Midnight Sea (Aloha Reef Series)

by Colleen Coble

  Rina patted her shoulder. “You’re never a bother, Lani.” She paused. “You look so much like your mother. It doesn’t seem possible Adele isn’t here too with that laugh of hers that could brighten even a funeral. I miss her so much.”

  Lani hadn’t thought about how hard her mother’s death must have been for her aunt. Every time Lani looked at Aunt Rina, she saw her mother. Even the timbre of her aunt’s voice made her heart clench.

  Her aunt patted her hand. “You get some rest, keiki. Dinner will be in about an hour. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

  Lani heard her aunt plump up the pillows. She leaned back against the thick feather bedding with a sigh. Now that she was home, maybe it would work its special magic, and she’d wake up with her sight back.

  With Fisher, his harness, his food, and his bowls in the sidecar, Ben drove down Highway 11 to Napoopoo Road. The vegetation changed and grew thicker, with small coffee groves dotting the hillsides. He found the turnoff for Kona Kai. The coffee plantation spread out in front of Ben as he paused the bike at the entrance. Coffee trees covered the Mauna Loa slope in neat rows. Red cherries practically smothered the leaves. The bright red next to the deep green leaves looked downright festive.

  “Pretty,” he told Fisher. The dog woofed. Ben accelerated and drove through the entrance flanked by brick pillars that supported a sign: KONA KAI COFFEE COMPANY.

  Coffee trees intermingled with orchids. Banks of ginger softened a wooden office building, low and bulky. Wide windows held displays of packaged coffee and coffee brewing equipment. “Stay,” he told Fisher. The dog whined but didn’t try to jump out of the side car. Ben strode to the building. The aroma of brewed coffee hung around the screen door in an almost visible cloud. He was going to wish for a nose plug while he was here.

  The Asian woman behind the counter wore a flowing skirt in soft blue topped with a red sleeveless blouse. A beaded headband over her forehead continued around the back of her straight black hair, which hung to her waist. Ben first thought her to be in her thirties, but as he got closer, he noticed gray streaks in her hair and tiny lines at her eyes and around her mouth. She was probably close to fifty even if she wore clothes a girl would have worn to Woodstock.

  Her mouth dropped open at the sight of him, and she stared as though one of the Night Marchers had walked through the door. She blinked and put her hand to her throat. “For a minute there . . .” She shook her head. “Sorry, let me start over. Good morning. How can I help you?”

  “My name is Ben Mahoney. I’m looking for Lani Tagama.”

  She continued to watch him as though she thought he might grow two heads. “Why?”

  “I think I might be able to help her. I raise guide dogs, and I’ve brought her one.”

  “Guide dogs?” The woman glanced out the window. Fisher still sat in the sidecar even though he could have jumped out. “We hope Lani’s blindness is temporary.”

  “Even if it is, she needs to be able to deal with life right now.” As protective as she appeared, she must be the aunt, Ben figured.

  “How’d you find out about her problem?”

  “Yoshi is a friend. He asked me to help.”

  The woman hesitated. “Right now all she wants to do is sleep. She hasn’t come out of her room all day.” She seemed to make up her mind, because she held out her hand. “I’m Rina Hashimura, Lani’s aunt.” She smiled. “But just be warned. She may not welcome the help. Come with me.”

  Ben followed her to the door, where she put a closed sign up in the window. He stopped at the bike. “Come on, boy.” The dog jumped out and wagged his tail, then sniffed Rina’s shoes.

  She smiled and patted Fisher’s head. “Nice dog. If you can’t get through to Lani, the dog is irresistible.”

  Ben and Fisher followed her across a soft green grass lawn, then down a lane to a house set back in a grove of olive trees. A single story plantation-style with a big porch, it looked like it had recently received a fresh coat of white paint.

  “Nice place,” Ben said.

  “It’s choice,” Rina agreed. “I’ll never sell it. The trees are six years old. Their first harvest was a year ago. Since then we’ve had two more, and they’ve been really good.”

