by S. Tamanaha
“I told you, I’m not sure. Some of it I got on the first day that we met—that underlying temper, the dislike that you have for a lot of the people you have to work with, the fact that you’re a decent person with a good head on your shoulders and not conceited at all. Some of it I get from the things that you’ve said during our talks or the way that you’ve said them. But a lot of it, I just feel inside and I can’t explain it. I’m sorry if I upset you in any way.”
“I’m not upset,” John said. “You just kind of took me by surprise. Are you sure you aren’t psychic?”
“I’m positive. And I can’t read you a hundred percent so don’t worry. Your deepest secrets and desires are safe.”
He was glad for that and wondered how she would have reacted if she had been able to sense his growing desire to know her better.
“Know what else I think?” she asked.
“What’s that?”
“That you’ll get your dream one day. Just as long as you don’t let them change you and you don’t get too frustrated or act too recklessly when you are.”
He smiled. “Think so?”
“I do,” she said, and she said it with such simple conviction that he believed her.
When Changsai brought the check, John reached for his wallet.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Paying for the meal. You’re already saving me a bundle on hotel costs.”
“No, you’re my guest. You don’t get to pay.” She pulled out enough money to cover the meal, the tip, and the free dessert and put it on the tray.
“You know, this is kind of new to me,” he said. “Women I know would expect me to pay.”
“Why? Because you’re a star and you make a lot of money or because you’re the guy and guys are supposed to pay?”
“All of the above.”
She smiled. “Well, when I was growing up, my neighborhood had mostly boys my age so most of my friends ended up to be guys. I was a tomboy I guess—played football, baseball, arm wrestled.”
“Arm wrestled?” he asked in surprise.
“You’re looking at the sixth grade champion,” she said proudly. ‘My father taught me.”
He laughed.
“Then when we grew older and they began dating, well, I just never understood why they always got stuck with the bill. It didn’t seem fair. And, I thought, if I was the girl I wouldn’t want them paying anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Because some guys think paying for a date entitles them to other things.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I remember one of my friends implied that once. He was complaining about how much money he had spent and she hadn’t even kissed him goodnight. I told him that if he looked at a date that way, it was just another form of prostitution that he was interested in, not the girl. It would have cost him less, actually, to get a hooker.”
John smiled.
“What? Too harsh?” she asked.
“No, I was just thinking that I’ve never met a woman like you. You’re so different. The way you think, the way you feel and sense things.”
“Different is a word that’s been used to describe me a lot during my life and not in a good way. A lot of people think that my views are a little strange. Even my guy friends.”
“Did any of those guy friends ever try to be more than a friend?” John asked. “After you passed that arm wrestling phase I mean.”
She smiled. “Almost every one of them thought that they had a crush on me at one time or another.”
“So what happened?”
“I convinced them otherwise. I knew that they weren’t in love with me. It was just that they had a hard time talking to girls. You know, approaching them and being afraid of rejection and then doing the whole dating thing. But they had an easy time talking to me because we grew up together. Some of them thought that meant that they loved me and for others, dating me would just be simpler. No dating awkwardness or rituals.”
“So you never had a crush on any of them?”
“No, but even if I had, I would never have let the person know.”
“Why not?”
“Because I wouldn’t have wanted to ruin the friendship. If you get romantically involved with someone and it doesn’t work out, then you lose the boyfriend and a friend. I wouldn’t have wanted that to happen. You know, most of them are married today and although I don’t see them often, we’re still friends.”
John smiled again. “You really are different. And I mean it in a good way.”
She smiled, pleased that he felt that way. “Ready to go? I’ll take you to see the Christmas lights on the way home.”
She drove through downtown Honolulu where some of the buildings and landmarks that they had passed by earlier that day were now brightly illuminated with Christmas lights. Honolulu Hale, the home of Oahu’s City Hall, had the largest displays and there were numerous people on foot enjoying the exhibits.
“This is about as Christmassy as it gets around here,” she said as she drove past the exhibits slowly. “Too bad they can’t keep the lights up even after the displays come down. I like seeing the palm trees wrapped in lights like that.”
“What’s that thing that Santa’s doing with his hand?” John asked as they drove past a huge Santa wearing an aloha shirt with his hand in the air showing only a thumb and baby finger extended.
“It’s the shaka sign, a local style greeting. It can mean a whole lot of things like ‘how’s it?’ or ‘everything’s all right, it’s cool’. Wish they would repaint his shirt though. I’m getting tired of seeing him in that same outfit year after year.”
John laughed.
When they arrived home, Angel met them at the door again, wagging her tail excitedly and spinning around happily.
“Hi, my little Angel.” Susan picked up the little dog and gave her hugs and kisses. “Say ‘hi’ to Johnny too.” She caught herself. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call you that. It just came out.”
He smiled. “It’s okay, you can call me Johnny. I actually prefer that to Jack which is my nickname.”
She smiled. Johnny was what she always called him in her mind. “Me too. I don’t even know why Jack is the nickname for John.”
