Mistwalker (6 page)

Cade ducked his head, and talked so softly that Darby elbowed him.

“Say it again. Louder,” she whispered.

He looked up and said, “I have to thank Mrs. Borden for payin' me for something I woulda done for nothin'.”

Everyone must have heard him the second time, because they laughed and applauded. One woman—broad cheeked with lank blond hair—stood clapping after everyone else had stopped. She looked a little familiar, but Darby couldn't remember where she'd seen her before, and when she stood on tiptoe to get a better look at her, the woman shrank back into the crowd.

Then it was Darby's turn to speak.

Looking out over all the people made her feel dizzy, but she kept her hands on Stormbird's fluffy mane, and looked straight at Ann, pretending she was talking just to her.

“I guess I'm lucky, because I can say that Megan and Cade have already said what I wanted to.” She paused, surprised at how many people were smiling. “Besides saving for college, I'm hoping to use some of my reward to fly my parents here so that they'll fall in love with Moku Lio Hihiu like I have.”

Darby didn't know whether the applause was for what she'd said, or how she'd pronounced it, but she kept going.

“I'm really lucky that my mom and grandfather let me and my horse come here in the first place, and that Megan and Cade were willing to do this”—she nodded at Stormbird—“with me, a…” She took a deep breath
and decided to risk more Hawaiian. “Um,
malihini
.”

Cheers interrupted Darby, and the rows of warm-eyed smiles flashing her way made her feel less like a stranger than she had since she'd arrived.

Then, though she'd always been bad at conclusions—in both speeches and essays—she gave it a try.

“And I guess for once, I was in the wrong place at the right time, instead of the opposite.”

“Whatever that means!” yelled Ann from the audience.

Darby took that as her cue to stop.

And she really would have, if people hadn't started talking and looking over their shoulders again.

Suddenly, Darby saw why they were chattering.

Everyone was staring at a beautiful woman in red high heels, but the woman was staring at
her
.

“Mom!” Darby shouted.

As Ellen Kealoha began working her way through the crowd, she blew Darby a kiss.

If it was possible to feel sunlight beaming from the inside out, Darby did.

D
arby's joyous shout pretty much ended the award ceremony.

“Go ahead. Go see your mom.” Megan gave Darby a nudge, then turned to Cade. “We'll take care of Stormbird, yeah?”

“Sure,” Cade said.

“Thanks, you guys!” Darby said, then leaned over and kissed Stormbird between his oversize ears.

“Kiss the horse to thank us,” Megan said, rolling her eyes, but Darby had already jumped off the stage.

Crab-stepping past a line of palm trees, Darby appeared right in her mother's path.

“You are gorgeous!” Ellen said, hugging Darby
and then holding her at arm's length.

Darby laughed. “I can breathe,” Darby said, since her mom always worried about her asthma. “That helps, I guess.”

“Let me look at you,” her mom said. She spun one finger and Darby obeyed, turning around even though her boots hampered her twirl.

“Let's go over here,” her mother said. Whisking Darby away from all those staring as if this were a performance, she guided her into a corner.

“I'm not as pale, am I?” Darby said when they stopped.

“In ten weeks…” Her mom shook her head. “Not pale, not weak, not bent over trying to drag in a breath.”

For a second, Ellen's eyes filled with tears, reminding Darby how they'd sat in the car at the Los Angeles airport.
You'll love the ranch…you'll be in heaven…I'm not worried about you….
But her mom had been worried.

“I got contact lenses, did I tell you?” Her mom fluttered her eyelashes, then squinted against her tears of relief, pretending she didn't quite recognize her daughter. “Still a bookworm?”

“Totally,” Darby said. She rubbed her cheek, though the line from falling asleep on her book was long gone.

“Good,” Mom said, and as her arms opened, Darby noticed her mom looked just like she always did—long
black hair swooping against amber skin, sparkling almond-shaped eyes—but less tired. Less stressed.

The tropics agreed with Ellen. They were her home. And she looked more Hawaiian than ever as she kissed Darby's cheeks.

Inside their second hug, her mom whispered, “What about your huge reward?”

“A third of five thousand dollars,” Darby whispered back, through a smile.

“A nice addition to your college fund,” Ellen said, giving Darby an extra squeeze. “But you can spend a little of it if you do it wisely.”

“I was going to spend it on your airfare. That's wise,” Darby pointed out.

“Of course it is. I'm just lucky that our producer sprang for a weekend in Honolulu for the whole cast—because we're almost finished shooting—and all I paid for was the hop from there to Hapuna.”

