*This story is a Chris Jackson original, is owned by Chris Jackson, and is not to be reposted by anyone other than Chris Jackson without express permission. All people in this fictional story involved in sexual acts are of the age of 18 or older.*
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I had only been posted in Hawaii for a grand total of a month. Most of that had been settling into my new living arrangements and getting acquainted with the Kauai Federal Marshal’s Office. It also happened to be the smallest Marshal’s office in the 50 states. It’s a couple of desks in the island’s courthouse.
I’m a Maine man, and the locals didn’t let me forget it. I’ve been called a “haole” or foreigner, more than once. They don’t take kindly to outsiders, let alone federal law enforcement. It’s a tight-knit community that looks after their own. They’re rightfully weary of mainlanders who might be the carpet bagging type.
Knowing how the locals feel about me makes every traffic stop, just like this one, a hassle. Routine traffic stops weren’t usually a Deputy Marshal’s job, but when it was just us and a small sheriff department on this picturesque island, we worked together.
I calmly approached a beat-ass, lime-green Volkswagen Beetle. My hand was nowhere near my sidearm. The last thing I expected an islander to want was a white lawman coming up on them with an itchy finger.
I got to the car that was probably the same age as me. Suppressing a chuckle wasn’t easy when I saw the occupant of the vehicle manually rolling the window down.
When they straightened up and looked at me, my breath hitched. It was a young woman, maybe 20 years old. She had gorgeous, big, and warm brown eyes. Curvy but strong figure from life on the island. I had to wonder if she surfed, danced, played beach volleyball, or something. Bodies like that don’t come from not doing anything.
She wore a practiced smile on her light brown face. Oh fuck, I thought to myself. In these situations, it’s not usually the lawman getting clammy hands.
“Aloha, Officer.” She said almost flirtatiously. Probably doing what she could to save herself from a ticket. I had a feeling this act felt humiliating, like she wanted this to be over as soon as possible. I didn’t blame her. For any of it.
The beauty swept her glossy, long, black hair over her shoulder. She wore a little peach colored crop top; the bottom cut off at the ribs. Her toned midriff threatened to make my mouth dry. “What seems to be the problem?” She asked, her voice surprisingly deep in timbre. That Hawaiian Pidgin accent made my cock twitch on its own. Weird. It never did that until her.
“Good afternoon, Miss.” I was a white boy who just moved here. As much as the tourist in me wanted to say aloha back, I refused to appropriate the language already. I had a feeling that she caught it. Her fake smile took a slight edge of reality to it. “I hate to bother you with something seemingly trivial, but I got to let you know you were going 15 over and your left taillight is flickering on and off. It still works, so I can’t give you a ticket for it, but I wanted you to know before someone did try to or it burned out completely.” Don’t let her feel you’re perving, I kept kicking myself.
The girl’s smile became genuine, I thought. A pink tongue darted out, probably to wet her dry lips before she spoke again. Maybe I was still making her anxious.
“Well, Officer, uh, I think?” She was right to ask questions. I wore Dickie’s light-tan slacks and a button-up. My gun and badge were visible, but I didn’t introduce myself. I wanted her to know she wasn’t in big trouble before I tried to do anything else. Maybe a bad move. This wasn’t the kind of situation I dealt with back home. I knew everyone back home. And most of them were White.
“Deputy U.S. Marshal Mason Keats,” I said and offered a hand. She took it, and I watched her expressive face closely. Her eyes just barely narrowed at the corners before she caught herself. She hated white feds, too.
I had to start somewhere. Earning trust. Understanding what the population versus what the law would have me blindly do.
Tia Aleki,” she said, trying to force a friendly air. “You’d know that if you asked for my license and registration….” She trailed off, getting suspicious. My break of protocol was making her weary, not easing her.
“I’ll ask for those if I decide you need a ticket, but we’re not there yet,” I said casually. I chose to lean back on her car. Relaxed. There was a fine line between seeming casual and coming off as arrogant asshole that felt powerful. I had to be careful. “Can I ask why you were speeding?”
