Hero of Hawaii

by Graham Salisbury

  I shrugged. “Got me. All I know is mynah birds, doves, and those all-red ones.”

  “Cardinals.”

  “Yeah, those.”

  I ran out of bird pellets and rubbed the dust off my hands. “Be right back. Need more bird feed.”

  In the store the perfect present for Darci popped out at me. “Yes,” I whispered, grabbing it.

  I paid for the feed and the birthday present, which I wrapped up in the bag and stuffed into my cargo shorts pocket.

  “Here, birdy,” Darci said, tossing a few pellets over to the redheaded one. Then the first fat raindrop slapped down on my arm. Another. Another. A gust of wind whoomped across the koi pond, scattering the birds.

  “Ho!” I shouted. “Here it comes!”

  The gray sky darkened. Trees staggered and swayed in the wind. A sound roared through them, like a huge truck dumping gravel.

  I pumped a fist in the air. “Yee-haw!”

  Wild rain bounced off the bridge.

  “We have to find Stella and Clarence!” Darci shouted over the roar of the wind and rain.

  “Over by the gong!” I shouted back.

  We tossed our pellets to the fish and raced across the bridge into the temple and past the giant golden Buddha, who was still fine with everything. What’s your hurry, Calvin? It’s just a hurricane.

  Stella and Clarence ran down from the gazebo.

  “We go!” Clarence shouted.

  In the parking lot, Clarence’s pink car sat alone. We’d have to run across a long bridge that spanned a jungled gully.

  “We’ll get soaked!” Darci shouted.

  “Ne’mind. Got a towel in the car.”

  Clarence grabbed Stella’s hand, and Stella grabbed Darci’s.

  A huge tree branch crashed down behind us as we took off across the bridge.

  “Hoo!” Clarence yelped as we fell into the car and slammed the doors shut. “S’what I call rain!”

  Stella’s wet hair stuck to her head. She grabbed the towel and tried to dry it, then rubbed Darci’s head. The rain thundered down on the roof of the car.

  “I love it!” I shook the rain off my head, flinging drops around the car.

  “Hey!” Stella said. “Are you a dog?”

  Not many things were as exciting as a big rain, and this was huge !

  We headed back home.

  The wind rocked the car at every stoplight. Rain pounded down so loud you had to shout to be heard.

  Darci leaned closer to me, stretching her seat belt.

  By the time we got down into the valley below Maunawili, the rain was coming down so hard Clarence had to slow the car to a crawl. You couldn’t see the road. The wipers were going as fast as they could and still you couldn’t see.

  “Awesome!” I shouted.

  It was like being tumbled around in a wave, where you didn’t know which way was up and which way was down.

  Cars pulled over to wait it out.

  But Clarence kept crawling ahead. “Not smart to stop here.”

  I leaned closer to the front seat. “Why?”

  “Low land. Could flood.”

  “Ho,” I whispered.

  I’d never seen a flood. But I knew what it was. Lots of water making rivers where rivers shouldn’t be.

  We crept uphill and back down the other side into Kailua.

  The streetlights were out. Traffic inched ahead, one car at a time. Fog grew on the insides of the windows. I made a smiley face, then wiped it into a square so I could look out. Everything was blurry.

  Lightning blinked in the black sky, followed by huge blasts of thunder that exploded overhead.

  “Holy smokes!” I shouted.

  Darci gripped my arm.

  I leaned closer to Clarence in the front seat. “Have you ever seen it like this before?”

  “Nope.”

  “You really think it will flood?”

  “Prob’ly.”

  I sat back. Cool.

  The first thing I checked when we got home was the river. It still looked the same. My skiff sat in the long swamp grass just above the waterline. Probably I should haul it higher up, I thought. My dad gave me that boat just before he and Mom split up. I didn’t want to lose it.

  We ran from the car to the garage and burst into the house.

