Many Moʻo

One would think that after the past week of traveling with two ʻaumākua and the wind and having already faced two moʻo and living to tell the tale, Lei wouldn’t be worried at all about looking for another.

The group (minus Kaukahi) was gathered around the kitchen table. Lei was grateful to have her grandmother there, recounting moʻolelo about the legendary moʻo in ʻEwa, Waialua, and Kailua. It turned out there were quite a few on the island and the question was which one they should approach.

“We could try Hauwahine in Kailua.” Kaipo pointed to a green splotch on the map spread out in front of them, more animated than Lei’d seen him since his offer to look at gecko eggs when she first landed. “She’s a fan of sweets. We could bring her some of those li hing mui gummi bears that you always like, Lei.”

That got Lei’s attention. “Wait, how’d you know what she likes?”

The tips of Kaipo’s ears turned pink, and he suddenly got very interested in the map’s roadways and tracing the best route along Pali Highway. “Just something I picked up on over the years,” he muttered.

Lei side-eyed him. Over the years? This was the first Lei was hearing about her.

He cleared his throat and abruptly stood. “I’m gonna use the bathroom before we go,” he said, then left the room in a hurry.

Ilikea watched him leave. “That guy is as subtle as a kick to the face.”

“Huh?”

Ilikea laughed, shaking her head. “And you’re as oblivious as a rock under a mushroom.”

“What does that even mean?” Lei asked. “Never mind. Kailua’s closer than ʻEwa or Waialua, anyway, so it makes sense to head there. Bonus points for knowing what gift to bring.”

“Right. How coincidentally fortunate for us.”

“What are you talking about?” Lei asked again, and Tūtū snickered. “You’re in on it, too?”

Kaipo reappeared, wringing his hands. His hair was damp and looked like it’d been combed down. He also smelled like fresh deodorant.

“Ready to go?” he asked, louder than necessary.

Tūtū cackled. “We go, Romeo.”

Aunty Lori let them borrow her car. Kaipo in the front passenger seat and Lei and Ili in the back as Tūtū drove them to the west side of the island, stopping at Longs for a bag of goodies on the way.

Lei pumped Kaipo for any other insight he had on the moʻo.

“Um, she watches over Kawainui and Kaelepule ponds.”

Lei looked them up on her phone. Kawainui was now a protected marsh, but the only other place that came up was Kaʻelepulu Wetland, with a u at the end of the name instead of an e, and she wasn’t positive it was the same place.

“Do you think that’s it?” she asked.

“I think so? It’s in the right area, but the last time I was there was back in, like, the late eighteen hundreds or something with Tūtū’s tūtū. Can’t even remember why we were there, but we stayed for a month or so, down by the beach mostly. I’d wander up to the ponds every once in a while.”

A shiver ran down Lei’s spine when he mentioned being around back then. Just how old was he?

Kawainui Marsh at the foot of the Koʻolau mountains was a wildlife preserve now. Tūtū (who maintained that this was Lei’s kuleana and that she was going to go check out a bookstore in Kailua town) dropped them off at a pathway that ran alongside Maunawili Stream. The shade-casting clouds on this side of the mountains were a welcome relief from the heat of Waikīkī. Kaipo kept fidgeting with his pendant and shirt.

“Okay, what is up with you?” Lei asked.

“Hmm?” Kaipo said absentmindedly, but Lei noticed the way his hands froze.

“Are you blushing?” Lei squinted at her best friend. Indeed, pink was crawling up this throat. “Kaipo! What in the world is going on? Do you need water? Are you getting too hot? Makani, wanna give him a swirl?”

Kaipo’s eyes darted around the marsh and he clapped a hand over Lei’s mouth. “Just shh, okay?”

“Mmph mm ph mm?” Lei mumbled behind his hand.

Kaipo looked her straight in the eyes. “I’m going to move my hand. Can you keep cool? Please?” He removed his hand slowly. Ilikea glanced ahead with a smirk on her face as Makani pushed a light breeze through all of their hair. “It’s just been a while.”

Lei frowned. “I know, you already told me. I’m cool with the fact that you’re literally ancient.”

He rubbed his elbow. “Well, I might have failed to mention that I…ah…used to be friends with Hauwahine before.”

Oh. Oh.

Lei blinked, seeing her friend in a totally different light. She lowered her voice. “So, were you, like, chill friends with this moʻo woman? Or…like…friendly friends with her?”

Lei felt the tips of her own ears go red at the thought of Kaipo like-liking someone. It was weird, like picturing Tūtū being young and going on dates, but somehow in reverse because she had to picture Kaipo older than his current appearance of…Lei studied him and would still peg him at around her age, even though she knew better.

Kaipo squirmed. “It was a long time ago.”

