A Human Element (6 page)

He should just forget this night and grab a cab back to base to sleep off the booze. Instead, he walked over to her and smiled back. He could fit a quick blow in before heading home. She stood as tall as him in her low heels. He blinked to remove the double vision of her.

"Maybe. You got a back room nearby?"

"Yeah, sure thing, sailor buggah. Da cute! Pretty gray eyes, too." She mixed in the local Pidgin dialect with English. "I'll wash your handsome face for free."

She laughed as he touched his face, remembering the blood. He must be a scary sight. She motioned him to follow her down a side alley. Grabbing his hand she pulled him into a dark room, lit by a dangling bulb over a single bed. She pulled a sheet down over the door and pushed him down on the bed. He'd been in dozens of rooms just like this over the past few years. It was better than getting closer to some girl who might screw you over and leave you anyways. That's what all people do, hookers or not. Screw you and leave you. Life now was about taking what he wanted and not giving any of himself away.

"Kay den, pay up front, honey, if you want the real thing. $50 for ten minutes and a nice slow blow. Or $250 for thirty minutes and the full spread. You're pretty so I'll make it last. I'll go get something to wash your face."

"Just a blow."

Ben pulled the money out of his wallet, and a condom, and fell back on the bed with both in his hand after she left. The room spun. Hud's sure didn't rip you off on watered down drinks. A cool, wet rag moved across his face and he squinted in pain. It smelled like beer and perfume. He opened his eyes and she smiled at him with slanted eyes.

"Are you Hawaiian?"

"I'm a mix, honey. Home-grown Hawaiian with a bit of Chinese. It don't matter here, though, eh?"

He shook his head and closed his eyes again, willing the throbbing throughout his body to go away. "Use a condom please," he whispered in a hoarse voice.

The girl grabbed his money and condom and laughed. "Sure thing, sweetheart, since you ask so nice."

The girl put the rag away and got down to business. She was true to her word and made it last. In his vodka-blurred condition he wasn't getting off so quick anyhow. She used her fingers and tongue everywhere. So good. He sat up half-way and cradled her head in the final moment. He pulled on her hair. It came loose in his hands. Was she wearing a wig? He shuddered and moaned as burning fire flowed through him. Then he passed out.

He woke up to someone shaking his arm.

"Come on, sailor boy, get up. You can't pass out here. You've been out another twenty minutes. You owe me another $200 or my man will kill me. He's waiting outside for me. He follows me and knows how long I been in here. He'll think I gave you the full thing. Okay wit dat?"

Ben sat up and blinked. Why did she wait around? Easy money to swindle, he guessed. The girl stood over him. She was so tall. A dull hangover started in the back of his head. She bent down and shook his arm again.

"Come on, you done here. Now pay up and get out. I've got other tricks to find. I'm sorry you beat up, but not my problem." She tapped her foot and waved her hands at him.

Ben stood up and the room tilted. He steadied himself and stared at the girl's hair, now longer on one side. He pulled at it and her wig came off in his hands. She yelped and grabbed it back. Only she wasn't a she. She was a he. It was clear now. There bobbed his Adam's apple.

"Show me your tits," Ben whispered, enraged.

He had to know for sure. He ripped the prostitute's tank top down on both sides to find a silicone filled bra and a chest as flat as his. He shoved the man away into the wall, who shrieked, clutching at his fake tits and top. Ben shook. Nausea swelled in his throat and he lunged for the door.

"My moke come after you! You don't pay me for the extra time!"

Ben turned around and punched him in the face. The transvestite screeched and fell on the bed, holding his face. He was a pretty, young man. A man who had sucked his cock and slid his fingers in his ass. And Ben paid him to do it. He doubled over and threw up all over the floor, then grabbed the sheet on the door to wipe his mouth and stumbled out.

"You knew! You knew I was
mahu
!" The young man followed him out in the street and yelled at someone. Ben hobbled then mustered the energy to run. He ran in a jerky path down Hotel Street, looking from side to side for a cab to take him back to base, when a kick from behind his knees took him down. He fell on the street and gasped for breath.

