by Robin E. Field
The green apron shields her muʻumuʻu from splashes of whole milk, oat milk, almond milk, the steamed milk and cold foam that crown the cups of coffee at the Starbucks on Waikīkī. Her name badge reads Lydia. Regal before the espresso machine, she sways the steam wand through the milk, graceful, precise, hips undulating before the song of steam.
The queen does not face the public at the registers today. During her last shift, a haole businessman called her a stupid fat bitch when she charged him extra for ʻeono pumps of sugar-free caramel. Management intervened, ignored her intercessions, her voice, and moved her to the espresso machine.
Queen Liliʻuokalani tamps the espresso into the portafilter, her biceps of her bare brown arms flexing over grounds of Ethiopian origin. No Kona coffee for Starbucks—it’s cheaper to fly coffee beans around the globe to serve in the ʻāina. The queen sends boiling water through the earthy granules, rich like the dirt of Mauʻumae Ridge where the ʻōhiʻa trees send their roots deep and spread their leaves of yellow and green and flowers like the red spines of ha‘uku‘uku‘ula‘ula to shade the mountains. The burbling and dribbling ceases. The queen is left with one shot.
One shot for Queen Liliʻuokalani, behind the counter of the Starbucks on Waikīkī, her wavy cocoa curls her crown, the verdant apron her sash. She hums her song deep from her broken heart, Ke Aloha O Ka Haku, and gazes wistfully through the glass separating her from the ʻāina and its plumeria-scented breeze. Her time at the Starbucks on Waikīkī is one month, then eight, from time immemorial, a six-hour shift.
The last queen of Hawaiʻi steams the milk. The shriek of the machine drowns her song. She pours the liquid, lava-hot, into a paper cup destined for the landfill in Nanakuli, and presents the grande latte to Kevin, a balding haole who wants the same coffee he orders in Wichita.
Robin E. Field teaches literature and writing at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her short stories have appeared in such journals as The Dalhousie Review, Permafrost, Bluestem Magazine, Isele Magazine, and Orange Blossom Review. As a seventh grader at Niu Valley Intermediate School, she won the “Best Cafeteria Worker” trophy.
