Over the Rainbow - Book One - 'The Gathering Place' (16 page)

Walter looked to Abigail beside him in the golf
cart, then back to the group ahead of them on the fairway. His
patience now worn to threadbare and his frustration bubbling over
at what was proving to be a miserable day on the links, he burst
into another rant, this one more self-serving than pointed. He
said, to no one in particular, “My God, what a bunch of- Look at
them, do you see their feet? What the hell are they wearing on
their feet?”

Abigail replied, matter-of-fact and nonchalant,
“Golf sandals.”

Walter exploded in
exasperation,
“What?!”

Abigail continued with a frown, a
rolling of eyes and a shrug of her shoulders at her obtuse mate,
“
Golf
sandals.
Seriously dear, you really need to get out more. I've tried them.
They're very comfortable.”

Walter scoffed, his arms folded across his chest in
resolute determination, “Blasphemer. Philistene. So sue me, but
I'll keep my traditional footwear, thank you. What is wrong with
the shoes we used to wear?”

Abigail rose and stretched with her club overhead,
basking in the warm afternoon light. “Some of us just move with the
times, I guess.” She gestured to the tee box as the group of
fashion offenders disappeared around the dog-leg in the distance,
“You're up, Mr. Conservative footwear man...”

Chris somberly piled the surfboard into the back of
the car and sighed as he took one final glance at the beach. Having
conquered blue-green giants and cheated Death thrice in one day, he
was now bored- and being the person he was, felt compelled to seek
another challenge to engage his restless spirit. So he turned,
twisted his face into his patented grin, and walked cheerfully back
into the store.

Alani was trapped behind the counter, ringing up a
purchase for some Japanese tourists, all of whom traded bows and
deep wide smiles.

Chris leaned on the counter as he watched them leave
and mock-casually inquired as he studied his nails, “So, do you get
a cut of Sonny's take?”

“
NO! How much did you give
him?”

Chris shrugged, “Minus the price of the board, about
three hundred...”

“
God DAMMIT!
That little sh-!” Alani paused, biting off the expletive, furious
at her brother, but conversely unable to be angry with Chris. It
really wasn’t his fault- he was just the unwitting means to her
brother’s devious ends. Alani looked to Chris and saw a warm,
engaging smile that immediately diffused her anger. He was just too
darned cute- in spite of his arrogance and ridiculous
self-confidence. And then there was also that strange sense
of-
familiarity
that nagged at her soul. She smiled a tiny, half-second smile
and continued, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's
Sonny…” And painfully reminded of her wayward brother, she suddenly
turned and disappeared beneath the wide counter.

Chris leaned over the stained and faded formica
barrier, trying to salvage his complete failure of engagement, and
asked, “Is there something wrong...?”

“
No... I- it’s nothing. I just
need to get to work.”

“
Aren't you
already
at
work?”

“
No, not
really...” Alani looked around at the nearly-deserted store. “Oh, I
see what you mean. No, this isn't really work- this is just
ohana
...”

“
'Ohana'?” Chris paused at the
foreign phrase, “I'm sorry, I guess I don't
understand...”

Alani continued impatiently, hastily stuffing
clothing and other items into the yellow backpack, “Ohana is-
well...” and then she paused, trying to figure a way to easily
explain a concept both deceptively simple and enormously complex to
an ignorant Haole tourist.

She was suddenly saved from the task by the entrance
of Noelani, who clattered down the stairs at the back of the store.
Alani saw her mother and stiffened, masking her fears and concerns
with a fleeting peck on the woman’s cheek as she darted around the
open end of the counter and fled toward the door.

“
Hi, Mamma. Bye’ Mamma!” And then
called back over her shoulder to Chris as she yanked open the door,
the chimes clanking with a decidedly un-musical set of discordant
notes, “I got to go now- I see you around maybe- okay?” The slap of
the screen door punctuated her departure, and the room went
silent.

For a long moment, neither Chris nor Noelani spoke,
each with their gaze focused on the dusty windows, each pondering a
different explanation for Alani’s abrupt disappearance. As they
watched in silence, the sound of Alani’s reluctant Jeep roared to
life and it raced past the dirty windows, darting into the
thronging mass of tourists traffic with careless aplomb, dove onto
and over the ancient bridge, and was gone.

As the sound of the Jeep faded into the distance, a
soft chuckle broke the silence. “That girl…” Noelani said, a slight
smile on her lips, “She's always on the go, always late to be
somewhere else.” And then she turned to Chris with an engaging
smile of recognition, “Hey! You're that guy from the hospital, the
one who crashed the plane.”

“
Yeah, my latest claim to
fame...”Chris extended his hand automatically. “My name’s Chris-
Chris Matthews.”

Noelani took his hand in both of hers, holding it in
a warm embrace for a long moment, almost as if gauging Chris by
their contact. And as she did, Noelani stifled a gasp as a
long-forgotten voice rang softly in the dim recesses of her
mind.