A massive local stood over him. "You cheat me, stupid sailor boy? Is dat what you want to do?"

"Yeah, that's him, Koko." The transvestite stood next to his Samoan moke. His wig now back on, but askew. He smiled at Ben and put his hands on his hips. He had blood on his face from where Ben hit him. How could he have ever thought this was a pretty woman? Ben stood up in a torpid daze and shook his head. Before he could speak the giant grabbed his shirt and glared at him.

"You see my girl here? You ruin her pretty face so she can't make tricks and I'll kill you. She's my money-making
mahu
. You want a beef with me, boy?"

Ben shook his head again. He couldn't look at the prostitute. It made him want to throw up again.

"You pay up now. Price just went up. $300. Or you not getting home any time soon, 'kay den?"

This night was going from bad to worse. Ben tilted his head back and laughed. Dizziness spun through him. People in the street spun around him, too. "I'm not paying extra for some homo to suck my cock. That's false advertising."

He laughed at his own words, even as the first punch came. And the next one and the next. The Samoan pummeled him until he couldn't see anymore. Blackness consumed him as he curled up in the street. The hooker laughed at him. "You crazy white boy, gonna get it now, real good!"

Then Ben passed out. He woke up curled up in the same fetal position with breezes blowing around him. He was in a car. Why couldn't he see? He struggled and found his arms and legs tied. He put his hands to his face. A rough bag covered it. He screamed and threw himself around the car.

"Yo,
haole
, keep it down back there," a deep voice called from the front. Two hands shoved him back down on the seat.

"Yeah, sailor buggah. You gonna get big time buggered soon," another voice called. It was the Samoan, Koko. Ben kicked his arms and legs trying to get at his captors.

Then a hard punch to his head sent him back to darkness.

Ben woke up again to something hard and gritty scratching his face and chest. He wore only his underwear and was bent over a boulder, face down. The bag on his head had disappeared and he adjusted his eyes. The lights of Honolulu blinked below in the far distance. The tropical wind blew across him. He shivered, although it was a warm night. The moon glowed three-quarters full overhead.

He struggled to move, but his hands and feet were tied with rope. It cut into his skin and pulled at the stakes in the ground that held him bent over the rock. He was spread out vulnerable for whatever his tormentors would do to him.

"You awake, sailor boy?" Koko smiled at him and slapped his head. "I picked up my friend here, and we're gonna teach you a lesson real good. Right, Kami?"

Koko's friend, Kami, leaned into Ben's face and leered. Larger and darker than his partner, Kami's teeth gleamed bright against his skin.

"Oh yeah, real good. This is where we take the
haoles
that don't behave, right, Koko?"

"Damn straight. We make nice, friendly boys out of you."

The two Samoans laughed.

Ben turned his head to look at them. "My friends will be looking for me, you know. My base will be looking for me. I know where you are in town. You do anything to me and the Navy will find you."

"No one ain't ever gonna find you, brah." Kami chuckled. "After we done with you we gonna throw you off the cliff, right, Koko?"

"Yep."

Ben knew where he was now. The Pali Lookout. It hung over Honolulu on the Koolau Mountain Range. They must have parked and carried him down the old Pali road, overgrown and forgotten after the new Pali road had been built. It was hidden in the jungle off the beaten path. He remembered the so-called suicides up here. He understood now some might not have been suicides.

"I'll pay whatever you want," Ben said. "Just let me go now." His body ached everywhere but he could think again.

"Don't give me your stink eye, boy." Koko slapped his head again. Ben turned his face away. "Yeah, we'll take your money, but you owe us more, now."

A sharp
s-n-a-p
cracked the air. Ben screamed when a whip cut across his back. "You motherfuckers."
S-n-a-p
. The whip cracked again across the tender back of his legs. He strained at the ropes. Blood trickled down his legs.

"Motherfuckers? I hold the whip and you curse me?" Koko leaned into him. "Hey, Kami, wanna take a turn?"

"Heck yeah, brah."

S-n-a-p
. The whip cracked Ben across his buttocks. Streaks of fire cut into him.