Tia sighed and tried not to roll her eyes. “This car and I came out the same year, Deputy. The pedals are sticky at best. They don’t always listen to me. It’s just me and my baby sister, and I’m not exactly swimming in repair funds.” She paused. “I might be able to afford to fix the taillight, though. Anyway, I… I’ll try to get them fixed because I understand speeding is illegal. Having a jumpy car with questionable-at-best breaks is a safety concern for me and my sister.”
I stood there for a moment; my arms crossed over my fitted shirt as I contemplated. “I won’t be needing your license and registration today, Ms. Tia,” I told her as I pushed off from her car. Lingering felt like a bad idea, especially after second-guessing just how mellow I was being.
“You’re not giving me a ticket?” The young woman asked, her mouth sliding open a little.
Now came the important part. Letting her know I wasn’t about to turn this into extortion. I wasn’t going to ask for anything. I didn’t need to be a white knight. Being the white guy that tried to be the island hero wasn’t the job. Being someone they could trust was. Being a public servant that wasn’t a white piece of shit on a trip was the job.
“No ma’am,” I told her as I put my brown, leather-felt fedora back on. It was cheesy, but I loved this hat, damn it. It was quite practical under the intense Hawaiian sun. “You have enough trouble without having to pay off a ticket or two. You can use that money a whole lot more than a federally and tax funded office. I can’t hope you’ll be able to fix your car on top of a seventy-dollar ticket.” I tipped my brim and headed back to my car.
“Thank you, Deputy!” She called after me as I headed back to my car.
“Take care of yourself and that baby sister.” I said in parting as I tucked back into my Lincoln Continental. The differences in our cars were not lost to me, either.
My shift ended after a day of learning more about the Island of Kauai and its’ people a little more. How could I move here, expect to do my job, and not learn about where I was or who the people around me were? Especially as a law enforcement officer. That’d be like going to a different country and wondering why no one else spoke my language. Hawaiians are just as American as me, but I wasn’t so dumb as to think Maine and Hawaii were even a little similar.
I packed up to leave the office for the day, wanting to get back to my cozy duplex.
Before I could get out, however, a giant of a local that also happened to be the sheriff came in. “Hey there, Lawman.” He teased like he wasn’t one, too, in his deep, raspy voice. “What do you say we head to the luau and kick back a brew or two? I’ll buy you a kalua pig taco.”
As I picked up my hat, I looked up at the burly sheriff. The man was huge. Easily 6’5” compared to my extremely average height of 5’10”. He was also wide like a goddamn door. “You know what, Jonah? That sounds like a hell of a time. Let’s roll.”
“We’re taking your car. It’s nicer than mine with that federal salary of yours.”
I just laughed at him. Jonah had been nothing but kind and welcoming to me since I arrived. The Virgil to my Daunte on this island.
Once we got through the wooden gates of the outdoor luau, I followed Jonah as he passed the ‘wait to be seated’ sign in both English and Hawaiian. I’d never do that, but I suppose this is a hell of a lot more his island than it was mine.
“This has been my table since I was a little keiki kane [boy],” he said. “Having access to this table if it’s not already taken is the only protection fee I charge.” He chuckled and winked at me. I cracked a smile, but part of my sensibilities said that’s not something to really joke about. Maybe for him it was because he was part of the island.
“It’s a nice spot,” I said. I took the seat next to him, our backs to a wall. We had a view of the whole crowd as well as the stage. With the tactical and practical vantage points, I could see why he liked that table. Jonah may have felt like an island Andy Griffith to some, but he had more instincts than he’d reveal on purpose.
“Oe! Aloha, Sheriff!” I heard a voice that had recently become familiar to me. She sounded a lot happier talking to Jonah, but I didn’t blame her. I had a long way to go to earn the tight-knit island’s trust.
“Aloha, e Tia!” the sheriff beamed as the young woman came around our table and into my view.
I clenched my teeth to stop my jaw from dropping. The woman was disarmingly gorgeous. My lungs stopped working for a moment. Her long dark hair was perfect with a bright white flower adorning it. Tia’s makeup was warm but subtle, accenting her soft features. She wore a vivid blue bralette and a matching beach wrap, a lot of her deep caramel skin and muscle tone on display.