Darby didn't care about the details; she was just glad her mother was home.

“And how's Hoku?” her mom asked.

“You won't believe the difference in her. She's so smart.
Hapa kanaka,
that's what Jonah called her when—” Darby stopped, not ready to tell her mother about Hoku holding up a hitching rail so that it wouldn't crash down and hurt her. “She does this smart stuff,” she finished lamely. “And she's beautiful. She's changed faster than I have.”

“Cathy Kato sent me this.” Ellen opened her small
clutch bag and showed her the photograph Aunty Cathy had taken of her riding Hoku. “It's a beautiful picture and you're every bit as pretty in person, and I bet Hoku is, too.”

Darby straightened up. Her mom gazed at her as if she couldn't get enough, and even though it was a little embarrassing, Darby felt proud.

Her mother's gold hoop earrings danced when she shook her head as if she couldn't believe her eyes. Then she touched her forehead to her daughter's and said, “Let's go let your public congratulate you.”

Tucked under her mother's arm for the next thirty minutes, Darby knew Ellen Kealoha was the unintentional star of the event.

Mark Larson had been on his way back to Channel Two when he recognized Ellen Kealoha speeding past him in her rented car. He'd made a U-turn and jumped out of the blue-and-orange van to trail after her.

Even though Ellen refused to give a press conference, saying the day belonged to the kids, the camera operator kept rolling as Babe dropped a pikake lei over Ellen's head and Ellen said, “I missed the turn, Aunty! Can you believe it? Everything's changed. The airport is like a real airport. The roads are paved, but I got lost!”

The roads weren't the only things that had changed since her mother had been gone. Darby looked around for her grandfather, but instead came face-to-face with
a woman she didn't recognize. She was chiding Aunt Babe for keeping Ellen to herself.

As Mom caught up with developments in friends' lives, Darby drifted away, but she still felt her mom watching her, and Darby watched back. Their gazes stayed locked on each other like magnets that pulled apart, then rejoined.

Darby scanned the crowd again for Jonah. She was ready to expand her search when she saw a silver dish mounded high with sugar cubes on the pastry table.

Hoku had never tasted a sugar cube before. Darby hesitated for a second, guessing sugar cubes were no better for horses than they were for people, but figured one or two couldn't hurt, right? She slipped a few into each of her front pockets. Navigator deserved one, too. Then, giving up on the smooth fit of her new jeans, she added a couple more, for Flight, Stormbird's mother.

“I should have figured you were a thief, being from Los Angeles.”

Darby's hands were perched on her hips in outrage when she turned to see that it was Duckie. Puzzled by her cousin's vicious tone, as much as she was by the accusation, Darby said, “I'm just getting a treat for the horses. Aunt Babe wouldn't care, would she? Come on. Let's ask.”

“Never mind.” Disgusted by Darby's unruffled response, Duckie crossed her arms. Her lip poked out
like a sulky child's. “That'd be giving you what you want. You Kealohas just have to be the center of attention.”

So that was Duckie's problem, Darby thought. She loved being in the spotlight, and today it just wasn't happening.

Tossing her metal-bright hair back over her shoulders, Duckie stalked away.

“Wow, how rude is that? Insulting your cousin and the entire city of Los Angeles?” Megan walked up with Ann and Cade.

“What was that about?” Ann asked.

“Sugar cubes,” Darby said, looking after the tall girl.

“No worries.” Ann tilted her head of red ringlets against Darby's shoulder, reassuring her, then said, “Hey, nice speech.”

“I know, it was awful,” Darby moaned.

“No, I meant it,” Ann said, giving her friend a light punch. “You did great.”

“You really did,” Megan added. “That last part, where you said you were in the wrong place at the right time, was perfect. I mean, think of the volcano, the tsunami, the earthquake. Definitely wrong places, but you usually managed to make something good out of 'em.”

“Thanks, Sis!” Darby said, surprised. Megan rarely sounded so thoughtful.

Brushing the compliment aside, Megan said,
“Introduce us to your mom.”

“That might take a while.” Ann nodded at the throng of people.

“This happen a lot?” Cade grimaced.

“Maybe it's because she hasn't been home in like fifteen years,” Darby suggested.

“Her outfit…” Megan began, considering the stylish dress with slashes of black and white and the red hibiscus in her hair.

For the first time in hours, Darby thought of the black-and-white horse that had been hidden in the fold, but she put her equine questions aside as her mother laughed at something Aunt Babe had said.

