I walked in. He dipped the old lady, then expertly swung her into a chair and plopped the old-fashioned hair-dryer down over her head. He tripped lightly across the salon floor and gave me a big hug. “I’m so glad you came in! I’ve been dying to see what I could do with your hair since you came to see me in the hospital.”
He ushered me to a chair in front of a basin at the back of the salon, talking the whole time. “Now wasn’t that a dismal place,” he said. “I mean, really, who decorates those places? They should be shot! I was so eager to get out of there.”
“Maybe that’s why they decorate them that way,” I said, as he swirled a plastic cape around my shoulders. “So you’ll want to get well and leave quickly.”
“Lean back,” he commanded. He washed my hair quickly and expertly, leaving it smelling faintly of coconut and strawberries, and then led me to his chair, in the front window of the salon. “Now I will work my magic,” he said. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “When I’m finished with you, the boys will fall all over you!”
“Just one boy in particular,” I said, thinking of Wayne Gallagher.
“Oh, Kimo has a boyfriend,” he said as he started to cut. “Dish, baby. Tell Uncle Tico all about him.”
“Not a boyfriend, a suspect. Although he is cute, even though I know he’s bad all the way through.”
“Oh, they’re the worst,” he said. “My weakness. I love a bad boy.” In the mirror I saw him shake his head. “Except eventually they end up being bad to you. But while it works, it can be so wonderful!”
We went on to talk about Tatiana and Haoa and their children. “They’re angels,” Tico said. “Every last one of them. Angels from heaven. They all take after Tatiana, you know that.”
“I thought you weren’t mad at my brother anymore.”
“Oh, I forgave him. Do you know, yesterday he came to my house and planted a whole row of hibiscus bushes, just for nothing? I tried to thank him and all he said was, ‘You needed a hedge out front to shelter the yard.’ I mean, do you believe it? He just can’t say he’s sorry, but he means it.”
“Tell me about it. What he did to you last week, he did to me for at least ten years, until I got big enough to fight back. He and Lui would just whale on me whenever they thought they could get away with it. And even when our parents caught them, red-handed, they didn’t care. They’d take their punishment, and start right in on me again.”
“Poor baby.”
“Sometimes I don’t understand why I love them so much.”
“Your family will always be with you,” Tico said. “When you have no one else to turn to, you can always go to them.”
I nodded, and he pulled my head back up straight. “I saw that this week, for sure.”
He worked for a while longer, then styled and combed and moussed and by the time he was done even I was surprised at how handsome I was. I’d never been that vain about my looks-I figured it’s all genetics. I was lucky to get the best features my Irish, Hawaiian and Japanese ancestors had, and to have them put together in a way that people found attractive. I kept up my body and I stood up straight, and I didn’t worry about the rest. But what Tico had done had pulled something out of me I’d never thought I had.
“If I were twenty years younger,” Tico said. “You’d have to beat me off with a stick.”
“I might still have to. You’re not ready for Social Security yet.”
Tico laughed. “The man I see is fifty-one. Two years younger than I am. On Saturday nights we go out to the clubs to watch, not to dance. By midnight we’re yawning and we go home and go to bed.” He grinned. “Though not right to sleep.”
I tried to pay for the haircut but he wouldn’t let me. “Lock up a bad guy for me,” he said. “Then I’ll consider us even.”
From Tico’s I drove up to my parents’ house, feeling stronger and readier for action than I had in weeks. When my mother saw my truck pull up in the driveway behind Uncle Chin’s Cadillac, she came out to greet me. “Ai ya!” she said. “My handsome son! You got a new haircut.”
“Yeah, looks good,” I said, leaning down to kiss her.
“You make me feel like such a frumpy old lady. My handsome husband, my beautiful sons, and me.”
“You’ll always be the most beautiful woman in the world to me.” I nodded toward my father, who stood in the doorway. “And I know someone else who thinks so.”