S-n-a-p
. Across his back.

"My poor sailor boy," Koko said. "Had enough?"

Ben tried to speak, but he could only nod.

"Kay den, my sweet friend, we do something else more fun, eh? We don't want you passed out and miss the party."

A click popped in Ben's ear. Shiny metal flashed before him. A hand caressed his ass. He clenched his buttocks together, struggling against the ropes that held him over the rock. One of them pulled his head up by his hair and slapped duct tape on his mouth. Ben quivered.

"Got chicken skin there, eh?" Koko caressed his arms. "No one will hear you scream up here. This is a haunted place. Your screams carry away on the wind, right, Kami?"

"Right, brah. People too scared to come up here at night with the ghosts of our ancestors roaming about."

"Yeah, and we like to hear your screams, but just to be safe we shut you up anyways."

A knife tip pushed painfully at Ben's lower back. He tried to shrink into the rock. The rough surface cut into chest and arms and thighs.

"Be still or I'll cut you good," Koko growled in his ear.

The large Samoan sliced down the back of Ben's underwear and ripped it from his body. The jagged rock edges pressed painfully into his private parts. He tried to raise his bottom away from the rock to alleviate the discomfort.

"Ah, my friend, I like that." Koko sighed in Ben's ear. He rubbed Ben's naked bottom and reached between his legs to massage his balls.

Ben flung himself about on the rock like a crazed animal, pulling at the ropes. They were so taut he had only an inch of leeway. Blood oozed down him as he scraped his naked skin across the rock. But the stakes held fast. He couldn't budge them. Koko laughed deep and long and held his balls tight. Ben stopped his flailing as the pain in his scrotum increased.

Deep anguish surged through him. Had he escaped his foster father's advances only to be gang-raped here by these Samoan monsters and thrown off the cliff to a spiraling death? He heard about one suicidal man who had survived jumping off the Pali lookout. The wind had been so strong it blew him back. It was like the hand of God picked him up and placed the man gently back down. Perhaps Ben would get so lucky and be spared as well. He might not want to live after these two had their way with him though.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to find a dark place with peace and no pain. The two men continued to taunt him, but they echoed far away in a tunnel. He held his breath, willing himself to pass out. The wild wind of the mountaintop raged around him and shrieked in his ears.

One of the men pulled Ben's head toward him. Ben pulled away, squirming to fight him off. "Hey, sailor boy, if you no fight it will be better for you in the long run, eh? Then again, I like the ones that squirm."

"Yeah, keep squirming, man. My big man Kami here is real hung. He'll fill you up real good and then it's my try."

The two men laughed, their voices picked up by the wind and carried off.

Ben was in hell. He didn't know why he had to suffer. But this would be the end of his pitiful life. Here on this Hawaiian mountain it would now be over. Humiliation, repulsion, anger, and pity for himself consumed him as he lay sprawled across the rock. Finally, he wept. The tears burned him as they seeped around the duct tape over his mouth.

"Yeah, you cry, my little
wahine
." Koko leaned his heavy frame onto Ben, crushing him into the biting rock. "You no longer a virgin after I'm done with you."

Two hands held his buttocks open. Ben tucked his head and shoulders in tight to brace against the penetration that would rip him apart. Then two loud cracks shot out over the howling wind. The hands fell away. He let out a huge sigh, dizzy from holding his breath.

Ben opened his eyes and craned his head around to see what had happened. Under the bright moonlight the outline of the two big Samoans rose up from the overgrown road. They didn't move. The wind whipped the giant leaves of the banyan and guava trees about like sails on a great clipper ship. The buzz of traffic from the new Pali road carried up to him from below. He scanned the area. What had happened? Who else hid out there? He pulled at the stakes. His hands shook as he tried to break free.

"Forget it, kid, they're held down in cement," a deep voice said. "These stupid locals make up these playgrounds just to mess with us
haoles
."

Ben swallowed the saliva stuck in his throat and focused on his surroundings. There stood the green-eyed man, hidden in the swaying banyan trees. His black outfit blended into the dark forest. He moved toward Ben and holstered his gun, then popped open a switchblade from his back pocket.