“Pretty sure we’ve established that.”

“I don’t know, I can’t remember.” He fiddled with his pendant again.

“And yet you happen to know that she likes sweets? Interesting…I can barely remember what Ridley’s favorite snack was.” Lei grinned.

That was a lie. Ridley could demolish an entire bag of Backyard Barbeque Kettle Chips in a single lunch period. But Lei was pretty sure she’d forget her best friend’s preferences after, like, a hundred years.

“I just remember she liked sweet stuff, okay?” Kaipo grunted.

Ilikea puffed up her chest and twisted a lock of hair around her finger. “I think it’s great that you’re coming with an offering. That’s the way we should always approach people.”

Lei’s eyes danced as she hip-checked the girl. “Relax, I’m just giving him a hard time. Kaipo and Hauwahine, sitting in a—”

Kaipo’s hand clapped over her mouth again but Lei couldn’t stop giggling.

“Are you quite pau?” he asked after a minute.

Lei nodded. He pulled away his hand.

“—tree,” Lei finished, twisting away from him and hurrying down the path, cackling.

“Lei!” he hissed, running after her. “Come on. You’re going to scare the ʻalae keʻokeʻo.” He gestured to a black, duck-like bird with a red mark on the white stripe that ran down its forehead to its white beak.

Well, that wouldn’t be good. Lei slowed and turned to face her friend, holding her hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay, okay. Sorry. Just didn’t see that coming at all.”

Kaipo sighed.

“I mean, I know you’re super old,” Lei continued, “but still, I kinda think of you as my physical age and didn’t really realize that you’d ever gone past that.” She wrinkled her nose. “Just how old are you actually?”

Kaipo scratched his mass of curls as they walked along the trail. “Um, I’m not sure exactly, but I stayed with your tūtū until she was twenty-two, then she had your dad and I started over again. When you don’t need me anymore or the next generation comes along, I shift away.”

Lei felt like her chest was scooped out and left empty and cold. She couldn’t imagine Kaipo leaving her. She always left him, not the other way around. Ilikea coughed loudly behind her.

“Whoa, I think I just swallowed a moth,” she said, making a big show of gagging.

Lei stared at her.

“What?” Ili asked.

“You eat moths,” Lei said with a smile.

“Oh, right. I mean, ‘yum, I swallowed a moth!’ ”

Kaipo shook his head and looked to the sky as if searching for guidance. Then he remembered where they were and went back to searching the marsh. Lei kept quiet, thinking about everything he’d said. There was so much that she didn’t know. But there would be time to learn. As long as they were able to get these spirits back under wraps, they could spend her week left of summer talking. Maybe there wouldn’t be any poolside lounge chairs and umbrella-laden drinks, but relaxing on Tūtū’s lānai and sharing stories suddenly seemed like a solid way to end this trip.

A glimmer of white on a rock across the grass caught her eye. “Kaipo, I thought we’d be looking in caves or behind waterfalls, but I think I see…”

“These are her ponds so she has no need to hide. She just doesn’t always choose to be seen.” He straightened. Taking a deep breath, he called out, “A Kailua i ka Malanai.”

Lei had no idea what he’d just said other than the fact that they were in Kailua, but it sure got the lady on the rock’s attention. She turned to them with a start, and a flock of birds took to the sky.

The woman—for she was a human with no moʻo tail in sight, which was a total shock to Lei—stood. From this distance Lei couldn’t really tell her age but caught the blinding whiteness of her smile.

“Moe e ka lau o ka ukiuki,” the woman called in reply, a laugh bubbling out of her as she skip-hopped off the stone, across the water, through the grasses, and skidded to a halt on the gravel path in front of them.

Closer up, she looked to be a few years older than Lei. But hanging around all these ancient people in young bodies was probably going to warp how Lei perceived aging, because what even was time with this crew?

“Hū, long time never hear that. Pehea ʻoe, Kaipo? E aha ana ʻoe?” the moʻo woman said, her voice warm as she asked the familiar introductory question, “What have you been up to?”

“Maikaʻi, minamina ka lohi o ke kipa ʻana mai. Pehea ʻoe?” Kaipo asked, continuing the “How you doing?” exchange as they caught up.

She shrugged. “Ua mehameha loa au. O wai kēnā?”

Ilikea whispered to Lei, “Kaipo says he’s been good but is sad he couldn’t visit earlier. She says she’s been lonely and just asked who you are.”

Lei nodded, appreciating the translation. “She doesn’t exactly look like a lizard.”

“Moʻo are most commonly in lizard form. Sometimes giant, sometimes little. And sometimes they’re…not.” Ili shrugged like it was simple. And maybe it was.

Kaipo pointed to Lei. “ʻO Lei kona inoa. ʻO ia koʻu moʻopuna.”

