Who are the Real Monsters? by: Elsbeth Ken Umeki will learn that not all monsters come out at night.

Chapter 1
I have always been uncomfortable around the water. Even when I was little, I would kick up a storm if someone even mentioned a bath. So where has this Japanese American boy been living all of his life? You guessed it, Hawaii. We moved to the big island when I was about five so this little problem would have to go away. Such obvious weakness wasn’t really accepted in the Umeki household. Aya, my mother’s assistant, dressed me for a day at the beach and dragged me to the water. I don’t know what I expected, I was five after all but she carefully picked me up and walked me into the surf. I cried, and held on to her for dear life or so I am told. While moving deeper we rolled among the waves as she held me speaking in a calm soothing voice, something I have never heard her use with anyone else.

Yes, if you haven’t noticed I have a special relationship with Aya. She has been my nanny, protector, swimming and surfing coach and quite a few other things. My parents, well what can I say about them other than they are a bit intense. Dad’s never around, always travelling to one part of the world or another. Family business apparently, I have no idea what my father actually does for a living, but he makes a lot of money doing it. Even when he’s at home, I really don’t see him. We would schedule meetings. Who has meetings with their children? But it seemed normal for my family. Aya would make sure I was dressed appropriately and like some weird Victorian novel, I would be presented before my father. We would discuss what I was doing in school and my accomplishments and then the meeting was over.

My mother, though lacking real maternal warmth, at least bothered to show up most of the time. As long as I wasn’t troublesome I was allowed to remain by her side. Her passion wasn’t my father but antiquing. When I was younger the three of us would travel around the world in search for whatever would look good in some other person’s home. We have plenty of antiques ourselves, of course, but she seemed to like to buy them for other people. Obviously, like all little boys I loved nothing better than spending an entire afternoon at an Estate sale but there was some recompense for such afternoons. If I behaved, we would go to lunch together. If I was especially well behaved, she would praise me and ice cream would be included with lunch. Now being a little boy, you can guess how often that occurred however, there was one threat that caused me to toe the line. Behave or I’ll drop you off at your Grandmother Sachiko’s home. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Obaasan but as soon as I got out of the car she would put me to work cleaning up the Shrine. Being some sort of Priestess, grandma wore the whole Miko outfit when working. If I didn’t move fast enough, or I didn’t behave she would actually dress me in one as well. Nothing more humiliating than tourists coming up and taking pictures of the cute little girl in the red and white outfit and if I bothered to complain to my mother she would just say I needed to follow directions better.

When I was older I became my cousin’s problem. Not that I have ever been sure they were real blood relatives but I called them my cousins anyway. When not working at the Shrine they ran a successful Dojo on the island and I would spend numerous weekends with those heathens. Let me explain, I am not the largest of people never have been but my cousins were brutes. Aya had already started to teach me martial arts, so as long as I wasn’t caught I could hold my own. I would dance around generally making a nuisance of myself. All good things would eventually come to an end. Still it’s not like they were really trying to hurt me so it became a game.

When I was around twelve years old, I upped the ante when I started kissing my female cousins who were not fast enough. Oh nothing risqué but slight pecks on the cheek and only the girls who I knew didn’t mind, as they tended to be the ones to hit me the hardest when I was caught. On a number of occasions, I contemplated kissing a couple of my male cousins but knew they couldn’t take a joke. Trust me, good-natured rough housing can be fun, broken bones are not. It was about that time my older female cousins begun to tell me that I was very graceful. Just what a boy wanted to hear. When the other boys made fun of me, I mentioned that they were jealous because all of them had the gracefulness of a cow.

Being called graceful, I call it agile, stinks when you’re a boy but it does have some perks. I’m a demon on a surfboard picking up numerous trophies for my age group. Aya got me on my first board at the age of seven so by fourteen I wasn’t too bad. My parents wouldn’t make most of the tournaments but Aya was always there giving me advice. She also pretty well known among the surfboard scene plus to tell you the truth she is smoking hot in a bikini. No, I don’t have those type of feelings for her Aya’s like my older sister but it’s always hilarious watching guys fall over themselves when they meet her. She of course has this calm cool dignity not being rude but clearly telling them to go away.

