Hawaii - James Michener [619]
"Do you think they'll get married?" Mrs. Mendonca asked.
Malama evaded this question by volunteering a short speech: "I remember, Carry-the-Mail, when you married Leon Choy, and all the alii wept because a fine Hawaiian girl was marrying a Chinese, and I wept too, but as I recall, my father assured your father that it was all right, and that sometimes the Chinese were good people. How different things are now, because it is no longer a question, of what we five elderly Hawaiian ladies think of such a marriage. The problem is: 'Will a leading Chinese family like Hong Kong Kee's allow their daughter to marry a Hawaiian?' We have fallen so swiftly on the slide of history." She strummed idly on her ukulele while her guests picked up an old song that had come down from better days.
The other older person who watched Kelly's new position with meticulous care was Hong Kong Kee, and one night he waited up till three in the morning to greet his beautiful, competent daughter. "Were you out there kissing him in the car?" he stormed.
"Yes."
"This is what the haoles call necking?"
"Yes."
"Well, don't let me catch you again."
"Then don't peek!" And she flounced up the stairs, but he trailed after her, protesting that the entire Chinese community was worried about her. Singing in a hotel was bad enough, but now it began to look as if ...
"As if what?" she asked sternly, whirling about to face her anguished father.
"It begins to look as if you were thinking of marrying him," Hong Kong stammered.
"I am," Judy said.
"Oh, Judy!" her father gasped, and to her surprise the tough old warrior burst into tears. "You mustn't do this!" he pleaded. "You're a fine Chinese girl. You've got to think of your position in the community."
"Father!" Judy cried, pulling his hands down from his red eyes. "Kelly's a good boy. I love him and I think I'm going to marry him."
"Judy!" her father wept. "Don't do it." The noise awakened the rest of the family, and soon the hallway was filled with Kees, and when they heard Hong Kong's ominous warning that "Judy insists she's going to marry the Hawaiian," her brothers began to weep, too, and one said, "Judy, you can't bring this disgrace upon us."
For some time Judy had been aware of her family's apprehension about her growing friendship with Kelly, but she had considered it merely a normal expression of family concern. Now, as the weeping male members of her family stood about her, she realized that it was something much deeper. "You're a Chinese girl!" Brother Eddie stammered. "Don't you think that when I was at Harvard Law I met a lot of attractive haole girls? Even some I wanted to marry? But I didn't do it because I thought of the family here in Hawaii. And you can't do it, either."
"But Kelly's a settled-down citizen," Judy stubbornly repeated. "He makes more money than any of you, and if Dad can get the trust straightened out . . ."
"He's a Hawaiian," Mike said.
"You think I want my lovely daughter to marry a man with a vocabulary of seven hundred words, most of them seestah and blalah?" Hong Kong demanded.
"Kelly is an educated young man," Judy insisted.
"Very well," Hong Kong snapped. "If you marry him . . ."
"Don't say it, Father," Judy begged.
"If you insist upon bringing disgrace upon, the whole Chinese community," Hong Kong said ominously, we want nothing more to do with you. You're a lost girl."
The Kees went officially to bed, but through the night one after another crept to Judy's room to explain