4 Kaua'i Me a River (18 page)

I took
Farrah’s elbow and guided her toward the kitchen. “Farrah, this is not okay. I
can’t have three kids in my house. This isn’t how Steve and I want to live.”

There
was a loud knock at the front door.

“That
must be Hatch,” said Farrah. “He’s so sweet. He heard you were coming home and
offered to let us stay down at his place.”

I went
to the door.

“Hey
Pali,” he said. He slid by me saying, “Is Farrah in the kitchen?”

I
nodded. He disappeared behind the swinging door and I heard laughing.

“Are
you our other mommy?” said a tiny voice.

I
looked down at a doll-like face peering up at me. She had jet-black hair with thick
bangs and a smooth bob that fell to chin length. Her haircut was so precise it
looked unnatural on a little kid.

“Uh,
no, I guess you would call me your ‘auntie’,” I said. “Auntie Pali.” It felt
strange to introduce myself that way. I’d gone from having aunties to being one
and it made me feel positively ancient.

“My
name’s Echo and my sister’s name is Rain,” she said. At the mention of her
name, little Rain pulled aside the blanket to show her face. The two girls were
so alike I felt like I’d lapsed into double-vision.

“Is
this your house?” said Echo. “Mama says a rich lady owns this house.”

I
smiled. “Well, the bank owns this house. But I pay the bank to live here.”

“Can
we live here too? We’ll tell Mama to pay the bank. We don’t like to sleep outside.
It’s cold.”

“And
scary,” said Rain.

Hatch
and Farrah came out of the kitchen. Now Hatch was holding the baby. He was
smacking the kid’s back with such force I thought it must hurt. But then Moke
let out a resounding burp and everyone laughed.

“Time
to pack up,
keiki
,” said Hatch. “We’re moving down to the ranch.”

“Can I
have a minute with you?” I said.

“Sorry,
but I’ve kind of got my hands full here,” he said. “And I’m on shift tomorrow. How
about I give you a call later?”

Hatch helped
Farrah pack up the baby stuff in my bedroom and within ten minutes the house
was deadly quiet.

I
stood at the window. “What just happened?” I said to Steve as I watched Hatch’s
truck disappear down the street.

“Looks
to me like you got dumped for some younger women.”

***

Steve
had to deliver some photo proofs to a client in Lahaina so I took the
opportunity to go down to Palace of Pain to clear my head. I had no weddings on
my calendar until late July but even if I had, I was in no shape to deal with
people.

The
sun was beginning to set as I headed down Baldwin Avenue. Chances were Sifu
Doug would have already locked up and gone home but every black belt at PoP had
been given a key so we could work out whenever we wanted.

I
pulled in the alley and was surprised to see only one parking spot left. Ah, it
was the first Monday of the month. Sifu Doug always scheduled promotion ceremonies
on the first Monday. I considered driving through the alley and out the other
side but as I passed the open door, Doug waved at me. He had a big smile on his
face.

Busted.
I pulled in and parked.

“Pali,
mahalo
nui loa
for showing up,” he said. He gripped my hand and started
in on one of his fancy handshake routines. I found all the fist-bumping and elaborate
hand-jiving silly but it was part of the male culture I’d fought hard to join,
so I went with it.

“How
many are getting promoted tonight?” I said.

“Just
six. Four yellow belts and a couple green. Shouldn’t take too long. And the moms
brought some
ono
-looking casseroles.”

“Sounds
great.”

We
went inside and Sifu Doug started the ceremony. It’d been a long time since I’d
attended a promotion and I’d forgotten how solemn and emotional the ritual
could be. Four little kids were getting their yellow belt, the first belt in
the sequence. There was a lot of bowing and smiling, with parents taking photo
after photo. I watched, and for the first time in a long time, I wondered if I
was missing out on something by not having kids.

