Pāhonoa te oro

I was at the slide with my daughter when a little boy ran up to me. "Mister," he asked, "can I have your daughter?" Chalking it up to dumb kid talk, I just laughed. "She's my whole world, buddy. Can't just give her away." He looked me dead in the eye. "So, what if she died? Would you be sad then?" I scooped up my daughter, feeling a cold dread crawl up my spine. I'd never seen this kid before. This playground was a community project, funded by the local business owners. I knew pretty much every