Kahana-The Untold Stories Read online

  Kim does not answer her as he looks around the large stylish, living room. The huge room would appear much larger if there were not so many musical instruments in it. Kim is intrigued as he looks at a pair of narrow, single-headed drums that are on the floor. He hopes that he is given the chance to learn how to play them.

  Amando Cruz walks into the living room with Cugat’s band members trailing behind him. Cruz is a well-known flute player in the Philippines. Kim calls him his uncle but there is no blood relationship between them. Amando is just one of Rosendo’s closest friends.

  Then Xavier Cugat strolls into the room. As soon as he enters, he picks up his violin bow. Once he picks up his bow, he begins to lead his band. The vibrant sounds of their exhilarating Latin music now fills the room.

  Kim watches Cugat and his band jam to the Latin upbeat rhythm of the song, “Good-Good-That’s You.” He starts snapping his fingers to the hot, sensual beat of the invigorating music. Cugat shouts to Alerie, “Dance with him. My music is to be enjoyed by dancing to it.”

  She takes Kim’s hands and tells him, “Come On, Get Up! It’s time to Rumba and do the Conga.” Kim is embarrassed when he says, “I don’t know how to dance.” She replies, “You will learn. I will teach you. During every rehearsal, we will dance and have fun!”

  They begin dancing and Kim stumbles time after time. He dances like he has two left feet. Eventually he gets much better and learns a lot over the next two hours. This is the first time in his life that he allows himself to make mistakes. He even finds himself laughing at his clumsiness. It is a brand-new, exciting feeling for him.

  Xavier then leads the band to practice “Babalu.” Their drum playing during the song mesmerizes Kim. He keeps clapping and clapping at the end of their song. The rehearsal is finally over, and all the band members leave within an hour. Then Kim’s uncle welcomes his nephew with open arms.

  The next few months are carefree and enjoyable for Kim. He lives with Cruz and works in a restaurant. He also is learning and practicing dancing with Alerie and playing the drums. After a few months, he gets to sit in and play drums at the rehearsals.

  Then one night, Cruz tells him that Xavier and the guys in the band said that he is ready to join them. He tells Kim that he will be performing at two of Xavier’s upcoming gigs. Kim bursts with pure joy at the very thought of playing drums for Xavier’s band. He feels like a little kid that wants to jump up and down with happiness!

  He is nervous before his first performance, but he does not show it. Instead, he proves his abilities and talent as a drummer. He is spot-on during the performance. A few days pass before Cruz tells Kim that he has some news for him. He says, “After our performance next Saturday night, we will be leaving early in the morning for our European tour.” Kim’s first thought is that his uncle is leaving on tour and it will be over for him.

  Cruz chuckles when he sees Kim’s reaction of doom and gloom. He taunts with him when he says, “Do not look so sad.” Then he pauses for a moment before he says, “We want you to join us.” Kim sighs with relief and says, “mahalo.” Cruz pats Kim on his back and says, “You don’t need to thank me. You deserved it. You earned it.”

  Later in the week, Cruz gives Kim instructions about their upcoming European tour. He says, “We must give all our costumes to Julio, who is Xavier’s production assistant, by tomorrow night. He will then ship them overseas, so the costumes will be there when we arrive. You will keep the costume that you will be wearing Saturday night. Then you will bring it with you on the plane.”

  “It will be a late night after our performance. We must all stay for a while to make sure all our instruments are put into Gaston’s truck. He will drive the truck with the instruments to the airport to ship them out right after our performance. I will be riding with him to the airport and then wait for the band members. I won’t be going back home.”

  “You will have to pack a suitcase and bring it to the airport with you. Julio and I will meet you and the other band members at Gate 34. You must be at the airport by 6:30 in the morning. You cannot be late. We will not wait for anybody. Kim replies, “Don’t worry about me. I will be there on time. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  That night Kim performs with an abundance of enthusiasm and self-confidence. The audience responds with deafening applause. The exhilaration he feels makes him want the moment to last forever. He believes his life has finally turned around.

