disobey authority on occasion.”
He hesitated.
“ You can trust me.”
“ I pitched the dive to D.C. and given the limited success of the Navy dive in Oahu, they passed on it. Didn't want to hear any objections from me either. Said in effect that your time and your life-and mine, they were kind enough to add-were more valuable than to go wasting either on what was termed an unlikely prospect in a risky environ.”
“ Sounds like Zanek's term for a wild-goose chase.”
“ Zanek and a team of think-tankers in D.C. that don't know shit about what we're faced with here. I mean if we don't nail this butchering-wacko-sonofabitch six ways to Sunday, if we don't have him on every count, and he gets some deal cut… well, we'll be facing some kind of race riot over in Honolulu.”
“ Something new for the tourists,” she said.
“ This isn't a laughing matter, Jess.”
“ I realize that. Come on, loosen up. We're here.”
“ Yeah, we're here, but I left out the fact Zanek kinda… well, he…”
“ Out with it, Jim.”
“ He ordered you back…”
She'd been returning from the ocean edge when this news stopped her in her tracks.
“ Are you saying… didn't you think… what were you thinking, Jim?”
“ I wanted this time with you.”
She considered this. “Well, Zanek's got a hell of a nerve ordering me back when I didn't get half my leave. Christ, the more I think about it, the hotter I get.”
“ Something about a Green River-type bizarre killing spree in the Northwest.”
“ Northwest, huh?”
“ Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.”
“ There're other people he can call in, you know.”
“ Said it was right for you.”
“ Right for me. Some rep, I've got, huh, Jim?” She sat alongside him once more, sighing heavily. The meal and the campfire reminded her of hundreds of excursions she might've gone on if she'd found a man like Parry before, a man secure enough to ask her.
Here the palms and fragrance of the exotic jungle surrounded them on all sides save the sea, acting as its own aphrodisiac in delightful addition. On one side of them lay the dense gray shadow of an ohia forest where the ieie vines with their big, sweet almond-colored flowers were in full bloom. From her reading of Hawaiian folklore, she recalled that the ieie plant was offered to Laka, goddess of dance.
Staring out at the flaming, pink and salmon-colored flowers of the forest, Jessica once again marveled at the interplay of what seemed a purely Hawaiian phenomena, light even in darkness, created of color. All Hawaiian life and culture seemed perched on a balance beam between childlike ebullience, innocence and warmth on the one side, and lethargy, cynicism and a stoic, dark sorrow like the carved wooden images of the island gods on the other. Not unlike the world at large, she thought. The lava rock thrown up about the cliffs here looked like the jagged edges of flames in silhouette. In another direction her eyes took in the source of the winds hurtling down from the world's largest crater, sweeping a fierce course along the ancient path of the lava that'd created the beach. Parry, watching her, now stared at the broad face of the ascending mountain at their backs. “Makaniloa,” he said.
“ What's 'at?” she asked.
“ The long wind, it's called. Fitting.”
“ Here,” she said, lifting the final bit of food left in the bottom of the skillet to Jim, “finish this off.”
“ Don't be too angry with me, Jess.”
“ Some cook, huh?” she teased, easing his concern. “That's something Zanek and the agency doesn't know about me. Hell, whata they care if we're human, huh, Jim?”
“ You kidding? Their first concern is for our best health. Really. And our pensions and our old age.”
She laughed in response. “I don't know what it is, but the outdoors makes me more alive, makes my senses come fully awake and my taste buds, wow.”
While she had gotten busy with the prepared can foods, Jim had been cooking something that looked a bit like an exotic potato. He reached over with a skewered piece of the island delicacy as he called it and said, 'Try a piece.”
“ What is it?”
'Taro.”
“ It looks like a gray boiled potato.”
“ Call it what you like, it's taro.”
She took the offering, rolled it about her mouth and chewed. “Hmmmm, interesting… different.”
“ The Irish had the potato, the Hawaiians have the taro plant. If we had the time and wherewithal, we'd boil it up, ground it into a mash, and you could eat it as poi, or simply mash-fried, a real treat.”
“ It's good just as it is, really, Jim.”
He then placed his hand at the back of her head and neck and gently pulled her toward him. He kissed her firmly before letting go. “How's 'at taste?”
“ Hey, you kidding? Everything and anything-I mean anything-tastes better in the wilds.”
“ Including me?”
“ Especially you.”
They laughed together.
“ To hell with Zanek,” he muttered.
“ You may regret all this in the morning when your Hawaiian sun is beating down on your career. Parry.” They sat curled in one another's arms for a time, silent and thoughtful until Jessica broke the stillness between them. “Once my father and I lost our catch in a torrential downpour.”
“ Lost your catch?”
“ Twenty pounds of catfish figuring low. Anyway, we raced off, leaving the fish on the fresh line, tethered in the water to a root on the bank.”
“ You didn't see the storm coming?” He almost laughed, picturing the torrent.
“ It just exploded over us. We were in another world. Anyway, Dad thought I'd retrieved the goddamn fish- our dinner-and I thought he had. We were in the middle of nowhere, Michigan woods, and we stumbled onto an old abandoned cabin, so we took advantage. The place was being used as an out-barn by some farmer, and it was pretty well stuffed with haystacks for his livestock. We slept on the haystacks and didn't get much sleep, let me tell you. Hay's not so soft when it's bundled and compacted; every dry stem stabbed me in the rear and back. Between us, we found two shriveled, raw potatoes. We started a fire in the fireplace and put the potatoes on the coals. It's a wonder the place didn't go up in flames.”
“ Best potatoes you ever ate, right?”
“ I never forgot 'em.”
“ Maybe it was more than just the potatoes,” he suggested.
“ What?”
“ The company wasn't too shabby either?”
“ Yeah, that too, of course. Hell, we talked half the night.”
“ You miss him a lot, don't you?”
“ Every day…”
“ When you go back to D.C., Jess,” Parry began.
“ No, let's not talk about that… not tonight.”
He took a deep breath, nodded and finished his food. “This is great.”
“ Go ahead and say it,” she challenged.
“ Say what?”
“ It doesn't get any better than this. Go on!”
She stared off into the immense sea, the slapping sides of the tent competing admirably with the surf.
“ Feels like we're the only two people on the planet, tonight,” she continued.
