Later that evening, Sandy has been looking for a manila folder for about an hour. Her frustration is escalating as she frantically searches for it. She stops for a minute and tells Kim, “We must find the folder. It has the title to our car in it. The buyer, Roy Cromwell, will be coming here Monday morning to pay us, and we need to give him the title.”
Kim is annoyed. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“I need you to help me find it!” she says.
“Go look in the bedroom closet on the top shelf for two file boxes. It might be there.”
She tells him that she is going downstairs to look for it. Kim walks into the bedroom to look in the closet. He sees the two file boxes and takes them off the shelf. The two file boxes are on top of a wooden board, and underneath the board are two old, raggedy bags. He is curious about what’s in the bags and takes them off the shelf.
He then places everything on his bed. He picks up one of the bags and turns it upside down. Papers and old photos drop to the floor.
Kim looks down on the floor and sees an old photograph. He recognizes the photo. The last time he saw it was when he lived in Hawaii as a young teenager. He glares at the picture and slowly sits down on the floor. Then he picks it up and holds it tightly as he stares at it.
While Sandy is downstairs, she remembers that the folder is in one of her old wooden cabinets. She finds the folder and rushes upstairs to tell Kim the good news. When she walks into their bedroom, she begins to shiver. She tells Kim, “I got chills the minute I walked in here. Why is it so cold?”
When Kim doesn’t acknowledge her presence, she takes a few steps towards him and sees that he is staring at a picture.
She wants to see what picture could hold such a mesmerizing power over him. Leaning over his shoulder, she says, “Kim I never saw that picture of you as a little boy before.”
He responds, “That’s because I never knew I had it. The only thing I can figure out is that years ago, my father must have given the photo to Joan or one of my children when he visited us in California.”
She comments that the picture of him smiling while he is saluting like a soldier is priceless. Then she raves about how cute he looks in his soldier uniform. Kim ignores her. He is entrenched in the thoughts and memories that the picture is stirring up in him.
He vividly remembers that the picture was always on his father’s nightstand. Every time his father looked at it, he smiled with a sense of pride. His father’s eyes always brightened when he viewed the picture of his young son in a military uniform, saluting like a little soldier.
As Sandy gazes at the picture, she becomes more and more excited. “I don’t believe it!” she says. “That picture was taken when you were a happy little five or six-year-old boy. Who would think that, within a few years, you would grow up during World War II and its aftermath? Then you became a Korean War hero, a fire sword dancer, and a stuntman. Kim, I believe that picture was a sign of your destiny. You were destined to live the life of a great warrior.”
Kim rubs away a teardrop running down his cheek. Then he says, “When I was a child, I first learned about the signs of prophesies to one’s destiny from my teachers. They taught their lessons in ritual areas about the Hawaiian martial arts along with the history and legends of the Hawaiian people. One of their lessons was the story about the prophecy of Hawaii’s greatest king.”
“My father taught the lesson. He said that he would tell all of us the story of the Kahunas’ prophecy. The Kahunas were wise and spiritual. They were the first high priests of the island. Their prophecy detailed the signs of who would be destined to become Hawaii’s greatest king. There was only one man named Kamehameha who met all of the signs of the Kahunas’ prophecy. He was Hawaii’s greatest king and united all of the Hawaiian Islands.”
Then Kim starts to lightly tap the picture with his finger, whispering, “The gladiator.” He looks at Sandy and says, “You know, you might be right. This picture might have been one of the signs of my destiny. Over the years, I had a lot of interviews with the press. I always told them that stuntmen were the gladiators of our century.”
Sandy smiles and agrees.
Kim goes on to say that Thalia would also be convinced that the picture of him was a sign of his destiny. He tells Sandy, “I met Thalia after I jumped overboard from a cruise ship and swam to shore. Thalia was on the beach with her little brothers and sisters. At the time, I believed that I swam to Hawaii. She told me that I was actually in American Samoa.”
“I was fuming with anger because I ended up in the wrong place. Thalia told me that I did not end up in American Samoa by accident, that it would turn out to be the right place—I just didn’t know it yet. She said that I was meant to be there, and she was meant to be on the beach to find me.”
“Thalia and I became good friends. She loved to talk about destiny and faith. One day, we were sitting on the beach, and she asked me to tell her about the times that destiny played in my life.”
“I remember my conversation with her like it was yesterday. I told her that my destiny was to be an elementary school dropout because of the times of war I lived in. It sure wasn’t a good sign for the rest of my life. Then I laughed. Thalia did not laugh; instead, she told me that I was not alone. All of the children living in Hawaii and the South Pacific Islands during the war lived a life of fear and hardship.”
“I told her that, when I was a child, I visited the soldiers on the docks and listened to their exciting stories about the mainland. I believed all their stories were true. They made me want to go to the mainland to find gold in California, be a cowboy in Texas, and go to New York to see my uncle. I planned to get to the mainland by stowing away on a ship, but I got caught.”
