Whispers (9 page)

“I’m sure they do, but this guy wanted to go to Wailuku because of his insurance coverage or something. So,” Scott said, clapping his hands together, “the night is still young. What do you say we go into town? Are you hungry?”

Teri wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. She couldn’t spring back instantly, especially when she had plans to meet Mark at 6:30 in the morning. “We can do something another time,” she suggested. “It’s getting late and—”

“Aw, come on. It’s not that late. If you want, we could rent a couple of movies and come back here. I know a great pizza place. We could give them a call, and by the time we picked up some videos, they would be here with the pizza. Sound good?”

“Scott,” Teri found it hard to say no to this handsome, blond, tanned man when he sat a few feet away, looking so enthusiastic about being with her. “I don’t think it’s such a good idea, since Dan and Anita are already asleep.”

“Then we can go over to my place. I’m sure Bob wouldn’t mind. He’s probably not even home. We don’t have to make it a double feature. We’ll just pick up one video. As a matter of fact, I probably have some lying around the place that we could watch. Kahana Pizza Company will deliver to my front door just as easily as to yours.”

Teri thought of Gordo arriving with a pizza at Scott’s door with her standing there in her nightshirt. Gordon would probably have a klutz attack and toss the pizza the way he had the communion trays.

“I don’t think so, Scott. Let’s pick another time and start all over.”

He looked like a kid who had just fumbled the winning touchdown.

“Do you want to come over for dinner tomorrow night?” Teri felt responsible to bring things back into a win-win situation.

“I have plans.”

“How about Tuesday or Wednesday?”

“I’ll call you,” Scott said and rose to leave.

Teri felt like saying, “Oh, well, that would be a nice change” but instead said, “Okay. Think about it. Any night this week. I’ll make you my award-winning tamales. Old family recipe.” She was following Scott to the door and feeling ridiculous that she was attempting to lure him back with food.

Scott turned and smiled. “Tuesday,” he said. “I’ll be here around seven.”

“Okay,” Teri echoed the smile.
“Tamales Teresa a las siete a Martes.”

“Teri’s tamales at seven on Tuesday,” Scott decoded.
“Bueno
. And don’t make me remember any more Spanish than that!”

“I’ll see you Tuesday,” Teri said as she opened the door for him. “Thanks for the flower.”

Scott lingered by the open door, only a few inches from
her. He gazed into her eyes and said, “So all is forgiven?”

Teri nodded.

“Bueno.”
He leaned down as if he were about to kiss her. Instead he whispered, “Tuesday.” Then he touched her cheek lightly and left.

Teri felt mesmerized. A swirl of fireworks ignited the instant he bent close to her. She closed the door and slipped back into bed beneath the whirling ceiling fan. Everything was quiet and calm. Everything except the hissing sparklers inside her head.

How did Scott do that to her? Why had she never felt that way with Luis? Teri could tell herself why Scott was not the right guy for her, starting with all of Anita’s concerns about his not being serious in his commitment to Christ. If Scott hadn’t kept his high school promises to God, why should he keep dinner date promises with Teri?

Still, Scott made her feel emotions she had felt before, but never all together in one relationship. He melted her. And whenever he touched her, there were fireworks.

Now Teri had an even tougher question for herself. Had she really felt those same fireworks with Mark last summer? If so, why had they fizzled out? Was it some sort of enchantment that came with this island paradise? She fell asleep wondering.

The next morning at 6:10, Teri was even more convinced she was in paradise as she drove to Lahaina. The sun had already made its debut over the west Maui mountains and was racing with her down the highway. She passed the Ka’anapali Resort and thought of her first night on the island when they had eaten at Lelani’s Restaurant. Mark had told her a whale’s skeleton was on display in Whalers Village. They hadn’t seen it that night, and now she wondered if he would offer to show it to her another time.

What am I doing? I’m hoping Mark will set up future dates with me. That’s crazy! There’s nothing between us anymore. Is there? Why is it I go for months—no, years—without any prospective relationships, and now, here I am developing something with Scott and maintaining this unresolved thing with Mark? Weird. Weird, weird, weird
.

Teri parked in front of the huge banyan tree and walked over to the Pioneer Inn. For such an early hour, a number of people were out and about. A woman in a weathered straw hat was hosing down the sidewalk in front of the shops behind the Pioneer Inn. She wore a baggy green mu’umu’u, and a stubby cigarette jutted from her lips. Teri guessed this leather-skinned woman had seen plenty over the years here at the Lahaina harbor.

Directly in front of the Pioneer Inn was a dock full of boats of all shapes and sizes. Some of them were filling with passengers already, headed out for all-day sails to neighboring Lana’i and a favorite diving spot, Molokini.

She found the outdoor restaurant at the front of the Pioneer Inn, facing the harbor and the inviting Pacific. Teri had eaten breakfast here with Mark last summer. She remembered his telling her that until the late 1950s this two-story inn was the only visitors’ accommodations on that side of the island. It seemed hard to believe that in less than fifty years so much development had taken place in west Maui.

The building looked authentically aged with deep green walls, red roof, and bright white trim, which might well have been its original colors. She knew Lahaina had been an important whaling port during the mid-1800s. If she had been meeting a man here 150 years ago, he probably would have hunted and skinned whales for a living instead of studying how to preserve them.

“I’m meeting someone,” Teri said, as the hostess reached for a menu by the front cash register. She was wearing a mu’umu’u and had her thick black hair wound up in a bun with several white and pink plumerias stuck in the side.

“You want wait or sit?” the young woman asked in the choppy pidgin Teri had heard other locals use last summer.

“I’ll sit,” Teri said, scanning the few early diners and not finding Mark among them. She was escorted to a booth at the back of the small eating area where she slid onto a thick wooden seat with a high back rest.