  The performance ends at 2:00 o’clock in the morning. Then it takes the band about an hour to strike the set and get everything loaded in the truck. Kim looks for his street clothes but cannot find them. He figures someone must have accidently picked them up. He reasons that it is not a big deal. He will just walk to his uncle’s in his vibrant colored costume.

  Kim leaves and begins his twenty-minute walk to his uncle’s apartment to pack his suitcase. He’s happy to have the time to walk home alone. He wants to relish in the fabulous feeling of the success that he is experiencing. This is the first time in Kim’s life that he ever felt like a winner.

  Kim leaves and steps outside and realizes it’s too hot and humid for him to wear his flamboyant, showy jacket. So, he carries it over his arm as he walks home. He is enjoying his overwhelming happiness, but unaware to Kim, his new world is about to come crashing down on him.

  When Kim takes a shortcut through a dark alleyway, he doesn’t know that he is not alone.

  Four drunken teenagers are lurking in the shadows behind an abandoned building. They see Kim coming and become quiet. Then one of them staggers up to the boy and says in a friendly tone, “Hi, my name is Nicholas. What’s your name?”

  Kim responds, “My name is Kim.”

  Then Nicholas says, “Kim, let me introduce you to my friends.” He waves his arm in the direction of three other teenagers. “This is Tony, Benjamin, and his cousin, Luke.” Handing him a bottle of whiskey, Nicholas adds, “Have a drink with us.”

  “No, I’m in a hurry,” Kim replies.

  Benjamin suddenly walks closer to him and gets in his face. He grins wickedly and says, “Where I come from, it’s considered bad manners to refuse a drink with friends.”

  Nicolas backs away for a moment when Luke shifts behind Kim. Meanwhile, Benjamin starts to heckle Kim, saying, “You think you’re better than us? Who are you to act so high and mighty in your fancy clothes?”

  Then Benjamin grabs Kim’s loosely hanging jacket off his arm. Within three seconds, Luke pulls out a switchblade and holds it to Kim’s throat. At the same time, Benjamin takes his knife out of his pocket and starts to slash Kim’s jacket with it.

  Tony yells at his friends, “Leave him alone! You’ve had your fun.”

  Benjamin answers, “The U.S. Army says it’s fine to ‘Slap a Jap’! It was on all their posters during the war.” He grins. “I’m doing my country a service.”

  Tony retorts, “The war is over!”

  Enraged, Luke turns around and shouts, “It will never be over for me! My older brother Scotty fought in the war and is dead because of Nips and savages like him.”

  At that moment, Kim swings into action and protects himself with his skills in martial arts. Nicholas tries to wrestle him, and Tony puts up his fists to box with him. Neither of them is any match for Kim. He uses striking, kicking, throwing, takedowns, and joint locks on them. His brutal, deadly moves are fluid and fast. He is only defending himself, but he knows he could easily kill them with his skills.

  Afraid, Tony and Nicholas run away as swiftly as they can. Luke and Benjamin do not run away. They are on a mission to beat Kim up. Luke glares at Kim with his big blue eyes, and Benjamin’s gray eyes gleam with demonic fire as he stands back in the shadows and watches Luke and Kim fight.

  Luke pulls out his shiny, polished switchblade again and lunges at Kim. As Kim and Luke struggle for the knife, their fight heats up to a dangerous level. They become entwined as they roll out of the alley and onto the sidewalk.

  Kim executes a jujitsu hit that k
nocks Luke off guard. He stumbles and thumps hard to the ground. Benjamin lets out a sinister, high-pitched laugh as he eggs Luke on, shouting, “Luke, you’re a chicken… You’re nothing but a Chicken Little!” Then he clucks and cackles like a chicken.

  Kim’s demeanor is calm, but his tone is intimidating when he tells Luke, “End it now. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Luke is taken aback for a moment by Kim’s response, but he quickly regains his composure and begins to ridicule Kim, shouting, “That’ll be the day! Who the hell are you to tell me anything? You are nothing! You will never make a fool out of me. Get ready—it’s time for me to whip your ass!”

  “Walk away,” Kim answers in a commanding tone. “It’s over!”