“Neither do I, actually,” he confessed.
“So, what did you want to do tomorrow? Do you want to play tourist? See more of the island? Or did you want to just rest?”
“I wouldn’t mind doing some sightseeing, if that’s okay with you.”
“It’s your vacation. We can do whatever you want. Except for Saturday night. I made reservations for that show in Waikiki. If you really don’t want to go though . . .”
“No, that sounds great.”
“You look a little tired. Please don’t feel obligated to stay up because I’m up. I’m kind of a night person anyway.”
“I guess I am a little tired,” he admitted, “but a good kind of tired. Relaxed, I guess, is what it is. I don’t know. It’s been a while since I was actually relaxed.”
Susan smiled. “I’m glad. That means the vacation is working. Well, I’m going to let my baby out. See you in the morning.”
He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek again. “Good night,” he said softly, “I had a good time.”
She felt it again—that jolt of electricity. “I did too. Good night.”
He took a quick shower, brushed his teeth, and changed into his shorts before climbing into bed. He thought about how he felt when he watched her perform and when that man had tried to pick her up. He thought about the things that she had said to Jess and how she had been so accurate in her assessment of him. He thought about how different she was from anyone that he had ever met. And when he had leaned down to kiss her good night, he felt something stir inside of him again.
He became aware of faint noises coming from downstairs. He got up from the bed and went to the stairs. From the landing he could see Susan in the pool. She wasn’t wearing a bathing suit. Ins
tead, she had on shorts and a tank top and she was playing a game with her little dog. She disappeared under the water and came up somewhere along the edge of the pool and called to Angel. Angel ran to where she was and she disappeared again and came up somewhere else along the pool’s edge. The dog ran there, tail wagging and barking a little. Then she did it again. Finally, she came up and stayed up, letting the dog catch her and kiss her. She laughed, took Angel’s face in her hands and kissed the dog back, smack on the nose. She turned on her back then and floated in the water, her head resting on the edge of the pool and her face turned towards the sky. She said something to her little companion and pointed to the sky. The dog didn’t look up; she just started licking the water off of Susan’s face. Susan laughed again.
Johnny smiled as he watched them playing. He found himself wanting to be in that pool with her but he knew that she was in her own private place. Reluctantly, he returned to the bedroom and her bed and got beneath the covers. Something was happening to him—something that he had almost hoped wouldn’t happen—and though it worried him a little, it also excited him.
CHAPTER SIX
Johnny’s body, not an alarm clock, woke him up the next morning. For a split second, he thought that he was back in L.A., and then he smiled when he remembered where he was. He glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was a little past seven o’clock, much later than he usually arose to start his day. He climbed out of bed, went to the bathroom to groom, and then went to look for Susan. When he went downstairs, she wasn’t in sight and he wondered if she was still asleep. Then he heard her voice coming from the backyard. He walked out to the patio and found her standing off to one side of the yard with a pool skimmer in one hand and one of Angel’s toys in the other.
“Go and get it,” Susan said, throwing the toy across the yard. While Angel ran to retrieve the toy, she walked over to the pool and used the skimmer to remove some small floating debris from the surface of the pool.
“Good morning,” he said. He leaned down to pet Angel who had run up to greet him. “Good morning to you too.”
She smiled. She liked how he acknowledged her baby. “Hi. Did you get a good rest?”
“So good that I almost feel guilty.”
She emptied out the pool skimmer and returned it to the storage area behind the house. “Ready for breakfast? I’m done here.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Susan called to Angel and they all went inside. “It’ll just take a few minutes. Do you want an omelet or just regular eggs?
Johnny wasn’t used to having someone wait on him so readily, or at all. “Whatever’s easier for you. I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
“Okay, two omelets. Ham, cheese, and mushrooms?”
“Sounds great.”
In just a few minutes, she had omelets, toast, fresh fruit, and orange juice on the table. She had set aside a small piece of unseasoned scrambled eggs and she crumbled it into Angel’s food bowl, mixed it with some dry dog food, and placed the bowl down on Angel’s eating mat at the end of the counter. Angel ran over and began eating her breakfast immediately. As Susan sat down at the table to eat her breakfast, it struck her how surreal the situation seemed. Just a couple of months ago, the idea of having breakfast with him in her sanctuary would have been unbelievable. Yet, here he was and it felt so natural, as though this was how it should be.
His voice interrupted her thoughts. “Something wrong?”
She glanced at him and smiled apologetically. “No, sorry, I was just thinking about where I should take you today,” she lied. “Is there any place in particular you want to see?”
“I don’t know what there is to see. I probably should have done some research or something.” The truth was, he hadn’t thought much about sightseeing. He had been thinking more about seeing her again.
“I’ll take you to all the scenic spots then,” she said. “By the way, I bought you a couple of things to help you to blend in a little, look a little more local. If you still want to remain incognito, that is. It’s up to you, though, if you want to wear them. Here.”
She handed him a shopping bag that had been sitting on the chair beside her. Inside he found a tank top, a pair of Hawaiian print shorts, and another pair of rubber slippers.