  Mom was in the kitchen. She looked frazzled. “Thank heaven you’re all home safe,” she said. “I’ve never seen it rain like this in my entire life!”

  I wiped rainwater from my face with my hand. “Mom, we couldn’t even see the road. Clarence had to drive slower than you could walk!”

  Mom looked at him. “Thank you for driving safely, Clarence.”

  “No problem.”

  Stella grabbed his hand. “Let’s go find you a dry T-shirt.”

  “Look in the hall closet,” Mom called after them. “There’s a box with some of Johnny’s old clothes in it.”

  Mom pushed Darci and me out of the kitchen. “You kids jump into something dry, too!”

  “In a minute,” I said, and ran to our big living room window. The river sailed past our yard, draining water from the lowlands to the ocean, just a few blocks away.

  My skiff was probably filling up with rainwater. I should have left it bottom up.

  Mom and Darci joined me.

  “The river’s getting fatter,” I said. “And muddy.”

  Mom crossed her arms. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”

  Darci and I changed and went back into the kitchen.

  Mom wanted to know how it was up at Ledward’s house. She grabbed the phone, started to punch in his number, and then stopped.

  There was a puddle of water on the counter where we ate breakfast. Mom frowned and looked up at a slow drip plinking down from the ceiling. She handed me the phone. “Here. Call Ledward and see how he’s doing while I take care of this puddle.”

  I punched in his number as she put a cereal bowl under the drip.

  The phone rang six times before he picked up.

  “Ledward,” I said. “It’s a storm!”

  He laughed. “That it is, boy. How you doing down there? I was just about to call your mama.”

  “We’re good,” I said. “Mom wants to know how you’re doing.”

  “Fine. The dogs are howling, but my pig likes it. You got electricity?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Mine’s out. Lucky the phone still works. Your mama there?”

  “Yeah, sure.” I handed the phone to Mom and ran back to the front window to watch the river.

  Now stuff was floating in it. The current was picking up, almost like a riptide. I saw a piece of lumber go by, a tree branch, a cardboard box, and some white packing foam.

  The wind banged up against the house, shaking it. Trees and bushes swayed and danced around the yard, and the rain was falling sideways. Sharp drops snapped against the window like firecrackers.

  A striped beach ball from somebody’s backyard sailed across our lawn and bounded down to the river. It made me itchy to get out in the storm. I didn’t want to miss any of it.

  But who would go with me?

  Darci was hiding under her blanket in her bedroom with Officer Buckle and Gloria, her favorite book.

  Julio?

  “Mrs. Coconut,” I heard Clarence say from the kitchen. “I can use the phone?”

  “Over there by the toaster,” Mom said.

  “Thanks. Calling home, see if they okay.”

  I got up and went into the kitchen. Clarence was wearing one of Dad’s old T-shirts. It was too small for him. The bowl on the counter under the drip was filling up. Mom was looking at the ceiling, chewing her thumbnail.

  “Hey,” Clarence said into the phone. “I Stella’s house. You okay there?”

  He listened.

  The wind outside howled.

  “Yeah, good,” Clarence said. “I going stay here for now. They live by the canal. It could flood … yeah … yeah … bye.” He hung up.

  “Everythin
g okay?” Mom asked.

  “Can’t find our cat, is all.”

  Mom nodded. “Probably found a nice dry spot to wait it out.”

  That was when I remembered Streak. I hadn’t even thought about her! Where was she? I ran out into the garage. She wasn’t in her usual spot by the door.

  “Streak,” I called. “You here?”

  Streak came crawling out from under the car with a smudge of car grease on her head.

  I squatted down. She was trembling. “Come,” I said, picking her up. “I got a better place for you.”

  I carried her into my room, which was right there in the garage. When Stella came to live with us and took my old room in the house, I had to move into the storage room. Ledward helped me clean it up and make a bedroom out of it. I liked it.

  I set Streak down on my lower bunk and piled my dirty clothes around her to keep her warm. But when I went to the door she jumped off and followed me.

