Heather nodded and Mike took the diamond in his hand, staring at it, turning it over. He frowned and shook his head, then reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on. “This is so unusual. I can’t see a single flaw inside the stone. I’d say it was real, if I didn’t know better.”
“It was a gift to Michelle,” Heather said, delighted that wearing the glasses, Mike suddenly seemed to turn into a sexy Clark Kent as he seriously studied the stone. “Even these fabulous fakes are quite valuable,” she added.
She tried not to react to the strange searing pain, like a cold ice pick had jabbed her in her chest, as Mike let go of the gem and it fell back against her dress. It was the same exact place where she’d been hit by lightning.
Mike was holding the car door open, so Heather took a deep breath and got in. The pain throbbed for another moment, and then passed. She hoped it wasn’t the early warning of an oncoming heart attack, but reasoned it was probably just a gas attack instead, from the Mahi-Mahi sandwich she’d had for lunch.
Mike loped around his small red BMW convertible and got in, “We have to go a little ways, but we’ll get there on time. The benefit is being held at the Manoa Grand Ballroom at the Japanese Cultural Center. They hope to get lots of donors for Queens Medical Center.”
It was nearing twilight as Mike drove down Ala Moana. Mike turned to look at Heather, “Do you mind having the top down, it’s a little windy.”
“No, I love it. My hair’s straight as a stick—it doesn’t mess up. I never get tired of the ocean view and feeling the trade winds.”
Mike smiled at her. “Me too.”
“The air in Hawaii is different, softer and heavier; kind of dense, like it has its own structure. The wind always has special heavenly warmth, and the smell is wonderful, like a combination of salty ocean and sweet wet flowers. But you were born here, probably take it all for granted.”
“I guess I did,” Mike said. “Then I went to college at the University of Oklahoma, to study meteorology, and also because they have these huge super-awesome tornadoes.” He smiled, “I had my first weatherman job at a small TV station there, and got my fill of tornadoes when I went out chasing a big dangerous one in a truck with some crazy storm hunters. Decided then and there, if I lived through that experience, I was going home.”
“Your whole family lives here?”
Mike nodded. “I got something for you that’s pure Hawaiian, but then I saw that beautiful necklace from your friend...”
Heather smiled. “Tell me.”
“Look in the back seat.”
Heather turned and looked. The most exquisite lei she had ever seen was displayed in a large square box on the back seat. She recognized baby Orchids, Ginger Flowers, Plumeria and Tuberroses in pastel shades of pink, lavender and white, interspersed with tiny delicate green leaves.
“I left the top down because I knew you’d be able to smell it the moment you got in the car,” Mike said.
Heather unbuckled her seatbelt, got on her knees and leaned over the seat. “It’s just beautiful. I want to wear it. It’s so delicate I’m almost afraid to touch it.”
Mike steered the car to the shoulder of the road and stopped the car. “Go ahead. Try it on.”
Heather looked at him. He seemed delighted she was so happy with the gift, so she gently picked up the lei and placed it over her head, pulling her hair through. “Umm. Smells lovely,” Heather said.
“My Auntie Mai made it,” Mike said. “I described this tiny, delicate woman with blond hair. So she picked baby flower buds and wove the strands together so it would lie flat.”
“Thank you. Your aunt is a gifted artist. Is your whole family Hawaiian?”
Mike started the car and entered the flow. “Interesting story about that. My great, great grandfather was one of the first Protestant bible-thumpers from England who came to Hawaii to convert the heathens. It was a hard, arduous, long sea voyage, and on the trip his wife died. So there he was in Hawaii for several years, lonely, probably horny, with all the beautiful Polynesian women around. He astonished everyone and became a virtual outcast when he married a gorgeous native woman, who was part of the royal family, and kin to King Kamehameha. So my family is half haole and half Hawaiian.”
Heather knew haole meant Caucasian. She smiled at Mike. “Cool—I’m sitting here with Hawaiian royalty. Being pure haole myself, I certainly acquired the guilt. The Europeans who came to Hawaii wiped out about half the native population, which lacked immunity to smallpox, measles and influenza. After that came the enormous commercialization for profit in these beautiful islands.”
“All true,” Mike said. “I don’t share my great, grandfather’s religious beliefs. That’s an understanding way above my pay level. But perhaps there will be retribution. The Hawaiians have all kinds of vengeful Gods.”
Heather grinned. “Tell me.”
“Let’s see, there’s Haikili for thunder, Hina the goddess of the moon, Kaho’ali’i for the underworld, Kei for war, Peli for wind, lightning, and volcanoes, and Kane is the highest. You’ve heard of the ‘Wrath of Kane,’ of course.”
Each time Mike named one of the Hawaiian deities from mythology, Heather felt like an ice pick stabbed her in the chest. It was the exact place where lightning had struck her; the place where the diamond was lying against her chest. The last time she felt the sharp intense pain she couldn’t help letting out a small shrill shriek.
***
“Enough of this sitting around,” Michelle murmured to Lucifer as she got up, left the balcony and went to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door and peered inside. Since she had been on vacation it was almost empty. A few stale eggs, a few limp celery stalks. She needed to do some