“Within two days, everyone in my village found out that I got caught trying to stow away to the mainland. All the kids made fun of me. I was the laughingstock of the village. I was also shunned because my actions did not show respect for my father. I felt a lot of shame. I never meant to dishonor or disrespect him. Then I became determined to get strong by practicing and learning more about the martial arts. I set out on a quest to prove myself.”
“Thalia then asked me if I would have practiced as much as I did if I had not been a failure as a stowaway. I thought long and hard about what she asked me. I finally answered her and said that I honestly didn’t know”
“Then I told her that I stowed away a second time when the war was over. I believed I was prepared and ready to go to the mainland. But after I arrived in San Francisco, my journey to get to New York was tougher than I ever thought it would be. There were times when I wanted to give up, but that was not an option for me. I was determined that I would not go back to Hawaii as a failure again. I also didn’t want to disappoint my father for a second time.”
“I forced myself not to think about all the terrible stuff that was going on around me. Instead, I kept moving forward and stayed focused on getting to the finish line. I told myself that I would be okay if I kept moving forward and headed to the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“I was happy when I made it to my uncle’s apartment in New York. He was in Xavier Cugat’s band. I began practicing and performed a couple of times with them. They were booked for a European tour, and I was asked to go with them. I planned on writing a postcard to my father when I got to Europe. I knew he would be proud of me, and that would have meant everything to me—but I never got the chance.”
“Everything changed the night before I was going to leave on the European tour. I was walking through an alley, and a group of teenagers picked a fight with me. If I wanted to fight them, I could have with my eyes shut and my feet in quicksand. But they wouldn’t give up, and everything got ugly when a kid named Luke took out a switchblade.”
“The cops showed up, and I was falsely accused of stabbing a boy named Jerry. I was convicted and sentenced to an awful juvenile prison that was controlled by sadistic guards. My friend Lenny and I managed to escape, but the guards caught Lenny by a lake. I was hiding a distance away in a tree, and I saw the guards savagely murder my friend.”
Sandy sees that Kim is choked up by what he just revealed. She says, “Kim, I believe that you were one of the catalysts for change in the juvenile justice system because you spoke out. Your deeds helped make things better for many kids in the system at the time. That could be the reason, the higher purpose, that you were destined to be in that juvenile prison and up that tree ”
Kim responds, “I hope it did help. I hope Lenny’s death did cause some good changes for other kids who were locked up.”
Then he says, “Thalia asked me if I believed that life’s journey is like going through a tunnel, and I told her that I did. Then she drew a tunnel in the sand. She told me that thinking of my journey through life as moving forward through a tunnel wouldn’t prepare me for the unexpected changes in life that will always happen.”
Kim continues, “I then watched Thalia make a tunnel in the sand and move a shell through it. She told me that the shell had nowhere to go but forward or backward. She said that she believed that a tunnel approach to life was good for reaching one goal at a time. I told her that it’s like when race horses wear blinders in a race. The horses have tunnel vision so that they can focus on getting to the finish line.”
“Then Thalia said that there was also another way of thinking called the ‘maze mindset.’ It’s a way of thinking that makes us strong and prepares us for the changes we will experience in life.”
“To show me what she meant, Thalia drew a maze in the sand with lots of tunnels of different lengths, sizes, and measurements. Some of the tunnels merged with others, and some were dead ends. When Thalia finished creating the maze, she placed two shells down at the bottom of it. She told me that the yellow shell belonged to her and the blue shell was mine. Then we took turns moving our shells. I tried to beat Thalia, but she was the one to make it out of the maze first.”
“I congratulated her and told her that I liked her take on life. It made sense to me. Then I asked her how she learned about the maze of life. She told me that she learned it from one of her teachers at their ritual area. She bragged that Hawaii wasn’t the only island that instructs the children in ritual areas.”
Sandy says, “Kim, I am convinced that we were supposed to be in that restaurant today. We were supposed to hear those people’s stories. I know it, and you know it, too.”
Kim asks Sandy, “Remember when Ryan had his defining moment?”
Sandy nods that she does.
Kim says, “I know now when my defining moment happened. I know when I discovered the signs that would lead to my destiny. It was when Yakima Canutt asked me, ‘So you want to be a stuntman?’ I was passionate when I said that I did. I told him about my hardcore journey through life. As I spoke, I saw that all the bad stuff that happened to me had taught me how to be a stuntman.”
Sandy responds, “You’re right. And I’m right too, because stuntmen are the gladiators of this century. I also believe that you were supposed to find that picture tonight.”
Kim says, “I never talked about the things I said tonight except with Thalia that one time, which was so long ago. I was raised to keep my feelings to myself. A lot has been lifted from my shoulders tonight, but there is one thing that has haunted me all my life.”
“It was the Korean War. None of my men survived, and I was the only one who did. Why? Why me?”
Sandra tells Kim. “I believe that you survived so many hardships in life because you were meant to tell your story.” Kim looks at her and nods his head in agreement. They slowly get up off the floor. Kim places the photograph in a frame and puts the picture on his bureau. Then as they head out of the bedroom, Kim turns off the light.
The End