The Smell of the Moon by Lemanatele M Kneubuhl

Author:Lemanatele M Kneubuhl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Huia (NZ) Ltd
Published: 2013-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

A childhood misconception I had about Ha‘akula was that there was an abundance of time, that islanders seem to run on a different clock. In San Francisco, from high school until the day we left, time was so limited, so allocated. For so many years, life was one long succession of increments in which we were allowed, or expected to complete, a certain set of tasks, whether they be work or play. Then there was bedtime, an unavoidable duty designed specifically to prepare us for the next day’s set of obligations.

Our plane landed in Ha‘akula a full hour after my bedtime and on our first night in our new home I missed it again, talking to my cousin Lau. That night was my introduction; it was my first glimpse of what was to come and how time worked in the islands.

I now know that time is not a personal possession. It is no one’s inalienable right, but rather it is a boundless parameter that is to be stretched and shared between all people in a community.

Lau didn’t knock. Ches and I were beginning to hint to the children that bedtime was approaching. We were all at the dining table in the newly painted kitchen playing Monopoly and listening to the local radio station. Ches and I had decided to try to impose as much of our San Francisco-ness as we could on our new surrounding. We thought that would be good for the kids. It was then we heard a high-pitched, but friendly, ‘Yoo-hoo,’ as the front door squeaked open oh-so-slowly. We all froze. I looked at the clock, terrified. It was eight twenty-five. We all relaxed when Lau’s chubby frame crept into view. I looked at the clock again with indecision. It was eight twenty-six.

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