by Kealohilani
“I was supposed to…”
Raoul waited politely for her to finish her explanation but had no such luck. Lani pulled out her cell phone to make a quick call before they got on the ride— again.
“Mabuhay!”
“Hey, Chicky! How’s Hawai‘i?”
“Oh hi, Lani! It’s the bomb-dot-com!”
“Are you seriously getting on the phone now? You just called Tyler and your mom and your dad and Jenna like five minutes ago! Who’s left?!” Justin interrupted.
“Shhhhh! I happen to love my family, and it wasn’t five minutes ago. I just want to make sure she’s having fun. I’ll be off in plenty of time to get on the ride. Sorry, Kendra, you were saying?”
“You’re talking to Kendra?!”
Lani held up her right index finger to indicate that Justin was to wait.
“No problem, Lani! Tell Justin I say ‘grow up,’ ha ha! No for realz though, we are staying at this to-die-for place at Turtle Bay on O‘ahu. It’s these ritzy ocean villas on the north shore next to the hotel, and guess what?” Kendra didn’t wait for Lani to guess. Lani smiled widely as Kendra blurted, “We have our own three-bedroom villa! These things are like right on the beach!”
“Sounds amazing!” Lani agreed.
“No, seriously, we can just walk outside and poof! There you are! And you know it was always gonna be me who claimed the master bedroom with the best ocean view!”
“Stole is more like it!” Lani heard a voice interrupt Kendra.
“Shut up, Jonn-Jonn. Can I help it if I was born a princess? No!” Kendra laughed and Lani thought she heard a scuffle of some sort in the background. It was pretty quiet in the small line through the lobby of the Tower of Terror, so she could hear Kendra perfectly as they gradually advanced toward the staging area.
“Anyway, Lani, it feels like a complete tropical getaway to our own private island out where we’re staying! I wish you could see it! There’s even a helicopter ride you can walk to! We’re gonna check that out tomorrow.”
“That will be really—”
“Stop it Jonn-Jonn! We’re at the Polynesian Cultural Center right now and there just aren’t words enough to describe how cool it is! Sorry, here I am bragging about my trip. How’s Disney World going?”
“No problem,” Lani giggled. “I’m glad you’re having fun. And Disney World is fantastic! Justin is as hyper as ever, only more so, if you can believe it! We’re in line to ride the Tower of Terror for the fifth time.”
“Wow! Justin more hyper? That must be scary… Five times? Are you crazy?! I don’t even think I could make it through once!”
“I know, right?” Lani laughed.
“Get off the phone, Lani!”
“Let her finish, Justin. There are still people ahead of us.”
Justin ignored Raoul’s suggestion and reached for Lani’s phone, trying to pry it out of her hands as Lani struggled to finish the conversation gracefully.
“We’re about to go in now, Chicky! I gotta go before Justin kills my phone! You have a great time in Hawai‘i!”
“So iritz that boy! Have fun! Bye!”
“Bye!”
“FINALLY!”
“Justin!” Lani exclaimed.
“What? Look! They’re opening the doors! Let’s go already!”
Lani laughed and she and Raoul followed Justin excitedly through the staging area where Rod Serling— in the Twilight-Zone-themed movie short— once again told the story of the legendary characters who had supposedly disappeared while riding the passenger lift in this same hotel decades before.
Once the movie ended, the three friends hurried through the ancient-looking boiler room and waited behind a painted yellow line on the floor, outside the service elevator doors. A creepy looking bellhop stood and began to speak in a low, equally-creepy, tone.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a warm and gracious welcome to The Hollywood Tower Hotel. In just a few moments, your elevator will come to take you to your rooms. When the elevator arrives, we will board one row at a time.”
The “ding” of the elevator arriving rang out. The doors opened and the bellhop guided the guests in row by row. Lani, Justin, and Raoul were guided to the front row on the right side.
