Hilo March
“What do you mean, you don’t think the necklace is on this island?” Lei was stunned, frozen mid-stride.
Kaipo said nothing, simply watching her as she processed his words.
“Where would it be?” Lei wondered.
Kaipo gave her an exasperated look.
Lei snapped her hair band against her wrist. “Okay, are you thinking Maui? Oʻahu? Was the hawk gone long enough to make it all the way to Kauaʻi and back?”
Kaipo looked up at the building clouds in the deep blue sky, as if all this talk about ʻIo would conjure the massive bird. A mejiro hopped on a branch of one of the hāpuʻu ferns, singing its song to hidden friends.
“You can’t search all of the islands, Lei. Besides, I thought you were all, ‘I want to have fun this summer, tee-hee.’ ” His voice went high-pitched, and he fake giggled and tossed his head before resuming his scowl.
“I do not sound like that.” Lei turned away, eyes and naʻau stinging. Okay, so she had been a little…self-absorbed at the beginning of this trip. Things were different now. She was different now. A deep breath in through the nose helped her refocus.
When she faced Kaipo again, he was staring into the distance, but quickly turned back to her, masking his distraction. Interesting.
Lei forced a smile on her face. “Don’t worry about what I can or can’t do. I have some ideas.”
It took time to get Kaipo back in bed and convince Tūtū that leaving him for a bit to head to nearby Hilo would be okay. Lei still wasn’t completely positive that he’d be fine, but this was the only way she could think of to test out her new theory. She wondered if the pendant was creating some sort of noise that only Kaipo could hear, like a dog whistle but for ʻaumākua. If Kaipo wouldn’t give her answers, Lei would have to find a new way to experiment. Thankfully, she just so happened to know of someone with a shiny new pendant. She called Ilikea at the number the girl had left.
Lei listened to the ringing, her breath catching when it stopped.
When there was no greeting from the other end, she spoke up. “Hey, uh, Ili?”
“New phone, who dis?” the familiar voice said.
Lei rolled her eyes. “It’s Lei, Ili.”
“Which Lei? Lei the pediatrician? Lei the lifeguard? Or Lei that went back on her word?”
Lei glanced at Tūtū, who was getting her purse and bags ready for the farmer’s market. “Uh, none of the above? Lei with Kaipo.”
“Ah, back on her word.”
“What are you talking about? What word?” Lei shrugged when Tūtū looked at her.
“If you don’t know, I’m certainly not about to remind you.”
That was a puzzle Lei’d have to focus on another day. “We are coming to Hilo and I was wondering if I could meet you somewhere.”
“You’re coming? To Hilo? To see me?” Ilikea perked up like Lei said she’d take her to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
“Yeah.” Lei smiled at the change in attitude. At least someone would be happy to see her. “Tūtū’s gonna go to the farmer’s market and I wanted to talk to you. Would you be able to meet us there?”
“Have you tried to talk at the farmer’s market? Way too much chaos, especially for these sensitive ears, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be seen chatting with a bat, either. Just walk up that main road along the market to the cemetery. I’ll meet you there.”
“Cemetery?” Lei asked. But the line had already gone dead.
Hilo on a blue-sky day was as close to paradise on earth as you could get. Maunakea free of clouds, rising up beyond the bay, was a rare enough gift that Lei tried not to blink as it popped in and out of sight beyond the palm trees lining the main road into town. On the left were the arching bridges over the Wailoa River and big soccer fields filled with kids running, parents cheering, and coolers that were probably full of orange wedges and water bottles for after the games. At the massive banyan tree, they turned, heading away from the water to try their luck at finding a parking spot in the streets above the farmer’s market. The area was busy with people selling fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers, soaps, and crafts.
As Tūtū slid into a parking spot a few blocks away, Lei asked one more time, “You’re sure the cemetery is just up this road?”
“ʻAe. You going be fine. Jus’ go farther up da hill. Meet you back here in half hour,” Tūtū instructed. Then she took off down the hill in the direction of the market.
Lei smiled as she watched her tūtū’s no-nonsense hustle, which she saved for visits to town. Once she got Kaipo’s pendant back, they could sit on the porch and talk story without distractions. The sooner she tested this theory, the sooner Lei could find out if Tūtū ever had to face a moʻo. Maybe she’d even met Maui!
It was a steep climb inland, and soon sweat beaded at her hairline.
“Makani, I’d love a breeze.”
Makani swirled around her, pushing back all the frizzy, wispy hairs that had popped free from her ponytail.
“Thanks.” Lei held up her knuckles and smiled at the responding poof-bump of wind.
This far from the ocean she couldn’t smell the sea salt on the air. Instead, she smelled fresh-cut grass heating in the midmorning sun. A black lava-rock wall with a hedge above it was built adjacent to the sidewalk, obscuring the view to whatever lay beyond. Lei came to an asphalt driveway in a break in the lava wall. She was at the midpoint of a huge cemetery. A small white building stood on the left of the driveway, about a football field away.
Lei headed up the drive and turned to look back at the Pacific stretching out beyond the palm-lined shore of Hilo One. She could see the breakwater and make out the whitecaps of waves crashing into it. Beyond that, endless blue continued beyond the horizon. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out, her shoulders loosening. Other than a few birds chirping on the roof of the white building and the occasional car passing by, the area was quiet. Peaceful.
“Ili?” she whispered.
“Yeah?” came the response from right behind her.
Lei practically jumped out of her skin. She leaped back, clutching her heart.
“What’s wrong?” Ilikea asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She waggled her eyebrows and looked around. “Anyone I know?”
Lei’s heartbeat slowed to a survivable rate.
