Big Island Blues

by Terry Ambrose

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Alexander stiffen. I could see that he wasn’t about to let some absentee dad show up after twenty years and start pushing people around. It was time for an intervention. “The only way you can protect her is if you know where she’s staying. That means she’s out on that ranch with you. Take us to her and we’ll let her decide what to do next.”

  “Think you’re pretty smart, huh? Where I live, I can see you coming from a half mile away. You’ll never make it the last 500 yards.” Shaw left without another word.

  Alexander’s eyes were cold as he glared after Shaw. I stammered, “We’ve . . . we’ve got to follow him.”

  We were on our way to the door when Carla rushed out. “What did you say to set him off like that?”

  “We put him on the spot about knowing where Andi is. Excuse me, we have to catch up.” I tried to sidestep her, but she blocked my way.

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Her lips curled up in a slight smile. “When Shaw makes up his mind, there’s not much you can do to change it.”

  Through one of the windows, I saw a white pickup truck’s spinning wheels spew dust. “How do we get to the ranch?”

  She cocked her head to one side. “Back into town. Five miles out on the Mamalahoa Highway. The Bar Double S entrance is on the right.”

  Alexander and I said our thanks and went to the front door. We hurried down the steps, but stopped at the driveway. “What the hell?” I tilted my head to the right. “Why’s the car got its ass end up in the air?”

  “I’m gonna mess with him real bad if he did any damage.” Alexander rushed forward and inspected the front end. “Son-of-a-bitch let the air out of both front tires. We gonna need a tow truck with a compressor.”

  “Maybe Carla has one,” I said. “How did he have time to do this? We weren’t that far behind him.” I glanced over my shoulder to see Carla standing on the lanai, smiling. I marched over to her. “You knew about this!”

  “Tow truck will be here within the hour,” she said. “I had no idea what Shaw was going to do, but he did say he would be leaving and you wouldn’t. What I do know is my chicken will burn if I don’t get back to it. Don’t worry, it’s on the house.” With that, she turned away and left us standing at the foot of the lanai.

  We’d been outmaneuvered by the cowboy. In a small town like this, our options were limited, so we reluctantly waited for the tow truck. Carla had dinner ready before the truck arrived, so we sat out on the side lanai for a casual meal of pupus, the island equivalent of hors d’oeurvres. There were bite-sized pieces of grilled chicken, steak, and vegetables along with two types of cheese. She also brought out a large bowl of sticky rice.

  Alexander still fumed over being stuck here, but I decided it would be a good time to ask a few more questions. “Carla, aren’t you concerned for your safety? You’re here alone with two strangers and your boyfriend bailed on you. Doesn’t that worry you?”

  She stabbed a piece of cheddar with her fork. “I’m fine.” Her eyes closed in ecstasy as the cheese met her tongue. “I could live on this stuff. Let me explain something. If I got worried every time I was alone with strangers, I’d have had a heart attack or been out of business years ago.” She leaned forward and eyed the plate.

  “I’ll bet you get all kinds,” I said.

  “I do—weird couples—even weirder singles. Try the Swiss,” she said. “It’s to die for.” She snickered. “To answer your question, Mr. McKenna, every once in a while, I get a guest who just doesn’t seem to be normal. There was a pretty strange one recently.” She paused for a moment, her face clouding over with some recent memory. It looked as though she might say something, then changed her mind. “He did give me some concerns. Anyway, he was only here a few days.”

  I aimed the tines of my fork at the large chunk of cheddar she’d been eyeing. “Go for it. You really didn’t know what Shaw was up to?”

  “Alexander?” Carla raised an expectant eyebrow as she held the plate out.

  “I’m good with the chicken and beef,” he murmured.

  In a flash of movement, she skewered the cheese with her fork and popped it into her mouth. She moaned her satisfaction, then placed her fork back on the table. “Shaw won’t admit it, but he’s been on edge ever since the shooting. He called this afternoon from a neighbor’s place. I told him you two were here, and he said he was going to take Andi somewhere more secure.”