Lani sat down between Justin and Raoul and nervously buckled her seatbelt. She felt her heart beating fast with dread, despite her multiple times on this ride— or maybe because of them. She pulled up on the yellow strap as instructed by the bellhop to make sure she was secured in and listened as he continued.
“On this elevator, we ask that there be no eating, drinking, or smoking. And no videotaping or flash photography— because we have several movie stars staying with us, and they wish to have their privacy. Also, we ask that you hang on to any loose items that you might wish to keep such as hats, glasses, cameras… and small children.”
The bellhop glanced enthusiastically at the few frightened kids in the elevator car, with a twisted smile.
“Are there any questions? No? Well, if you need anything, just scream. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha! We do hope you enjoy your stay here. Please feel free to drop in again.”
The bellhop slowly and smoothly reversed out of the car with a quiet maniacal chuckle, still smiling fiendishly as the doors closed in front of him— preventing any escape. The elevator lurched up and stopped, opening in the Twilight Zone and then closing again. Once more the elevator lurched upward and stopped abruptly. This time when the doors opened, the car moved forward— completely leaving the elevator shaft!
Lani was always both amazed and horrified at this feat of engineering, no matter how many times she experienced it. It ripped any semblance of safety away and threw it right out the window! The elevator seemed to thumb its nose at the laws of physics as it twisted and crawled forward through the dark hallway.
After the eerie ride snaked through the dark, the elevator car reached the familiar point on the thirteenth story, where the doors open to the outside world for you to see just how high you are— right before they drop you, repeatedly. Lani listened carefully to the clanking sound of the ride shifting into place. She clamped her hands onto Raoul’s and Justin’s arms and held her breath as she waited for what was coming.
Less than a second later the ride plunged them into the darkness below. Rod Serling’s voice echoed through the elevator car as it finally made its way toward the exit of the Tower of Terror.
“A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning— something you won't find in any guidebook. The next time you check in to a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling… or you may find yourself a permanent resident… of The Twilight Zone.”
The dramatic ending notes of the Twilight Zone music finished. The lights came back up and the doors opened— revealing three empty seats in the front row.
Aloha Means… What?
Chapter Nine
"Who was that on the phone, Kendra?” asked a tall boy with blonde hair and hazel eyes.
“Lani,” Kendra said, as she put her cell phone back into her fanny pack and pulled her long golden brown hair— which fell to the middle of her back— up into a high ponytail.
“Oh cool. They must be having a lot of fun, huh? I was just talking to Kara.”
“Really? I haven’t heard from her in ages. How is she?”
Kendra shaded her eyes from the blazing Hawaiian sun so that she could look up into Erik’s face as he replied.
“Oh, she’s good. She’s in France looking for her mom right now. She thinks she might have a new lead.”
“Cool! Who’d she go with?”
“She went alone. Wish she’d invited us…”
“What?! Are you stinkin’ kidding me, Erik?! Alone?! Is she nuts?! Hasn’t she seen Taken?! What an idiot!”
“What?”
“Oh, never mind. It’s an old movie I watched on VidAngel. Let’s just say that it didn’t end well for those girls to be traveling on t
heir own.”
Kendra shook her head in disbelief. She could understand why Kara would feel the need to go search for her mom. After all, Kara was an only child and so her parents were everything to her.
Although her father spoiled her, her mother was a self-absorbed model who had not taken to being a mother at all— mostly because she missed her glamorous single life. One day, when Kara was sixteen years old, her mother ran off with a French male model and was never heard from again.
But for a gorgeous, five-foot-nothing, twenty-two-year-old girl to go to Paris, alone, on a whim, to follow a handful of clues in hopes of finding her mother again?! Kendra had always known that Kara wasn’t exactly a Rhodes Scholar— but this was stupid, even for her.
“How’s Lani?” inquired Erik, trying to change the subject to stop Kendra’s rant.
“Oh she’s good— probably worn out though. Justin is dragging her and Raoul around like a maniac. They’re on the Tower of Terror right now for the fifth time! Crazy!”