  “Don’t want to be alone, huh?”

  I let her into the kitchen.

  Mom looked at Streak and raised her eyebrows.

  “Just for the storm, Mom. She’s scared.”

  Clarence waved me over to the window. “You better drag up your boat. The water coming higher.”

  I looked out to see the river lapping at the stern of my skiff.

  When I ran outside, the wind nearly blew me off my feet. Raindrops stung as I leaned into the storm and staggered down our sloping yard to the swamp grass at the edge of the river.

  Small wooden rowboats are heavy, and even heavier when they’re half full of rainwater. The wind had blown my tin can bailer out into the river, so I tried to lift the side of the skiff to let the water pour out.

  “I help you!” Clarence shouted.

  I dropped the skiff, and the wind blew me off my feet. I tumbled into the boat with a splash and got tangled up in the oars.

  Clarence laughed and pulled me out.

  “Dang oars,” I said, squeezing water from my T-shirt.

  Ledward and his dumb ideas. He’d attached cables to the oars so if they fell into the water I could just haul them back in.

  Actually, it was a good idea. Except that I usually got tangled up in the cables. It drove me crazy. Last time I’d almost cut them off.

  Clarence and I dumped the water out and dragged the skiff up into the yard. We left it upside down with the oars tucked under it.

  As we headed back to the house I saw Streak looking at us out the living room window. I picked up my pace. Mom better not see her out of the kitchen!

  In the garage, Clarence and I took off our shirts and wrung the water out. Inside, I grabbed Streak and wrapped her in my wet T-shirt to hide her.

  I sneaked her past Mom, on the phone in the kitchen, and took her out to my room. I dragged on a dry shirt and went back into the house. This time, Streak stayed in my room.

  “I called Ledward again,” Mom said, hanging up the phone. “I don’t know what to do about this leak.”

  Mom had put a bigger bowl under the drip. I looked up at the ceiling. It was like a bubble now, and about to pop. “Is he coming down to fix it?”

  “It’s flooding. He can’t get through.”

  “What do we do?”

  Mom shrugged. “Catch water, I guess.”

  “Can I call Julio?”

  “Sure, I’m done. I’m going to get some towels.”

  Mom left the kitchen as I picked up the phone and called.

  “Hey,” I said. “What’s up at your place?”

  “Nothing. My brothers are driving me crazy.”

  “I bet the river’s broken over the sandbar down at the beach. It’s halfway up my yard.”

  “It is?”

  “I had to drag my boat higher.”

  The river usually ended at the beach and never went out into the ocean because the sandbar blocked it. The water just sat there, rusty and warm.

  “Hey, you want to go down to the beach?” I said.

  “Yeah! But my parents won’t like it.”

  “We can go out your back gate like we’re just going to Kalapawai.”

  “Come on over.”

  We hung up.

  His mom and mine were the same. If we asked them if we could go to the beach in a storm like this they’d say no. But they might let us go to Kalapawai Market.

  I peeked around the corner into the living room.

  No one there.

  “Mom!” I called. “I’m going to Julio’s!”

  She answered from down the hall. “Stay inside when you get there!”

  “I will!” I said, then whispered, “For a few minutes.”

  Streak was happy in my room, so I left her there until I got back.

  The wind and rain were fierce, but Julio lived only a few houses up the street.

  I went into his garage and knocked on the kitchen door.

  “Hey,” Julio said, opening it. “I saw you coming up the street. Kind of wobbly.”

  “It’s the wind! It’s awesome!”

  Julio looked over his shoulder. “My mom’s trying to keep my bozo brothers from tearing down the house.”

  “Where’s your dad?”

  “Watching golf.”

  “Let’s go, then.”

  “Hey, Mom!” he shouted. “I’m going with Calvin to Kalapawai.”

  No one answered.

  “Did she hear you?”