  She opened the door, and Ben followed her into a spacious room tiled in a light brown color. The two sofas looked to be from the seventies with orange and green flowers. Kind of hideous, but he held his tongue. The room’s furnishings didn’t do the house justice. Incense sent a lazy curl of smoke from a holder by the window. Beads hung in a doorway to another room. He wouldn’t have been surprised to hear folk music twanging. This lady was definitely still mired in the hippie era.

  “Have a seat, and I’ll get Lani,” Rina said. She went down the hall.

  “Sit,” Ben told Fisher. The dog settled on his haunches, and Ben sat on the misshapen chair cushion. He glanced around the room. The coffee table held pictures of a hippie commune on the beach. The six people in the photo all looked to be in their twenties, and they wore headbands, garish clothing, and identical carefree smiles. He glanced at the women, but none was his mother. In the background a tree house loomed, a full blown house in the treetops. He’d seen it before. In fact, he’d been born there.

  Ben choked back a gasp when he saw the man in the middle of the group. The guy looked just like Ben himself. How could that be?

  “That’s Taylor Camp,” Rina said, stepping back into the living room. “It was the best time of my life.”

  He decided not to tell her of his own experience. “I’ve heard of it. On Kaua’i’s north shore, right?”

  Rina nodded. “I lived there in the early seventies.” She studied him, then glanced at the picture. She pressed her lips together.

  He put the picture back on the table. From her fascinated expression, he knew his resemblance to the man in the picture had been the reason for her shocked expression when she first saw him. He decided to let her bring it up. “Do you still see any of your friends from that time?”

  “Oh yes. Several of them work for me here on the farm. You’ll meet them at dinner.” Her gaze went to the picture. “The boy in the middle, Ash, drowned a couple of years before the camp closed.” Her mouth drooped.

  Before Ben could ask more questions, Fisher’s ears perked, and he stood, his nose turned toward the hall. Ben glanced in the same direction. He could hear someone approaching.

  “Here comes Lani now,” Rina said.

  Ben stood with his hands in his pockets. A young woman came into view with her hand on the wall. She looked like a younger version of Rina, though her hair barely touched her shoulders instead of hanging to her waist. Only about five foot two, she was perfectly formed, with chiseled cheekbones, full lips, and dark eyes. He’d forgotten she was so beautiful, but he knew too much about her to be attracted.

  “My aunt said you wanted to see me.”

  Low and somewhat husky, her voice sounded like it might belong to a folk singer. Her feet were tiny, the nails tipped in a faint shell pink. She wore shorts and a tank top, but he thought she would have looked more at home in a kimono.

  Ben cleared his throat. “I’m Ben Mahoney. I brought someone for you to meet.” He grabbed Fisher’s lead and stepped to where Lani stood with her hand still on the wall. When he reached her, he took the hand hanging at her side and guided it to the dog’s head. “This is Fisher. He’s going to help you get around.”

  Lani tried to pull her hand away, but Fisher thrust his nose into her palm, and she stopped. Her hand roved over the dog’s ears, and Fisher stood still. He gave a happy whine deep in his throat, a sound Ben had never heard before.

  “I’d say he likes you,” Ben said.

  “He seems like a nice dog,” Lani said. “But why are you bringing him to me?”

  “He’s a guide dog.”

  Her face went white, and she pulled away. “I don’t need a guide dog. My blindness is only temporary.” Her voice held a trace of desperation.

  “Even
if it is, you need some help getting around while you heal. I’m going to show you how to navigate. There’s no reason to stay stuck in your room.”

  “Are you some kind of shrink?” she asked. Her tone was as frosty as the top of Mauna Kea.

  “Not exactly. I’m working on my master’s in occupational therapy to train those who are visually impaired, and I train dogs.”

  “Are you blind too?” Lani’s face began to lose its haunted loneliness.

  “No, but my best friend is. I got interested in teaching the blind how to cope after he lost his sight.” Guilt played a part in that decision, but Ben didn’t know her well enough to tell her the full story.

  Fisher nosed at her hand again, but she pulled away. “I don’t need your pity,” she spat. “This is only temporary.”

  “What could it hurt?” Rina put in. “It’s better than sulking in your room.”

  “Sulking? I’m blind, Aunt Rina. I’m not going to put myself on display for people to stare at.”

