Death by Facebook (38 page)

Their
Facebook fan page, the Heros of Kapoho, was displayed next with just
such a question. Janet noticed 347 comments noted below.

“
She's
a good person.” Janet looked over at her roommate, ready to
argue for her friend.

“
Oh,
I can tell that, too.” Propping another pillow behind her
frail back she looked up at the screen and continued. “But,
she can't stop that lava.”

Janet
believed if anyone could it would be Star and she said so
emphatically to this pessimistic old lady next to her.

“
Ha!”
She shook her head at the young woman's comments.

Janet
was getting furious, the static rising up from the vast reservoir she
must have. Holding her hands up to her head, trying to quiet the
storm, she nearly spat.

“
Star
is a powerful force in this universe! She's a survivor! If the
world has a scrap of compassion, it will let that poor woman alone on
her little strip of sand.”

“
I
know, honey, I know. I went to school with that lady, know her well,
I do. Starshine Aloha, I think that is her name.” She turned
to look over at Janet. “Am I right?”

Janet
nodded, her hands coming off her head slowly. “Yes.”

“
Yes,”
the old lady confirmed, looking back up to the television. The lava
pool at Halema'uma'u was the center of attention for the moment.

“
An
eye for an eye, that's the only thing that will stop the damned
thing.”

Janet
felt a sudden sinking deep inside as the static began to get louder
again.

“
Yep,
someone did something bad. Did it to the volcano they did. Ain't
gonna stop until that is made right.” She looked directly at
Janet now. “Eye for an eye honey.”

Janet
found that idea distributing. She looked into the old lady's eyes.
She looked so damned old, so sick, that maybe, Janet thought, she had
been to hell, heard her murdered fiancé Jimmy's story and
returned. Returned to torment her. She shook her head a little,
trying to free that crazy thought so it would leave her head.

“
Why?”
Janet tried to ask, holding her head again. “Why would a
volcano give a damn about...” Her head was pounding now with
the static. “...anything?”

The
old lady pulled her legs up to her chest, bringing her sheets and
covers up and out from where they had been tucked nicely. She
scooted herself up higher against the pillows.

“
My
old man, drunk bastard that he was, took my car one night. Didn't
ask me or nothing. Just stole my keys and took my car. Sure as shit
he ran into a tree and messed it up real bad. Messed himself up real
bad, too.

“
I
was pissed at him, stupid drunk! My car was trashed! My only way to
get around, gone. I didn't even care that much about him being in
critical condition at the hospital, I was so pissed off at him.”

She
was rocking slightly back and forth now, telling Janet something she
had probably told no one else.

“
My
car was dead and in another two days, so was he.”

Janet
mimicked the lady's rocking motion unconsciously. “Oh, my god!
He died?”

The
old lady stared at Janet. “Yeah,” she looked back up at
the television. “And, you know what?” she asked without
looking back. “I felt a lot better. Eye for an eye.”

~~~

The
next morning shoved aside the darkness in its rush to flood the sky
with some of the best light it had ever come up with. The air was
pristine over the entire state with the passage of a frontal band.
Freshly washed with rain and cool air the island literally shimmered
in the early rays of orange and yellow.

The
only blemishes on the battle for contrasting brilliance were the
plumes of the Kapoho cinder cone and Halema'uma'u and a sea entry in
the park boundary. Three boiling columns of dark gray pouring upward
into purples and blue.

Star
felt the eyes of a thousand cameras on her as she watched the sun
crest the edge of the eastern sea. Her focus was now quite capable
of ignoring the gawkers. The conviction that fed her now was
stronger than ever. The little yellow tangs that swam between her
feet, in and out of the gentle surf, looked brighter somehow.

However,
the sound of the waves on the beach could no longer entirely drown
out the sound of the crackling and popping a'a' lava mound as it
slowly piled up higher behind her. Some fifteen feet high it was an
approaching cliff eager to embrace the sea, eager to reclaim what the
sea had been wearing down and then some.

Wally
had moved his boat in close, to within fifty yards. He knew a
breakout could happen at any time, pouring liquid lava from beneath
the wall of a'a'. Such a thing would give him only ten or fifteen
minutes to get to Star and get her safely away.

Watching
his woman, his love, attempt to do what he was sure no power on this
Earth could was painful. It was obvious though that keeping her from
trying or belittling her was infinitely more so. Besides something
inside his fisherman soul, the one that saw wondrous things
constantly, tugged his heart with a pull of confidence. She was a
most powerful force of nature herself. She was, after all, a woman.

