Over the Rainbow - Book One - 'The Gathering Place' (33 page)

“
Okay... So? What did we
miss?”

Hashimoto said mysteriously, as if
revealing a dark secret, “A
golf
tee.”

Kanaka responded blandly, “A golf tee.”

“
Yup. I guess
Bob said that it actually found
him
. In fact, he said would have
missed it too, but it poked him in the hand when he was bagging the
clothes.”

“
So? Good. Bob finds a golf tee on
our guy. There's only like what-? Half a dozen golf courses out
here, it could'a come from anywhere…”

“
Ahhh- not so,
dear Watson. This was a s
pecial
golf tee- one of those fancy ones with the club
name embossed on it.”

Darren repressed a yawn, “And?”

“
Guess where it was
from.”

Kanaka replied in irritation, “Man, I'm not in the
mood for guessing games today, okay?”

Hashimoto shrugged and then smiled in sympathy.
“Sorry. I just thought you might appreciate the fact that sometimes
it's better to be lucky than good.”

“
Fine, so now we're getting divine
assistance. So? Where's the tee from?”

“
Kahuku Point Golf
Club.”

“
No shit? Kahuku
point? Out at the Honu-Kai,
that
Kahuku point?”

“
Bingo. Saddle up, partner, we're
back in business.”

Alani and Chris walked slowly
towards the colorful trees in the distance, again with pinkies
hooked demurely together. The trees shimmered in the tropical
breeze, their overlapping pastel hues glowing in the late afternoon
light, the sky reflecting the same hues of gold, salmon and
crimson, all blending together in a delightful mélange of
impressionist art. Alani paused and plucked a huge, pink-tinged
plumeria from a tree, sniffed it rapturously and then placed it
purposefully behind her
left
ear. “So, did Buddy tell you all about his
baby?”

“
Yeah, mostly. I love the name. It
sounds like a cartoon superhero or something...”

“
Yeah, I guess it does...” Her
eyes creased in mischief and she said, “We have them here you
know.”

“
What- Hawaiian cartoon
superheroes?”

Alani laughed softly, “Yes, them too. No, I meant
the 'menehune'.”

“
No way! You
mean like-
real
Menehune, the Hawaiian 'little people'? Seriously? And what
do you mean, 'you have them here'. You mean like
here
-here? Like…” Chris
gestured vaguely around them, “
Here
? Really?”

“
Well- yeah. I'm
not so sure they exist anymore- in the physical realm, but I
wouldn't bet on them not being, like, weird little spiritual
beings- too many strange things happen for them to
not
be
real...”

“
Like, what?”

“
Oh, my gosh,
like, all kinds of things. Sometimes, for instance- I lose things a
lot, like my car keys. I look, and I look... but no matter where I
look, I can't find them. And then, all of a sudden they reappear,
right where I just looked before- sometimes days, hours, maybe only
minutes later.” Alani looked to Chris, gauging his belief in her
tale, and continued, “Anyway, last time it happened, it was my
keys,
again
- and
a huge rock-slide came down over on the coast road just about the
time I would have been there. Now you tell me, what- or who- was
responsible for delaying me, just when I wanted to go, and kept me
from danger? It's too bizarre not to be real.”

Chris looked into the distance, his gaze focusing on
the plane and the distinctive artwork on its’ nose. “Like being
struck by lightning?”

Alani followed his gaze, her mouth slowly dropping
open, “Oh- wow...!” She smiled mischievously and hummed the
‘Twilight Zone’ theme, “You don't think...?”

“
Don't
you
? It would sure as
hell explain a lot...”

Alani interrupted with a reproving tone, “Nah...
menehune's are just-”

“
A myth? - A fairy
tale?”

Alani slapped Chris playfully on
the arm, “Shut- up!” And then she laughed nervously and declared
tremulously, “Now
I'm
getting freaked out!”

“
You? Try being me. This whole
trip has been totally weird since before I even got here. And that
was just the beginning…” Chris paused in reflection of the mystery
of the antique globe that had started this whole bizarre episode of
his life and continued, “Have you ever heard of the word
'serendipity'?”

“
Serendipity? You mean, like
'happy accidents'?”

“
Exactly. I used to just call them
'meaningful coincidences' or ‘synchronicity’. But lately everything
that has happened is different, like chance meetings that aren't so
random at all, but have started to feel more like- I don’t know,
like 'fate' or 'destiny'.”

“
Like what, for
instance?”

