Year of the Boar- Tica

by Heather Heffner

  “Thin Mints or Samoas?” I posed, breaking into a grin. “Hey, I had to try something.”

  “And our parents made us apologize and clean her stupid pool. She probably never even uses it.” Aolani smirked. “At least Lono left a cane spider in her flower pot.”

  We burst into irresponsible sniggers again.

  “See? I want this. Us, together for one more year.” Mason glanced briefly at me, and then his gaze fluttered down. “We already lost Kai.”

  Oh, Mason. My heart felt for him. Change won’t leave our group alone.

  “Tica, think fast!”

  I whirled around to see a water bottle whiz toward my face. I had to drop my paper plate to catch it.

  “See? She has fast reflexes,” my brother was telling Lono and Jinho, the latter casting a tall, rangy shadow in black boardshorts and a white T-shirt that accentuated his lean muscles and several rough, but hot-looking scars. His storm-colored eyes darted to mine, and I felt heat rise in my cheeks.

  “Thanks, dumbass.” I propped the bottle in the crook of my stump and unscrewed it, giving it a sniff. “Vodka?”

  Aolani clapped her hands, and Ryoko muttered, “Good thing I ate.”

  Rafael held up several more bottles. “Looks like we should take this party down to the beach.”

  Chapter 4: Kiss

  ~Tica~

  Dark purple ink bled into the sea, hiding the ocean’s secrets from the brilliant underbelly of the sky, studded with diamond-bright stars. I quit spinning around the beach with Ryoko and collapsed near our bonfire. My head was warm and fuzzy with alcohol, snatches of laughter, and lovers’ whispers beneath the palm trees. About two dozen of us had drifted down to the beach, hidden by a screen of trees while the band continued to play back at the luau.

  “I was sitting there.”

  I looked up to see one of Rafael’s KCC friends, a tall girl with straight bleached-white hair, glaring down at me.

  A pale arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me close.

  “There are many places to sit, Laney,” Jinho said, amused.

  I glanced back-and-forth between them, realizing I had interrupted whatever intimate, knee-bumping arrangement they’d had going on. My skin prickled beneath Jinho’s cool fingers. Play the drunk card.

  “Yes, Laney. Join us!” I enthusiastically patted the wet sand beside me.

  Laney’s lips pursed. “Aren’t you Rafael’s baby sister?”

  “I turn seventeen on Halloween.” I shrugged. “If you ask me, Rafael’s the baby. I had to help him with his taxes.”

  “Laney! Leave her alone!” Her friend came over and grabbed her. The girl glanced at me, and then leaned in and drunk-whispered to Laney in what she thought was a quiet voice: “Dude! That girl had cancer! She has one arm! You can’t be mean to a cancer kid!”

  Laney’s eyes widened, and then she shot a strained smile over my head in Jinho’s direction. “We’re going to get another beer. Do you want to come, Jinho?”

  I don’t know what made me say it. Competitive streak, maybe. But I quickly held up my flask. “Jinho, I got soju from that guy over there! Want some?”

  Silence fell around the bonfire. I realized Aolani, Lono, Mason, and my brother had stopped talking to watch us.

  Jinho wrapped his hand around mine. I was struck by how cold his skin was, as if he’d spent the beach party with his hand stuck in the cooler. Shadows played over his hawkish features, but blue burned bright amidst his storm-churned eyes. “Good. I do not have to get up.”

  And he took the flask and sipped. Laney gave me a quick glare she must have thought appropriate for a “one-armed cancer girl” before disappearing with her friend. Rafael shook his head and cracked open another beer, his narrowed gaze never straying far from us. “What?” I mouthed at him.

  “Nothing.” My brother held up his hands. “You’re ‘almost seventeen,’ as you keep reminding us, Tica. Of course, that’s still not the legal age of consent here in America,” he added to his beer bottle.

  I swore I saw Jinho grin as he elbowed me. “What does he mean?”

  Doesn’t understand English, my ass. Blushing, I kept my gaze on my brother. “I’m just excited to plan my seventeenth birthday, is all, Raf. Remember, we were worried if I’d be around then?”

  “Oh ho!” Lono did a drum-beat drop. “She just played the cancer card on you, bro!”

