“It can’t all be man’s doing. There’s a different weather pattern here. The proof is that we’ve gone through three rain clouds in the last fifteen minutes, and I bet if we called Kainoa, he’d tell us it hasn’t rained a drop.”
“Would you want to live up here, if you could?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the view as we climbed the switchback that was Tantalus Road. We’d already been on it for fifteen minutes, which seemed interminable to someone with motion sickness.
“Oh, I don’t think so. I’m one of the hoi polloi who think the ultimate is to live next to water. Speaking of which, later today, are you up for a sail? I’d love to take you out on
“I thought you knew I don’t sail.” I could barely get the words out because this was a tough drive for me, up a narrow pitted street that zigzagged back and forth like a switchback train track.
“What I remember you saying is that you haven’t tried sailing,” Michael said mildly.
“Well, if I get motion sickness on planes, trains and in cars, I’m not likely to be much of a sailor.”
“You may surprise yourself. Hey, what’s the house number again?”
“Twenty-seven,” I said, reading from the directions I’d written down when talking to Josiah Pierce Jr. the day before. He said we’d notice it because of the roses.”
I could hardly believe the mountain road could wind any higher, but it did. On the last stretch to the top, we found the house. The sign was ancient and almost too small to see, but the rock wall surrounding the house was low, and I could see it clearly-a well-kept white stucco house with well-finished brown woodwork and a beautiful old green slate roof. The house looked like it had been built before 1920, but the condition was excellent, as were the grounds, which were beautifully landscaped, but this time with local flowers like hibiscus and ginger.
“Here we are,” I said, glad the car had stopped. I took a sip of water from the bottle and began to feel my stomach settle.
“Are you OK?” Michael looked at me with concern.
“I’m fine now the car’s stopped.” I took a few deep breaths and said, “All systems go. I hope I don’t put my foot in my mouth too badly…”
“I feel just the same,” Michael said. “If I start to screw up, just call me honey.”
“Got it,” I said. “The code word is honey.”
19
A DARK STONE path overgrown with moss led up to the teak front door, which opened before we reached the threshold. Standing at attention was a very old man with silver hair and a chestnut-brown complexion as weathered as that of the resort gardeners. But this man wore a crisply ironed white shirt tucked into cream linen trousers, and his thick head of silver hair was uncovered.
I was confused. Was this a butler? He seemed very well dressed. My unspoken question was answered when the man nodded at us and spoke in the same well-bred voice I’d heard on the telephone.
“So glad you didn’t have trouble finding me. The road up the mountain can be confusing, and there’s constant construction.”
Josiah Pierce was hapa-just like me. As I drew closer, I examined his face carefully; there was nothing Asian about his eyelids, or his nose. No, I decided, he looked more Hawaiian, with an echo of Caucasian ancestry.
“Mr. Pierce,” I said, smiling. “I’m Rei Shimura. And I enjoyed every minute of the drive.”
“You may call me JP, if you like. And who is your companion?”
“Yes, Michael came in yesterday with the Transpac race.” I didn’t have the gall to lie and call him my husband. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention him yesterday. He asked to come along, because he has fond memories of this part of Honolulu.”
“So you know Tantalus? Please come in.”
“I’ve never been up this high, sir, but I did know people farther down. I went to Punahou around the same time your nephew was there,” Michael said, holding out his hand. “My name is Michael Hendricks.”
“Hendricks, Hendricks.” JP was still for a moment, and then his eyes sharpened. “The Army brat!”
“Navy juniors, or so the parents like to call us,” Michael said wryly.
“There was bad blood between you and William, wasn’t there? I can remember my brother Lindsay wanted to sic the Chinese mafia on you after you broke his boy’s nose.”
I gasped, and Michael’s face flushed.
“He needed it, frankly; the boy actually stopped beating up his sister once he knew what it felt like to be beaten to a pulp. Anyway, William’s fine and healthy in Los Angeles, though he’s regrettably on his third divorce.”
“I’m sorry to hear about that, and I assure you my behavior’s improved since then. Mostly,” Michael added with a glance at me.
JP laughed. “If you two aren’t newlyweds, I’m not eighty-five years old. Come inside. Midori is just preparing our lunch, and I’ll have her set another place on the lanai.”
I was being charmed, I realized with a sinking feeling, as the old gentleman ushered us through a grand hall with a Carrera marble floor. Aged stucco walls were decorated with many dour portraits of old white men, groups of stiff-looking children, and a lovely young Hawaiian woman looking stifled by her high-necked Edwardian blouse. The woman looked familiar, and I suddenly wondered if I’d seen another picture of her in the Bishop Museum. Princess Something-with-an-E. I would have liked to linger to figure it out, but we were being steered out of the darkness to a sunny outdoor lanai overlooking the spectacular rose gardens and a view of Honolulu’s skyscrapers.
An Asian maid in a powder-blue uniform was adding a third place setting to an old teak table. It was already laid for lunch, with antique rose-patterned china and scrolled silver. Sliced mango and papaya were fanned across ice-packed silver bowls; there was also a salad of tomatoes and herbs, a basket of fragrant bread rolls, and a platter of sliced pork tenderloin. Pretty fancy, I thought, when I’d just called yesterday afternoon, and there had been no mention of any food.
Actually, I reflected, the genteel setting reminded me of the east coast. There hadn’t even been an indication that we should take off our shoes-in fact, JP wore soft beige leather loafers. Everything was different here, in Josiah Pierce Junior’s home; I half-expected to see the
The maid was sweeping the floor as we sat down, and I realized she was after some errant hibiscus blooms that had fallen off the trellises.
“This is really much more than I expected,” I said. “This lunch-it’s lovely, but we didn’t imagine you’d do so much for us.”
“I live by my own rules-or, I should say, the old Hawaiian rules of hospitality. When someone visits, you enjoy food together.” JP looked over the table at us. “And frankly, with the bad news about the fire, I’d rather put off my misery for a while and enjoy some unexpected company.”
“It’s nice for us, too,” Michael said.
“Well, when I heard your wife’s dulcet tones on the telephone, I was intrigued. Mainland accent, but a Japanese name, even after marriage. Tell me, what are your plans for the children’s surnames?”
I tried hard not to look at Michael, because this was a bit of back story we hadn’t dreamed would come up. I said, “No children yet, so I guess we haven’t had to deal with that challenge.”
“Don’t wait too long.”
“No, sir, I won’t,” Michael said, taking my hand.
“It likely isn’t a matter of you, but rather a matter of her. That’s usually how these things work.” JP’s eyes twinkled. “Though you can’t have scored any points in the fertility game wasting two weeks at sea for Transpac.”
“Do you sail yourself, Mr. Pierce?” Michael asked, after we had all finished laughing.
“Goodness, no. When I was young, I was too busy working on the plantation to have time to play at sea with a