When
the ceremony was over Sifu Doug announced it was time to eat. He laid down the
law that the kids should show respect by allowing their parents and elders to
go through the line first. This was new to most of the kids. In Hawaii, the
usual order of things is kids always get first dibs. But when Sifu Doug barked
an order in his ex-Army Ranger voice, nobody argued.

I
scooped up a bit of salad and Spam casserole and sat on the floor with my back
to the wall. After Doug had made sure everyone had food and he’d posed for
photos with each of the graduates, he came and sat by me.

  “How
you doin’?” he said. “I heard you were over on Kaua'i. And it looks like Farrah
found the baby’s mother.”

In a
small town like Pa’ia I would’ve been surprised if he hadn’t heard.

“Yep. According
to Farrah, she did her thing with the Ouija board and voila! she managed to
track down the mother. I haven’t met her yet. Steve says she’s looking for a
job.”

“She
cuts hair, right? I heard she’s some kind of hair stylist or something.”

I
thought about the twins’ perfectly cut hair and put two and two together. “I
guess that’s right.”

“You
know, Lani’s got a friend who works down at the beauty shop at the Westin. I
could ask her if they’ve got room for another girl.” Sifu Doug wasn’t much
older than I but he refused to budge from talking like an old-timer. To him,
all women were ‘girls’ and anyone involved in manual labor was a ‘boy.’
Luckily, he was such a nice guy no one took offense.

“
Mahalo.
But that’s a pretty swanky salon for a homeless woman,” I said. “You think
they’d consider her?”

“All
the more reason.” Doug’s world view matched his speech. He stuck to the ancient
Polynesian philosophy of giving to each according to their needs. The most
down-and-out should be helped first. To me, it ran counter to martial arts
training where only the strong survive, but somehow he managed to play it from both
sides.

He
went on. “I hope you’re okay that I told James not to call you. After Farrah
and the mom got together over the weekend I figured it was cool. No sense
borrowing trouble.”

I put
my plate down on the floor and drew my legs up under me. “I suppose. But I’m
still worried the mother might change her mind.”

“I
doubt it,” he said. “The whole town knows Moke is Farrah’s now.”

Doug
got up and thanked everyone for coming to the promotion. Parents gathered up
kids, casserole dishes and promotion certificates and ushered their broods
outside. Inside, I started picking up trash and wiping sticky spilled punch off
the training mats.

“Hey,
thanks again for coming down,” said Doug as he folded down the legs on the eight-foot
serving tables and dragged them into the storage room.

“I
know you want to get home to Lani and the kids, but can I talk to you for just
a minute?”

“Sure.
Fire away.”

I
filled him in on Peggy’s death and how the Kaua'i cops had made me feel somehow
responsible. “The autopsy showed she was heavily intoxicated, but they say it’s
‘inconsistent’ with normal blood alcohol readings. When she showed up where I
was staying she was drunk, but not
that
drunk.”

“Lots
of stuff can make you act drunk,” said Doug. “I took a bioterrorism class in Army
Ranger training. Maybe somebody poisoned her.”

“Poisoned?
But wouldn’t a tox screen pick that up?”

“Hard
to say. If it’s something unusual, routine tox screens might not find it. I
know they have to do special tests to check for things like anthrax and sarin.”

I
thanked him and went out to my car. I hadn’t had a chance to get in a work out,
but I felt more relaxed than I had in days.

CHAPTER 22

I went
in to my shop on Tuesday if for no other reason than to get out of the house
and back to my normal routine. The phone on my desk wasn’t blinking, which
meant I had no messages. At about ten-thirty I wandered over to the Gadda da
Vida but Farrah wasn’t at the counter. Instead there was a young woman with
silky black hair that nearly reached her waist.

“Hi,”
I said. “I’m Pali Moon. I own the wedding planning business next door.”

“Oh,
cool. I’m Shadow. Farrah told me about you. My kids and me stayed at your place
this weekend.” She nodded and kept nodding like one of those bobble-head dolls
on a car dashboard. “Yeah, like thanks for letting us hang out there.”

