Bright cherry red to go with my suntan. I never really had a suntan before I came here. I’d like to buy some mangoes on my own. I don’t exactly have cabin fever, but I’m getting close to it. I’m starting to feel a bit like a prisoner. I know it was important for me to come here because I couldn’t have handled the media circus back in Atlanta. I could now, though. I’m sure of it.”
Sophie slid off her chair and sat cross-legged on the floor next to Sula. She stroked the big dog’s head as she continued to prattle on. “Look at all the progress I’ve made since coming here. I can swim like a fish now, and I’m what they call toned. I learned how to do the hula. Even Kiki isn’t laughing at me now. He said I’m just as good at it as all the cousins. I took that as a real compliment. And the leis I make are just as good as the ones the natives make. Of course, that’s my opinion. I think, and again, this is just my opinion, but I’ve become something of an expert on Hawaii. I’ve read everything there is to read about this beautiful place. I know all about the flora and fauna. I know about the traditions. I could probably give a lecture on Hawaii if anyone were interested enough to listen.
“What all that means, Sula, is this. I’m ready to take my place in the world. My feet are more than ready to step forward. I miss people. Being alone is okay for a while, but now it’s time to get on with life. I want to see Patty and Nick and Kala. I want to talk all this through one last time, so I can put it behind me.”
Sophie leaned back against the chair and felt her eyes start to close. Only there in that island paradise did she nap or doze off in the middle of the day. She’d never taken a nap in her whole life.
That was when the cell phone on the table rang. Sophie blinked, got up, and flipped it open. She heard Kala wishing her a good afternoon. Sophie smiled because Kala sounded upbeat, and there was a smile in her voice. She hoped it was good news. She listened. A long time later, her face wreathed in a wide grin, she managed to say, “Are you telling me right this moment, I can hang up the phone and walk to town and actually go into a store? Okayyyy. And I can make arrangements to fly back to Atlanta tomorrow if I want to? I can even call Patty and Nick and talk for hours or until the battery on the cell phone goes dead? I can do all those things if I want to? What does ten million look like?” Sophie laughed when Kala said it was just a blue slip of paper with numbers on it.
Sophie continued to listen as Kala brought her up to date. They talked for another fifteen minutes before Sophie closed the phone and placed it back on the charger. She was so excited, she thought she was going to explode. She danced around the lanai, then ran out to the beach, threw her hands high in the air, and shouted to the world that she was free and alive and could do what she wanted from this moment on. She thanked God, the heavens, the universe, then sat down on the sand and cried like a baby. Sula was there in an instant, trying to lick away her tears.
Sophie wrapped her arms around the big dog as she continued to cry into the thick fur of her neck. “I can’t leave you, Sula. What will I do without you? But would you be happy back in Atlanta?” Sula licked at Sophie’s tears, then barked. “Does that mean you want to go with me?” The big dog barked again. “Maybe the cousin who owns you will sell you to me. I’m rich now, Sula. I’d give it all up if they let me keep you. Oh my God, oh my God! What day is today?”
Quicker than lightning, Sophie ran into the house to the kitchen, where a calendar hung on the wall by the back door. “Please, please, please,” she said under her breath as her finger traced the days. What day was it? She didn’t know. One day was just like the day before here, and it was hard to keep track of the days even if she tried. And she hadn’t. She turned on the little television sitting on the counter. She clicked on the Fox network to see the time and date. She ran back to the calendar, her fingers marking off the days. “Yessssss!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes.” She bent over to kiss the calendar. “I am Tuesday’s child!” she continued to scream. When she was exhausted, Sophie walked back to the lanai and reached for her cell phone.
“Kiki, it’s Sophie. I have a question for you. And I need the answer today if possible. Kala just called me and said I can return to the mainland if I want to. I want to know if Sula’s owner, your cousin, will sell her to me. I’ll love her and take care of her like she was my own child. I’ll pay him anything, anything, Kiki, if he agrees. I don’t think I can leave without her. I know one thing, though. I’m coming back here, but I have to return home for a little while. You’ll call him now? Good, good, I’ll wait for your call.”