“It's not the dress. It's my mom,” Darby explained. “She'd wear those earrings and her hair loose like that to the grocery store,” Darby said. Totally un-Hollywood, she thought. “And even those red shoes—”

“The heels aren't that high,” Ann finished.

“They're hot,” Megan judged as she edged closer to Ellen. Then, as if she had the peripheral vision of a horse, Megan snagged Cade's sleeve before he could escape the introduction to a celebrity. “Stop. I know Darby's mom wants to meet the paniolo who rescued her daughter.”

Rescued me.
Darby glared at Megan.
Oh yeah, let's take my happy mother and tell her stories about me risking my life all over the place
.

Her mom spun around, having overheard Megan.
“I certainly do!” she said.

Cade had just shaken off Megan's grip when the circle of people parted to include the teenagers.

“Mom, this is Cade. He…” Darby paused, not sure how to explain that Cade was sort of her hanai'd brother or cousin or something.

“I work on ‘Iolani Ranch,” Cade said quietly. “Aloha.”

To Darby's amazement, Cade kissed Mom's cheeks in traditional welcome and she returned the gesture.

“You saved my daughter from drowning. I'll remember that always.
Mahalo
, Cade.” Ellen's voice was as sincere as it was dramatic, so Darby didn't know why she felt compelled to break the silence that followed.

“Oh, heh, heh, you saw that? On television?” Darby asked. She heard the cartoon silliness in her laugh, but she couldn't help it.

“Oh, yes,” her mom confirmed. She made her eyes feline narrow, as if to say,
You're in for it, now,
and added, “Tahiti does have television, you see.”

But Darby could tell her mom wasn't playing. “It wasn't nearly as dangerous as it looked. I promise.”

Ellen wasn't buying her casual attitude.

“Darby, dear, we'll talk about it later.”

Darby, dear?
She'd never heard those words paired before.

The entire news report unreeled in Darby's mind. So, she'd taken a risk riding into the floodwaters. On
an untamed horse. To confront a villain like Manny. After a tsunami.

Darby drew a deep breath, but she didn't know what to say.

It had been
worse
than it had looked in a sixty-second news clip. Her mom would know that, and she'd know who to blame. Not just Darby, but Jonah.

With a silken voice and a glance toward Mark Larson, this time it was Aunt Babe who came to Darby's rescue. And she did it by changing the subject.

“Ellen, do tell us all about the new film that brought you to our part of the world.”

“Brought her home,” Darby corrected, but her mom pretended not to hear.

Darby stepped backward and bumped into Stormbird, Megan, and Ann. Both girls looked at her askance, but Stormbird just snuffled her pocket, and Cade considered the ground, hands in his own pockets, doing his best to disappear.

“What's wrong?” Darby hissed.

“Don't start grinding on her yet,” Ann told Darby.

“What?” Darby was amazed at the warning in Ann's tone.

“Your mom. I know you want to smooth things out between her and Jonah, and I know you want to stay here with Hoku—”

“And we
want
you to stay,” Megan added.

“—but just hang back for a little while,” Ann concluded.

Ellen's voice floated over her ring of admirers.

“…not exactly on Easy Street, but things are going well enough that Darby and I will be able to flee the suburbs for the city. I've got my eye on a high-rise apartment with a view of the Hollywood hills….”

Aunt Babe must have felt Darby's alarm, because she slid her a calming look. It didn't work. A sickening sweet smell welled up from Aunt Babe's orchid lei. Darby felt light-headed, as if she were falling toward the flowers' peach-streaked throats.

Ann brushed Darby's hair away from her ear.

“I know what I'm talking about,” Ann whispered. “If you take her on here and now, you'll lose.”

“That goes for Jonah, too,” Megan insisted, because Darby's grandfather had just stepped into view. He looked toward Ellen, shading his eyes. “Right, Cade?”

When Cade shrugged, Megan leaned toward him, nose to nose.

“I know you agree.”

Cade looked down at his boots. He showed no sign of the confident kid he'd been last night, until Megan rephrased her question.

“Cade, what would you say to Jonah if you were in Darby's place right now?”

Cade slid his hand under his paniolo braid and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Nothin', just…nothin'.” But then he looked up. His brown eyes met Darby's. “Don't saddle 'em up
and make 'em prance for you, yeah? Not yet. Give 'em some time.”

Darby was pretty sure she understood, and though Megan and Ann looked dubious, they both said, “See?”

Darby sighed. Her friends cared about her. They thought they knew best, and maybe they did.

But Darby's mind wouldn't stop replaying something
she
knew.

In the city there'd be no place for a wild horse.