“
...he will come, from across the
water...”

Noelani put a hand to her racing
heart and then tilted her head as she looked at Chris curiously,
studying him closely, briefly put off balance by the ringing memory
of a time long ago. She found her voice and then asked,
“
Chris
- Matthews?
Like- the guy on 'Hardball'?”

Chris smiled with a self-deprecating shake of the
head and replied, “No. I'm much better looking.”

“
I'm Noelani- Noelani
Nakamura...”

Chris smiled again, his dimples deepening. “Noelani?
That's such a pretty name. So- exotic. What does it mean?”

Noelani was caught off-guard by the unexpected
flattery. And then she recovered and said with a wave of her hand
in casual dismissal, “'Noelani'? It means 'Mist from Heaven'.”
Chris stared back in puzzlement, his smile morphing into a slight
frown as he considered her translation. Noelani continued, smiling
almost coquettishly, “You ever read 'Hawaii' by Michener? ‘Noelani’
was the first native girl the missionaries saw when they arrived.
She was surfing- naked. Imagine their surprise.”

Chris stared at her and then
reddened, quickly purging an impure thought, and then replied, “Oh.
Wow.” Taking a quick breath to regain his composure, he queried,
“Uh- Mrs. Nakamura, Noelani- I was wondering- can I ask you
something? Well, actually,
two
things?”

“
Certainly. What did you want to
know?”

“
Well, for starters, what's a
'how-lee'?”

Noelani laughed abruptly, a tinkling, musical sound
that broke and sputtered into a choppy giggle.

Chris replied in confusion, “Did I say something
funny?”

“
Actually, no- no. It’s just that-
the name 'haole' is not really a very nice word. Translated, it
means - 'white person'. But here in Hawaii, it is kind of like what
white people used to call black people.”

Chris replied blandly, momentarily
placated, “Oh.” And then he realized what Noelani had actually
said, and blurted, “Oh -! Uh-
wow
.
Why?”

“
Here in
Hawai'i,
you're
the minority. To a lot of Native Hawaiians, you white people
stole the Islands from them. They never forgave you for
that.”

“
Wow, I never knew. I'm sorry, I
didn't-”

Noelani interrupted, smiling benignly as she looked
off into the distance, “Oh, don’t worry about it, it's not your
fault. If it hadn't been you, it would have just been someone
else.”

Sonny and his gang sat lounging on the damp bus-stop
bench, some sitting, some leaning, another perched at the top with
his feet on the seat. Sonny passed the tarry brown roach to one of
them, who promptly popped it into his mouth as the unexpected sound
and unanticipated sight of the annoyingly familiar vehicle
approached.

Alani flew toward them in the yellow Jeep, tires
skidding and squealing on the damp pavement as she slid to a
stuttering halt. She leaned out the side of the Jeep and addressed
Sonny with a flat, emotionless tone, “Get in- now.”

“
What?
Why?
”

The anger swirling just below the
surface of her sharp, frozen features, Alani replied, “I
saw
you at the beach,
get-
in.”
Sonny
stalled, gang-style handshakes going around in convoluted
complexity until Alani interjected with a note of absolute
finality, “Sonny, God-dammit-
now!”

Sonny bounded into the Jeep with a twisted smirk,
his blood-shot eyes creasing in annoyance. “I'm comin' already!
Geez, Girl, what's your problem?”

Alani responded flatly,
“
I'm
not your
problem...”

Noelani continued, a broad smile creasing her smooth
brown face, “So, what else did you want to know?”

Chris scratched his head absently,
“Well, before she left, your- daughter- used a strange word-
strange to me, that is. She was talking about this store not being
work, that it was 'ohana'. What does
that
mean?”

Noelani looked off into the distance, gazing into
the direction that Alani had gone- and perhaps a bit beyond.
Noelani gestured vaguely around the store and replied, “She called
this 'ohana'? It is, of course, but- well-'Ohana' means 'family'-
if you take the meaning literal. But to us, 'ohana' is much more
than that- it includes everyone and everything that has to do with
the family. Ohana is…” And then she paused, trying to sum up the
simultaneously complex and simple concept to convey its’ meaning.
“Think of the Eastern notion of the extended family- mother,
father, grandparents, siblings. Now add in cousins, aunts, uncles,
and so on. The idea is as old as Hawaiian culture, older even than
that perhaps, extending to the entire village, the entire tribe.
Ohana is- was, necessary for survival in the old days. Nowadays, it
isn’t so much about actual survival, but the emotions and devotion
to family is still strong. You’ve heard the phrase ‘It takes a
village to raise a child?’ It’s the same for us, so everything that
affects the least of us affects us all. We still tend to keep
things to ourselves, even the bad things, and try to solve them as
a family, something we call ho’oponopono- for better or worse. So
for Alani, working here at the store, it's not really a job, you
know? It's just- life.”