  Kim’s words outrage Luke, making his uncontrollable temper explode. He breathes heavily, his nostrils widen, and saliva dribbles from his lower lip. He is drooling like a rabid animal.

  Luke starts to attack Kim like he’s bloodthirsty and advancing for the kill, but he falls short. Instead, of stabbing Kim, he accidently slashes a teenage boy who is trying to get out of Kim’s and Luke’s way. The teenager becomes the victim of Luke’s vicious attack.

  When they see what’s happened, Luke and Benjamin walk quickly down the street. When they get to the corner, Benjamin gives Luke, Kim’s slashed jacket. He tells Luke to run away and throw his knife in the river, then cut and shred Kim’s jacket to pieces. He finishes by telling him. “Put all the torn pieces in different dumpsters.”

  Luke responds, “Consider it done!” and takes off running.

  Benjamin calmly waits until Luke is no longer in sight, then slowly walks back to the scene of the crime. He stands in the distance so that Kim cannot see him.

  Kim is hunching over the victim. He asks the boy, “Are you okay?”

  The boy answers, “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

  Then there are the loud, shrill sounds of police whistles. After they blow their whistles, the two police officers, Dwayne and Johnny, begin running towards the scene of the crime, pulling out their guns.

  Dwayne, a thirty-year-old cop, kneels to the boy and Kim. He asks the boy, “Son, what is your name? Can you tell me what happened?”

  The young victim says, “My name is Jerry Mac Doogle.” He points to Kim and says, “He didn’t mean to stab me. I saw him fighting with another guy. I was trying to stay away from them. I tried to run past them, but I got in their way. I ended up between them. That’s when the other guy stabbed me. It was an accident.”

  Kim sighs with relief—but his relief is short-lived when Benjamin steps forward.

  Benjamin walks to Johnny, the other officer, who is about fifty years old and ten feet away from Kim. He tells Johnny, “My name is Benjamin. I am a reliable witness. I’m a college student and the son of a local politician.”

  Benjamin then proceeds to tell Johnny what he saw. “The kid that’s kneeling on the ground had a knife. He was fighting with another guy. He held the knife and lifted his arm up to stab him, but the other guy defended himself and blocked him. That is when the kid on the ground got in his way and was stabbed by him.”

  Johnny listens to him. He certainly does not want to doubt the son of a politician’s testimony. He tells Dwayne, “We have a witness. It’s an open and shut case.” Dwayne tells him to wait a minute.

  Johnny replies, “There is no reason to wait. We have a kid that was stabbed with a knife. Let the judge decide. Our job is to bring him in. That’s it!”

  He then tells Kim that he is under arrest and puts tarnished handcuffs on him. An ambulance arrives, to take Jerry to a hospital, and a paddy wagon comes to take Kim away.

  After Kim arrives at the jail, he is put in detention. He will remain there until his case is heard before a judge. After several days, two police officers bring Kim to the judge’s chambers. The judge reads aloud the police report and Benjamin’s and Jerry Mac Doogle’s statements. The judge says: “This document states that the victim did not press charges.”

  He then tells Kim, “You told the police officers that the boy you had been fighting with was named Luke. Is that correct?”

  Kim nods his head and says, “Yes.”

  The judge then says, “It seems odd to me that you don’t know the last name of the kid you were fighting with. I believe your intent may have been to rob him. But there is another school of thought on this matter. You may know him, and you do not want to divulge his identity because you don’t want to be a snitch and rat him out. There is no proof for either scenario. It is only speculation on my part. However, there is proof that you had a fight and a knife was involved. You also had the intent to use it on another person.”

  He sentences Kim to one year in a juvenile detention facility in Massachusetts. He tells Kim that after he serves his sentence that he will be transferred to a foster home and will stay there until he is eighteen years old. The judge has placed Kim in a facility for juvenile delinquents, who are considered highly dangerous.

  Chapter 5

  Schooled the Hard Way

  Kim, along with nine other teenage boys, is a passenger on an old , rickety, bus. The bus is going to a juvenile prison, which will be Kim’s new home. Kim takes a deep breath as the bus comes closer to the place where he will be incarcerated.

