Chapter 23
Peter sat on the edge of his bed in his home on the Big Island and tapped away on his smartphone, instant messaging Kaila on Maui.
What are you doing today? I miss you already.
I miss you too, baby. Just helping Nani and Kari around the house. What are you up to?
I think I’m helping my dad do some grounds work around the resort at Twin Palms. Mom wants us to pick up a tree later too.
Yeah, Kari is dying to get one too, lol. I need to start writing, but still thinking on it. Message me when you can!
I will. Try to relax some too. After all, you’re on vacation lol. Have a great morning baby, I love you.
Don’t work too hard over there. I love you too.
Peter stuffed his phone into his back pocket and went into the kitchen. His mother was cooking some bacon and eggs for breakfast. It was rare for her to do that but he presumed it was because he was home for the first time in a long while.
His sister Ana came bounding into the kitchen. She breathed in the fresh smell of cooked bacon and closed her eyes, savoring the aroma. “Mmmm bacon, it smells so good. What’s the occasion?” she bluntly asked.
“Your brother is home, silly,” Sara answered.
“Yeah, silly,” Peter kidded her. Ana rolled her eyes at him. “Smells great, Mom. Where’s Dad?”
She scooped the eggs onto their plates straight from the frying pan and placed a few slices of bacon along with them. “He’s outside putting things in the trailer. He wants you to help him today. So eat up.”
“Yeah, I know, he told me.”
After he ate a big breakfast, he headed out with his dad and rode down the long scenic Highway 19 towards the Kona coast from Waimea. From the northern slopes of Mauna Kea, the view was breathtaking on the ride down the mountain. One could see the vastness and sheer size of the island of Hawaii. The town of Kailua-Kona dotted the coastline with small homes and businesses and a variety of resorts. The western side of the island was by far the most populated as the terrain was more suitable for traffic rather than the mountainous and windy areas of the east coast, or Hilo side. As they reached sea level, the land was barren and black as far as the eye could see. Lava fields from eruptions centuries before covered the landscape on either side of the road. Occasionally there were small clusters of lava rock piled a few feet high along the road in honor of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes. Some of the lava pilings were simple and others were adorned with individual flowers and leis. Peter never tired of the scenic road into the main town on this side of the island.
They arrived at the Twin Palms resort about a half-hour later and began work on the resort grounds, cleaning up palm fronds, leaves, and mowing the lawn. His dad smiled as he watched him work tirelessly around the resort grounds.
“Hey Pika,” he called out to his son. “Kind of like the work back at the school, eh?”
Peter chuckled and said, “It’s exactly like at the school. Without the pigs, of course.”
“Yes, without the pigs. I’m proud you are doing so well there,” his dad commented. He handed him a small bag of litter he had gathered from the property. “Here, go throw this in the garbage up there near the entrance of the lobby. Then we’ll almost be done.”
Peter twirled the bag around and tied it securely as he lazily walked towards the lobby entrance. As he placed it in the garbage can, he heard a voice behind him.
“Hey Peter. What’s happening?”
Peter turned around in surprise to see Jeff. He was beside himself in seeing him yet again, back from Maui.
“Jeff?” Peter exclaimed. He looked over his shoulder to see if his dad was watching. Sure enough, his father had noticed him as well. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d find you here,” Jeff answered, very nonchalant.
Peter wrinkled his nose at him, “Is that so? What are you doing back from Maui? Through making the rounds over there?”
“Ah you know man, just takin’ care of business everywhere, dude.”
“Well leave me out of it. And how did you know I was here?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Jeff said coolly. “Just seein’ what you’re up to, bein’ it’s Christmas break and all.”
“Yeah, whatever Jeff. I don’t want any part in what you or Koni are doin,’ you got that?” Peter turned his back and walked towards his dad at a quick pace. Jeff just stood and watched him walk away.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Peter’s dad asked with a bit of anger in his voice. “He know you were going to be here?”
“I don’t know. Not a chance he knew I’d be here. But he’s been showing up on Maui too, hangin’ around this jerk named Koni Boy. I have no doubt he’s probably tryin’ to sell over there too.” Peter was visibly annoyed and his father could see it. “I’m getting tired of that asshole following me. Pardon my French.”
“You let me know if you see him again,” he told his son. “Go wait in the truck, I need to go talk to the manager and let them know we are done.”
Peter sat in the truck, waiting on his dad, and pulled out his phone to message Kaila.