  Still the spoiled princess he’d met before. Ben barely prevented his lip from curling. “Selfpity won’t get you anywhere.” She turned in his direction, and the pain and desperation in her sightless eyes nearly made him change his mind about her.

  Then she stamped her foot as if she were Meg’s age. “I won’t be blind. I won’t!” She turned and shuffled back down the hall.

  Ben frowned. Strike one. But this wasn’t over by a long shot.

  “Master?” Simi said in a timid voice. The big man dug in the dirt near a tall tree. Orchids bloomed in a sea of color. Mr. Kato didn’t look up, and Simi tried again. “Mr. Kato, in letter for Mother, I would like money.” He held out the envelope with the letter he’d painstakingly written. The creased and dirty envelope held all his dreams and hopes for the future, and he desperately wanted to include some of his pay. He’d been here three months and hadn’t seen a single coin yet.

  The man straightened. “Kid, you’ve been a worthless worker so far. You haven’t earned more than fifty cents.”

  While Simi wasn’t sure how much fifty cents was in relation to the Tongan pa’anga, he didn’t mistake the disdain in Master’s voice. A kiu’ strutted past and almost seemed to stare at Simi with the same contempt. Stupid bird. “Please, Master, I come to help my parents. They think I keep wages for myself.” He looked down at the rags he wore. He’d been promised new clothes, shoes, a nice place to live—all lies, he was quickly finding out.

  “I’m tired of your mouth, boy. You’ll get paid when I say you do.” He smiled then and slung his arm around Simi’s shoulders. “You’re getting there, kid. I’ll have you trained in another month or two, and you’ll be raking in the dough. Why, I bet I could pay you five dollars a week then. Just keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told. I’ll send them some money to keep them quiet. And here, this is a carabiner. I’ll show you how to go down a cliff with it. When you go back to Tonga, everyone will be jealous. It’s a great tool.”

  Simi stared in fascination at the metal thing. He’d watched the big man climb the cliff behind the orchid farm and marveled. The metal felt cool in his hand. It wasn’t money, but this was all he’d get for now. There was no one to take up for him. If he went to the law, he would be sent back to Tonga or maybe even jailed. He was stuck.

  Chapter Four

  The scent of roasting coffee from the building in the clearing hung heavy in the breeze. Thresh stood in the shade of a monkeypod tree and stared into the face of the man the sharks had taken thirty years before. At least they’d taken the dead body. Seeing this man was like peering through a mirror into the past. He had to be related to Ash in some way. Maybe he was Ash, reincarnated.

  Thresh approached him, trying to appear nonchalant yet interested. Up close, the guy was even more exactly like Ash.

  “Ben Mahoney.” The man stuck out his hand.

  The eyes seemed to look right through Thresh. It was all Thresh could do to maintain a smile. “You look familiar to me somehow.”

  “A couple of people here seem to think I look like a guy named Ash,” Ben said. “They say everyone has a twin somewhere.”

  Thresh studied Ben’s face. Ash was in there, laughing and yukking it up at everyone’s expense. He was one of the Huaka’i Po now—a death marcher. Thresh had seen him, gliding along with his feet above the ground, many nights as he walked these roads.

  In the nineteenth century, the historian Lord Acton said great men were almost always bad men. It had become Thresh’s motto. Greatness demanded thinking outside the box and being focused on one thing: success. Failure wasn’t acceptable, especially with his goal so close in sight. Ash’s reappearance couldn’t be allowed to derail the plan. If Ash had to die again, Thresh thought the act might be even more enjoyable the second time around.

  Roosters crowed outside the bedroom window. Lani’s eyes flipped open, but darkness still shrouded her. Dumb birds. She sat up and swung her legs out of bed, then reached over and flipped on the light. No light lit the room. Warmth touched her foot, almost like sunlight. Then she remembered. She was blind. She sagged back and covered her face with her hands. The darkness had to lift soon. It had to. She couldn’t bear it.

  She stood and felt along the wall to the window. If only she could stare into the blue sky with the sun on her face. This blackness was more claustrophobic than the room. She might escape these four walls, but she couldn’t swim out of the dark sea she moved through.

  That man hadn’t left yet. He still played outside with the dog. He’d been hanging around for two days. He came every morning at nine and left after dinner. It was about to drive her crazy. Even pressing her palms over her ears didn’t block out his shout and the dog’s happy yips.