  He looks out the window and sees that the bus is approaching a tall, barbed wire fence that surrounds a correctional facility. He sees a guard standing by a gate, who waves to the bus driver. Then he unlocks and opens the rusty, squeaky gate. The new prisoners then get off the bus and are greeted by four armed guards.

  The guards escort the prisoners to the administration building. The renovated building’s décor is simple. Dust free paintings hang from the recently painted walls. The freshly mopped floors sparkle. This is the only place, other than the picnic area, that outside visitors are allowed to see.

  Once inside the Administration Building, Kim is searched and fingerprinted. He is angry because he knows he was set-up, and he does not belong here. Hank, a forty-five-year-old, toothless, overweight, guard, brings all the new, young prisoners to Warden Bigelow’s office. He stays and stands guard, with his rifle by his side.

  The warden gives the following speech: “Welcome to our facility. There are no jail cells. Our facility is like a working farm or ranch, and we expect all of you to work hard. We are proud of how far the juvenile justice system has come in rehabilitating young offenders. You are fortunate to be here. It was not that long ago when all offenders over the age of five were sent to adult penitentiaries. They were treated and punished just like the adult prisoners.”

  “Children who cursed at their parents could be put to death. Then years later, juvenile facilities were established. The methods we use to reform you include lots of praying, hard-work, and corporal punishment. If you do not follow the rules then you will receive whippings, leg irons and solitary confinement. Every time you receive solitary confinement more time is added to your sentence. Boys, we do not play games here. Follow the rules and you will have no problems. Horace will now take you to your assigned cottages. You are dismissed.”

  All the run-down cottages are located about a quarter to a half a mile behind the main building. Hank has escorted the six new inmates to their assigned cottages. He takes all of them to an area that no visitor ever sees.

  The last prisoner is Kim. He brings him to cottage number five. The front door is bolted shut from the outside. A young, new guard, named Bobby, is standing near the area. Hank motions for Bobby to come over to him. In a demanding tone, he tells Bobby, “Stand here and watch these new prisoners while I bring Kim inside his cottage. You can never turn your back on any of them.”

  Once inside the cottage, Kim becomes nauseous from the stench. He looks around and sees the walls smeared with blood stains, urine, and other body fluids. There are eight cots in the small, dirty cottage. The guard tells Kim, “You’re lucky. There is only four of you who will be sharing this cottage for a while, but that will change over time. I’m pr
oud to say that we’ve crammed twelve boys in here and some of the other cottages.”

  Hank then gives instructions to Kim. He says, “Tomorrow you and your new prison mates must be dressed and ready for breakfast by 5:15. Then you will get your assignment and work your 12-hour day. You’ll get a lunch and a dinner break.”

  Later that evening Kim meets and talks to his roommates. Each one of them is serving time for a different type of crime. Kim learns the reasons each one of them was sentenced to this deplorable rehabilitation facility.

  John is the first to share his story. His story began two years ago when his parents divorced. John’s father, Bill, fought for sole custody to keep his young son. He told the judge that John’s mother, Elaine, was unfit because she was an alcoholic and drug addict. The judge gave Bill’s testimony no weight. He believed that a child should always be with his mother. The Judge ruled to give his mother custody of her son.

  John went to live with his mother. He was there for two weeks when the unthinkable happened. One-night while John was sleeping, he was awakened by loud shouts from his mother’s bedroom. The sounds escalated into a vicious shouting match between his mother and a man named George. John knew things were turning violent when he heard his mother screaming. Then there was dead silence for a minute followed by a loud thump.

  John feared for his mother’s life. He thought the man in her bedroom was a rapist or burglar. He was neither. He was one of his mother’s lovers. He was threatening her. He wanted the money she owed him for her drugs. John snuck out of bed and went to the hall closet. He looked in a box to find the revolver he knew his mother had hidden there.

  He then went into her room and pointed the gun at the man. He shot him, but he did not kill him. Immediately, Elaine hid the drugs in her bedroom and then she called the hospital and the police. The police are the first to arrive on the scene.