Guess who I just ran into? That idiot Jeff that I knew from here. He’s back over here now. Can you believe that?
What? What a jerk. What did he want?
I dunno, just asking what I was doing for the break. He’s full of it though. We are done here at the resort. How’s your day going?
Pretty good, just missing u terribly. I think we are going with Uncle Lupe to look at Xmas trees. What are u doing?
I know, I miss u like crazy too. Oh, probably gonna go help my mom at the gift shop at the plantation. Then maybe get a tree later on too. My dad is back, we’re going up there now. I luv u. TTYS
OK, luv u 2 TTYS
The Kona Coffee Plantation was further south on the island’s western slopes of Hualalai overlooking Kona. The higher elevation and rich volcanic soil made it ideal to grow coffee trees and thus created some of the best and well-known coffees in the world. Although a relatively small area for plantations, there were still many of them all located in the same vicinity. It was quite comparable to the grape vineyards of Napa Valley in California. Instead of the rich soil of the valley for the numerous vineyards, the slopes of the volcanic mountain provided the ideal place to grow numerous plantations of coffee beans. And Sara worked at one of the most trafficked gift shops by tourists in the Kona coffee district.
She spent years working as a laborer in the groves picking beans from the trees. She taught this art to Peter and to Ana as well as they grew up. As she got on in years, she soon moved to the tourist shops around the plantations and worked behind the counter or doing anything else that needed tending to, such as brewing fresh samples of the many different varieties for people to try. She was at the sample stand when Peter walked in.
“Hey Mom,” he said as he hugged her shoulder real quick.
She smiled sweetly at him and said, “Hi Pika. Grab that fresh pot over there and help me fill these cups.” Peter obeyed and started helping her fill tiny paper sample cups for the line of customers waiting to try the coffee. “It’s good to have you home.”
“Yeah, it’s a nice change of pace from school,” Peter answered. “Busy today, huh?”
“Yes. Many buses stopping by.” She handed him the empty coffee pot. “Here, set this down and hand me that last one. Then we’ll need to brew some more.”
After about a half hour the crowds started to die down and they began to clean up the sample area. Peter was busy cleaning tables and sweeping the floor when he noticed an all too familiar face once again. Jeff was milling about in the souvenir room with a toothpick in his mouth just a few steps away.
“Dammit,” Peter muttered as he set his broom down. “Mom, I’ll be right back.”
She noticed his old classmate in the shop and nearly lost it when she saw him. “Why on Earth is he here?”
Peter trie
d to assure her. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll get rid of him. It’s like he’s following me or something. I’ll be right back.” He quickly walked across the floor to confront Jeff who was looking at books on coffee growing tips. “Brushing up on harvesting beans, Jeff?” he asked sarcastically. “I think you and I need to step out back.”
“Sure thing, buddy,” Jeff said with fancy grin.
Peter’s heart pounded as they walked outside behind the shop using the employee entrance. His angered expression spoke volumes. He felt like punching Jeff’s lights out right then and there.
“OK man,” Peter huffed. “Tell me what you are up to. And I wanta know now! Every time I turn around you are there. What do you want?”
Jeff acted very cool and innocent. “Hey, what do I want? I’m not the one who left and abandoned his friends. You still got work to do here, buddy. I’m a little ticked off that you up and left. Now you’re Mr. Boarder Man. Like you’re some kind of big shot now.”
“What work?” Peter demanded. “Hey, last time I checked man, you’re not the one who ended up in jail! There is no more work for me to do here. I’m done with you morons. Especially you. So I suggest you stop following me. And you’re wasting your time with that idiot Koni Boy over on Maui too.”
Jeff raised an eyebrow and said, “Oh I beg to differ, buddy boy. He’s actually been quite helpful.” He snickered at his ingenuity, knowing Peter had no idea what he meant. “But you do still have work to be done, Lane. If you weren’t so stupid in getting caught that night, we wouldn’t have lost all our product. That was your fault, dude!”
“No, no, no, jerkface. You guys took off and left me there for dead. I had no idea where you guys were. You obviously knew something was goin’ down or else you wouldn’t have split. You bailed on me and I walked right into a trap, thanks to you. You lost that stuff on your own, pal!”
