instant hit of vertigo as a morning present. I stumbled to the bathroom with my hands out to the sides of me, like a blind person with no walking stick, trying to walk the sleep off. Ah, do I admire my pack for being able to wake before the sun does.

I hit the switch to the light of the bathroom to reveal my bedhead and tight sleepy eyes in the mirror. Ew. I washed my face and finger combed my hair, flipping and then shaking it. One last look in the mirror after brushing my teeth and ta-da! My eyes big and wide awake to match this wild hair. In my room I found a peach colored billabong top with tiares on it, and some dark green board shorts. I snatched a pareu off my desk chair just because I was self conscience of how early and how cold it'd be.

I padded down the brown wooden hallway past Kyles room- who never seems to be here anymore much less than mom and pa- and into the kitchen to get a piece of bread and a swig of water before I dipped.

Grabbing my board and backpack from behind the front door I tucked the styrofoam behind my back between my spine and the backpack and ran up the sand hill to shore.