“I bought everything slightly oversized, I think. I had to guess the size,” she said.
“What’s wrong with what I have on?” Johnny asked, pretending to be slightly offended.
“Nothing’s wrong with it, but most men here wear your kind of shorts only to run track, not when they’re out and about, and ... okay, never mind. Like I said, it’s totally up to you.”
“No, wait a minute. And what? What were you going to say?”
She sighed. “All right, truthfully, dressed like that you look like a model.” She felt a little uncomfortable commenting on his physique. “And you can wear sneakers if you want, but if they’re an expensive pair, then it might be better for you to bring some slippers along so your shoes won’t get ruined. But like I said, it’s up to you. If what I bought doesn’t feel comfortable on, then please don’t wear them.”
He sensed her discomfort and it made him smile. “Thank you. You really put a lot of thought into this.”
After they had eaten breakfast, he put on the clothes that she had bought him. The shorts and tank top were loose enough to conceal his physique, except for his muscular arms, but even with his hair tucked beneath the baseball cap and sunglasses on, one could still see how handsome he was.
“So, what do you think?” he asked as he came down the stairs. “Enough of a disguise?”
“I guess,” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just never met someone who had to try so hard to look unattractive. The rest of us are striving the other way.”
He laughed.
It was another beautiful day with clear blue skies, light trade winds, and a warm sun. She drove him through Waikiki once more and then along the Oahu coastline. She took pictures of him at Blow Hole, at Hanauma Bay Preserve, and at Sandy Beach and Makapuu Beach. She snapped candid shots of him while he sampled a snow cone at a roadside snack truck and checked on a shore fisherman’s catch. As the water lapped at his feet while he talked to the friendly fisherman, he was glad that she had given him the pair of flip flops to use. She drove him through Waimanalo town, pointed out the Town and Country Stables where rodeos were occasionally held, then drove him to the Pali Lookout.
True to its reputation, the Pali was windy but not nearly as bad as she remembered it being on previous visits and the panoramic view of the Windward side of Oahu was worth the trip and braving the strong winds. Johnny had to remove his baseball cap to prevent losing it in a gust of wind. She directed him to stand by the railing so that she could take another picture of him with the sweeping mountains and the Pacific Ocean in the background.
“No, this time come in the picture with me,” he said.
“That’s all right. I’m not very photogenic. No bone structure.”
“No, come here.” He took the camera from her and approached another tourist. “Do you mind snapping one of us?” he asked.
“Sure,” the woman replied.
He leaned back on the railing and pulled her in front of him, his arms encircling her. She tried to stand straight to keep some space between them, but he pulled her close so that their bodies were touching. The electricity occurred inside of her again and she shivered slightly and prayed that he hadn’t noticed.
It felt good to him to have her so close. And now he could feel it from her—she felt something for him too. At least he thought that she did but her actions didn’t match at all what he was feeling from her. She acted as though nothing was different, continuing to treat him as an old friend.
They stopped for lunch at a small Mom and Pop restaurant where she ordered some local dishes for him to try and then continued their journey along the Windward Coast until they arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Center
in Laie.
“Do you want to stop here?” she asked. “I haven’t been here in years.”
“What is it?”
“You get to see the different types of Hawaiian villages, watch them peel coconuts and start fires the old fashioned way, that sort of thing. Lots of beautiful Polynesian women dancing. Touristy but interesting. At least that’s what I remember.”
“Sure, okay.”
The tickets were pricey, but the man at the ticket booth gave her the online rate for Kamaainas—local residents—which was a little less expensive. Johnny offered to pay but she refused.
“Listen, I don’t want you to rack up credit card debt entertaining me,” he said.
“First of all, I don’t charge ever. I pay strictly by cash.”
“You don’t use charge cards?” he asked, surprised once again.
“Nope. This is a debit card. And second, I wanted to see this place and I wouldn’t have come all by myself so just think of it as me hiring you as an escort or something.”
“Are you always this stubborn?” he asked.
She smiled. “Always.”
They had a good time doing all of the touristy things—walking through the different simulated villages, watching a man strip the husk off a fresh coconut the old fashioned way and sampling the fresh meat and milk, and watching the Polynesian lagoon show with all of the beautiful dancers.
Afterwards, she continued her drive around the island, passing through Kahuku and Sunset Beach until they reached Waimea, home of some of the most spectacular surf in the world and where big surf competitions were held. The traffic was so heavy that they slowed to a crawl.
She sighed. “I knew the traffic would be bad because the waves are decent, but I wanted to show you this place since everyone has heard about it. There’s no surfing competition today so, believe it or not, this isn’t crowded.”
There was no place to actually park, but she pulled off the road temporarily so that Johnny could watch some experienced surfers tackle a few good sized waves and take a few pictures. Then they continued on their journey until she was once again back on the highway and headed towards Honolulu. It was late afternoon by the time they arrived back at her place. Angel met them at the door, as usual, thrilled that they had finally come home.