Of course, the perceptive sheriff caught me staring at her. Okay, it was full-on gawking. “Tia, have you met Deputy Marshal Mason Keats yet?” A knowing smirk played on his face. That fucker.
“Aloha, Deputy. Yes, I have,” she said with a polite smile. A hand was on her shapely hip and an empty drink tray in the other. “He pulled me over today,” she said flatly. She was addressing the sheriff but kept those big brown eyes on me. Her lips quirked into a tiny smile. “He could have given me a ticket, but he didn’t.”
Jonah turned his big, bullish head and smiled at me. “A soft U.S. Marshal?” He teased, thinking he knew I was up to something. Speeding tickets aren’t a usual marshal’s jurisdiction. I only pulled her over at all because of the cooperation agreement. But if I voiced that, I was sure to be laughed at more.
“Just empathetic,” I corrected. “I’m from a small fishing town in Maine, Sheriff. Not much more money to go around back home than there is here. The tourmaline mine dried up before I was even born. I remember being in my early 20s and scraping by. I’m only 26 now, so it’s still fairly recent.” My hometown was in the middle of a fight on whether recently discovered lithium in the old mine should be extracted or not. The jobs said yes, but everything about the land, water, and safety of the people living there said no.
Jonah laughed and clapped his bear paw of a hand on my shoulder. “Shit, Deputy. You’re young enough to be my son. Maybe I should retire soon.”
I tipped my brim to Tia and said, “We’ve taken enough of your time, Miss. We’ll let you get back to your tables.” I worked at restaurants through high-school and put myself through college. Mainly as a cook, but I knew how grating it could be for one table to monopolize their time.
“I’ll be back in a moment to grab your orders, okay? The sheriff always sits in my section, but he has since before I was born, let alone working here.” She said it with a wink and sauntered off. Her hips swayed naturally, but the motion was accentuated by her beach wrap.
Damn, I said to myself. My eyes lingering on Tia’s fine retreating form drew a laugh from the older public servant next to me.
“Be careful, Deputy,” he warned. “Tia is a pistol, and you’d be crazy if you think she’d ever put a man over her baby sister. She lives to take care of that poor kid.”
“Tia briefly mentioned something about her, how it’s just those two.” I said as my eyes went over the drink menu. “What’s the beer the locals get, Sheriff? I don’t want a touristy beer.”
Jonah smiled. “Let me do the ordering, Lawman. I know what’s good here.”
I put my trust in the big ass Hawaiian with smiling eyes. Who needed a menu? I didn’t even look at it as we talked shop; how policing on this island works, how I could connect with these people. Serve them better without trying too hard. Doing the job without being a “white savior.” Jonah made me care deeply for him in the way he chose to be real with me. The way he took these topics and I, seriously. But it was a two-way situation. I trusted him enough to be honest about the problems I was facing. What I expected to face.
I recognized that I had an elevated level of otherness that I needed to hurl over, but I still had a job to do.
Jonah explained that a lot of the crime here was mainly poverty crime, which I’m used to back in my small Maine town. But then you add the tourist element and the resort to the island. There are a class and cultural strife I didn’t have at home. We got some tourism, but it was nowhere near Hawaii’s scope.
This was not easy, and I didn’t have home field connections to lean back on. The sheriff and the other two Marshal deputies were all I had in my “ohana,” as they say, and I thought Tom Callway was a little shit.
When Tia made her way back to us, she had frosted mugs and two bottles in her hands. “When the sheriff drinks with someone, they get what he has.” She smiled. “Want me to pour for you?” Tia didn’t seem excited at the prospect, as it usually just gave the tourists an extra chance to ogle the pretty island girls, I expected. But because it was Jonah, she seemed a bit more relaxed.
“No thank you, ma’am. I can pour just fine.” I reached out and took my half of the spirits and glassware. “You’ve got plenty to do, I see.” It was a busy Thursday night on the island, and the place was a madhouse.
“Mahalo nui loa [thank you very much],” she said with a relieved smile. She took off to go see to a table of white men like me, with their glasses in the air. They were waiting for another round of expensive fruity cocktails, no doubt.
“What’s her story, Jonah?” I asked, flipping my head towards the hard-working beauty.