  “My father’s friend has a beach house up in Laie.” Aolani shrugged. “We could have the party there Halloween weekend if you want, Tica.”

  “We should visit the haunted pineapple fields on the way!” Ryoko flopped down in Laney’s spot beside me.

  Mason clicked a finger in Jinho’s direction. “Do they celebrate Halloween in Korea, bro?”

  “There is no—‘trick-or-treat’? But Halloween is popular in clubs, I think.”

  “You know,” Aolani teased, her hand caressing his shoulder. Jinho gave her that smile that lit up his eyes. I drank more soju.

  “Okay,” he said. “Maybe I know.”

  “I already have my costume planned out,” Mason gushed. “I’m going to be Nanaue. It’s going to be epic.”

  Lono snorted. “You’re too white to be Nanaue. A leprechaun, however—” He caught Rafael’s eye, and they snickered. I threw an empty water bottle at them.

  “What is ‘Nanaue’?” Jinho asked.

  “He’s the shark man!” Rafael mimed tearing into his kalua pork. “He lies in wait, and then eats people!” He sprang upon Ryoko to demonstrate, and she giggled, not trying very hard to push him away. I rolled my eyes and drank more soju. Yep. I was definitely going to have a headache after tonight.

  “In Hawaiian lore, Nanaue is the son of the supreme shark god, Kamohaoli’i,” I told Jinho, seeing no more was forthcoming from my brother. Personally, I thought sharks were awesome, but the legend reminded me to respect their power—especially if a shark’s body was combined with the mind of a human. “Kamohaoli’i warned Nanaue’s mother that their son must never be fed any meat, because he was born with a shark mouth on his back that desired flesh. However, Nanaue’s earthly grandfather unknowingly let him eat pork at a male-only ceremony, and that woke up the shark in Nanaue. He secretly began to transform into a shark and ate many of his people, before he was finally killed off the island of Moloka’i.”

  Jinho wasn’t the only one staring at me after I finished.

  “Damn. Are you sure you aren’t part Hawaiian, Tica?” Lono finally asked.

  A secret thrill shot through my being, tingling at my stump and shooting through the memory of my left arm. The mysterious man beneath the waves reformed in my mind. His dark eyes bore into mine, a mirror image of my own. His voice boomed in my head as loudly as it had all those years ago: DAUGHTER.

  A short, bleak laugh pulled me back. Rafael fell away from Ryoko, suddenly looking remarkably sober. “Our father was a short, rich dude with expensive sunglasses that he never took off. Then one day he went back to the mainland and died, without mentioning us in his will. Guess we were just that ‘other exotic’ family to him. So, if you mean: are these islands more of a father to Tica than her biological one? Then sure, I guess at heart she’s Hawaiian.”

  I seized his hand with my good one. His was trembling. No one said much more, after that.

  ***

  “I’m sorry, Mom. I know it’s late. I got caught up talking story with my friends.”

  I adjusted the phone against my ear. A group of KCC students was hanging out smoking nearby. Apart from them I was alone, waiting for Jinho and my brother to come drive me home. The hours had evaporated in the smoke of our bonfire; I had three missed calls from Mom.

  She wasn’t buying any of it. “Your brother was supposed to bring you back by eleven.”

  Jinho walked up, keys in hand. His gray-blue eyes were sharp and alert, as if he’d been drinking water all night. “Rafael is coming,” he told me.

  “We’ll be back soon, Mom,” I said quickly. “Jinho’s driving. He’s s
ober.” I glanced at Jinho, and he nodded in confirmation, glancing around the dark palms restlessly.

  “Please, Mom, go to sleep. I know you have to open the shop early.” I shut my eyes as she launched off into a tirade that made me want to sink deep into the earth. I hated disappointing her.

  “Tica,” she said, as she always did before she let me go, “do you feel okay?”

  The night’s cold rattled through me, and I clutched my shawl tighter. “I feel fine, Mom. Really. I’m a normal teenager with a really big hangover.”

  “We are going to cut out that hangover part,” Ana Dominguez said sternly, “but I am glad you enjoyed yourself, Tica. I wish I hadn’t been working so I could have been there.”

  “I got the job interview at Kalani Resorts,” I said quickly.

  This time I heard the smile in her voice. “Oh, Tica. You never stop working. Share some of that with your brother, please.”