  I kept expecting to see some sort of clue on her face, but there was nothing other than a mask of contentment. After a few moments, I gave up trying to read her expression. “Doesn’t he understand we’re here to help? To bring Andi home.” Five miles out. Entrance on the right. Could we? Should we?

  Carla fingered her engagement ring, staring off into space before answering. “Shaw does what he wants to do. I accept that. If I couldn’t, I’d never have agreed to marry him.” She paused for a moment, then said, “Everybody comes with baggage.”

  I nodded my agreement. I’d certainly brought enough of my own to the islands.

  “You know,” she said, “I get why he wants to do this alone. But, something tells me you two are on the level. He’s told me he can’t trust anyone, and he’s kept me in the dark for my protection. What I can tell you is that he does trust one of the band members. I don’t know which one, though. Mr. McKenna, if you and Alexander want to find Shaw and Andi, I suggest you go back to the band and ask them. They may not tell you anything, but you never know.” She glanced toward the front of the inn, where the rumble of a large truck grew louder. “Tow truck’s here.”

  Alexander stood. “I’m gonna get this done.” He headed to the front of the house.

  I wanted to get moving, but had more questions—one in particular. “Would it do any good to bring in her mother?”

  Carla considered my question for a moment, but before she could reply, the phone rang. She listened to the caller, but didn’t say a word. “You won’t need to have Benni drive all the way up here.”

  I wouldn't let her get off that easily. “That phone call seemed to upset you.”

  She smiled weakly. “Mistakes. We’ve all made so many. I think Shaw realizes he’s made one, too.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “He’ll explain it when you get to the ranch house. All this talk about the curse must have spooked Andi. She’s run away. He intends to save her, but he needs your help in finding her first.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Alexander stormed into the room with all the fury of an angry bull. He tortured a damp towel in his hands while talking between gritted teeth. “Your boyfriend almost cost me fifty bucks. I wanna strangle him!”

  “Almost?” Carla’s eyebrows went up.

  “The tow truck driver is my Cousin Phil. He’s from Mom’s side of the family. Now I got me another relative I didn’t know about.” Alexander’s anger sounded as though it had turned to self-pity.

  “And that’s a bad thing?” I asked. Alexander was related to half of Oahu. What were a few more on other islands? I heard the tow truck still rumbling out front. Why hadn’t he left?

  Alexander glared at me. “Him and his family comin’ to Oahu in a couple of months.”

  I winced. “Got it. You’ve got a new tour for a nonpaying customer.”

  “Snorkel trip. Ten people. You know what that gonna cost me?”

  “Seems like it would have been cheaper to pay the tow bill,” I said.

  Carla, who sat off to one side, couldn’t hide her smile. “Sorry.” She giggled. “I hate it when relatives visit.”

  “Last thing I wanna do is start insulting some new cousins, McKenna.”

  I glanced at Carla. Her head bobbed up and down in agreement.

  “Right,” I said. “When it comes to ohana, I keep forgetting the rule: money bad, favors good. Glad I’m not in your shoes.”

  “It’s not my shoes you gotta worry about.” Alexander was still tormenting the towel with his hands.

  I ha
d a sudden, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “Ten people, McKenna. I gonna need an extra bedroom.”

  “I hate relatives,” I grumbled. “Especially when they’re not mine.”

  Carla added, “They can be so needy.”

  “They’ve always got expectations.” And I didn’t?

  “You don’t got no relatives, McKenna.”

  “Yeah? Who’s going to be in my bedroom while I’m on the damn couch?” I’d have to give up my privacy for a weekend, but I wanted to pay for the tow truck even less. “Sure,” I said. “What are friends for?”

  Alexander slapped me on the back. “I knew you’d come through for me, brah. Now let’s go, Cousin Phil gonna drive us out to Shaw’s place. He says it kinda tricky finding it after dark.”

  “About that,” I said. “Shaw called here. He said Andi ran away and now he wants our help.”

  “Cousin Phil already told me. He gonna take us out there.”

  The five miles on Mamalahoa Highway was easy. Finding the gate, no sweat. The drive in on the rutted dirt road that twisted as though it had been built by an engineer with a bad case of the runs? Let’s just say whenever the road zigged, we bounced around the cab of Phil’s diesel monster like rag dolls in an oversized shipping crate with no padding. When it zagged, we got thrown the other direction.