~~~

Janet
was woken by her entire bed shaking and rattling. Sitting up
quickly, eyes wide with the fear of yet another earthquake she saw
the old lady.

“
Wake
up kid!” She shook the bed again, standing next to Janet and
literally falling against it each time. “Got some uniforms
downstairs asking about you.” Coughing and clearing her
throat from so much effort she managed to add “You in some kind
of trouble with military types?”

Janet
shook her head twice, trying to shake off the static. Coffee might
have helped, or maybe a beer. She looked at the old lady and grabbed
her firmly by the shoulders.

“
Get
me outa here! Now!” She swung off her bed, pulled on her
jeans and Hilo Hattie t-shirt and looked for her shoes. “Damn!
Do you know...did you see my shoes?”

“
Yeah,
yeah, in the closet.” The old lady moved back into the hall
and looked in both directions. “I figure you got about five
minutes, maybe less.” She turned to look at Janet with a
knowing eye. She too had had a few run ins with the law. “There's
only two of them. I suggest we start with the stairwell across the
hall. They'll be on the elevator.”

Janet
pulled her second shoe on and demanded, “How do you know which
way to go?”

“
Yeah,
right!” The old lady ignored the silly question. “Look,
I've been here long enough to know where the nurses hide and where
the doctors go to screw. Trust me.”

Janet
ran out into the hall, pushing the old lady forward as nicely as she
could. “Let's go then! They can't find me!”

~~~

Larry
and Shirley had finally returned to their home. Amazingly, the only
damage was to the windows facing the exploded propane grill. The
yard had a couple of new rock features, but Shirley honestly thought
they fit in nicely with her landscaping.

Halema'uma'u
had calmed down quite a bit since they had fled by paraglider. Jack
and Alice had returned to the Observatory, even as temporary repairs
were being done. The big driver in everyone's optimism was the
lowered level of the lava lake. What had only three days earlier
been an overflowing pool of magma was now a pool a hundred feet below
the rim.

Several
Volcano residents had seen fit to sneak back in past the less than
strict barricades and see if there were any cold beers at the Lava
Lounge. There were.

Agatha
Turner and Adam had managed to get a helicopter tour of the area.
When they flew past Star's beach Agatha felt a strange connection to
the woman, but the feeling passed. Adam agreed to stay on the island
with her, at least one more week. He was enjoying Agatha's company,
and the mangoes.

~~~

Janet
and the old lady found their way down three floors and out into a
rear parking area big enough to hold two dumpsters and some discarded
furniture. The area was littered with big olomea tree leaves.

There
was a quick moment of relief, having escaped, but immediately it was
followed with the panic of “what now?”

The
old lady stood stoically looking toward two mopeds parked up against
the olomea tree. She raised her thin arm to point with her boney
finger. Janet had a flash of an old movie where death was showing
you your future. The moped was a good idea though.

“
How
do you start one of those?” Janet wondered out loud.

“
That
kind? Just roll 'em down the hill, pop the clutch. Off you go.”

Janet
ran over to the first moped and found it chained to both the tree and
the second moped.

“
Shit,
they're locked up.”

“
Nah!”
the old lady laughed. “Only fake. Try look, the chain doesn't
connect.”

Janet
pulled the chain away from the one moped and sure enough it was only
looped on to appear locked. She pushed it forward enough to throw a
leg over and to retract the kickstand.

“
Good
luck there,” the old lady waved. “You going to tell Star
I said hi?”

“
Sure,”
Janet nodded, anxious to get going. “But, I never got your
name.”

The
old lady smiled at that. She knew she had never mentioned it to this
brash girl. “Memitim. Tell her Memitim said good luck and
all.”

“
Memitim,”
Janet murmured. She pushed forward enough to let gravity pull the
moped along and then popped the clutch. In two puffs it was running
on its own. Upon exiting the parking lot, she made her way through
the back streets of Hilo out toward the barricades between her and
Star.

~~~

Star
was patrolling her increasingly smaller and smaller perimeter. None
of her ahu rock and driftwood piles had been overrun yet, but they
were uncomfortably close to the approaching a'a hill.

Her
little island of sand and coconut trees had always been on a slightly
higher piece of ground than several acres of jungle that had been
behind her. That had protected them against the winter flooding that
might have left her on many occasions with inches of mud and debris.

She
looked over to where the vacation rentals had once been. They had
avoided the flooding issue by building directly onto the lava. She
knew that was tempting fate, and sure enough, they were gone now,
burned and buried under several feet of fresh cooling lava.