  “I do what I can,” I said dramatically.

  “Be back in twenty. And tell Jinho he should sleep on the couch. I don’t want any of you driving so late at night.”

  My fingers gripped the phone a little tighter, and I glanced at him sideways. “Uh—sure.”

  The KCC students laughed and looked at us. I saw one point at me and then lean in to her friend, whispering.

  They’re just dumb and drunk. I slipped the phone into my clutch and turned back to Jinho, smoothing stray hair behind my ear.

  He was frowning. “Kalani Resorts,” he said, breaking into the sharp and clear voice he only used when he was alone with me.

  “Yes…” I was fast giving up on my hair staying in place, as well as ever finding my brother. The tree line stayed dark and silent. “Why? Stay at one of their hotels before?”

  “Kalani Resorts sounds familiar.” His gray-blue eyes raked my face. “Someone I know works there…someone repulsive…”

  I laughed. “Well, Kalani Resorts is a massive hotel chain dedicated to ‘bringing paradise everywhere,’ or something like that. I doubt I’ll run into your ‘repulsive’ friend—that’s an odd thing to call someone, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Jinho said. “It describes him completely.”

  I raised a conceding hand. “Hey, far be it for me to question your English, considering how fluently you speak it now. Why the FOB act?”

  He shrugged. “People say a lot around you when they think you can’t understand them. I am here because there is something I have to do, Tica.”

  My heartbeat quickened when he said my name. Heat sprang up in the thin space between us, and shadows descended on everything else. I couldn’t take my eyes from his lean shoulders where I’d seen those mysterious black wings folded. It wouldn’t take more than a half-step to close the gap between us, to confirm that when my arm wrapped around him, feathers would rustle beneath my fingertips—

  “What are you?” I asked.

  His hand slowly, hesitantly, reached out to stroke my cheek. “Tica,” he said my name again, voice choked, “I am…cursed, by something others cannot see or understand, but I think…you can. Will you help me break the curse?”

  My heart melted and warmth spread across my chest. Um, YES! it shrieked.

  Be quiet, I scolded. He didn’t give a proper answer to your question.

  A beer bottle shattered close by.

  “Jinho!” one of Laney’s drunk friends cried. “Isn’t it that little girl’s bedtime? Send her home and come hang with us!”

  “I’ll help you,” I said immediately.

  Jinho smiled and his stormy eyes searched mine. Before I knew it, his black hair was tickling my forehead and his pale fingers were tangled in my hair, sending icy chills reverberating through my body. His left hand gently tilted my mouth up to meet his.

  I shuddered and closed my eyes as his lips fell upon mine. The only boy I’d kissed was Mason, when we were bored one summer and decided to practice with one another. We’d given up after five minutes. With Jinho, my lips willingly pressed against his, eager to caress and feel until I ran out of air. His mouth smiled against mine, and he murmured my name. My stump bumped awkwardly against his chest as I rushed to encircle him with my other arm. My right hand raked his back.

  At first, all I could feel were knots of scarred, taut muscle—hardly disappointing—but then the moon came out from behind the clouds. That was when I felt the scars take the form of something else—something soft and rustling. I was so excited, I kneaded my fingers deeper, and that was when I felt something bony, sharp, like a tooth—

  Jinho shoved me away abruptly. I blinked, suddenly aware of the gap-mouthed KCC students. “Jinho, I’m sorry—”

  But he wasn’t looking at me. His face was harsh, feral, and his nostrils flared in the direction of the trees. “Don’t leave the parking lot. I will be back,” he said, and then melted into the shadows of the forest.

  I hugged myself with my one arm, glowing.

  “Damn, someone should tell Rafael that his baby sister got lucky tonight,” one of the KCC kids said. “Where is he, anyway?”

  “I saw him wandering down by the tide pools,” another guy replied.

  A cold jolt of reality woke me. Mom. She was expecting us home soon.

  “Where’d you see my brother?” I demanded of the drunk boy in a Rainbow Warriors cap.

  He blinked. “That way.”

  “Okay. Tell Jinho I’ll be back.” I glanced one more time at the car, reassuring myself it was still there, and then headed down to the beach.

  “Oh, I’m sure you will be!” he called knowingly after me, and the group hooted and turned back to their drinks.