“Coffee?”

“Yes, please.” Teri looked over the menu while the woman returned with a fresh pot of Kona coffee. Closing her eyes, Teri drew in all the smells and sounds of this morning in Lahaina: the rich aroma of the coffee; the melodic clinking of the ships’ bells as they rocked in the harbor; and the mixed chirping and screeching of hundreds of birds who called the banyan tree across the street their home. Another scent drifted her way, the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen right behind her.

Glancing at her watch, Teri decided to order since Mark seemed to be running late. She asked for eggs, bacon, and a short stack of macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup. The food arrived before Mark did, and she dove right in. Everything tasted perfect.

She watched a short Japanese man stop along the sidewalk and lean over the wooden railing into the eating area to greet a friend. With no windows, everything was open, warm, and friendly.

A tattered bamboo shade hung over one section of the opening to block the fierce morning sun. Teri remembered Mark telling her last year that
lahaina
meant “cruel sun.” Already, at a little past seven, the sun was hot.

Mark finally arrived out of breath and slid into the seat
across from her. “I’m sorry. I was hung up on a phone call.” He glanced at her breakfast plate. “Did you try their macadamia nut pancakes?”

“Yes, with coconut syrup. They’re so good!”

Mark’s face softened in one of his close-lipped smiles as he looked at Teri. “Do you remember when we came here for breakfast last summer?”

Teri nodded.

“That was the first time I’d ever tried their mac cakes. I’ve been hooked ever since. And every time I order them, I think of you.”

Teri hadn’t expected tender words from Mark. She had thought their meeting would be all cold, hard facts:
The thrill is gone; there’s nothing to hold on to; let’s just be friends
.

Five minutes earlier she had been thinking about Scott and serving him tamales tomorrow night. How could she switch so quickly and think of Mark? She had to. He was finally sitting down with her. It was just the two of them, and they could talk.

“I wish I had time to eat,” Mark said. “I had a message this morning from Claire. Did I tell you about Claire?”

Teri braced herself. This was it, the other woman. This was why Mark had been aloof since her arrival. Claire.

“Claire is my research partner. She said we have some papers I need to sign this morning so she can fax them today to D.C. It’s for an extension on one of our grants. The federal funding people are real sticklers for deadlines. The day’s half gone in D.C.” He glanced at his watch. “I hate to do this to you. I know you want to talk, and I do too. Can we set up another time?”

Teri felt defeated. It shouldn’t be this hard to have a simple conversation. Maybe she was making too much of the whole thing with Mark. Anita could be right. She did tend to analyze
the romance out of relationships. It certainly had been analyzed out of this one.

“You know what, Mark,” she said. “I don’t want this to be a long, drawn out powwow. I was under the impression when I came here that you and I might pick up where we had left off last summer. It doesn’t look as if that’s what is happening here. So let’s not make a big deal about trying to resolve our relationship. Let’s both just admit that it didn’t work out and get on with our lives. I’ll be around. If you have some free time and want to get together, great. If not, that’s fine too. Can we just leave it at that?”

Mark maintained his solid-as-a-rock expression. He didn’t look relieved or surprised.

“Coffee?” the waitress asked him as she automatically filled Teri’s cup.

It took Mark a moment to answer. “No,” he said looking up at her. “No thanks. I’m leaving in a minute.”

“I’ll take the check,” Teri said.

The young woman pulled it from her pocket and placed it on the table.
“Mahalo,”
she said and sauntered away.

Teri sipped the hot coffee and looked at Mark. Her mind and heart were flooded with doubts. She wanted to tell him she had been too blunt, too rigid in her approach. She hadn’t even given him a chance to say what he thought. Maybe that was because she didn’t want to hear it. Better that she reject him before he rejected her.

We’re too different, she reasoned. He has his life on the sea with the whales, and I have, well, I don’t think I could live on a boat. He’s so quiet and reserved. I’m too forceful. I would dominate the relationship … like I am right now
.

“Well,” Mark said slowly. “I’ll do that. I’ll call you sometime.” Now he looked hurt.

Teri wished she could retract her words and start this
encounter over again. She hated it when her sister dominated her, and here she was, dominating Mark.

He slid out of the booth and gave Teri a final grin.
“Aloha,”
he said and strode through the maze of tables and out toward the harbor.

Teri let out a huff and could smell her own coffee breath. Her stomach was in a knot, and she had a painful feeling of remorse. She might never see Mark again. At church perhaps. But she would never know what he really felt. She hadn’t given him the opportunity to say anything.

Her emotions wavered all the way back to Dan and Anita’s place. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had made the right decision.

Dan was waiting for her so he could take the car to work. He seemed especially cheery as he left.

“Annie?” Teri called out as the screen door slammed shut behind her. “Are you up?”

Teri ventured into the bedroom and found her sister sitting up in bed with a peculiar look on her face.

“It’s positive,” Anita said.

W
hat are you talking about?” Teri asked, making room for herself on the end of the bed.

“The pregnancy test,” Anita continued. “It’s positive. I’m pregnant.” She still had a dazed look on her face.

“Annie, congratulations!” All of Teri’s woes vanished. “Does Danny know? Of course he does. This is fantastic!”

Anita nodded. “Gordo was right, I guess.”

“I don’t think Gordo had anything to do with it,” Teri said. “You’re going to have a baby!” She threw her arms around her sister. “No wonder you haven’t been feeling well. Do you want me to get you something? Tea or juice or anything?”

“No, it’s still too early in the day to think about putting anything in my stomach. I can’t believe this. I’m pregnant.”

“You don’t look too excited.”

“I’m scared, Teri. If I lose another baby, my heart will absolutely break.”