by Thea Thomas
Upstairs, Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating what Peter had just said – and what he didn’t say – could have meant for the unfolding of her, of their futures. And then she hid the conversation away, too. She was married to Tony, she would make it work.
She closed the locks on her luggage and her heart. Then went down to the patio, all smiles and hugs, and had a lovely hour of chit-chat with three of her favorite people.
But after Peter left, Elizabeth asked Gail if she had an extra copy of one of Peter’s books to loan. “I suppose this is as good a chance as any to try and get some reading done since Tony’s already said he wants to laze around on the beach most of the time. And I find that so boring.”
“Sure, Pet. I’ve been waiting and waiting for you to ask!” Gail went into her room and brought back After the Year After the Millennium. “When you come back you’ll be able to join us when we have one of our literary discussions,” she teased.
Elizabeth made a face at her and put the book in her purse. Now she was packed and as ready to go as she could be.
Chapter XXII
When Gail drove them to the airport the next day, Amy seemed to realize that something she wouldn’t like was about to happen and she began to cry the moment they walked into the terminal.
After they checked in they stood in line at a restaurant for a bite of lunch before going to the terminal, but Amy continued to whimper and cry, making the saddest face ever. Elizabeth looked at Gail and Amy. “You’d better go,” she said. “She’s so unhappy, there’s no point in making her hate the airport, and I can’t bear to see her so sad.”
“Yeah,” Tony growled under his breath. “Plus it’s just annoying.”
Gail nodded to Elizabeth. “Say bye-by, Amy,” she said.
Elizabeth took Amy and kissed and hugged her. “Don’t cry, baby. I’ll be back before you miss me.”
“No, Bet, no. No by-bye!”
“Say by-bye to Tony, sweetheart.”
Tony patted her on the shoulder. “By-bye, Amy. Be a good girl.” Then he turned away.
Elizabeth handed her back to Gail. “Call Peter and the three of you do something together. She’d like that.”
“Okay, I will. Travel safely.” Gail kissed Elizabeth on the cheek, then walked away.
Elizabeth felt tears sting her eyes. Boy, am I having fun now, she thought as she waved to Amy, her little hand reaching out to her, crying over Gail’s shoulder.
A few hours later she and Tony landed in the hustling and bustling Honolulu airport.
If only we could have gone somewhere peaceful, and quiet, Elizabeth thought. I could perhaps enjoy myself some if we stayed in a remote place. But here we are, in Waikiki, in a big boring hotel where every room is a stale replica of a million others around the world, when one might as well have gone to the same hotel that’s only two miles from home.
But when they got into the room, it was practically filled with yellow and white tea roses, by the bed, on the dresser, on the table, even in the bathroom and out on the lanai.
The room was fragrant with their perfume and they cheered Elizabeth considerably.
“Did you get the roses?” Elizabeth asked, picking one of them from a vase.
“You’d better believe it,” Tony said, checking out the closet space. “Nothing’s too good for my girl!” he continued, with his back to her.
“Thank you, Tony. That was very sweet.” She drank them in for a moment, then started to unpack.
After relaxing for a few minutes, they walked out into the evening and found a charming Italian restaurant for dinner, after which they walked among the street vendors.
“Isn’t this fun?” Tony asked.
“It’s – interesting.” She looked at her watch. It was one a.m. at home. Too late to call. Tony wouldn’t let her call when they first arrived, insisting that she give Gail and Amy a chance to get adjusted to her not being there.
Fine, Elizabeth was thinking now, so how long will it take me to get adjusted to not being there?
Although the street vendors had beautiful jewelry and art objects, she only had eyes for things that Amy might like. She resolved to come shopping some time without Tony. He’d already said he wanted to lie out in the sun all day anyway. Which not only bored her, but was something her fair skin did not find agreeable. Which was why she brought Peter’s book.
But still, the prospect of the whole week stretched before her as about as boring as she could imagine.
Why was that? she wondered. Because Tony is boring, she answered. What a surprise! She didn’t realize that she thought he was boring until she was faced with being stuck alone with him for a week. She had been infatuated with him – well, his beauty – at first sight. She had tried to gain his approval from the outset. She now saw that that was not so different from her life with Grandfather. Maybe that’s why being with Tony seemed like the right thing to do. It was familiar to be criticized. It was what she knew. And then there was that vulnerable side to him, that made her want to protect him. From what, she wasn’t sure.
She looked around for him. He’d wandered to a showcase of men’s gold watches.
Come on Elizabeth, she reprimanded herself, everyone was interesting in some way. I have to give Tony a chance. For one thing, he loved her, at least that’s what he said. In any event, he was dependent on her, always looking for her approval. And for another thing, well, there was that bit about having gotten married.
There must be something they could discover that they were both interested in, and that would make Tony more interesting to her. She hoped.
How much she’d changed in the last month! Before the wedding it would have been impossible to imagine that Tony could ever seem boring. But she’d known nothing of married life. She’d been naive beyond belief.
Lately all the little criticisms Gail had made of Tony before the wedding came to her, and they made more and more sense. To Gail’s credit, however, she’d not said a negative word about him to her since the wedding.
