Hope

I hadn’t eaten any real food in weeks. All I’ve been feasting on is some cooked crickets and stale grass. Water isn’t much of a problem. There’s always a stream of clean water from the ocean down by gram’s house. I don’t want to beg or be needy because mama told me that there are kids just like me, but they can’t even eat cooked crickets and stale grass. This stunned me. Mama said I was lucky to have what I have. But, I think of my life as a book sometimes and in the book me and my family aren’t the chapter with the problem were the chapter with the solution.

Jennifer Stacy Hawashi is my name. I’m 11 years old and I live in Melinda, Hawaii. Where I live there is no food. No wealth. Everybody is desperate and sometimes they steal from other parts of Hawaii. My papa ALWAYS works and my mother doesn’t because she is pregnant! I’m so excited for my mama’s baby. But unfortunately, my mother isn’t getting enough food and that means that the baby doesn’t get enough food. So to solve the problem, my papa works and works and works all day long to buy 1 bag of cooked crickets for our family to eat for 1 whole month. Not a lot, but it is enough. I pray every night and I dream. Maybe I’m not praying and dreaming hard enough.

“Jennifer!! Can you please go gather some water for the week?!” My mother screamed. I pulled my last weed and threw it in a little red bucket, “Yes mama! I surely can!” I ran through the thick forest until I reached a small black house with tiny blue lights hanging on the windows. I ran up the worn out, cracked, stone steps and knocked on the slivered wooden door. “Who is it!!??” my grandma shouted from inside. “It is Jennifer! Can you please open the door!?” I screamed back. The door swung open and my grandma held a big bucket of cold clean water and handed it to me, “I knew you were going to come eventually darling!” I smiled and held the bucket to my chest. “Thanks grandma! I love you!!!” my grandma swung the door shut and I walked away.

When I made it back to my house everything was crushed. I dropped the bucket of water and it splashed all over the old yellowed grass. “MOMMY!”  I screamed. I ran to my torn house and looked for my mother. “MOM!!!” I screamed again but this time crying. I started to pick up pieces of debris and my mom was still no where to be found. I sat on the ground pouring out tears and rocked back and forth coughing from all my crying. BOOM! I heard a gun shot. (My father was murdered)I immediately stopped crying and hid under some debris. It was dark under there. There was no one with me.  I could hear some men speaking. But they were speaking in Spanish, “Una vez que encontramos a la chica vamos a matar a ella ya su abuela también. Hay que deshacerse de ellos antes de que su abuela se entera de que matamos a los padres porque ellos estaban haciendo más dinero que nosotros. Hicimos lo correcto. Nunca pudieron ser más ricos que nosotros!” (Once we find the girl we'll kill her and her grandma too. We need to get rid of them before the grandma finds out that we killed the parents because they were making more money then us! We did the right thing. They could never be richer than us.) My eyes closed tightly and I bit my lip. This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening! I could hear the men start to walk away and I peak out of an opening in the debris. Who were they and why would they be afraid that we would become richer then them? I knew it was safe to come out so I took the piece of wood off my body and wiped the dust off my clothes. I ran to the spot where my father was shot. I just sat there crying helplessly. I took his bloody body and buried him under some bushes and dirt. What was I going to do? I’m alone; I have no food, and WAIT! GRANDMA!!

I ran through the woods back to my Grandma’s house and knocked on the door loudly. No one answered. “GRANDMA!!!” I screamed banging on the door louder. Still no one answered. I got so mad that I slammed the door down with my foot and screamed. The old little home revealed an old woman covered in blood with a knife stuck into her chest. I fainted and laid there for a long time…

(Thinking to herself in her sleep)WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? I don’t know. All of my family is dead, I have no food or money and a bunch of Spanish Mafia are looking to kill me. I feel like dying right now. I mean I have nothing left right? What is there for me to loose?! NOTHING!!!

