Authors Note: I'd like to thank all of you that have been patiently awaiting the next installment. Allow me to apologize for this chapter, as well. It isn't written as well as the majority of the other chapters, but a lot of its more... Boring as well. It gets a lot better and a LOT more interesting near the end. This, my friends, is where the story truly begins. Finally, I can begin with the plot! Anyway, thanks again... I hope you enjoy!
The restaurant wasn't quite what he expected it to be. Granted, he wasn't entirely sure what he'd expected, but it certainly hadn't been this.It was well past nine o'clock, but the sun still hung on the western horizon, blazon orange light reflecting off the ocean so brightly that it hurt to look at it. When he did dare a glance to the waters, he could see the soft tickle of light, creating an underwater world of diamonds. He wondered idly if perhaps, this was the beauty all people came here to find. Then, he wondered, if even the tourists attractions in the state had a view like this. Somehow, thinking of all their cement sky scrapers and modern conveniences, he doubted it. And if they did have views like this, he doubted even more that anyone stopped to notice often.
Hale 'Aina was small when comparing it to the restaurants that Elijah usually dined it, but when looking at the other shops adorning the street in small patches, it was absolutely enormous. Easily the largest building in the town, sans the mansion he'd seen two days ago on a walk, and the motel that he was staying in.
It wasn't in terrible shape, but one could see the years written plainly on its weathered finishing, had one chosen to look. Paint, once yellow, it seemed, had pealed away, leaving only small spots of color that now seemed out of place. The roof was caving in slightly, and he could see where someone had patched it several times. He smiled. Whoever it was, hadn't done such a great job. The shingles of those few places, dark brown instead of the normal black, were already beginning to peal away, most being held in place by one or two staples. They'd be gone in the next rainstorm, if the weather here was anything like the locals had said it was.
Billy came up behind him, smiling, and smacked him on the back. "I can't wait. It'll be my first time trying Hawaiian food, you know."
Elijah laughed. "And if its anything like what I've heard, it'll probably be the last time, too."
Elijah pulled the door open. Inside, the restaurant was brightly lit by lamps stretching across the ceiling, hanging only by tarnished brass chains; the bulbs were covered by stained glass shades of various hues of blue, green and purple. Tables were set at random intervals from one another, and two of the walls were adorned by wooden booths with no cushioning. The tables themselves were a trip, made of bamboo and palm tree branches. Elijah couldn't help but wonder why they'd chosen bamboo... Wasn't that Chinese?
A Hawaiian woman wearing a white tank top with a button down Hawaiian t-shirt (unbuttoned) came up to them. She smiled at them, white teeth glistening in the light. "Aloha, and welcome to Hale 'Aina. I'm Liza, and I'll be your server for the night. Smoking or non?"
She was a little more heavy set than Elijah had become used to seeing in this paradise of bikini women. Her hair was also beginning to turn gray around the roots, though she hadn't really made much of an effort to hide it. Her face, however, was still free of wrinkles, aside from the ones by her eyes when she smiled. She seemed to be about his mother's age, he assumed.
'Land Lover Liza,', Elijah thought to himself. Had it been Ao or Raven that had told him about her? She had grown up in the small town, her parents inheriting the restaurant from her father's parents. It was destined, someday, to be Liza's as well, the entire town knew it. Liza, however, had always had the dream to go to the mainland, and to become an attorney maybe, or a doctor. Her parents refused to give her the money, though, and so she'd lived on the islands since, working here, at the family restaurant very begrudgingly, so the story said.
He wondered if being able to attach local-town gossip to the face was a good or bad sign. He decided it probably didn't mean much.
"Non," Sean replied immediately, shooting Elijah a triumphant, slightly mocking look. Elijah shrugged.
"Yeah, I hear ya, buddy." He replied, following Land Lover Liza to a booth. He scootched in first, Billy and Dom behind him. Across from him, Sean, Zach, and Orlando sat, speaking animatedly to one another. Liza waited patiently, her smile never faltering, as she waited for them to get situated.
Once they were all sitting, and had glanced quickly over their menus, she asked them for drinks. As Elijah was ordering, the last to do so, there was the crash of plates from somewhere off to his left. Liza stood straight up, her mind registering after a moment. A few minutes later, Elijah could hear a stream of garbled words he didn't understand coming from the same direction. Odd how cursing holds the same tone in every language.