  Shaw Hardy’s ranch house was, as Phil put it, hard to find. Indeed, Phil seriously understated how hard this place could be to find if you didn’t know your way. It was one of those “turn left when you see the brown dog” scenarios. The problem was, daylight was long gone and with darkness all around us, there were no brown dogs to be seen. With no city lights at all, we’d be lucky to see a cow, or Shaw if he changed his mind and decided to ambush us from the side of the road.

  Finally, we crested a rise in what might loosely be termed the front yard of a small house built on stilts and lit only by one outside bulb. Light emanated from one of the side windows, casting a beacon into the night. The sound of a strumming guitar, along with the strong odor of nearby cows, filled the night air as we stepped out of the truck. Overhead, millions of twinkling lights from the Milky Way sparkled against the black canvas covering the sky. Phil said, “Shaw don’t got much else to do out here, brah.”

  “Beats talking to cows,” I muttered.

  Phil peered at me. “What?”

  “I said, it’s a nice house.” But small, I thought. It looked to be no more than a few hundred square feet. Oddly enough, Phil seemed satisfied. I think the guy had spent too many hours listening to road and clanking engine noises.

  Alexander asked Phil, “He knows we’re comin’, yah? No?”

  “Sure, thing, brah. Like I said, he called me right before he called Carla.”

  “I thought he didn’t have a phone,” I said.

  All Phil said was, “He’s got neighbors.”

  I listened to the sounds of Shaw’s guitar serenading only the cows. The song was familiar, yet different. “He’s good. But, I can’t place the tune.”

  Phil’s boots crunched on the dirt as he approached. “You wouldn’t know it.”

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “You serious, brah? Shaw writes his own stuff.” Phil cocked his head to one side. “Wonder why he’s not playing the Martin. Tone on this one’s not as full. That song’s somethin’ he been workin’ on since he found out he had a daughter.”

  I was amazed that Phil, who spent his days driving around in a behemoth that clacked loud enough to make talking impossible, could recognize the tone of a specific guitar. Given Alexander’s experience with Phil, the last thing I wanted to do was risk becoming host to Cousin Phil’s musical needs while he and his family visited Oahu. “He wrote? Amazing. I guess that’s where Andi got her talent.”

  As we walked toward the house, Alexander said, “Her mom writes, too. I seen her workin’ on a new one the other day. She calling it ‘Come Back to Me.’”

  Phil knocked on the screen door, then yelled, “Shaw! You got company.”

  “It’s open.”

  The hospitality hostess, he wasn’t. I peered through the screen door into the living room. There were only a few pieces of furniture and bare walls, but this little house definitely had more square-footage than my apartment. Shaw had another advantage. His only neighbors had four legs, mine had two. Unfortunately, mine sometimes made mooing noises, too—usually on a Saturday night after a night of partying.

  Inside, Shaw sat at a dining table, a piece of paper before him, a guitar on his thigh. He had one hand over the strings, the other on the neck. “Sorry for the inconvenience, gentlemen. Guess I should have trusted you.”

  Alexander took a small step toward Shaw, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Let me.”

  He backed up and went to stand next to Cousin Phil. Shaw seemed unconcerned by our presence as he jotted something on the paper before him.

  “My bad,” he said. “When you’re writing, you’ve got to get the ideas on paper before they’re gone. Especially these days.” He pointed a finger at the side of his head.

  “No problem. Carla was the perfect hostess. But while you were playing games with us, your daughter was doing the same thing to you. How’s it feel, Shaw? One minute you’re stranding us, the next you have to invite us over to sweet-talk us into helping you.”

  “I’ve been on this ranch for close to twenty years. Now, I’m partners with the son of the man who hired me. We built it up over the years, but I was always invisible. I didn’t exist until I met Carla. That’s when my life started again. I was lonesome, angry, whatever else you want to call it. My closest friend was my horse. He was the only one I trusted. Now, I’d trust Carla with my life. She was the one who encouraged me to reconcile with Andi.”