Well, Elizabeth thought, you made your bed!
Tony looked around and caught her eye, then motioned her to come over to him. “Can you believe these prices on the gold? How can they sell this stuff so cheap?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It’s even cheaper than at the swap meet. And the styling is better. Look at these, European looking. Classy.”
Elizabeth nodded absently. She was not interested in watches or gold. “Yes. Attractive,” she said for the sake of agreeability. But she was looking at a unicyclist riding down the side of the road, considerably more interesting than the watches.
“Okay,” Tony said, “let’s look at something you’re interested in.”
Elizabeth returned her attention to him, surprised. She couldn’t recall him ever making any reference to something she might be interested in. “Me? I enjoy people watching. I’m perfectly content to float around like a little bubble, relaxed and unhurried.”
Tony chuckled and took her hand. “Cone on then, little bubble. Let’s find some ice-cream.”
They had an enjoyable evening together, watching a stunning sunset bathe the ocean in a frenzy of fuchsia, orange, gold and pink that faded to an intense and velvety indigo from the outdoor seating of the hotel bar. Tony drank too much, stumbled a bit and slurred his words a when they walked back to the room. He flopped himself down on the bed and fell directly into a deep, snoring sleep.
Elizabeth was glad for the California king-sized bed where she curled up on the other edge, and read Peter’s book until the wee hours. She discovered that a lot of the science in the book she didn’t understand, but that it really didn’t matter as the lives of the characters was so engaging. She had to agree with Gail. He really was a good writer. She would soon finish the book, and still the bulk of the week would stretch out before her. She hoped to find a bookstore tomorrow.
She fell asleep around two a.m, which was the equivalent to staying up all n
ight, given the jet-lag. But Tony woke her at seven. “Come on, girl. Get up, we gotta go bake ourselves in the sun! I can’t believe you let me sleep all night in my clothes.”
Elizabeth shrugged.”You seemed quite comfortable.” She didn’t say anything about how she felt that he drank himself into a stupor.
At least I have Peter’s book, she thought.
When they got settled among the row of baking humans, she opened the book.
“What’s that?” Tony asked.
“Well, gee, Tony,” Elizabeth teased, “it looks quite a lot like a book.”
“You won’t be much company with your face in a book,” he complained.
“Goodness, Tony, if you think of something to say, just talk. It’s only a book, not a wall.”
“What’s it called?”
Elizabeth held up the book.
“After the Year After the Millennium,” he read. “By Kim McCorky. It looks like science fiction.”
“It is.”
“You don’t seem like someone who would read science fiction.”
“As rule, I’m not. But I was curious about this book because Kin McCorky is Peter.”
“Really? That book was written by Peter?”
“Um-hum,” Elizabeth answered. “Gail has all his books. She loaned this one to me.”
“Seems like you could have gotten a new book at the airport.”
“I could have gotten a new book at the airport. But I wanted to read this book.”
Sullen, Tony didn’t further the conversation. Elizabeth read until she felt scorched.”I’ve gotta get out of the sun,” she said to Tony an hour later. “I can’t put enough sunscreen on to block it, and the sun is making me feel light-headed.”
Tony nodded, lethargic and half-asleep.
Elizabeth was delighted to be alone in the cool, shaded, room. She dialed home, not able to wait to hear Amy’s little voice.
“It’s about time you called,” Gail launched in. “Amy and I have been worried sick. Why didn’t you call when you got there?”
“Tony wouldn’t let me. He said I should let you and Amy adjust to my not being there. So... are you adjusted?”
“Of course not! Are you having a good time?”
“Oh, Gail, I’m so bored! The only thing that’s saving me is reading Peter’s book, which, by the way, I love. I just wish I had the rest of his books with me. I could read them all this week. I want to be home. How can I stay here another whole six days?”
Gail was quiet for a few moments. “Hang in there. Take in some cultural experiences. Go to museums. You’ll be mad at yourself if you don’t. Hawaii’s history is rich and interesting. Go exploring and see the water falls, the plants and the birds. Don’t stay in that westernized city the whole time.”
“Okay, boss, I will.” Elizabeth sighed a huge sigh. As always, Gail was one-hundred percent correct, and made her feel much better. “What’s Amy doing?”
“Taking her nap.”
“Oh. I guess it’s about that time. Well, give her my love when she wakes up.”
“I will, Lizzy.”
“I don’t know when I’ll get to call again. Maybe Tony is right, maybe I shouldn’t call. I mean, I feel so lonely and depressed now.”
“Dear, dear... it’s not that bad,” Gail said. “Remember, you’re in paradise, get the best out of it. We’ll see you soon. I’ll call you if there’s anything you need to know about, so don’t worry about the home front. Relax. Take care of yourself.”
“Okay. Love you guys. By-bye.” Elizabeth hung up and looked around the room. She was in paradise, and she should be clever enough to enjoy it.
She went downstairs to the front desk where they had row upon row of flyers on the sights and events that the Big Island had to offer. She took one of each, went back to the room and studied them.
Two hours later she was almost finished going over them when Tony came back to the room, brown as a nut. Elizabeth wondered how much darker he could possibly get.