"One moment, please." Liza's voice was pinched, her eyes had turned hard and cold, but she still smiled.
Elijah figured she probably wasn't all she appeared to be. Though she seemed kind enough (she made him think of his mother, and of warm apple cobbler she used to make him when he was a kid), he had the nagging feeling that she was more of a mercenary.
Her smile was still there.
She turned sharply on her heal, her back rigid. Billy looked to Dom, Dom to Orlando, Orlando to Elijah, Elijah to Zach, and Zach to Sean. In the exact instant that Liza disappeared behind the swinging white door to the kitchen, they laughed. They weren't entirely sure WHY they were laughing; perhaps it was because they, too (being actors), were used to wearing smiles they didn't feel, and changing their body language to adapt to a situation. Maybe they found it funny that she couldn't hold onto her façade (after all, it was obvious she hated serving... Elijah had the distinct feeling that she hated people all together), or perhaps broken glassware just amused them.
Whatever the reason, they laughed.
"Ao! Take table four! It's your pupule po'e maka 'ika makamaka!" Liza's voice was shrill, now, and began grating on Elijah's nerves. He sighed.
Ao walked out of the kitchen, her face a crestfallen mess. Her hair was undone from its normal braid, hanging loosely down to her hips. A few strands fell across her face. Too lazy, or too tired, perhaps, to move them with her hand, she blew at them until they fluttered back into place.
"Hey, Orlando, what did Liza say?" Dom looked at Orlando a moment, watching as he took a long sip of the water that was already sitting on the table.
"Damn, I wish she'd get back here with our drinks... I'm thirsty." He took another sip. "Anyway, 'pupule'... I don't know that one, but I know that 'po'e maka 'ika' is tourists. And Makamaka is..."
"Friends." Ao finished for him, standing next to their table. "And 'pupele' is crazy. Crazy tourists friends. Anyhow, here are you're drinks... I'm not sure who ordered, what, though..." She placed all of the cups on the table, and each hand went forth to take the corresponding cup.
"What can I get you to eat?" Dom decided on a burger, Billy on a plate of spaghetti, with a side of poi ("Why come to a new place if you won't sample their eats, eh?"), and Zach, Sean, and Orlando decided to split a large pizza between them.
"What do you suggest?" Elijah asked, only half serious.
"The shrimp scampi's good... And really cheap, too." Ao brushed the same strands from early away from her face; annoyed, now.
Dom snorted laughter into his drink. "Yes, since little Elijah has to worry about money..." he said quietly, but the table had heard. Billy shot him a sharp elbow to his ribs. Dom coughed loudly a moment, rubbing his side. "Now that wasn't very nice..." He grimaced at Billy, who rolled his eyes in return.
Ao smiled. "Even the wealthiest can save a little money. In my experience, it's the wealthiest who usually like to save the MOST money. Penny pinchers. Emi."
"Cheap," Orlando replied for her, showing off his fairly extensive vocabulary, considering he'd only been around the culture a week. He watched her a moment, and shot her one of his most beautiful smiles. She smiled back, which he took for a good sign. "I'll have the shrimp scampi."
"I'll have the same," Elijah replied, folding his menu and handing it to her. "Sounds great."
"It is... It's my favorite here." She took his menu, then the others. Orlando allowed his hand to brush hers for the briefest of moments before she took the laminated plastic (it was, after all, all they could really afford). Ao didn't seem to notice, and if she had, she hid it quite well.
Dinner came and went, no extraordinary happenings.
As Ao brought the bill out to them, however, the silver bell hanging above the door of the restaurant tinkled, and Ioukua came through, flanked on both sides by friends. To his left was Kilika, and to his right, Kewena. Behind him, standing tentatively, almost as if he didn't belong, was Maleko. Ao smiled at them as they approached the table. Kilika gave her a hug, picking her up and swinging her around.
It was only Elijah who saw Orlando's lips curl slightly with distaste.
Kilika set her down, and Ioukua stepped forward. "We're heading to the Cove... Want to come?"
Ao shot a glance at Kilika, who avoided her gaze, suddenly very interested in the floor boards. "I... I don't know that I feel up for it tonight, thanks though." She paused, looking down at her feet, watching as the right one began to scratch at the back of her left leg. "I mean, I want to surf tomorrow, and I haven't had much sleep lately, so..."