Jonah sighed, and I knew it would be a tearjerker. “Tia and Lola’s parents died in a car wreck when Tia was still in high school. Lola was really little. Their parents were two of the greatest people–super warm and inviting mana,” he explained.
“Tia was left a house and an old beat-up car by way of inheritance. Not much else. But here, a house for a local is like having a castle with the way the market is. Holding onto it is the other battle.
“That young woman is a fighter, and you did right by not ticketing her. Keep up that spirit, Mason.” He said my name for the first time. “This island will come to respect you, I think. It’s been a long… we’ve never had a white mainland lawman that could connect with us, gave a shit about us more than what the books said.”
I felt the energy change and his usually warm eyes hardened over like steel. It made me gulp. “Don’t turn your back on us, and don’t shit on us. This island has its ways, and if you’re not meant to be here, you won’t be here long.”
The sheriff’s usually kind expression returned, and I felt like I could breathe again as Tia returned. She had a real smile on her face this time. It was a night and day difference from her customer service plastered smile.
“What’ll it be tonight, Sheriff?” Tia asked pleasantly, no notepad needed.
“Lawman from Maine here is more than familiar with lobster, but he’s never had a good kalua pig taco. We’ll split a family platter and two sides of sweet potato fries. Mahalo.” He flashed her a big, cheesy grin.
Tia smiled and threw him a half-assed–albeit adorable–salute and hastened off.
“That family platter of tacos feeds six, easy,” Jonah told me. “Eat your fill, but if you don’t mind, I’d like Tia to take the leftovers home for her and little Lola.”
I nodded in understanding, and my heart did a little flip. That sheriff was what cops should be. He looked like he could wrestle a black bear to a standstill, but he was just a big teddy bear… until you pissed him off, I bet. The way he looked after his own was entirely commendable and endearing. Something told me Tia wasn’t the only one he knew like this.
“You got it, Sheriff. I’ve got no problem with that.”
As the night wore on, Jonah and I drank slowly and responsibly. We enjoyed the stage shows the luau bar and grill had to offer, and I found a new obsession in kalua pig.
The platter was just as big as Jonah warned me it would be. I usually don’t like sweet potatoes, but those fries were otherworldly. I learned the secret is that once they’ve been fried, they’re tossed in a bowl with seasoning salt and bacon grease. It was a heart stopper but so fucking good.
“Oi, Tia!” Jonah called once most of our skilled waitress’s section cleared out. “Lawman and I have had our fill. There’s plenty of tacos and sweet fries left. Lawman is too humble to show his charitable heart, but he said you should take them home for you and Lola.”
I couldn’t tell if Jonah was a hell of a wingman, or if this was a work PR stunt. Maybe both? Either way, the man was a legend.
The smile on Tia’s face melted my heart and short circuited my brain. I’d die happy if I could see that smile at least once a week, I thought to myself.
“Mahalo, Deputy. That’s so sweet of you. Lola loves the sweet potato fries, and the tacos are my favorite. We’d be more than happy to take your leftovers if you’re sure.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” I nodded and smiled, happy to have the goodwill points the sheriff handed me. “Once you’ve got those squared away for yourself, I’ll take the bill.”
“Mahalo, Lawman.” Jonah smiled and clasped my shoulder. “That is very kind.”
I thought he knew I was going to pick up the tab, but his thank you felt genuine.
After getting the check, I left a generous tip. I felt like paying Tia for her service, but also an extra 10% because she was slammed and never missed a beat. I respected the hell out of that, and I wanted to leave an extra cushion in case she wasn’t as properly appreciated by the rest of her tables.
As I left my signature, I saw a little note scrawled in aqua blue ink.
You were great. Mahalo! 🙂
I realized that I signed the customer copy and not the merchant. I signed the proper one, and something in my chest compelled me to keep the guest check with Tia’s note.
I looked over at the sheriff, and I knew he saw my sleight of hand. “We talked about a lot of business today, Sheriff. That makes this a business meal courtesy of the United States Marshals,” I bullshat, but he laughed knowingly.
“Tia’s got you bad, doesn’t she, Lawman?”
“Shut up,” I said as I put my hat back on and stood to leave.