Leia started to call out, but she didn’t want to give away her position in case the man was the cause of her cat’s distress. Stopping near a palm tree, she listened, but there was no sound but the soughing of the wind in the treetops. She forced herself on. There was a clearing out this way and a small cabin Koma said was inhabited by Ku. She smiled at the thought of the old man’s insistent claim.
The trees parted, and she stepped into the clearing. She heard a sound, and something came at her. She dove, her chest slamming into the dirt. Hina landed on her back. Leia lay on the ground with her heart punching against her ribs. “You just cost me a year of my life, you bad kitty.” She rolled over and grabbed the cat. All Hina’s fur stood up, and her eyes were huge. Something had frightened her badly. Leia ran her hands over Hina but didn’t find any sign of injury. She got to her feet, held Hina under one arm, and dusted her clothes before looking around the clearing.
Her feet carried her closer to the cabin, even though alarm bells were beginning to go off in her head. The cabin had a closed, secretive feel with its tightly shuttered windows and bolted door. The sound of her shallow gasps filled her ears, and she forced herself to take deeper breaths. Thick vines crawled up the sides in a suffocating mass. She knocked on the door, an unpainted surface that looked as though someone had hewn it with an ax. The rough prick of the wood against her knuckles made her feel more in control.
Her touch caused the door to swing inward a few inches, creaking, and she noticed the latch was broken, almost as though someone had forced it open. She pushed the door open a few more inches. “Is anyone home?” Keeping her hand on the side of the door, she opened it the rest of the way and stepped inside.
The dirty windows let in only a bare minimum of light. Leia waited until her eyes adjusted to the dimness. Once she could see, she let her gaze sweep the room as she moved across the floor. A sudden flurry of movement made her jump, but it was just a family of mongooses who raced for the safety of an old sleeping bag heaped in a corner. A battered Coleman cooler stood open in the middle of the room. She glanced inside but only saw a dirty plastic bag that looked as though it had been chewed by the mongooses.
Another sleeping bag lay on the other side of the cooler. If Ku lived here, he ate and slept like any other human. She squinted in the dim light at a heap of clothing in another corner. Approaching it, she realized it wasn’t clothing but diving gear. The deep-sea suit was state-of-the-art and looked like it hadn’t been here long. Nothing had chewed on it or disturbed it.
She hefted the helmet in her hand. Could this be Koma’s Ku? He’d never left the leper colony, so the sight of a deep-sea diver might look like an ancient god. She would have to show it to him and see if the creature he saw might have been an ordinary diver. Dropping the helmet back onto the suit, she turned to go. Something about this place made chicken skin rise along her back and arms, and she couldn’t leave the cabin behind too soon.
Eva sat on the bench and pawed through the stuff in her Big Bird backpack for a Take 5 candy bar. She opened the wrapping and bit into it as she watched the children playing on the schoolyard. She wished she wasn’t too old to still go to school, even if the kids had been mean to her sometimes. It was more fun than working at ARC, the Association of Retarded Citizens. She liked the thought of being a citizen, but she hated it when people called her retarded, especially when her mother was around. Her mother’s eyes got all squinty and sad. Eva didn’t like it when her mom was sad.
Work was over for the day though, and she could go home and watch Home Alone as she did most afternoons. She was supposed to go right home after work, but she was reluctant to leave the sunshine. Her sister and her cousin might be at the house, and they were usually doing boring stuff like making leis or kapa. Eva had tried to get interested in both, but her thick fingers couldn’t seem to make the pretty things. She stuffed her candy wrapper into the backpack and saw a man walk across the grass toward her. Hotshot had said he’d meet her here, but she thought maybe he’d forgotten. His smile always made her happy, and he was smiling now.
“I brought you a present,” he said. He held out his hand. A pocketknife inlaid with red coral lay in his palm.
Eva clapped her hands together. “For me?”
“I saw it and thought you’d like it. It has a honu on it, see?” He pointed out the tiny bone turtle on the handle.
She gently picked it up out of his hand. That was one thing she liked about Hotshot—he never acted like she was damaged. Her mother wouldn’t let her touch a knife in the kitchen. “Do I get to keep it?” The knife felt good in her hand—smooth and strong.
“Yep, it’s all yours. Hey, you want to go for a shave ice?” He held out his hand to help her up.
“I brought money.” She clutched the Roxy wallet Leia had gotten her for her birthday. It had a red hibiscus on the front. Red was Eva’s favorite color.