"Yeah, no problem." Kewena replied, smiling at her. Elijah didn't think he liked the smile; didn't think he liked Kewena, but he sat still, not saying anything. Kewena looked at the table. "You guys want to tag along?
There was a sharp intake of breath; Elijah couldn't tell if it had been Ao or Kilika, however. He watched both, but neither said or did anything further.
"What's the Cove?" Billy asked, eyeing Kewena suspiciously. Kewena hadn't yet been overly friendly to them.
"Oh! It's the greatest place on the island!" Maleko replied for his cousin. Somehow, Maleko replying made Elijah feel a little more secure; a little less played with. "It's like a pond in the middle of a forest, and there's a waterfall, and it's so clean... We'll have a fire there, and play some guitar... It's so much le' ale' a." Hawaiian sounded odd, and out of place coming from this mousy blond boy, whom Elijah would've assumed, had he not known better, had come from some East border state, like Rhode Island, or Massachusetts, perhaps. The words, however, were pronounced flawlessly, and it was obvious that in his years of being on the island, he had acquired the language skills quite well.
Elijah raised an eyebrow to Orlando, who replied under his breath "fun. It means fun."
Elijah wasn't so sure it'd be fun. Kilika and Ao, perhaps the only two people he'd even begun to get to know, didn't seem too fond of the idea. Both were watching him and the others, their eyes wide, waiting with what seemed bated breath. However, as soon as Elijah saw the way Dom's, Orlando's, and Zach's eyes had lit up, he knew that they were going. His friend's had been sold.
Sean, however, shook his head. "I can't make it. I fly back tomorrow, at like, four in the morning. I just want to get home and see my wife and kid... I'd rather just reading tonight."
That was right. Elijah had forgotten that Sean was only spending the first week with them. Perhaps that would be enough of an excuse to get them all out...
"Well, I want to go!" Dom stood, along with Zach, Billy, and Orlando. Sean eyed Elijah a moment, a unison look of apprehension passing between the two.
"I think I'll stay with Sean..."
"Nonsense!" Dom cried, much louder than he really needed to. "You guys need to come. We'll make Sean's last night here a blast... You'll see." He grabbed Elijah and Sean by the wrists, and looked back to Kewena. "We're in." He shot his friends a glance. "All of us."
Elijah was certain he saw something flicker in Ao's eyes. As soon as he saw it, though, it was gone again, and he heard her saying that maybe she'd come, but only for a little while.
So Ao punched out, the group began to leave. Kilika and Ao hung at the back, speaking Hawaiian in hushed undertones. Every once in a while, Orlando would understand a word or two, but not enough to make sense of what they were saying.
* * * * *
Ao grimaced. "Au a'ole mamake ia. 'Oia 'ole pono ia laua!" Ao watched Kilika a moment, seeing what his response would be. Roughly translated, she'd said "I don't like this... It's not fair to them."
Kilika didn't say anything right away. The moon was just barely rising as they made they're way through town, their feet scuffling over the sand roads. He sighed. He looked silver in the moonlight, and serious. She wondered if that was the moonlight, or if the unthinkable had happened; that Kilika was worried. He looked at the group, which was quite a ways ahead of them by now. They'd spoken in Hawaiian because the tourists (yes, he still called them such, but not in the same way everyone else did. Truth be told, he liked them. He knew he was in the minority.) had tried to listen in at first. He'd seen Orlando (or at least he'd thought that one was Orlando) try to listen in on that, as well. Now, though, it seemed that they'd given up on trying to understand what they were saying. They didn't seem to be listening anymore.
"I know it's not fair, Ao. It really never is. It wasn't fair that we got sucked in either..."
"We don't have to be, Kilika... We could still..."
"Ao, no we couldn't. You know that." He paused, taking in a deep breath. The air seemed cool tonight; cold to a Hawaiian. He shivered. "I almost wonder if..."
"Wonder what?" Ao asked, when his paused has stretched on too long.
"I almost wonder... I almost have a feeling... You know the book?"
Of course Ao knew the book. She nodded.
"I just wonder if now that they're here," Kilika snapped his head in Elijah's direction, "if our story is going to begin to turn out like all the others."
Ao and Kilika were silent the rest of the way.
