The Tattoo Read Online Free

out of the boat and charged the campsite to look for my mother. I stepped on one of the acorns and my knee buckled. I cried out. The older kids, the daughters included, laughed and said I had “haole feet.” As the older kids and adults pitched the tents, the younger children held in their pain and trained their feet to endure the acorns like the older kids and parents did. After the tents were up and the blue tarp was roofing the make-shift kitchen and dining area, the men, along with an older son or two, prepared to take the two boats out and lay their monofilament fish nets. Before they went to wall off a section of the Bay, they said they’d return for dinner.
    Junior Boy was depressed because his father didn’t let him go with them. He was about a year older than me, chubbier, but Uncle Sonny just told him he’d get in the way. Both of us were left on the beach watching the boats get smaller. “Was that your first time on a boat?” I asked.
    He laughed. “No way, I was on boats choke times. Shit, I went help my fadda pull up da nets jus’ last week.”
    “Yeah,” I said, “I think my dad took me plenty times before when I was real young. Even before he taught me how to swim.”
    “Me too, me too.”
    Just then a sand crab scurried in front of us. It ran to the edge of the water. It was smaller than a marble. Junior Boy ran after it. He slapped his hand over the crab and grabbed a handful of sand. He walked back to me with his dark fist clenched and I watched as he sifted out the crab. It was hard to find because the color of its tiny shell was the same color as the sand. Finally its two eyes protruded. Junior Boy grinned. “Hey Kenji, go get one cup from your madda so we can keep ‘um.”
    I ran to my mother. She was squatting in front of the shore, rinsing off cooking utensils. I told her I needed a cup so that I could catch crabs with Junior Boy. She grabbed my hand and we walked back toward the campsite. Uncle Sonny’s wife, Aunty Jana, said, “Hey no bodda your madda too much.” My mother told Aunty Jana not to worry and when the sand ended and the acorns began, she lifted me into her arms. Her bare feet squashed down on the poky acorns. Aunty Jana shook her head.

    Instead of giving me a cup, my mother gave me an empty glass gallon jar. She patted me on the butt and said, “Don’t wander too far.” I smiled and ran towards the beach. When I reached the acorns, I slowed down and looked back. My mother smiled and waved me forward. My face flinched with each step, but I made it through.
    Junior Boy and I caught about ten crabs that day. When our fathers returned, Junior Boy proudly presented the gallon bottle to Uncle Sonny. Uncle Sonny rubbed Junior Boy’s curly brown hair. “Ken helped, too,” Junior Boy said. My father looked at me and said, “Right on.” I walked back to the campsite to see what my mother was doing.
    When I found her, she was sitting on a lawn chair reading a book. She had a blanket wrapped around her. It was getting dark, so she had a lantern by her. She looked up from her book and called me over. She pulled me toward her and sat me on her lap. She wrapped the blanket around us. “What are you doing?” I asked.
    “I’m reading a play by a man named William Shakespeare.”
    “What is it called?”
    “It’s titled, Macbeth .”
    “What is it about?”
    “Oh, nothing. I’m reading it for school. My students are going to have to read it, so I have to brush up.”
    I crinkled my brow. “But you’re the teacher.”
    She laughed. “Even high school teachers have to study.”
    “But you’re smart.”
    My father came and stood in front of us. His face was turning red from the mixture of sunlight and Miller Lite. “How you feeling, Shar?”
    “Better than yesterday, hopefully better tomorrow,” she answered.
    He bent down and kissed her on the cheek.“Don’t baby da kid too much. He gotta be tough. You know dat. Right, Ken? You goin’ be tough.”
    I nodded. My