Lame insults aside, I got along rather well with my cousins, except I do have a bit of a smart mouth. It does tend to get me into trouble. On one epic occasion it totally got the better of me. Around my fifteenth birthday some of my female cousins and my Obaasan were preparing for a spring festival that would include some traditional Japanese Kagura dancing. A couple of my lovely and brave cousins volunteered to try it. I thought they were good but my grandmother didn’t share my beliefs. She became a little angry with them and it didn’t help that I sat off in the corner giving a running commentary on what they needed to do to improve their forms. Aya didn’t disagree; she was just smart enough not to say anything. Finally, my grandmother turned around and said if I could comment on it then obviously, I was better than anyone else was. Stupidly I was up for the challenge; I got on stage and went through the entire dance from beginning to end. I had been watching it for a week and have a very good eye for things. No real difference from the katas I learned and could usually know them quickly. Aya told me later I did the entire performance perfectly. She also wisely pointed out that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.

Obaasan Sachiko took one look and told me I was hired. Well I quickly objected there were any number of perfectly good girls here and I was a boy. She informed me that there are plenty of males in the Japanese kabuki theatre tradition that dress as females and if I didn’t want to do it, I shouldn’t have volunteered. I didn’t realize I had volunteered. My cousins were ecstatic and all too happy to help me make sure the costume fit me properly. The girls seemed a little too zealous probably getting me back for all of those kisses. I ended up being glad for their help as I had no idea how to put on the costume and putting on makeup was alien to me. I will say that I looked pretty damn good in all of the finery, I wasn’t planning to make it a hobby but at least I wasn’t going to make a bigger fool of myself.

The festival went off without a hitch; my dancing appeared to be very popular. My only real objection was the girls scheduling me to sell charms with them dressed in the red and white Miko outfit. I did it without a complaint. I do love my grandmother and she happens to be the only one in my family who bothers to give me the time of day. At the end, I turned in my costume and said I would be happy to dance again but I refused to dress up like a girl during the rest of the festival. My Obaasan surprised me by saying that I didn’t have to anymore, making me dress up as a Miko was not proper but she just wanted to make sure I learned my lesson. I wasn’t sure what lessons I had to learn that weekend other than to keep my big mouth shut.

Among my cousins, the biggest event in our lives happened at the age of sixteen when they were invited to participate at the Shrine for some sort of coming of age ceremony. They were all put on a boat and taken to one of my family’s private islands where the ceremony would take place. It sounded mysterious. We used to talk about it all the time, trying to figure out the big secret. Of course, no one would tell us but it often wasted a few hours on a raining day talking about it. My sixteenth birthday passed without incident. Oh, I had a good birthday party for a few of my friends and a number of my cousins, but my obvious lack of admittance to the ceremony was glaring. I would like to say that my cousins treated me no different but they did. It’s not that they weren’t friendly but it now seemed a forced friendliness. My younger cousins were the same but with those my age and older it was like some sort of wall appeared. I really didn’t understand it. Actually, it was depressing so I started to distance myself from everyone.

My mother told me I was imagining it. I didn’t bother to bring it up with my father. Obaasan finally sat me down and told me that it was not my path. What she did was started to include me in a lot more duties with the Shrine. It made sense as I was her grandson but as many of my cousins worked there as well, it was a lot less enjoyable.

Aya picked up my mood change immediately and started to change my workout. Since school was out, I was now required to run with her every morning rain or shine. Running in the rain did not improve my mood. She also started to include more weapons training. I’m guessing she figured I wasn’t going to chop my foot off now. I did plenty of weapons training before but she increased the intensity and the frequency of the workouts. It seemed to help.

What actually pulled me out of my newly formed shell was Olina. I almost ran over her while getting ready for one of my tournaments. It was early morning and I was surfing as usual on our private beach. It’s not really a good time to be in the water if you’re afraid of sharks but those guys in the grey suits never bothered me. My mind wasn’t really on surfing. I wasn’t really all that interested in the tournament either. Still I was going through a pipeline when all of a sudden, there was Olina in the water, without a thought I took a header, which ended up being a real Dirty Licking. Now I have had a ton of gnarly wipeouts so I went with the flow but I guess Olina thought I was in trouble. She pounced on me and dragged me out of the surf. Olina then walked away, which I thought was strange. I was guessing that since it was a private beach she thought she would get in trouble for trespassing.