Sula hopped up on the swing that every lanai in Hawaii seemed to have. She looked at Sophie expectantly, like she knew what was going on. Ten minutes later the phone rang. Sophie sucked in her breath and then let it out. She thought Sula did the same thing.
“My cousin said okay, and he wants no money,” Kiki reported. “Just your promise to take care of his dog. His time on the mainland, he said, has been extended by three months, so it works out for all. He wanted me to ask you if you do move here, and he’s here, will you allow him to see Sula, perhaps take her for a few days at a time?”
“Good Lord, yes. Whenever he wants. Absolutely. Assure him, okay?”
Kiki laughed. “I already did. I knew that would be your answer. Sula is yours, Sophie.”
Sophie started to cry all over again. She broke the connection and hugged the dog so hard, Sula yelped.
What to do first? Shower, get dressed, go to town? Call the airlines and make a reservation? Sit there and continue to hug Sula? Call Patty and Nick?
Sophie stretched her neck to see the clock in the kitchen. It was just going on one o’clock. She could actually do it all in the next few hours. If she wanted to. Or she could sit with Sula and daydream the rest of the day away.
“Today is Tuesday, Sula! I told you all about Tuesdays when I first got here. I wonder if you understood me back then or even now.”
Sula tilted her head to the side and barked.
“Girl, you are mine now. M-I-N-E! And your previous owner has visiting privileges. It doesn’t get any better than that!” Sophie cried between her tears.
So many things to do. An hour ago she had nothing to do. Always do things in the order of importance, Sister Julie and the nuns had taught them. Sophie ticked off her small list as she mentally put everything in order. She smiled when she realized that Nick was at the top of her list, followed by Patty. Third on the list was walking into town, and last was making a reservation to go to the mainland.
Sophie positively itched to pick up the phone and press in the numbers Kala had given her. Her heart was beating so hard and fast she thought it would burst right out of her chest. It took her three tries before she was actually able to press the numbers that would connect her to Nick. She couldn’t believe her ears when the call went straight to voice mail. Should she leave a message or not? She broke the connection. “Well, that was silly,” she mumbled. She pressed the numbers again and this time left a short message. “Hello, Nick. This is Sophie. I’m sorry I missed you.” She broke the connection a second time.
Sophie flipped open the phone again and pressed in the numbers for Patty that Kala had given her, with the same result, the call going straight to voice mail. This time, though, she was prepared. “Patty, it’s me. Kala said it was okay to call. I’m sorry I missed you.”
Well, that left the third thing to do on her mental list, taking her first walk into town. In order to do that, she had to go upstairs to take a shower and wash her hair. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she fled to the steps. “Everything happens for a reason,” was something Sister Julie used to tell her. Followed up with, “Ours not to reason why.” So much for that little ditty, because she was questioning the why of everything of late, not just the missed calls to her best friends. At that moment, Sophie wondered why Kala hadn’t given her Jon’s phone number. Maybe he didn’t have cell service in the jungles of Peru. She made a mental note to see whether, if she bought him a ticket now that she was rich, he would want to come back for a reunion.
In the shower, as she lathered up, she thought about all the things Kala had told her about Ryan Spenser. Then she thought about all the things she’d told her about Audrey and Adam Star. She shook her head, globs of shampoo flying all over the shower stall.
As Sophie worked the lather in her hair, she thought about Audrey Star and the day she had finally realized why Audrey was so mean and spiteful. It was because she knew she was different from everyone else, mentally challenged. She couldn’t think ahead, couldn’t remember most of what was behind her, and could only deal with the moment. Sophie had tried once to broach the subject with Audrey’s doctor, but he’d held up his hand and told her point-blank that none of it was her concern and not to bring it up ever again. At the time, she had considered that part of patient-doctor confidentiality. And she had never mentioned it again, not even to Kala during the trial. She wondered now whether, if she had mentioned it to Kala, it would have made a difference at the outcome. Probably not, since she was the one on trial, not Audrey Star. Well, that was in the past, and she certainly couldn’t change it now.