“You’ll never get a tan hanging out in the room,” he said.
“I’d rather keep my smooth complexion and remain white.”
“Why bother to come to Hawaii then?” he asked.
“My question, exactly. It wasn’t my idea to come here.”
“I see,” Tony said.
“But,” she said cheerily, shuffling through her brochures, “as long as I’m here, I might as well get everything out of the experience I can get.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“I’d like to book us for a Luau tonight. There’s a nice one at the hotel next door. How does that sound?”
“Fine. That sounds fine.”
“Then I thought tomorrow we could rent a car and drive around the island. Do you know it only takes a couple hours to drive around the entire periphery of the island?”
“Really?”
“Yes. There’s a botanical garden on the opposite side of the island.” She held the flyer in front of him. “I thought it’d be interesting to see that. Then the next day I thought we might go to a museum.” She held up another brochure. “Then I thought we could look into visiting one of the other islands. Maybe even stay over a night.”
“You’ve been doing a lot of... thinking, it sounds like.”
“Sure,” Elizabeth said. “I’m trying to make this trip interesting.”
“I’m not very interested in ‘interesting.’ I run around enough when I’m working. This is a break. Besides, with all that running around, when will I get my tan?”
“It looks to me like you’ve already gotten it,” she answered. “How much darker do you intend to get?”
“This? This is nothing!” Tony posed in front of the mirror, one way, then another, studying his tan. “You wait and see, you won’t believe how dark I can get. I’ll tell you what, I don’t mind if you plan things in the evening, but I really don’t want to run around during the day.”
“Okay.” Elizabeth stacked the brochures together, feeling the spirit draining out of the fun she had worked to build up. But then a shift happened inside her, and she cheered up. “Then you won’t mind if I check these things out on my own.”
Tony shrugged, clearly in love with the mirror. “I suppose not. But I can’t imagine how you could face going back home without a Hawaiian tan.”
“The same way I live every day of my life without any bit of tan. I’m fair, I cannot take too much sun, as I’ve said repeatedly. I’m more inclined to wonder how we’ll get closer to one another if we don’t spend time together.”
“It’s not my idea to be apart, running around all day,” Tony said defensively.
“On some other hand,” Elizabeth pointed out, “You don’t seem to care that too much sun makes me ill. And that lying around all day doing nothing bores me to tears.”
“I care. But I can’t do anything to change you, now can I?”
Elizabeth was so amazed by his candid logic that she was the only one who should change that she closed her mouth. Was he truly that oblivious to her as a person?
“I’m going to take a shower,” he said, going into the bathroom. “And then I want to take a nap.”
“What about lunch?” Elizabeth asked.
“I had lunch downstairs.”
Elizabeth frowned. “Alone? You didn’t invite me?” He said nothing, and she heard the shower running. “That’s just odd.”
Elizabeth went out on the lanai with her handful of brochures. She would enjoy herself no matter how much Tony crossed her at every turn. And, by the way, she reminded herself, she was paying for this trip. She bent over the roses on the table to drink their fragrance. Including even these roses he got for me.
“Thank you, Elizabeth,” she said a bit sarcastically, “Thank you for the lovely roses. Oh, You’re welcome!” she answered.
But, again, unpredictably, that night at the luau Tony was sweet and attentive and fun and Elizabeth reprimanded herself for expecting Tony to want to do exactly what she wanted
to do. After all, they were two different people. If he wanted to relax and tan himself, why shouldn’t he?
Besides, there was a real advantage in going to places like museums and botanical gardens alone. She could indulge in her love of loitering as much as she wanted.
So, for the next couple days Tony went out to the beach in the morning while Elizabeth explored the island and its culture. Then they got together for one luau or another in the evening. Elizabeth found the arrangement perfectly enjoyable. She chatted about all the things she’d learned during the day, and he half-listened, asking an occasional question, but mostly just content, it seemed, to see and be seen.
Elizabeth reasoned that she’d been alone with her own company for most of her life. She’d never expected her grandfather to share her fun, what little she had been able to come up with. He hadn’t believed in ‘fun’ in the first place.
On the fourth morning, Elizabeth woke at five a.m., unable to return to sleep. She looked around for Peter’s book. She hadn’t finished it yet, with the busy schedule she’d kept for herself, taking in all the sights. But she couldn’t find it.
That’s strange, she thought, I had it on my bedside table yesterday afternoon. It must be around here somewhere.
She didn’t want to wake Tony looking for it, so she quietly slipped into her jeans and sweatshirt, jotted a note for Tony, then walked down to Diamond Head park in a brisk morning breeze, the ocean inhaling and exhaling off to her right. The morning light was glorious and she felt herself breathing with the ocean, right down to her toes.
It was beautiful and peaceful and at that moment, Elizabeth was really, truly happy to be in Hawaii. Finally. The smell of the air was new to her – fresh, salt sea, brisk and seeming to go right into her body, welcoming her to the islands, in this moment before the city geared up and exhaust contaminated the environment.
Suddenly that animate energy she’d heard people mention when they talked about Hawaii, entered her. A strong, feminine, demanding-yet-compassionate energy.