Mano Ka'ao
The plane descended toward the islands. They looked like beautiful green jewels in the deep blue ocean. Cindy felt like bouncing up and down in her seat. She was home!
Cindy's mother was a native Hawaiian and had lived on the islands all her life but shortly after Cindy was born she took a job in Chicago and hadn't been back since. She would never say why.
Cindy just felt drawn to her native soil. She'd always been a beach bum, weather permitting, and was a star swimmer in high school. She constantly read surf magazines too and was dying to give it a try. She had been bugging her moher as long as she could remember to take a trip there. Then finally for her eighteenth birthday Cindy's mom surprised her with a ticket. She could stay with her grandmother in Hawaii for the whole summer before starting college!
Cindy stepped off the plane and a beautiful Hawaiian girl in a grass skirt and flowery bikini top put a lei around her neck.
"Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii!"
She leaned in and kissed Cindy and their breasts briefly touched.
"Aloha. Thank you." Cindy said, mesmerized by the girl's large dark eyes.
She wished she could stay here and kiss this sexy wahine some more. But the line kept moving and of course she didn't know if this beauty even liked girls or not. But she knew the beaches would be covered with beautiful women and men. She was going to love Hawaii!
Across the room she saw the sweet little old lady she knew only from pictures waving at her. She ran to her.
"Kupuna!"
"Cindy, Ipo! You're even prettier than your pictures! Aloha, welcome home!"
They grabbed Cindy's bags, she packed very light, little more than swimsuits, and left. But there was one thing she needed. They stopped at a surf shop before they even got to her grandmother's little house.
Cindy pretty much lived on the beach for her first two weeks. There were beautiful people all over. She made lots of friends and had lots of fun, light flirtations but mainly she was in love with the surf and the sun. She took to surfing like she'd been doing it all her life and was seriously thinking about entering some competitions. She knew this was where she belonged.
Then on the night of the full moon her grandmother asked her if she would come to a ceremony at a very ancient heiau shrine. She was interested but a little nervous. Cindy hadn't grown up with any kind of religion and was basically an agnostic. But it seemed important to her grandmother so they drove to the other side of the island and were now hiking across a long beach.
"Are you sure I'm dressed okay, Kupuna?"
She was wearing only her favorite blue bikini. Grandma had on a traditional grass skirt.
"You're fine, Ipo. Your clothes don't matter at all."
They climbed up over some lava formations and then splashed down into knee-deep water. Cindy's grandmother turned on a flashlight and led her into a cave. It was a long tunnel that stretched back farther than Cindy could see.
"This is amazing, Grandma! What is it? Some kind of lava tube?"
"Yes. It is a holy place made by the Akua."
They walked deep into the tunnel and Cindy saw light coming around a sharp turn in the tunnel. They rounded the corner and Cindy was startled to see that the tunnel widened here and was packed with people. They were all native Hawaiians. Some were her grandmother's age but many were younger. All the men and some of the women were bare chested in the flickering torchlight. She smelled some kind of incense.
A very handsome man with broad muscular shoulders held out his hand to help her out of the water.
"Aloha, Cindy."
"Aloha." How did he know her name?
All eyes were on her. She knew she was dressed wrong for this. Then an older woman stepped forward and started chanting. Everyone in the cave joined in. Cindy didn't know what to do. She only knew a few words of Hawaiian and nothing about this ceremony.
The old woman poured a dark liquid into a cup and held it out to Cindy. She took the cup timidly.