“That sounds awesome! I wish I was there…”
“Well I am much more interested in being here. The Polynesian Cultural Center is awesome! I have always loved learning about other cultures and this place really brings the islands to life! If we were at Disney World, all we would be doing is going on rides— but here, we are learning about the way people actually live and about their heritage.”
“Epcot teaches about other cultures and stuff…”
“Shut up, Erik! I don’t want to hear any more about stupid Florida! We’re in Hawai‘i! Besides that, you can really feel the Spirit of Aloha that they keep talking about. They might think they are in a magical kingdom but the Islands of the Pacific are a real magical place. Oh look! They have a canoe ride!”
“I want to go on a canoe!”
“Let’s go find out where to get on!”
“You guys go ahead, I need to run to the men’s room,” Kendra’s brother Jonn announced suddenly.
It was quite like Jonn to ignore a full conversation and then eventually pipe in with something completely off-topic. Kendra and Erik had not noticed his eyes rolling intermittently throughout their current conversation, as he took in the beautiful sights around them in the park.
“NOW?”
“I’ll catch up with you guys. I’m sure I can find you. We have phones, you know— it’s not that hard,” he sassed, waving his phone in the air as he walked away and rolled his eyes at his sister again.
“Fine Jonn-Jonn! But you’re gonna miss out! Sheesh that boy! And that’s my favorite brother!”
Kendra watched as her little brother ran off in search of a restroom. His normally-tan skin was even darker, due to the few days they had already been in Hawai‘i.
Kendra felt a little jealous of his tan. Their mother was Caucasian, and their father was Filipino, which had given all of her seven brothers a nice blended caramel brown skin color, making her the only fair-skinned child in the family.
She knew she had been adopted after her first three siblings had turned out to be boys. But despite the fact that they treated her as if she had been born into the family, the inability to blend in with her brothers always made her feel a little left out.
As Jonn disappeared from sight, Kendra turned back to Erik.
“You realize you look ridiculous in that aloha shirt, right?”
“Hey!” Erik pulled the shirt out in front of him a little so he could look at it. A really bright mostly-red, yellow, and orange sunset was the background for the tikis, pineapples, flowers, and palm trees. The plainness of his simple khaki cargo shorts, his large grey backpack, and his black back-strapped sandals gave any onlooker a welcome reprieve for their eyes.
“You might as well scream you’re a tourist. It’s so loud.”
“Says the girl wearing a purple T-shirt that says ‘Hawaii’ in pink rhinestones! Not to mention sneakers and long jeans in the middle of July! Have you seen even one local wearing regular shoes or long pants? No. And a fanny pack?! Seriously? The nineties called— they want it back.”
Kendra laughed a little. “Touché.”
“Can we get back to finding the canoe?”
“I don’t know. You’ve insulted my fanny pack and that’s where I’m keeping the map of this park.”
Erik rolled his eyes and walked about ten feet away from her. He pointed at a big sign that had a blown-up map of the park and gestured dramatically at the little “You are here” marker.
“Oh yeah? Well you’re lucky this air is holding me back!”
Kendra pretended to struggle as if an invisible person were holding her back from a fight. Erik laughed and, after a few seconds, so did she. She joined him by the map and they studied it together.
“Looks like we just need to go to the beginning of the little river thingy over by the IMAX Theater.”
“River thingy?”
“Don’t start, Kendra.”
“Okay, okay. But they call it a lagoon.”
“You’re going to have a hard time finding a husband, girl.”
“What ‘cuz women aren’t supposed to correct guys even when they’re dead wrong? Sexist much?!”
“I’d say the same thing to a guy if he was bugging me as much as you are. Welcome to equality. Hashtag feminism.”
“Whatever. It’s not like anyone’s ever going to marry you— so I guess I should be nice to you out of pity.”
“I think we should stop before we actually get in a fight.”