  She’d always wanted a dog. Her mother hated dogs, and her father disliked all animals. Annie had endured a constant battle with him over her pet mongoose, Wilson. Lani wondered if she would have to give the dog back when she got her sight back. Because, of course, she would regain her sight. If only Annie were here.

  Lani turned at a tap on her door. “Come in.” Moving slowly back across the carpet, she felt the mattress and sat on its edge. A rush of air told her the door had opened. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s me.” Her aunt’s voice had a happy lilt. “You’ve got a visitor.”

  “I don’t want to see anyone.” The door latch clicked, and Lani heard the whisper of her aunt’s feet.

  “You about ready to stop feeling sorry for yourself?” Rina asked in a clipped voice.

  “I’m just tired. I was shot, remember?”

  Rina’s light steps came closer, then her hand touched Lani’s shoulder. “Where’s the spunky niece I love? You can do this, Lani. You have the willpower and the ability. Your nose is sharp—it always has been. You’re the only one in the place who can smell when the coffee is roasted just right. Your other senses will begin to compensate for the loss of your sight. You’re going to be okay.”

  Lani scowled. “Easy for you to say. Just leave me alone.”

  The door opened, and Lani caught the tinkle of jewelry and the faint scent of sulfur. She turned. “Fawn?” With Annie gone, it could only be her sister’s friend and fellow volcanologist.

  “I came as soon as I heard.” Fawn Trenton’s footsteps moved across the floor, and she sat next to Lani and enveloped her in a hug. “I’m here to help you. I took some time off work.”

  Lani clung to Fawn. “How did you hear?” Her sister Annie’s best friend, Fawn, was as close as a real sibling. Only having Annie here would be better. Fawn’s hair, pulled back in its trademark braid, smelled faintly of rotten eggs, the hydrogen sulfide gases she’d been working in. She must have come straight from the volcanoes.

  “I ran into Yoshi in Big Save.”

  “I’ll leave you two to visit while I help Josie with dinner,” Rina said. The door clicked behind her when she exited the room.

  Fawn pulled away, but Lani kept hold of her hand. “Rina tried to get hold of Annie, but the v
olcano on Montserrat is erupting and the phone service is out,” Lani said.

  “I know. Yoshi told me.”

  “Sounds like he told you a lot.”

  “We—talked a bit.” There was a smile in Fawn’s voice.

  “Oh? Did he ask you out?” Lani couldn’t help the hope in her voice. She’d love to see Fawn in the family. For the past six months, she and Annie had kept throwing Fawn in Yoshi’s path. For all the good it had done them.

  “Well, we got a Frappuccino together. Does that count?” Amusement gave a lilt to Fawn’s voice.

  “Awesome! Sure it counts. My boneheaded cousin might be wising up.”

  “I’ve got a date with another volcanologist on Friday.”

  Lani clutched her hand. “I thought you were staying with me.” Fawn’s appearance had lifted the gloom around her, and she didn’t want to let her go.

  Fawn laughed. “I can cancel it. I didn’t want to go anyway.” She put her arm around Lani. “Now tell me what you’re doing sulking in the bedroom. There’s a positively yummy man with an equally scrumptious dog in the front yard.”

  Lani tipped her head. “Really? What’s he look like?”

  “About six-three. Built like a linebacker. Thick hair the color of chestnut. Lashes I’d kill for. Is that his Harley in the yard?”

  “I don’t know,” Lani said. “I only know he’s trying to push the dog on me. Have you ever seen him before? His voice seems a little familiar.”

  “Nope.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Honey, I wouldn’t forget a man who looks like him. Now get your slippers on. We’re going out there.” She stood.

  “I don’t want to. They’ll all stare.”

  “Is that all? People stare at me all the time. I’m used to it. They think I dress weird, but I don’t care. I’m going to be myself, and you should too.”

  Lani tightened her grip on Fawn’s hand. “Wait. I need to talk to you.” She pulled Fawn back down beside her. “I thought when I became a Christian, things would get easier. What’s the use of trusting God if he’s going to let me go through something like this? Is this punishment for my past?” Her hand settled on her midsection.