WEBVTT

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She's walking up the
mountain, you remember?

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And she's remembering other
times coming up in the mountain.

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And she comes up this
one piece of valley

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toward this house, Halemanu.

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which is the house, the
summer house of his employer,

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Valdemar Knudsen.

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And Knudsen's widow
is in the house.

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So these two women who've lost
their husbands very recently.

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A Hawaiian woman, and a holy
woman meet in the midwinter

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on up in this house
on the mountain.

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The first shadow was beginning
to surface in the darkness

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through a net of
trees when she came

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to the swollen stream of
Halemanu, the House of Birds,

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where in earlier dawns the birds
had the forest to themselves

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waking there into plumage and
colors never seen anywhere.

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Crests and feathers,
heads and motions

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never before entered upon.

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Voices never heard
before singing out

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of a source in the yolk of
their unmeasured morning.

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Inexhaustibly
beginning and beginning

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as the undisturbed
trees and flowers

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kept beginning around
them finding in each place

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the morning as it was then
in an age without numbers.

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Changing too slowly for a
single life to see it moving,

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unperceived like the
voyage of the mountain

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itself into the northwest.

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The eon of the birds seemed
perpetual like the mountain,

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long before another side of
the night gave birth to humans.

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And for an age after
that, there was

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no sign of them growing closer
around the unbroken horizon.

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The streams went on overflowing
seaward taking with them

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the mountain the
grain at a time.

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And small fish and
crayfish brought their salt

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in from the sea and swam
up the falling water

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to live in the
falling before time

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until the first canoe
appeared in the west.

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And only the birds saw it.

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A light rain reached
down to her face.

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The fringe of a mist.

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There was no color
yet in the ghost town.

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But around her through the
full consonants of the stream

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came here and there
clear voices opening

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as she passed close to them.

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Trills telling of water.

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Questions not continued.

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Some of the voices were
lights flying beside her.

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The amakihi, a
yellow brilliance.

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The okolele a
flicker of scarlet.

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But the light was the
complete gray before daybreak

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with the black bands of the
trees floating through it.

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Then before a
condensation of green

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seeped into the tall reaches of
the valley opening ahead of her,

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the house appeared hollow
at the end of a long rise

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with a lifted shell of
high trees raised above it.

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The mountain palm
towering behind.

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And as her feet
brushed the wet grass,

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she saw the four pale long
uprights of the veranda.

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The new wide steps
leading up to it.

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And the dark arms of the house
reaching forward toward her.

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Someone was there.

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The smell of wood smoke
floated in the mist.

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And as she stepped
forward, a small light

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passed at the window.

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She stopped and watched.

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And the woman came
out with no light

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and stood at the
top of the steps.

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A tall figure in the long gown.

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The hair built high on her head,
the same color as the hour.

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They both stood listening and
they heard this small stream

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nearest to the house.

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The brook of tears,
Nawaimaka, high with the rains

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at that time of year.

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The tall woman outside the
door was looking into the trees

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and had not seen Pi'ilani.

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She came down the steps
slowly watching the trees.

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And Pi'ilani walked
toward her up the slope.

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And without raising her
voice said Makuahine.

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And the woman turned, not sure
whether she had heard anything.

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Pi'ilani went closer and
said again, Makuahine.

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And the woman said, who is it?

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And then saw her but could
not make out who it was.

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And Pi'ilani
pronounced her own name

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in a voice so low she
hardly heard it herself.

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Can it be you, Pi'ilani?

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And Pi'ilani stepped toward her
and for the third time called

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the white woman Mother--

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Makuahine.

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And the woman said Pi'ilani
and came to embrace her.

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But Pi'ilani said,
I will make you wet.

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And the woman laughed and
embraced her and then said,

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you are completely soaked.

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Who is with you?

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Nobody else, Pi'ilani said.

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And the woman said, come
in, come in at once.

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There is a fire.

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Are you really up here alone?

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And as they turned,
the rain began again.

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As they went up the
steps, the white woman

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called Maka'e, Maka'e,
calling again at the door.

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And to Pi'ilani, she
said, come in, come in,

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drawing her by the
arm toward the fire

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as a Hawaiian woman
appeared in the far doorway.

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Maka'e, I know you remember
our friend Pi'ilani.

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We have been out in the
rain and are cold and hungry

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this morning.

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Maka'e ran to Pi'ilani
and embraced her.

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How are you? she asked.

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Well.

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Who is with you?

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Nobody.

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Maka'e shook her head
and, without a word,

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unwound the sodden shawl
and hung it by the fire.

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And the other woman picked
up a blanket from a chair

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and put it around
Pi'ilani and brought

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her to sit in the
glow of the fire

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while Maka'e piled on more
logs and then was gone.

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I did not know you were
here, Pi'ilani said.

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The woman nodded.

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We almost never come up
here in the winter anymore.

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It is so long since I was
here at this time of year,

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in the rain, with
the streams roaring.

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Hard for the horses to cross.

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How did you ever cross?

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Pi'ilani said, yes,
the water is high now.

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And she held out her dripping
skirt in front of the fire.

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The first time I came, she
said, it was this time of year.

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It was the same night, and
there was nobody here then.

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And the children
were half asleep.

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We tied the horses
out of the rain,

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and we ate something
out there on the steps

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and rested there for a while.

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If we had been here,
the older woman said,

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we could have given you
something to eat that time.

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Maybe, Pi'ilani said.

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But that time was different.

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