  Chapter 5: The Plague Man

  ~Tica~

  I stumbled along the shoreline, the moon spinning above me. Jinho’s soft but certain kiss teased me still, setting my lips aquiver. I licked them nervously, scouring the beach for Rafael. This was ridiculous. My entire body was vibrating, as if I were a goddamn purring cat!

  The hiss startled me. Looking down at my feet, I realized a sand-colored gecko was standing up on its hind legs, lidless eyes fixed on me. Its throat pouch undulated, and it made a series of curious high-pitched clicks, as if in warning.

  Interesting, but all I could think of right now was my first kiss—certainly not with the boy I’d expected. In fact, I couldn’t be certain Jinho was a boy at all. I shut my eyes and saw again Jinho smile and lean in, one hand coming up to cup my cheek. Shutting out all of the unkind eyes watching. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at me with anything other than pity. Jinho was quiet, intense, and desperate—I’d felt urgency hanging around him like an ominous cloud. He would sit perfectly still with a hunter’s grace, but he couldn’t completely hide the inner anxiety eating away at him. I didn’t know what his “curse” was, but I recognized his pain. I wanted to help.

  Something slithered across my foot. I opened my eyes and saw small geckoes of all shapes and sizes scurrying over rocks and down the trunks of palm trees, fleeing further into the bush. Away from the water.

  The moonlight struck the beach, illuminating everything in ghostly, white light, a pale imitation of the day. Amidst all of the lizards fleeing, I saw a lone figure gazing out upon the ocean.

  “Rafael!”

  The figure’s head jerked up, and I realized it wasn’t my brother. I stopped abruptly, the security of Jinho’s kiss evaporating from my mind. The gecko’s warning chirp echoed.

  The thing had an odd, uneven stance, and its face was hidden behind a curtain of black hair, thick and coarse like a horse’s mane. It turned to stare in my direction and slowly extended a pale hand, wet and dripping with seaweed. Its eyes, two pinpricks of eerie green, floated up into the night sky, still latched upon me. Its body spluttered to life. It took one shuddery step in my direction, hand outstretched, head still bent.

  I stood, petrified, as the wind carried my scent to it. The gust blew its hair out of its face, revealing a stump of a nose, horribly boiled red skin, and empty sockets dripping with
pus. Its mouth hole twisted to reveal three large yellow teeth, and then it flew at me in a gale of black flies and green mist.

  I shouted and ran. All of the bonfire pits I passed were cold and dead. My breath came out in hard, unnatural gasps that hurt my chest, and my left stump began to throb painfully. I’d nearly made it to the tree line when I tripped over the body.

  I hit the sand and stared into the eyes of Laney, her gaze glazed over with eerie green mist. Her head had swelled exponentially, and horrible, potato-sized tumors engulfed her neck, calves, and even her stomach, spilling out through her shirt.

  I coughed and scrambled back, something small and metal flying out of my shawl pocket. It was my brother’s Swiss Army knife. He’d asked me to hold it earlier when he went skinny-dipping with Laney or Angie or Tammy or whoev—shit!

  The wasting humanoid lunged over Laney’s prone form, its black cloud of flies obscuring the night sky above me. I lashed out blindly with my clutch and heard it rip under the force of the monster’s bite. Its teeth sank into my left stump, sending waves of blinding pain through my shoulder. I suddenly felt drained and weak. Even as darkness began to cloud my eyes, one particularly vicious stab of pain reminded me that I was still alive. I felt around for the knife and flicked it open. When I opened my eyes, the horror was feeding on me. I stabbed it viciously through the skull.

  At first, I felt it recoil. And then I heard it laugh.

  “Tica!”

  The darkness, the flies, all of it vanished. I could see the moon again. Rafael and Jinho dashed toward me.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Call 9-1-1! We have to help Laney! She has some sort of plague!” I desperately crawled toward her slumped shape, heedless of my bleeding shoulder. “That demon! It did this to her!”

  I turned to see Jinho staring at me of all people, not the glaze-eyed, lumpy mess of girl. Rafael swiftly knelt beside Laney and checked her pulse.

  “That demon alcohol.” He shook his head and pulled out his phone. “Damn, I’ve never seen her this wasted. Give her some water, Jinho.”