  Julio shrugged. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The wind had gotten worse. Trees were bent over so far they looked like they would snap. The noise was wild, hissing, roaring, swirling. Truly, unbelievably awesome.

  We staggered toward Kalapawai Market. No cars were parked in front of the store.

  “You got any money?” I shouted, struggling to stay on my feet in the wind.

  “A quarter!”

  “What can we buy?”

  “Nothing!”

  We skipped Kalapawai and headed down the side road to the beach. When we got to the parking lot at the bend in the road, we saw a cop car. We backed into a hedge.

  The wind at the beach was screaming. Words flew away the second you said them.

  “What’s he doing?” Julio shouted.

  “Sitting there.”

  “We can’t go out now. He’ll make us go home.”

  We waited and were just about to give up and go back to Julio’s house when the cop car pulled out.

  We ran across the park and up a rise to the ironwood trees that lined the beach. We hung on to the trees, looking out at the ocean.

  “Ho!” Julio shouted.

  The bay, usually a clean turquoise blue, was gray and murky. As far out as I could see, there was nothing but whitecaps. The wind had churned the surface of the sea into high jagged waves with tops that blew off and flew away in the wind. I felt seasick just looking at it.

  “Look!” Julio said, pointing up the beach.

  The river had broken over the sandbar and was spewing dirt-brown water out into the bay.

  We let go of the trees and raced toward it.

  When the wind pushed at my back I ran as fast as a car. When it came back around and hit me in the face I almost had to get down and crawl.

  “Yee-haw!” I shouted when we got to the surging river.

  Julio grinned.

  The river was as fat as I’d ever seen it and moving like a herd of angry bulls. The sand along its edges was crumbling and falling into the water, the river eating the land away.

  Floating junk sailed past and headed out to be lost in the ocean.

  The current was so powerful it was like the whole river was racing out and going down some giant drain, only the drain was the ocean. I didn’t see any boats out, but there was one crazy windsurfer way down toward the marine air base.

  Looking down on the raging river, I could only think: Scary!

  Bwoop!

  Julio and I turned at the sound.

  The cop car, blue light swirling. The cop got out and waved us over.

>   “Busted!” Julio shouted to me.

  The cop refused to let us walk home in that wind. “Too dangerous!” he shouted. “You could get hit by something blowing in the wind!”

  Julio and I slid down in the backseat as we turned onto our street.

  “Can you just let us out here?” Julio asked long before we got to his house.

  The cop kept going. “You’ll get soaked.”

  “We’re soaked already,” Julio said.

  The cop stopped just before Julio’s house. “Fine, but you boys listen; stay inside until this storm is over. Agreed?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We won’t come out until the sun does.”

  “Which are your houses?”

  We pointed them out.

  “That one down at the end is yours?” he asked me.

  “Yeah.”

  “That pink car,” he said. “Belongs to Clarence Pavao. Am I right?”

  “Uh … yeah.”

  The cop chuckled. “So you folks know him?”

  “Well … sort of. He’s … um, dating my … my sister.” No way I was going to call Stella my babysitter.

  Julio looked at me. I ignored him.

  The cop smiled. “Clarence is my cousin. Tell him Rudy said howzit.”

  Me and Julio got out and Rudy the cop drove away.

  “That was weird,” Julio shouted into the wind.

  “Sure was.”

  “No, I mean, how you called Stella your sister!”

  “Would you call her your babysitter?”

  “Good point!”

  “Laters!”

  We headed to our houses.

  The wind wasn’t as bad at home as it was coming off the ocean. In fact, it felt like a vacation compared to the beach.

  But the rain was still pounding down in buckets. It wasn’t possible for me to be any wetter. But the rain was warm, and that was good.

  Streak barked. She was looking out my bedroom window, her nose pushing at the screen.

  “Hey, girl!” I shouted.

  I went into the garage and let her out. I took my shirt and shorts off, wrung them out, and got dry ones off the floor.

  Streak followed me into the kitchen.