  From directly behind me, Alexander barked, “How can you reconcile with someone you never met?”

  I spun around. He stood about a foot away. I wanted to scold the big guy for interrupting, but he’d nailed the issue. I turned back to Shaw, whose answer surprised me.

  “You’re right,” he said. “I never should have bailed out on Benni. I let fear take over and, for my first two years, never stayed in the same place more than a couple of nights in a row. When Carla and I met, everything started to make sense. I saw how much I regretted it all. Then, we decided to get married. That’s when we agreed it was high time I made up for past mistakes. I sent Benni a letter back in January asking her to let me meet Andi. She told me to go to hell.”

  “Can you blame her?” I asked.

  “Nope.” Shaw pursed his lips and shook his head. “I don’t blame her one bit. After a few months, though, I had to try again. I called last weekend—twice. It was Sunday morning when I talked to my daughter for the first time. It was stupid, but I just blurted it out.”

  I snickered. “What? That you were her long-lost dad? The one who ran out on her mother before the kid was born?” Before he even answered, I knew that was it.

  “That’s exactly what I did. To make things worse, I saw how stupid I’d been and hung up. I guess old habits never die.” He looked straight at me. “I ran away again.” Then, he turned his gaze to Alexander. “I owe your sister and my daughter more than that.”

  I turned to Alexander. “That’s why Andi left, not because of Blueslover.”

  It seemed like the perfect opportunity for Alexander to grab Shaw’s guitar and beat him over the head. This all could have been avoided. Alexander’s tone was sharp, but to his credit, not vicious. “I’ll be sure to tell her when we find her.”

  “No need,” Shaw said. “I’ll do it myself.”

  I stiffened, so did Alexander. Even the air felt heavy with tension. “Look,” I said, “that might not be the best thing.”

  The sounds of Phil’s tow truck engine cranking over drowned out my thoughts. “What’s he doing?” I demanded.

  Alexander peered out the front door. He spun around and marched up to Shaw. “You got him abandoning us out here?�
�

  “I wanted to make sure we had time to talk. I’ll give you both a ride when we’re done.”

  Everything was going the wrong direction. What else could happen? Shaw seemed unconcerned as he continued. Where was Andi? Why wasn’t he in a hurry?

  “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that my life of avoiding responsibility is over. I spent fifteen years hoping something would kill me. Then I met Carla. If I’m going to marry her, I have to clean up my mess. Everything from that old cursed Martin to letting my daughter see me for who I am. For the first time in my life I want to live, but I’m not afraid to die.”

  “Sounds like a song title,” I said.

  His eyes flicked to the yellow sheet of paper on the table. I recognized musical bars when I saw them. Beyond that, I was lost. Shaw said, “I’ve only had a couple of days with her. It’s been some of the best time in my life.”

  “If everything was so grand, why’d she leave?” I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic, but when the words came out that way, I wasn’t about to take them back.

  “How much did Carla tell you about the Martin?” Shaw shifted position in the chair, easily moving his fingers from one chord to another on the neck. Without him strumming, the sound was barely audible.

  “Same old, same old,” I said. “Seventy years ago, a guy got jilted and had an Indian medicine man put a curse on the world.”

  Shaw laughed. “Nice synopsis. Despite all that crap on the computer, I never believed it until someone killed a cow instead of me.”

  “She told us about it. That still doesn’t explain why Andi ran away.”

  “Did you do somethin’ to drive her away?” Alexander’s voice shook.

  I could tell he was nearing his breaking point yet again. He wanted to catch up to Andi and not stand around listening to Shaw’s life history. “Why’d she leave?” I asked.

  “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be talking to you two.” Shaw lifted the paper he’d been using to write down the song and slid a note in my direction.

  I recognized the large, loopy handwriting from the note in Benni’s freezer. A professional could analyze the writing and discern all sorts of personality traits from the patterns and angles, but I had no clue. I had to go with the words she’d used. “Dad, I’m not sure if I should call you that yet. I’m confused. I do know what I don’t want, and that’s to lose you after we’ve just connected. I’m going to meet Ho'okano. Andi.”