* * * * *
The path to Paradise Cove, as Maleko had been calling it all the way there, wasn't an easy one. At the edge of town, where the road began to narrow into nothing more than a dirt trail, Kewena, who was leading the way, turned off it, to the right. They crossed a field, full of grass that came up to Elijah's waste, and some various wildflowers that he couldn't place. The moonlight bathed the area in a silky, off white glow. The night didn't seem to get as dark here as it did back by the beach, and at the motel. He wondered if he was imagining that or not.
He hadn't realized they were walking on another, though much smaller, path until it forked. The way to the left began to turn to hill, though it didn't rise very far from what he could see. The right looked twisty and turny, and somewhere up ahead, so far off yet that he could hardly see it, he thought he saw what looked like a forest.
Another twenty minutes of walking through the field proved him right. Soon, they were walking through a shroud of trees and undergrowth so thick that he doubted anyone could see them from outside it. In fact, he would've guaranteed it. On more than one occasion, a tree limb had grabbed at him, and once it had torn his shirt. He hoped this place would be worth it.
He looked over his shoulder, and saw Kilika and Ao still talking. They didn't seem themselves here. He wondered why.
Finally, the trees began to clear a little, and he could hear rushing water somewhere in front of him. Dom and Orlando took off at a dead run, and he could hear one of them shout back "Holy shit! This is awesome! Zach! Elijah! Sean! Billy! You guys gotta hurry... This is great!" He heard two large splashes, and smiled to himself.
Finally, he was there to. He felt his mouth drop open at the sight before him. It wasn't just a pond, but a lagoon. The water must've been easily twenty to thirty feet deep, and so clear and clean that he could see to the very bottom. He looked up above the lagoon itself, and saw a waterfall feeding into it. As he looked to the right, he saw a small river leading away from it.
The waterfall fell through a gaping hole in the mountain, which still went up a few hundred more feet. The waterfall itself was probably twenty feet or so from the water.
Next to the river, he could see a fire pit, and sitting next to it, just as Maleko had promised, a guitar. With the guitar, he saw some hot dogs and buns, a bowl of poi (which Billy had assured them was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten. "It tastes like chalk and Elmer's glue!" he'd told them), some make shift seats made of logs, and leather-bound book that reminded him of a diary his sister used to have, only this one was much thicker, and much larger in general.
There were also signs placed around the lagoon as well. Two read "Pukui Cove", another "Vaugn Cove". There were a total of nine signs, and Elijah was reminded of the little 'group' he'd befriended at the beach; Ao, Ioukua, Kilika, Raven, Kei, Maleko, Kala, Linohau, and Kewena. He assumed one sign must be for each person.
Finally, after soaking up the scenery, he took one final step into the cove.
"Mai Pa'ani, lilo 'uhane, hie keia houna ho'okalakupuna moe'uhane... Ola kou ola kohu kou mehe ina na me apua 'oe 'ike 'ole pahea la ia nana."
The thought shot through him like a bolt of electricity. He doubled over, feeling an actual physical pain from the words that were repeating themselves over and over and over again in his head. He put one hand on his head, and steadied himself against a tree with the other.
Ao placed a hand on his shoulder, which only increased the feeling... This horrible, nauseating feeling. He pulled away from her, feeling as if he just may be sick...
"I know, Lij." It was the first time she hadn't called him Elijah. He looked at her. Her eyes were darker than they normally were. She offered him a small smile, but it didn't look real, not real at all.
"How do you... How..." He took a breath, and pushed himself up, the pain not so much fading, but he was beginning to get more accustomed to it. He took a deep breath. "Know what?" He asked her.
"The Voice." She replied simply, and again, she offered him a smile. "We all know it... Only we know what it means. Be glad that you don't. Maybe it won't hurt you if you don't." She turned, and half ran half walked to the lagoon-to Paradise Cove-and dove in.
Elijah straightened up entirely, and followed after her, the voice ever speaking in his mind. The pain wasn't so much pain anymore; he was getting more and more used to it. He figured he must've eaten some bad shrimp at the restaurant.
Still, though, that didn't explain why his mind was speaking to him in tongues he didn't know.
"Mai Pa'ani, lilo 'uhane, hie keia houna ho'okalakupuna moe'uhane... Ola kou ola kohu kou mehe ina na me apua 'oe 'ike 'ole pahea la ia nana."
~*~