“You’re
welcome,” I said. I felt guilty. I wondered how Farrah had framed my coming home
and them having to find a new place to stay.

“So,
now you’re all staying at Hatch Deckers’ place?”

“Yeah.
He is so cool. A really sweet guy. And he just
loves
my kids.”

I
joined in the nodding but stopped after a couple of bobs to avoid the two of us
looking like mating albatrosses.

“What did
you come in for?” she said.  She waved toward the aisles of groceries. “I’m trying
to learn where everything is. A lady wanted lemon juice in a bottle and so far
that’s the only thing I still can’t find. ”

“It’s
on aisle six, top shelf,” I said. “For some reason Farrah shelves it with the
vinegar instead of the fruit juice.”

“That
makes total sense.
Mahalo
.”

“Are
you planning to be working here for long?” I said. As soon as I’d said it I realized
it sounded kind of snarky. Like I wanted to kick her out of there too. “I mean,
Farrah mentioned you’ve been looking for a job.”

“Nah,
I’m just helping out. Farrah offered to watch the kids today. I can’t believe
how cool she is. I mean, I was one inch from driving off a cliff after I had
Moke. I got a great vibe off Farrah when I came in here a few days after he got
born. You know, even though I was using food stamps and WIC vouchers and stuff she
still treated me with respect. And she didn’t sic the cops on me or nothing after
I left Moke here. And then when she did her psychic thing and figured out it
was me! I was totally blown away. She’s totally righteous, you know?”

“That
she is.”

A group
of four customers came in and I used the opportunity to slip out the back. I
was headed for my shop when my cell phone chimed.

“Hello?”

“Hello
Pali, it’s Valentine Fabares. I haven’t received your birth certificate yet.
Did you fax it?”

I’d
completely forgotten. “Oh sorry. I’ll send it today. It’s been crazy since I’ve
been back. Not a minute’s rest.”

“I’m
sure. Well I promised the court I’d submit everything this week so fax it over
here as soon as possible, okay?”

“Will
do.”

I hung
up and kept walking up the alley. My birth certificate was in a safety deposit box
at the bank. I didn’t keep it there because I was worried about losing it or
having it stolen. It was there because the bank offered me a free deposit box
when I opened my business account and I wanted to take advantage of every perk.

 A
sour-faced bank clerk took me into the vault and pulled out a skinny metal
drawer from the bank of boxes. Then she ceremoniously placed it on a table in
the middle of the room. In a hushed voice she said, “Take as long as you need.
When you’re finished, let me know and I’ll lock it back up.” Her demeanor was
so glum I was sure if her bank job didn’t work out she could easily snag a gig at
the funeral home behind the hardware store.

I
thanked her and rifled through the small stack of items in the box. There was
my passport, the deed to my house, and my birth certificate. I flipped open the
passport and stared at the photo. It looked like someone had goosed me a second
before they’d snapped the picture. Even though my passport had been issued in
my real name, they’d allowed me to also add ‘Pali Moon’ since I had so much ID
showing that name.

I laid
the passport back in the box and took out my birth certificate. It had been folded
into a business envelope with a post office box as the return address. When had
I gotten it? I couldn’t remember. I stuck the envelope in my purse and alerted the
bank clerk I was done.

“That
was fast,” she said.

How long
did she expect me to take? Did people go into the vault and try on every piece
of their
tutu’s
jewelry or count out bags of gold coins like a crazy
miser?

We used
our keys to lock the drawer in place and I thanked her.

“No,
thank
you
for doing business with us here at Royal Hawaiian Bank and
Trust.” Forget the funeral job. It sounded like she was bucking for promotion. There
were cameras everywhere so she must’ve hoped some bigwig was watching.

I took
the birth certificate to my shop and plugged in my fax machine. I rarely used
the thing but when I needed to send an important document I preferred it to a scanner.
Who knows where a scanned file might end up on the Internet?