"I am not here to hurt you," the man said when Ben shrunk into the rock. "I'm going to cut the ropes."

In a few swift movements he slit the ropes binding Ben, who staggered back. The man caught him and held him up, then ripped off the duct tape.

"Who are you?" Ben's body trembled from the rush of fear and a fierce headache pounded in his temple.

The man didn't answer. He bent over one of the dead Samoans and pulled out a wallet. He looked inside and threw it at Ben. "It's yours." Then the man led him by the arm down the overgrown road where he handed Ben his clothes from the brush. He tried to put them on but his hands shook so bad the man had to help him. He winced from the whip marks brushing against his jeans and shirt.

"Come on," the man said. Ben looked back at the dead men sprawled face down. They oozed like two fat walruses sunning themselves in the moonlight. "Don't worry about them. I'll dump them later, somewhere they'll never be found."

In a daze, Ben followed his savior up the rough road, stumbling behind him in the dim moonlight. Those men had carried him unconscious down this road.

"I'll take you back to base then you're on your own," the man said once they reached his car, parked off the main road. "Don't speak of this to anyone. Understand?"

Ben nodded and climbed in the car. He looked over at the stranger in black who had saved him. His mammoth biceps flexed as he drove, hunched over the wheel. The man's body looked crushed in the sedan. His square jaw tensed as he clenched his teeth. Ben turned to the window and closed his eyes. He had so many questions jumbled in his head. The wind blew soft on his face as they sped down the mountain curves.

Giddiness rose in him from the pit of his stomach to his throat. He bent over his knees with laughter. He laughed and laughed and then he sobbed with relief. He would live. Just like when he chose to save himself from his foster father. But this time a stranger chose for him to live.

The man looked over at him, both hands gripping the wheel. "Get yourself together," he warned Ben. "I know what those bastards planned to do to you. This island is a cesspool of crap. Tropical paradise, my ass. Occasional good weather doesn't make up for the trash-filled streets, gangs, and homeless. That's what the tourists don't see."

Ben stared at him, fascinated by the man's lengthy dialogue and then a memory flickered. "You were at my foster mother's funeral. Why are you following me? Why save me?"

"I'm an interested party. Leave it at that."

"I can't. I would have died up there for sure."

The man didn't respond.

"Thank you."

The man looked at Ben. His green eyes glowed in the moonlight that filtered into the car.

"Someday you might not thank me. Someday you may not survive."

Ben didn't know what to make of his comment. He started shaking again.

"Just close your eyes and breathe slow."

Ben wanted to throw up again. He remembered being sick in the hooker's room. That seemed like days ago since all this happened. He hugged his waist and closed his eyes.

They reached town and the man whipped in and around Honolulu traffic and stopped the car near the Pearl Harbor base. "You're good from here."

"I don't even know your name. Will I ever see you again?"

The man stared straight ahead and didn't answer. Ben bent his head down and stepped out of the car.

"Tonight was a warning," the man in black said in a low, deep voice. "Make a life for yourself while you have the chance. You can't change the past."

"How do you know about me?" Ben turned back.

The man looked up at him. He squinted as if in pain. "And get out of the Navy. It's not the place for you. The government will only fuck you. Get out now."

The man slammed the door shut and sped off, leaving Ben standing on the curb.

He made his way to his barracks and collapsed on his bed. His roommate was still out somewhere. Ben fell into a deep sleep but couldn't escape the night. In his nightmares the Samoans laughed as they whipped him. His foster father joined them, snapping the whip on his back and cursing him for letting him die.
Murderer!

Then he fell off a cliff. The wind rocked his body but didn't push him back to safety. He screamed as he fell into the darkness. He tried to grab onto something but it was a black, empty abyss. Then a bright green light appeared above him. It grew larger and larger. He shielded his eyes as he fell, terrified. The green light rushed faster and faster toward him. It came for him. It would crush him just like it crushed his parents.

And he was headed straight to hell.