Hauwahine looked at Lei. “Moʻopuna?” she said, her face shifting into surprise.

Kaipo gave a bashful grin. Lei knew that word. Tūtū used it often enough when introducing her to other people as her descendant.

“Aloha kākou,” Hauwahine said to Lei and Ilikea together.

“Aloha,” Lei said. “Ah, here.” She stuck out her offering of li hing mui gummi bears.

The girl positively beamed and, picking up on Lei’s English, switched over. “Aw, sweets!” She leaned into Kaipo, bumping him with her shoulder. “You remembered.” She opened the bag and offered it around before popping a couple in her mouth. “So, what brings you to Kawainui? Anyone sick?”

“Nope, healthy as hippos!” Ili answered. “We just were hoping to get in touch with a friend of ours to relay a message to other friends. Of ours. Heh-heh.”

Speech done, Ilikea backed up next to Lei and pressed her lips together, throwing wild eyes at Kaipo.

He smiled at her frazzled behavior. “What my friend is so eloquently trying to say is that we met some Menehune on Kuaihelani.”

“You”—she looked straight at Lei—“went to Kuaihelani?”

Lei nodded, a prickle of pride sprouting in her stomach.

“Nice, Kaipo. Must run in the ʻohana.”

Kaipo smiled at that, his eyes twinkling at Lei like a super-proud twelve-year-old grandpa. “Lei’s managed a lot these past couple weeks.”

Lei’s pride quickly went from prickly to burning embarrassment. “Okay, old man. Let’s break this up before you start on about my snowboarding and report cards.”

Kaipo snorted a laugh. “Right. Anyway, we were wondering if you have a way of communicating with the moʻo there, to relay a message to the Menehune for us?”

“Auē, I haven’t thought about her in forever. And I thought I was lonely, at least I have a few friends around still.” Hauwahine cocked her head and considered it, popping another couple gummi bears in her mouth. “I never really thought about trying to talk with someone I haven’t exchanged a scale with. How can I explain so your moʻopuna will understand…it’d be like trying to get a hold of someone on social media without @ing them. They’d have to really be looking or listening to get the message. And depending on how many others she’s talking to, it may get lost in the mix.”

Lei spoke up. “I get the feeling she isn’t talking to many. She was very grateful when I gave her a scale and she was able to catch up with a moʻo on Hawaiʻi Island.”

Hauwahine’s eyebrows climbed sky-high at that news.

“You had a moʻo’s scale?” Then her voice went up a level. “And you gave away a moʻo’s scale?” She turned to Kaipo again. “Who even is this child?”

Kaipo grinned.

“I mean, I’m not exactly a child,” Lei mumbled. Being around a bunch of who-knows-how-old people definitely had its limitations. Of course they gave her the “Aw, look how grown-up she thinks she is” looks that her mom gave her whenever she dressed nice for a school dance or an awards ceremony. Makani swirled around her in a show of quiet support.

“Do you think you could try?” Lei pressed.

“Hiki, let’s do this. What’s the message?”

Oh yeah, the message. “Well…” Lei looked to Kaipo, and he gave her a little chin dip to go on. “We’d like to ask for the Menehune’s help. Ask if they’d be willing to come over tonight and help us build a massive fishpond in Waikīkī.”

“You know I need to hear this one,” Hauwahine said.

Lei sighed. Admitting you’re the cause of the problem, especially to folks who were so proud of you a second ago, sucked.

She said, “Honestly, the Menehune are probably expecting our call. We…uh…kinda need to catch some kuewa. Apparently when we went to get Kaipo’s pendant back—”

Hauwahine opened her mouth, probably to ask a question about how he lost it in the first place.

Lei kept going. “Long story. So the kuewa swooped at the chance to get theirs, too, and now they’re trying to make everyone pay because they feel like their descendants forgot about them and they’re—understandably—salty. We met with Aunty Ruby and Mama Kaipuala and—”

“Wow, laulau! How long you been in town?”

“Just over a week. Anyway, they told us some of the old methods of capturing the flying-form kuewa. We were thinking fishponds—the loko iʻa—would help for the kuewa from the sea. So we want to make one, but the spirits are all going to be gathering around the parade tomorrow, so we need to make it fast, like, overnight, so…”

“So you’re counting on the legends being true,” Hauwahine finished.

Lei smiled. “Let’s just say I’ve seen enough these past few days to know anything is possible, and, quite likely, probable.”

“Hū, what have those guys been up to over on Kuaihelani? Let’s do this. Beyond time I tried to reach out to my aunty, anyway.”

Yes! She was going to help. Hopefully they’d be able to reach the other moʻo and have her ask the Menehune in time. Lei didn’t know what they’d do if this didn’t work.