KEONI

by Kirby Michael Wright

Keoni didn't look like his parents. His mother was so white she'd blister hanging out the wash. His father's face was as red as a tomato. Keoni was a husky kid with a baby face and an olive complexion. If he spent time in the sun, he just got darker. Keoni could polish off a dozen malasadas in five minutes and Ben said that proved he had Portuguese blood. Keoni seemed more sophisticated than my other classmates. He discovered a secret path through the kuku weeds from the rectory over to the convent."The nuns and priests do it," Keoni said."Do what?" I asked."The birds and the bumble bees." Keoni had started out one grade ahead of Ben and now was in my class. The nuns had flunked him twice for failing math. He'd started out one grade ahead of Ben and now was one grade behind. When I left Star of the Sea for Punahou School, he was close to flunking a third time.

22 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 13, 2010

About the author

Kirby Wright is an American writer best known for his coming of age island novel PUNAHOU BLUES and the epic novel MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA, which is based on the life and times of Wright's paniolo grandmother. Both novels deal with the racial tensions between haoles (whites) and the indigenous Hawaiians, and illustrate the challenge for characters who, as the product of mixed-race marriages, must try to bridge the two cultures and overcome prejudice from both camps.
Wright's work is primarily concerned with the complexities of multicultural Hawaii, Killahaole Day, prejudices against (and within) island high schools, and the tricky matter of interracial dating. He incorporates the local creole language into his novels and was the first author to document the pidgin English spoken by the paniolo cowboys on the east end of Molokai.