“Hey thanks.” I called out to her. She stopped and looked around as if I was speaking to someone else. “No one else on the beach but you.” I laughed. “I’m Ken Umeki.”

She blushed then walked back to me. “I’m Olina.” A native Hawaiian she wore this little white bikini well the bottom half of it anyway. We spoke for a while as I admired her figure and I was amazed how much we hit it off. Plans were made for the next day to have breakfast on the beach. After that we never did the normal dating thing movies and the like. Coming from a real traditional family she said she wasn’t comfortable going into town. She was ecstatic that it didn’t bother me so we spent entire days roaming the more secluded portions of the islands. We surfed, we swam we just enjoyed each other’s company. She was the first girl I was physically intimate with. I loved her more than life itself.

Towards the end of the summer of my seventeenth year we had been seeing each other now for over a year and Olina and I started to talk about some permanent plans. After High School I would attend the University of Hawaii and we would move in together hopefully on a cottage by the beach. The plans were still going to be over a year away but at least we made some plans. The most obvious obstacles were going to be both of our families. Her family was of course very traditional and mine was, well, my family. The only person in my side who knew about Olina was Aya. I introduced my girlfriend to her over the winter and they got along rather well.

Plans were made for an introduction during one of the later summer festivals. My great Aunt Rika had arrived from the mainland so this was going to be some big production. We talked about it and decided that my family would go first. Actually what kind of left me with no choice was the two of us walking along the beach hand in hand and running into my grandmother. I think I actually hurt my Obaasan’s feelings when I explained that we had been going out for about a year. I should have planned this better, getting my grandmother on my side before I confronted my parents. She of all people would understand the difficulties of getting them to accept Olina. Still she was thrilled about meeting my girlfriend, though Olina was a bit shy. My grandmother like the rest of my family can be a bit intimidating. My Obaasan, however, soon won her over and it was decided that we would have a little intimate family breakfast where I could introduce Olina to my parents.

Thankfully it wasn’t going to be a big production as I didn’t want to scare her off. I woke up way too early and started to drive the cooks and housekeepers insane. Aya finally told me to go to my room before someone strangled me. When the time finally came, I was pleased how everything turned out. My grandmother and Aya had gone to the Shrine to get some last minute festival things finished, my parents were in their rooms getting ready and I placed myself in clear view of the beach. I had hoped for a few minutes of alone time with Olina before the festivities began.

I began to worry when she didn’t show. Aya and my Obaasan came late and were also surprised that Olina had not arrived. My parents of course were affronted, demanding that next time a phone call would be appropriate. When I explained that she didn’t have a cell phone they thought that it was ridiculous. I didn’t stick around to hear Olina insulted and went to look for her. My protector found me later that evening as I stood on top of a cliff overlooking the beach. I had spent the entire day searching for my girlfriend but I couldn’t find her. Aya of course came up with the simplest explanation. Olina’s parents were not allowing us to meet anymore. I was devastated, not only was she gone, but I didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye.

The rest of the week was a blur. I missed the festival, but I didn’t really care. Anya tried to get me to work out with her but my heart wasn’t in it. I spent most of my days in my bedroom or on top of the cliff overlooking the beach. I kept hoping that her parents would see reason, or that she would sneak away but I knew this wasn’t going to happen. Olina loved her parents dearly and if they said to end the relationship no matter how much it hurt she would do it.

Another bomb shell was dropped at the end of the week. My parents and grandmother would be travelling for most of the year and they wanted me to go home with Aunt Rika. They were concerned for me and thought New England would be nice to have change of pace. Going from an elite private school to a New England public High School sounded like quite the change of pace. Going from palm trees and beautiful sandy beaches to New England’s winters sounded just great as well. I fought with them stating I really wanted to graduate with my friends but I knew I was just going through the motions. I wasn’t given a choice, I was moving to Skogshaven.