“Hardy har har.” She kept to a whisper to avoid offending any other spirits. After the past week, she was positive that she and Ilikea weren’t alone, no matter what it looked like. “Thanks for meeting me.”
“Of course, I’m just glad you remembered.” She smiled big, happier than Lei had seen her since their reunion.
“Remembered?” Lei asked. When did Ili ask to meet here?
Ilikea’s smile dropped and she crossed her arms. Uh-oh. What just happened?
“Why did you ask to meet?” Ili asked. The girl sounded as prickly as a puffer fish.
Lei chose her words carefully, which was tricky since she didn’t know exactly what she was trying to avoid saying. “You know how Kaipo’s been louder than normal?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, then he started putting tissue in his ears.”
“Kay.”
“And he’s always focusing on a wall or something off in the distance.”
“So?”
“So…” Lei took a breath, aware of how bizarre this might sound. “I think he’s hearing voices. And I was hoping that maybe they’re connected to his necklace.”
Ili’s eyes went all squinty. “Okaaaaaay. And you wanted to meet becauuuuuse…”
Because you have a necklace that I want to take and hide for a bit to test my theory. Probably not the best idea to lead with that. Ilikea was clearly upset over something. Jumping right out with the obvious wasn’t the way to go. Think.
“I’ve just been too close to him for too long. I think the solution is right there, but I needed to get away and relax for a bit so my brain wouldn’t try so hard.”
Mentioning her brain was a surefire way to get the old Ili to make a crack about her intelligence, and Lei wanted to get the girl back on her side. Luckily, Ili didn’t disappoint.
“I bet with the pounding you’ve given it the past couple days, it’s smoother than poi.”
Lei grinned. “Ha! Yeah, definitely feels like mush. Anyhoo, you and I haven’t hung out much since we got Kaipo back. I wanted to check in with you since you’ve graduated and see how you’re dealing with…” Lei gestured at Ili’s human form.
Ilikea relaxed her arms and considered Lei, as if trying to figure out if that was really all she was after. Then, making up her mind, she led them carefully through the manicured lawn, zigzagging between headstones, before turning left down another row and stopping. She never looked down, just kept her face to the ocean. Her frown melted away in Makani’s light breeze, causing the petals of her ever-present plumeria to flutter.
“It’s kinda wild,” Ilikea admitted. “I’ve been a flier for so long…I mean, not as long as Kaipo…but still, walking again? I have to be extra intentional.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I fly, getting from point A to point B can take a million different four-dimensional paths.”
“Don’t you mean three?”
Ilikea rolled her eyes. “There you go, thinking like a human again.”
“How’m I supposed to—”
“For flap’s sake, just listen. You’ve got the this-way axis”—Ilikea pointed out to the ocean in front of her with her right arm—“and the that-way axis.” Her left arm pointed straight out to the left, perpendicular to her right.
“Okay.”
“Then there’s the axis my spine is on. It runs through me, from the top of my poʻo down to my wāwae, and extends beyond just me, up till forever and down through it all.” Ilikea patted her head and kicked out her foot.
“Right, that’s three.”
“Still one more than you can venture on easily,” Ilikea said, pointedly looking up at a tree on the edge of the property.
“True, but you said four.”
“Time.”
“For what?”
“Who’s on first?” Ili asked.
Lei scrunched her eyebrows at the random question.
Ili rolled her eyes. “Famous comedy act. Look it up sometime.” She waved her hand and got back on topic. “Time is the fourth. You know when you have that gut feeling that tells you if something isn’t right, or urges you to do something?”
Lei nodded.
“That’s the puka in time that allows you to hear from your kūpuna, your ancestors.”
Lei rubbed her forehead, trying to keep track of the conversation. “So there are holes in time, which is the fourth dimension, but the one that you miss as a human is the up-down one?”
“Wings, girly. Flapping awesome.” The girl spread her arms, looked at her hands, then sighed, letting them drop. “But Kaukahi says my wing-wind messes with her fabric, so since I’ve graduated, I try to keep it to two legs for her.”
“Kaukahi?” A light bulb went off in Lei’s brain. “Oh! You said there was a girl, your descendant, you want me to talk to, right? You mentioned she had a bit of trouble believing the moʻolelo, too? I’m so there. I still have the scar on my back I can show her and everything.”
So that’s why Ilikea was so annoyed the other day. She wanted help. And finally, it was something Lei felt good about helping with. One tiny thing she could show to Kaipo and say, “See, I’m not a complete screwup.” She could almost feel the knot in her belly loosen.
Then Lei realized what Ili said. “Wait, she already knows you’re a bat? I thought you said she didn’t believe?”
Ili folded her arms again. “Did I or did I not just nearly get my wings burnt off for you? You want to argue or actually help?”
“Help,” Lei answered with a very serious face to show Ilikea just how perfect for this task she’d be. “Definitely help. So…how exactly does she not believe?”
Ilikea rubbed the back of her arm and refused to meet Lei’s eyes. “It’s not so much an ‘I don’t believe you’re real’ as it is an ‘I don’t believe you’re helpful.’ ”
Her dejected voice pulled on Lei’s heartstrings, but the back of her mind was still fixated on Kaipo’s tiny hourglass of sand draining away until he was a rotten kuewa.
Lei tried to come up with the proper response, but saying “I’m sure she didn’t mean it” when Lei didn’t know the full story seemed wrong.
Ilikea cleared her throat and straightened her back. “Well, are we gonna stand around till we become ghosts ourselves? Let’s go to her place and I’ll introduce you. Everything’ll make a lot more sense when you meet her.”
One little side trip, Lei thought. She’d make a believer out of Kaukahi, win Ilikea’s approval, then Lei could ask about the pendant. One step closer to winning Kaipo’s forgiveness. Lei followed Ili with a bounce in her step.