Haili Hoku: "A Kid with a Bad Start"

There really is no more shame anymore. I've heard lots of sad family stories but this is too much. It involves this girl, with some kind of chop suey background - Haole? Filipino? Hawaiian? Portugese? Japanese? - no one really knows much about her parents even. She's just a young teenager - but pregnant - you know how kids are today. She practically killed her own baby. Instead of taking care of herself like she was supposed to, she went on this long trip just about the time she was going to give birth. She spoke of some legal thing, an appointment she had to make. Then in the middle of doing this funny kind of business, the baby starts trying to come out. Instead of going to the hospital, her "boyfriend" drives her in his old junk of car to the worst part of Hilo. There he finds some calabash relative who has a "cottage" behind their house. What a dump. This relative was one of those guys who kills and cooks pigs - right in this so called "cottage." Oh the flies and the stink smell! The whole time the girl is giving birth, a mob of characters was watching a cock-fight in the back yard. It's hard to tell who made more noise, the gamblers, the cocks, or the "mother." With no doctor, or midwife, just the bungling of her "boyfriend," the girl had a baby boy. Not having any place to put the little guy the boyfriend runs out to his car and carries back this old sheet which covered his front seat. Soon the cockfighters from outside began to get quiet, almost religious. They came inside to see mother and child. One of the tough guys had tears in his eyes, another even got on his knees and prayed. These teenage parents did not have a clue what was going on. Late that night they were awakened by three men in the doorway. They claimed to get a message about this baby from their Oiji board. Skeptical yet curious, the boyfriend let the men inside. It was spooky to watch

them make a big fuss over the baby. Then they gave them some big bucks gifts - Liberty House stuff - saying they were "supposed" to. This was too much for the young parents, they got out of that place fast. They went off island to "chill out." Good thing they left when they did. Right after their car backfired its way away, HPD showed up. They carried some warrant to pick up all babies in that neighborhood. Why all the fuss about a baby? What can a baby do anyway?