Hawaiian Sea Hunt Mystery

“You still worry me, Li. I don’t know how you can hold your breath that long,” Biff remarked as the boys walked up the beach.

“Just practice, Biff. I’ve been doing it since I could walk, I guess. Dad tells me I could swim before I could walk.”

The boys paused to watch an outrigger come plunging toward the shore atop a long, rolling wave.

The outrigger was being paddled furiously by two Hawaiian boys. On one side of the canoe, its outrigging extended out in two arching arms, connected by a buoyant float of wiliwili wood to give the slender canoe more stability.

The canoe ground ashore, and its laughing passengers scrambled out.

“All set, Biff? Ready to make a real try at it today?”

“By me that’s fine. I think I almost got the knack of it yesterday.”

“When it comes to you, it comes all of a sudden. You just sort of feel it.”

“I hope I feel it today,” Biff said, laughing.

The first day, the boys had swum out to where the long rollers formed, and had ridden them in, their bodies held stiff. Li wanted Biff to become accustomed to the waves. Then they had started with the surfboards.

The two boys walked across the beach to two long, brightly painted surfboards made of wiliwili wood. They carried the boards out into the ocean until they were waist deep. Then, sprawling on the boards, they paddled off shore several hundred yards.

“Okay, we’ll try it here. Head your board toward shore,” Li called.

Biff slowly turned his board until its pointed bow was aimed at the beach.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

“Let the first few waves pass until you get the feel and lift. Then, when one comes that feels good – that’s the only way I can explain it – start paddling like crazy.”

Biff followed instructions. He felt himself being lifted by the first wave, then a second. Now came a huge roller, raising both boys high above the trough left by the preceding roller. Biff started paddling furiously, still lying face down on the board. He felt the wave grab it. The board picked up speed, riding right at the crest of the roller. He had made it!

Li was right alongside. The boys were speeding shoreward at nearly thirty miles per hour.

When the roller broke on the shallow shore, Biff was tossed off in the foaming breaker. He grabbed his board and held on until the wave smoothed out.

“Gee! That’s the most thrilling ride I’ve ever had!” he exclaimed.

“You did great, Biff,” Li said. “But just wait. If you think that was a charge, wait till you ride the board standing up. How about it?”

“Let’s go!” Biff agreed promptly.

Out they went again. Again they waited for the right feel of the roller. Biff felt one take his board. He was speeding shoreward. He looked over the water at his friend. He saw Li rise to a knee crouch, then slowly straighten up until he was standing straight, head held high.

Biff tried it. He got to his knees. Carefully feeling for his balance, he started straightening up. “I’ve done it,” he said triumphantly to himself. He looked shoreward just in time to catch a blinding splash of salt spray. He blinked his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he was floundering in the water.

Li, seeing what had happened, leaped off his board, turned it, and came paddling back to Biff.

“I meant to tell you. When you get up, hold your head high, and back. Then the salt spray doesn’t hit you in the eyes.”

“Now you tell me,” Biff said, laughing. “I’m going to make it this time.”

They started out even. Li got up first. Biff took seconds longer. He was more careful this time. The tough part was straightening up from a crouching position to an erect one, then placing one foot ahead of the other, and getting a good balance. Biff arose slowly, slowly but surely. He made it. The two boys rode standing up, only a few feet separating their two boards.

Li turned to Biff and grinned. Then he clasped his hands over his head, making a handshake of congratulation. He was so thrilled at seeing Biff make it that he forgot about himself. This time it was the expert who spilled himself into the water.

Biff rode triumphantly into shore alone.

The luau was ready. The guests had arrived. Li burst into Biff’s room.

“Wikiwiki, Biff! Hurry. Everything’s ready.”

“I’m wikiwiki-ing just as fast as I can.”

“Here, put on this aloha shirt – all the kanes wear them. The wahines, the women, wear holukus or muumuus. You call them mother-hubbards, only ours are brightly colored with big flowers printed on them.”

“What do the kids – what do you call them —keikis? What do they wear?”

Li laughed at Biff’s pronunciation. “How many times do I have to tell you that every letter in a Hawaiian word is pronounced? Here’s how you say ‘children’ in Hawaiian: kay-ee-keys, with the accent on the first syllable.”

“Okay, Li-ka-kay.”

“Gee, that’s the first time you’ve said my name right. You stick around long enough, and you’ll be a real Hawaiian!”

“What’s your name in English, Li?” Biff asked.

“Richard.”

“Okay, Dick – let’s go.”

The luau was being held in the garden in the rear of the Mahenilis’ home. Under gaily striped awnings, long tables had been set up. They were decorated with fragrant-smelling ferns, flowers, pineapples and bananas.

At each place setting, there had been placed a niu, a coconut with its top slashed off, still containing the wai niu, or coconut water, which would be sipped with the meal.

Hank Mahenili stood over the lua– the hole Biff and Li had dug earlier in the day – making sure that the puaa was done to a turn. A luau isn’t the real thing without a roast pig.

“All ready, everyone,” Hank called out, and started cutting pieces of the pig. The meat was so tender it fell apart. Hank placed the meat on ti leaves, and servants carried it to the tables.

“What a meal!” Biff said, finding his place beside Li. “Never saw so much food.”

In addition to the puaa, there was a umeke, a small bowl, of poi– taro root pounded to a paste. There was a dish, called pa, of lomilomi– salmon, which didn’t look a bit like salmon, since it had been shredded and kneaded into a salad. There was also a dish of moa, chicken cooked in coconut juice, and another pa of opihi, a small, delicately flavored shell fish.

This wasn’t all. There were pas of i’a, fish, and sweet potatoes, called uwala kalua.

“If I eat all this, I’ll explode,” Biff said.

“Here, have some of this,” Li said.

“What is it?” There was a suspicious look on Biff’s face.