Wilson Kamanā sat on the roof of his homestead house in Kewalo.
Luckily, his job as a city and county refuse driver didn't require a uniform of sorts, so he wore what he wore to work. Which was pretty much what he wore all the time. Several squad cars, along with most of the neighborhood, gathered in front of his home. The intent was to have a SWAT team converge on Wilson's home, but it was not a barricade situation. Sergeant Haunani Ching volunteered to go in, since she grew up on Kewalo Street and knew Wislon and his son Kepa. She didn't want to walk in, acting like she was clearing the room, so she kept it as casual as possible. Kepa was standing in front of the kitchen counter, not doing anything in particular except standing there."Wassup, Kepa?" Haunani whispered. "Ma hea kou makua kāne?"
Pointing above him, Kep replied. "Ma luna, me ke kaupaku. Hele ma ke alapi'i, i waho."
Haunani saw the ladder outside that Kepa was pointing to. She climbed carefully, and when she got to the top, there was Wilson, sitting on the edge of the roof with a six-pack next to him and a small open container of poke. Without a word, she sat next to Wilson, letting out a deep sigh.
"How you, uncle?" Haunani asked. "How's your day, today? What's happening?"
"How you Haunani?" Wilson replied "It's always good to see you."
In his left hand, Wilson held a gun. By the burnt-smoked smell of it, a bullet had recently been discharged, which is why the neighbor next door called it in. Haunani stayed calm and made no effort to take the gun. If Wilson left with her, she wanted it to be of his own accord, not by any force from her.
"Do you know what all of this used to be?" He gestured to the surrounding mountains in front of them.
"No," Haunani replied.
"This used to be ours, all of it was ours," he said thoughtfully as a nice breeze appeared to have accentuated the moment. "At one time, Hawaiians lived everywhere; there used to be millions of us. Then the Haoles came, and our Ali'i was so impressed by them that they let them marry our women and gave them land, our land, all of this that we're looking at right now."
"They took our land and gave us a homestead," Haunani replied. "Right?"
"No," Wilson corrected her. "Prince Kūhiō fought for us to have a homestead; the Haoles got everything else. You know my son Kepa? He's really smart, that boy, he's so smart he's a bad person. Did you know that about him growing up? I didn't. I had no idea."
"How do you mean?" Haunani asked.
"The kid is hooked on drugs, but I found out too late," Wilson began. "By the time I found out, Kepa had already taken out an ad on that thing, saying that I was selling this parcel for ten grand!"
"What? Ten thousand dollars?" Haunani was shocked.
"I had no idea, until the people showed up an hour ago, when I got home from work," Wilson began. "They were right out front, giving Kepa the cashier's check! He owed money to a drug dealer! We got into a big argument!"
"Wow, Uncle, I didn't know that." Haunani gently rubbed Wilson's back. "So, what are you going to do with that gun, Uncle?"
"Can you cuff me when we get down the ladder? I'm not as young as before, I might take a tumble."
"Why, you did something I should know about?" Haunani asked.
"After you handcuff me," Wilson wiped his hands on his jeans. The two stood up, and Haunani went down the ladder first with Wilson coming down behind her. At the bottom, she walked Wilson through the kitchen in cuffs, but Wilson walked on the other side of the counter, where Kepa's body lay bleeding on the floor with a gunshot wound to his head. Haunani stumbled back and nearly fell over her own feet, nearly letting out a scream. "I just talked to him, before I came up that ladder! He told me where to find you!"
"No," Wilson objected. "I killed him first, then I went on the roof. I dunno who you was talking to after that, but it couldn't have been Kepa. He was dead already. Better me than a drug dealer."
Bringing Wilson outside, she handed him over to the other officers while she sat on the stone wall next to the mailbox. Haunani was still trying to reconcile with what had just happened when she glanced up at the front door of the home. Kepa was standing inside with a look of resignation as if he'd already accepted his fate.
"Better you than a drug dealer, Uncle Wilson," Haunani muttered to herself. "Better you."
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