She blushed. “You boys. How did I raise such boys as you? Come on inside, lunch is almost ready.”
My father led me back to the porch, where Uncle Chin and Aunt Mei-Mei sat drinking iced tea, and we made small talk while my mother put the finishing touches on plate lunches, the kind of food her mother had prepared for her father as he worked in the fields. Tender, spicy teriyaki steak and two scoops of rice, and fruit salad with fresh pineapple, mango, papaya and melon.
At the table we talked lightly, about the project my father was bidding on, a Chinese wedding the Chins had attended the night before, my mother’s orchids. “And tonight all my grandchildren come for barbecue,” my mother said proudly. “Ai ya, all afternoon I have to cook. Each one likes something different, and each one wants his favorite. Tutu Lokelani, why you no make those sweet potatoes I like? You don’t love me anymore? Tutu Lokelani, you no make mango bread for me? Your mango bread so ono.” She shook her head. “It’s easier to do the cooking than listen to them complain!”
Uncle Chin and Aunt Mei-Mei nodded in agreement, and I felt sad for them that they had no children of their own, no grandchildren, and all they could have now would be Derek Pang, who would certainly not bring little children of his own into the world. Aunt Mei-Mei helped my mother clear the table, and then they retreated into the kitchen to clean up and cook for dinner.
“Your father tells me you met with my grandson,” Uncle Chin said, sitting back in his chair.
I nodded. “I’m sorry to have to say he’s not a very nice person. Not really a proper grandson for such a kind grandfather as you.”
Uncle Chin smiled. “Many people Chinatown tell you I not so nice, either,” he said. “Say apple not fall far from tree.”
I said, “You know his name is Derek, and he’s twenty-five years old. He and his,” here I hesitated, not sure what term to use, “partner are running the Rod and Reel Club now. I told him about you, and he remembered meeting you, but his father never told him your relationship. He said he’s willing to meet with you.”
Uncle Chin smiled, and I could see the relief in his face. Derek Pang didn’t deserve him as a grandfather. But then again, Derek hadn’t gotten much fathering from Tommy, and maybe Uncle Chin might be a good influence on him. And, I had to admit, Uncle Chin was probably a much worse criminal than I knew, and maybe their joint malfeasance would be a place of intersection for them. Derek might end up with a record longer than his father’s or his grandfather’s.
I passed on Derek’s phone number. “Too soon I call him tonight?” Uncle Chin asked. “Give him more time think, maybe?”
The wheels clicked in my brain. Putting Uncle Chin and Derek together tonight would leave Wayne free to meet me at the Boardwalk. “Tonight would be good,” I said.
“Everybody’s busy tonight,” my father said. “You, and Lui, and Haoa are together tonight, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Liliha and Tatiana are coming here with their kids tonight because Haoa and Lui are having a boy’s night out. It must involve you, too.”
I didn’t say anything. “I want to come with you,” my father said. “I know you’re all up to something. They’re going to help you get your job back, aren’t they?”
The last thing I wanted was my father in Haoa’s van listening to me and Wayne making out as I tried to get him to confess. “Not at all. We’re going out for a few drinks, that’s all. Just to make things better between us.”
“I could come too. Make sure you’d don’t end up in jail again.”
“You have to be here, ready to bail us out.” I paused. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep them in line. You stay here with your grandchildren. Imagine how they would complain if Tutu Al weren’t here.”
He wasn’t happy, but I had no intention of telling him what we were up to, and I hoped my brothers had as much sense. It was almost three by then, so I begged off and drove back down to Waikiki, where I went through my wardrobe looking for something to wear. I was no fool; I knew what looked good on me. Pale colors like pink, light blue and yellow went well with my coloring. I had a narrow waist and broad shoulders, so I liked to wear tightly fitted shirts that showed off my physique. But nothing I took out of the closet seemed to work. Everything was too baggy, or too faded, or just didn’t feel right. My wardrobe needed a major makeover.
