BOOK PREVIEW: Escape to Molokai
Chapter
1: Night
Maui, 1946
George lit
a candle on his bedside table and examined his thigh in the dim
flickering light. The burn was the size of a fried egg and felt like it was
still on fire. He frowned. Sometimes it felt like everything he did backfired.
Pulling a
torn shred of aloe from his pocket, he squeezed the tuberous leaf until its
juice dripped onto the burn. It stung and soothed it at the same time. One
thing for sure, he wouldn’t pretend to be a fire-dancer again anytime soon. He
didn’t like looking stupid, not even in front of his best friend, Jonathan.
He smiled.
Jonathan had looked pretty stupid tiptoeing across the neighbor’s yard for the
aloe. When Mr. Kim drove up, Jonathan had bolted like he was being chased by
zombies.
Still
grinning, George squeezed the leaf one last time and covered the burn with a
bandage he'd filched from his grandmother’s medicine cabinet. The last thing he
needed was for it to get infected. Then he’d have to tell his grandmother, and
he was already in enough trouble for one day.
Footsteps.
He blew out the candle, stripped off his shirt, and leaped into bed; sandy
shorts, dirty feet and all.
“You still
awake?” Tutu came
in carrying a kerosene lamp. She flipped the quilt back so she could sit on the
edge of the bed, bumping up against his burned leg.
He gulped
in a breath and forced a smile.
“You
okay?”
“I’m
fine.”
She pulled
a white envelope from her pocket. It had a clipped corner. “You look a little
tired. It’s just as well Jonathan went home. The two of you would have been up
all night.”
To change
the subject, he pointed to the envelope. “That from my parents?”
She nodded
and handed him the letter.
“Why does
he always cut off the corner of the envelopes?” he asked.
“I don’t
know.”
He tore it
open and read. It didn’t say much. Their garden was doing good. His father had
fixed a leak in their roof. It ended with they missed him.
His eyes
went to the framed picture of his parents on the wall. If it
weren't for the picture, he'd have forgotten what they looked like. Over one
corner hung a necklace with a carved bone turtle. It had been his father’s. Now
it was his. He never wore it, because he was afraid he might lose it.
“Tell me
again why we live here on Maui and they live on Molokai,” he said, even though
he knew the story.
Smile
lines appeared around her eyes. “Again?”
“Please?”
He liked hearing the story because while she told it, he could believe it. Believe
that he belonged and that his parents hadn’t dumped him like a piece of
unwanted trash on his grandparents’ doorstep. Believe they missed him. Believe
that it was the war’s fault his family was scattered between the islands.
She smiled. “Okay. Before you were born the whole
family lived on the Big Island. We had a huge
farm with chickens and…”
George
relaxed and for a while forgot about the throbbing pain on his thigh.
“. . .
Times got hard and in the end we were forced to move on. Kapuna found work here on Maui at the docks. The only work your father could find
was on Molokai, in the sugarcane.”
Maybe it
was the burn. Maybe it was something else, but he’d finally worked up the
courage to ask the question he’d never dared to ask. “Why didn’t he get a job
here? There are sugarcane fields on Maui.”
She paused
for a moment. Her eyes wouldn’t meet his.
“There
weren’t any jobs at the time,” she said and patted his leg.
George
winced as pain shot like lighting bolts from the burn. He grabbed her hand.
She
smiled. “You and your sister were born on Molokai and-”
“And now I
live here with you and Kapuna?” he finished for her.
She held
him in a tight hug. “Like the sweet scented blooms of a plumeria tree, you are
my blossom of joy.”
Even
though he'd never admit it to anyone, especially not to Jonathan, he liked
being the sweet scent of a flower to his grandmother, and he liked being held.
Tutu
tucked the quilt over his shoulders. “You sure are full of questions tonight.”
“It's just
that I can't remember them.”
Tutu
picked up the lamp and moved to the door.
“Why can’t
we visit them? Or they visit us?” he asked for what must have been the ten
thousandth time.
“You know
we can’t afford to travel.”
She blew
out the lamp. Shadows filled the room, streaked with silver moonlight. She
turned her back to him.
“What
about my sister and my other grandparents? Can we visit them?”
“No.” Tutu
paused. ”I’ve been meaning to tell you, Launi’s moved to Molokai to live with
your parents.”
George sat
up, his stomach suddenly queasy. His parents wanted her, but not him. “Launi
gets to live with them and I don’t?”
She turned,
and he thought he saw tears in her eyes, but he couldn’t really tell in the
poor light.
When she
spoke, her voice was strained. “No more questions tonight. They love you more
than you’ll ever know. Now go to sleep.”
“Did you
see the little ring around the moon?” George asked, not ready for her to leave.
Not before he’d made amends for sounding ungrateful.
“Yes.
Tomorrow will be a good fishing day. Kapuna and I need to be up before the sun
rises.”
“That’s
right,” Kapuna said from the doorway. “Time to pack it in for the night. Tomorrow
will be a busy day.”
He came in
as Tutu left.
“Can’t I
go fishing with you guys?” George asked. “Please?”
“Not this
time. Remember, you’re helping Mr. Kim in his garden.”
“He always
blames things on me. Even when I don’t do anything.”
“Mr. Kim
is our neighbor and we have to get along.” Kapuna ruffled George’s hair.
“Sometimes he is a grouch, but this time it’s different. You and Jonathan
pretty much trampled his garden. You’ll have to undo the damage you did.”
“But it
was his Poi Dog’s fault. He was chasing our chickens.”
Kapuna
sighed. “We’ve already been over this. You’re thirteen. It’s time you take on a
little responsibility.”
“I hate
living here,” George blurted. “I can’t wait for my parents to send for me.”
Kapuna
froze. The look on his face made George regret his words for the second time
that night. Why had he said that? He wished he could take back the words, but
it was too late.
Kapuna
tucked in the covers. “Moi, Moi. Sleep well, my grandson.”
“I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know
you didn’t.” Kapuna closed the bedroom door.
Stupid.
Stupid. Stupid. Why had he said that to Kapuna? He didn’t hate living here. He
didn’t want to move. This was his home. Kapuna and Tutu were his family. He
just wished his parents would move to Maui and they all could live together
like before the war.
What he
did hate, was having to spend a whole day with Mr. Kim. The old man was never
satisfied. Before tomorrow was over, he knew he’d be in some sort of new trouble;
real or imagined.
Outside
his window, the shadow of a palm swayed in the moonlight. It looked spooky and
even a little bit mysterious. He grinned. It was perfect, because he and
Jonathan had mysterious plans for the night.
A
clandestine meeting at midnight!
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