“You’re just scared because you know I’d beat you up.”
“Duh! You’re a girl so I wouldn’t hit you back. And you can call that sexist all you want.”
“I would never call that sexist. Real men don’t hit women.”
“True that. So, friends again now?”
“For now,” she said with a wink and a smile.
Erik laughed and the two of them set off together for the canoes.
Meanwhile, in the Forest of Kar, Jharate awoke to the sound of birds chirping happily in the trees. It was a new day and the forest was slowly coming to life. The light had barely appeared in its blue-greenish hue, and his eyes had to adjust to be able to see.
No one else in the camp of the nearly three-dozen people had risen yet. He scanned the area and noticed his cousin, Arante, sitting with her back against a tree— asleep at her post. It had been her turn to watch the camp. It was very unlike her to make such a mistake. However, the last few days had been exceptionally trying and Jharate knew she was exhausted.
So— although he would normally have been quite angry for this offense— at the moment, he was simply glad that she was there. Arante had been blessed with the great beauty for which the Inihma women were known. The strong family resemblance made Jharate feel somewhat less alone.
With her rich dark-caramel-colored skin, her brown eyes that were so dark they were almost black, and her perfect ebony ringlets that fell just below her shoulder blades when she let her hair down— she was the mirror image of her mother, Jharate’s father’s twin sister. Currently, Arante’s hair was in a neat ponytail with the ringlets cascading around her neck and shoulders.
Jharate mused over his cousin’s unique sense of style. Arante was always dressed ready for battle. However, she did so with a decidedly feminine flair— to the point of sometimes being impractical, to his thinking.
The sleeves of her white cotton shirt flowed gracefully to her wrists in a pirate style. She wore a black leather corset, over the white blouse, with lacing in the center of the front and the back. Black formfitting pants showed underneath a black knee-length skirt, which consisted of many one-inch-wide leather strips.
Each strip came to a point at the bottom where a gold diamond-shaped stud served as a weight to make them hang properly. The skirt moved as she did. Long, high-heeled, black leather boots came up to her knees and completed her ensemble.
A tooled black leather sheath was attached to her upper leg and held her jewel-encrusted-golden-handled dagger, which was
usually concealed by her skirt. At the moment, however, the dagger was partially visible as some of the leather strips had fallen to the side when she sat down. Her matching leather quiver was still on her back with the strap over her shoulder. Her bow was in hand, ready for trouble— had she been awake.
Jharate decided not to wake her. There was no point now. He was awake and would not sleep again. He would watch the camp.
Jharate moved slowly, packing up his things so quietly that one would never know he was there. He rolled up his makeshift bed that he had used for the night and packed his leather-bound journal back inside the bag where his few other cherished belongings were.
The only clothes Jharate had now were on his back. A simple V-necked, short-sleeved, beige linen shirt was partially visible under a short-sleeved dark brown leather vest, which was open in the front.
The thick leather that made up his vest protected a few inches of his shoulders and covered the very short shirtsleeves entirely. His arms were left free, as he preferred to keep his arms unencumbered by armor— or even by long sleeves— during battle.
Instead he wore leather wrist guards that reached from his wrists almost to his elbows. The vest also covered most of the matching leather belt, which held his scabbard. His brown pants covered all but the toes of his dark brown leather boots. Although his outfit was monochromatic and quite cohesive, each item varied slightly in shade and texture.
Images of the hectic moments that had led him here flashed through Jharate’s mind. The sounds of the battle lines retreating toward the castle and the screams of men dying as they sacrificed themselves to give others a chance to get away were burned into his memory.
The blurring of the hallways as he ran with Arante and the others at his father’s command felt as dizzying in the reliving of it as it had the first time. He remembered the feeling of trying to race an hourglass that he could not see— hoping that they would escape before the baleful sands ran out— as he hurriedly organized and coordinated his people to ensure they had all the essential supplies necessary for their evacuation and survival, including a large amount of gold and jewels.