“Gotta make it up, man,” Jeff said matter-of-factly. Peter took note of how his old friend had begun sounding more like a street thug than his childhood friend. “Time to hit the pavement again. Sales are down.” Jeff leaned in closer to talk quietly so as to not be heard by anyone else. “But now we got a man on Maui to help us tap into that market. So, you runnin’ off seems to have helped in our favor. Time to start makin’ up for what you lost us. Seems like you’ve got some rich customers right where you’re goin’ to school. I could see that at the stadium that night. Yep, real nice untapped market.”
Peter was about to explode he was so furious. “Now you listen to me, pal! Just so we are clear. I went to jail and you didn’t. I didn’t want to have anything to do with your stupid lab anyway. I never sold and I am not gonna start. I’m done with you man. I’m not goin’ back to jail again for you or nobody. Just stay the hell outta my life.”
“Gotta make it up,” Jeff said again.
Peter fumed and poked him in the chest. “No I don’t!”
Jeff slapped his hand away and said, “I’m afraid so, bro. No way around it. Time to stop pourin’ coffee for old ladies and pickin’ up Christmas trees and start doin’ the job at hand, man.”
Peter ignored him but picked up on one thing he said. “And how do you know about that? Pickin’ up a freakin’ tree! And another thing, everywhere I go you seem to turn up too. I don’t think that’s all some kind of coincidence.”
“I have my ways bro,” Jeff said smugly. “Little minions of my own.”
“Well you can take your little minions and your little enterprise and shove them up your ass! I’m outta here. And I better not see you again.” He stormed back inside and slammed the door behind him. Jeff nodded confidently, put a toothpick back in his mouth and went back to his car.
Peter recounted the day’s events to Kaila on the phone that night. She was astounded that Jeff was following him everywhere and demanded that he get into the drug dealing. She was extremely worried about him. But he did his best to reassure her that he would not let Jeff get the best of him.
“Maybe you could just go to the cops,” Kaila suggested.
“No, he would just rat on me again and just implicate me. Knowing him he’d probably say he had nothing to do with meth and it was me all along.” He paused for a moment. “Don’t worry though. I can handle him, I’ve known him my whole life practically. But it’s like he’s someone else now. He’s totally changed. He took the wrong path quitting school like that. He’s probably realizing that now and just being jealous.”
“I know,” Kaila responded. “I just don’t want you to get into trouble again. Listen, I need to go, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what we can do after graduation next year. I’ll send you an email tonight.”
“OK, sounds good. Thanks for listening to me. I’m glad you understand. Sleep good tonight.”
“Of course, baby,” Kaila said sweetly. “I will, you do too. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He spent the rest of the break with his family and celebrated Christmas as they always did every year. He saw Jeff one more time at a grocery store, but decided to ignore him when he did.
Peter and Kaila continued to talk and message online with each other every day throughout the break. But as New Year’s approached, Kaila still had not started on her paper yet. She decided after Christmas and her visit to her mom’s that she would buckle down and really get going on it and have it done before classes resumed in January.
Peter reminded her to just think about the trip they went on together to see the whales up close, and all the times they spent watching them from the beach and also the visit to the whale museum. He recalled his idea of approaching the paper as if she were there during those days in the 19th century when Maui was the center of whaling in the Pacific.
She thought that was good idea and remembered all the notes she had taken at the museum. She studied them closely and contemplated all the phrases and terms that were used in those days. She decided to go riding alone on her scooter one late December day after Christmas. She rode to all the beaches where she and Peter had visited during the fall and thought endlessly about what she could write.
She stopped at the beach parks near the pali and watched the people paddleboard and surf. She rode all the way to Napili and watched sunbathers sit in the sand and children play in the surf in the shadow of Molokai. She rode back down to Ka’anapali Beach just on the north side of Black Rock at the same park where the airstrip had once been. She kicked off her shoes and walked along the edge of the water barefoot taking in the majestic scenery. Her mind began to wander and she started to imagine how these shores must have looked nearly 200 years before. How people lived, how they dressed. How they gathered food and fished the waters in order to survive. She thought about how they reacted when explorers came and missionaries arrived to try and bring Christianity and schools to their land in the middle of the Pacific. How the natives got along with the newcomers. And how the whales would play an important part in Maui’s long and colorful history.
She stood and stared out to sea with her sandals dangling from her fingers. She stood until her mind transported back to those days of the early to mid-19th Century. She let all modern things in her surroundings disappear from her mind until it was just her and the beach and the waves. The waves came washing ashore one after the other, endlessly, wave after wave… until her mind was finally ready.