When I woke up I was in someone’s home. Someone old because they had peeling light pink walls and stuff from the 50’s in there. I sat up in a fluffy bed and rubbed my bruised head. “W-W-What happened?” I said drowsy. I could here someone speaking outside the door of the room. “She’s up! I could hear her speaking!” The door knob turned and the pink/beige door flung open, “Hello my darling! You slept for quite awhile! Would you like some cooked crickets!?” I looked at the plate of greasy bugs and my head started to spin. “I THINK I’M GOING TO BE SICK!” I threw up all over the bed and the old woman sighed, “Well, I guess it’s bye-bye to that bed cover!” The woman’s voice sounded familiar. To familiar. “Um…who are you and why am I here.” I said wiping my mouth. The old woman took the sheets off the bed and put them in a large trash bag. “Oh! I’m Betty Lu! Your Grammy’s friend! The way I found you wasn’t pretty. I had to go return some water buckets to your grandma when I saw that she was…. (Betty Lu paused for a moment) and you were unconscious, so I brought you here!” I closed my eyes and remembered why I fainted and then I realized why Betty Lu didn’t want to say what happened to grandma, so I didn’t ask. “Why is the Spanish mafia trying to kill my father because he has more money then them? My father only makes $1.oo every week!” I said expressively. Betty answered, “How do you know all of that sweet?” I looked at her and then at the cracks through the door, “Um…rumors.” I said lying. Betty looked at me, “Sweet, the Spanish Mafia once had got sponsored by the place your father worked at and the place had given them food and water and money for their family. You and your family moved here and they were looking for jobs. Your father came across the place where they sponsored the Spanish Mafia. The people there were so deeply impressed with his work, that they made him assistant manager. Now assistant manager gets a say in whether he or she wants to sponsor the Spanish mafia. Your father didn’t like the idea because the Spanish had done nothing for Melinda and he eventually talked the business out of sponsoring them. The Spanish Mafia did not like the fact that your father was getting paid and not them. They were jealous that your father was making a dollar more than them. They killed him so they can once again be sponsored and receive money, food, and water.” My eyes closed tightly and I thought about everything, yet things still didn’t make sense.

The next day I had thought about what Betty said again. Finally things started to feel clear. I feel that my father did a horrible thing. That Spanish Mafia had family that needed food just like my family did. But he took that away from them. Why though? Was he the problem all along? I walked to where my dad worked. It was a VERY small little hut and they had all sorts of food. Cooked Crickets, lima beans, crisp apples, and French rolls, even stale grass! But why is Melinda hungry if there is so much food!? I walked to the guy that looked like the boss and asked if I could have a word with him. He looked at me and laughed, “We aren’t having any deals if that’s what you’re going to ask!” I didn’t laugh with him and he stopped laughing and looked at me. “Meet me in the back.” In the back I talked to him about my situation and I told him that he should sponsor the Spanish Mafia again. He didn’t speak for a while. Then he spoke. “Why.” I stood up and cried a little, “BECAUSE! This world is bigger than us. But we are stronger. There is so much HOPE! But no one can seem to see that! Everyone cares to much about themselves to see that if we worked together for a change, then we would actually not be poor and Hungry! That Spanish Mafia may have killed my father and my mother and my grandma and almost me! But, they will always be poor and hungry unless we do something. WE will always be poor unless they do something. WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER! OR WE SHALL BE POOR AND HUNGRY FOREVER!” I sat down and cried. The man stood up and walked towards me. He held his hand out. I looked at it. “I agree.” He said softly. “I will sponsor them again.” I looked up to him and smiled. I shook his hand then gave him a hug. He smiled. I whispered in his ear crying, “Thank you.”

Betty and I walked through the woods looking for flowers to put by my grandma’s grave and my father’s as well. We didn’t know where my mother and her baby were, but I know they both were killed. Maybe the baby just died in my mom’s stomach from hunger. Maybe they both are still alive looking for me. I’ll never know. The fresh breeze caught my hair and blew it in all separate directions. I felt hungry still. So maybe not all my problems were solved. I may at first believe that my family and I were the chapter in the book that had the solutions, but I guess that sometimes the problem is too bad to reach the solution. All I could do for now is HOPE.

To Be Continued…