“
Like
meeting
you
for
starters, the way we met- by ‘accident'? Seriously? It would be
totally cliché if it weren't true, but it
happened.”

“
But it did just
happen.”

“
Oh, yeah, right. And I got struck
by lightning- twice. Poof! So much for that myth.”

Alani tried to respond, but Chris
held up a hand in rebuttal. “But wait, it gets better. After I left
the hospital, seeing you for a mere continuation of time one, I see
my dream car waiting for me by the side of the road. I randomly
decide to go surfing, and just happen to end up at your store. Bam!
There you are. I leave, and not half an hour later- ‘poof!’, now I
find you stranded on the side of the road. Later that night, I'm
wandering around, bored, and ‘poof!’ I see you dancing at the luau.
And then ‘poof!’ you vanish, and not an hour later I find you
waiting at a bus stop. Which brings us to today; that's what- five,
six times in the last two days? Like I said, if I were stalking
you, it would make more sense- I'm not. If all that doesn't
positively
reek
of something cosmic, I'm burning my Tarot cards.”

Alani laughed nervously, “Well,
it
has
been kind
of weird.”

“
Weird? Life is
weird. This? Miracles? Menehune?” Again Alani tried to interject,
but Chris stilled her reply with a finger on her lips, “No, wait,
wait! Here's the kicker... every day since I got here, no matter
what time of day or night it is, I hear these drums, or wind
chimes, or chanting- and presto!, something weird happens, or I run
into
you
. Explain
that.”

“
Geez, you must have hit your head
harder than I thought…”

“
Not
that
hard. Because the
very first time I ever heard them was
way
before any of this even
happened. The first night I was here, the day
before
I met you.”

As Chris and Alani approached the plastic-sheathed
Quonset hut, a high-pitched female giggling could clearly be heard
from within. Alani paused outside the entrance, sighed gustily with
an exaggerated eye-roll and said forlornly, “I think I have an
explanation…”

The late afternoon sun slanted
through the windows of the Pro shop, tinting the interior a bright
vermillion. Albert watched as the two guys in bad Aloha shirts
approached the counter, the Asian-looking one reaching into a
breast pocket and pulling out a small photograph.
Certainly not golfers, not this
late
, he thought,
cops- detectives for sure, but why?

Hashimoto slid the pic across the counter with a
grim look on his face and asked, “You recognize this guy?”

Albert looked at the picture, a frown of distaste
forming on his lips, “Yeah. That's- that’s Mr. Matthews... What's-
what's wrong with him?”

“
He's dead- drowned. When was the
last time you saw him?”

“
He went by out by himself this
morning, about nine.”

“
And that's the last time you saw
him? He never returned?”

“
No. Like I said, he went out by
himself. Didn't take a cart, so no reason to return it, insisted on
a caddie instead. You may want to ask the guys at the caddie shack,
one of them guys seen him for sure.”

“
Okay, thanks.” Hashimoto nodded
to his silent partner, and turned and left.

Alani poked her head through the
door of the greenhouse, and then looked back to Chris shaking her
head, her eyes rolling skyward in despair and her nose wrinkling in
a light gesture of revulsion. “You
sure
you want to see the flowers? I
might have to introduce you to my tutus.”

”
Your
who
-who's?”

“
Tu
tu's
- my grandmammas.
You think things were strange before now? Wait…” Alani held the
door for Chris, carefully stepping over the high threshold and
letting the door close behind them.

As Chris looked around the enclosed space his eyes
went wide with amazement- the greenhouse contained every type,
size, and color of tropical flower imaginable. Arranged by species,
each area had its own individual character; here a cluster of
Pikake, their delicious jasmine-like aroma sweet and intoxicating;
next to them a cluster of delicate stalks of Hawaiian ginger
thrusting skyward; there an overflowing clump of Gardenia, to this
side another group of Bird of Paradise, and to the other side a row
of shrub-like Plumeria trees in pots on the ground. Filling the
space above their heads were a plethora of others- multiple
varieties of colorful Hibiscus hanging from the ceiling, next to
them was another row of arboreals, this one a wide range of Orchid,
each one more vibrant than the next.

The combined bouquet was heady and overwhelming, and
the lush, dense clumps and clusters formed a maze that limited his
vision to only a few feet in any one direction. Chris paused in the
middle of the room and inhaled deeply, exclaiming, “Wow! It’s
amazing! I've never seen anything like it...” And then his nose
wrinkled as an unfamiliar aroma touched it, “What's that-
smell?”