Kiss of the Wind

By Rosa Lee Loyd

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Chapter 2

Synopsis: Luana Harrington, her husband Ben, his mother Tutu, and the children, Philip, Pixie, Bo, and Benjy, who hve on a pineapple plantation on the island of Maui, plan to go to Honolulu to meet the eldest daughter in the family, Emma Lu, who has graduated as a nurse in San Francisco, and is returning home.

Benjy ran around the table to Luana and put his head on her shoulder.

“Mama,” he whispered. “Did I do something wrong? I didn’t know Bo drew the picture. Honest, Mama.”

“No, dear,” Luana soothed him, holding him closely. “It wasn’t drawing the picture of Drucie that was so wrong, although that is a very unkind thing to do. But letting Charlie take the blame is very, very wrong.”

Philip looked at his wrist watch. He shrugged his shoulders, significantly.

Pixie said in a soft little voice, “I’ll stay home with Bo, if Daddy won’t let him go.”

Tutu said quickly, “No, dear. I will stay. I have seen the ship come in many times. I don’t want you to miss it.”

The door opened. Bo followed his father back to the table. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they looked at them. Bo was smiling.

“Bo and I decided that he owes Charlie an apology. Also Miss Carson and his classmates. But we also decided that he will take care of that tomorrow at school. Today we’ll all go to meet Emma Lu when the big white ship comes in!”

“Goodie!” Benjy yelled. “Oh, goodie, Daddy!”

“Thanks,” Luana murmured.

Ben looked at Philip. “Bring the station wagon to the side door so Tutu won’t have to go down the steps,” he said kindly. “We’re dining at the Halekulani.”

“Hurray!” Pixie jumped to her feet. “The Halekulani is my favorite place. I’ll order stuffed fish. No diet for me today!”

“You can climb the ladder on shipside, can’t you?” Benjy asked Tutu.

Tutu shook her head. “I’m too old to climb ladders, Benjy. I’ll wait on the pier while you all go out in the launch.”

“Let’s get the show on the road,” Phil called impatiently from the doorway. “We have to be at the airport in twenty-five minutes and it’s ten miles away. Planes won’t wait — even for the Harringtons!”

At three o’clock, Luana stood on the pier in Honolulu, watching with her family as the great white liner from San Francisco moved majestically across the water near Diamond Head. Thev were waiting for a launch to take them out to meet the ship.

“Oh, Mama! Just look! The whole world is a fairvland,” Pixie exclaimed.

“I am looking, dear,” Luana answered. “The color, the music, the laughing, singing people. I love it all!”

“And the leis!” Tutu said gaily. “I have never seen such leis in all my years. And flowers in everyone’s hair!”

“It’s like seeeing the rainbow come to life,” Luana said, ecstatically. “I could dance on the waves, Tutu.”

Ben drew her arm through his, holding her hand tightly. “I remember the first time you saw all this,” he whispered. “It was part of our honeymoon.”

Luana could hardly breathe for joy. She put her hands out, reaching upward.

“Ben — it’s raining!”

“Why sure!” he laughed. “Who objects to a little liquid sunshine. That’s part of Hawaii.”

“The Hawaiian girls on that launch will get their ti-leaf skirts wet,” Pixie cried.

“They don’t care,” Phil laughed. “Look — here’s our launch. Come on, family!”

All of them but Tutu hurried down the long wooden ramp into the waiting launch. She waited on the pier.

“Here goes!” a passenger beside Luana called out as he tossed several coins into the churning waters surrounding the big ship. Hawaiian boys, their bronze bodies bobbing about, watched the coins strike the water, making bubbles as they sank — dollars, dimes, quarters. Squealing and pushing each other, the boys dived after them, stuffing them in their cheeks as they grabbed them.

“I miss the sea gulls in these waters,” Luana said to Ben. “I thought they were in every harbor in the world.”

“Not here,” Ben explained. “They don’t like Hawaiian waters. They were brought here once, but died of homesickness, folks said. We have plenty of birds, though. Look at those frigate birds sliding across the water now. Aren’t they graceful?”

“Well — yes,” Luana admitted. “But I love the sea gulls best.”

“Of course you do,” Ben said. “I love them, too, because they were an answer to prayer when the saints needed help.”

A huge plane roared across the sky. Benjy and Bo leaned their heads back, following it with their eyes.

“That’s a multi-engine jet,” Phil told them. “Boy, is it fast!”

“Faster than a dart,” Bo said, his voice awestruck.

“Or this,” Benjy said, knifing his hand through the air. “Can we fly again with you and Larry, Phil? Bo says Larrv’s stuck on Emma Lu, doesn’t he, Phil?”

Philip glared at his little brothers sitting opposite him. “Suppose he is,” he clipped. “That’s his business. You talk too much.”

“They sure do,” Pixie agreed.

Luana, listening to them, met Ben’s eyes. He had heard, too. She knew that he was thinking Larry Brown would have to settle down if he wanted Emma Lu. He was a pilot for Transocean Airlines now. He and Emma Lu had been schoolday sweethearts, but she had been away for three years. She would be grown up and professional now. She had not asked about Larry in her letters for a long time.

“Climb on,” Phil yelled as the launch came to shipside.

“Me first!” Bo started up the ladder after Phil. Benjy followed, then Pixie, Luana, and Ben.

The air was full of music and laughter. Dozens of Hawaiian girls, carrying armfuls of leis were dancing through the crowds, singing and swaying to the music. Luana breathed the odor of a sweet ginger lei as a girl, with flowing black hair, draped it around her neck.

“Aloha!” The girl flashed her white smile. “Happy, happy aloha!”

“Aloha to you,” Luana answered. “Thank you very much. I love the ginger flower.”

Then they saw Emma Lu pushing her way through the crowds of people with outstretched arms, eyes glowing.

Her brothers were the first to meet her. Phil swept her off her feet in his strong young arms.

Benjy said, “We’ve got a surprise for you, Emma Lu. We waited for you to name him.”

Then she was kissing Luana, hugging Ben and Pixie, and smiling through her tears.

Emma Lu was as tall as Luana, a bright, efficient looking girl, fresh as the morning. Only her dark eyes showed she was capable of deep feeling.

“I’m so glad to be home!” she breathed. “How I love it!” She included everything with a wide sweep of her hand. “My own part of America. Hawaii. And I brought a surprise. Wait right here!”

She rushed into the crowd and came back with a fair-haired, laughing young woman in her thirties, Margaret Lester, Luana’s sister-in-law.

“Margaret!” Luana gasped. “How wonderful! Did Tom come with you?”

He’ll come later,” Margaret answered. “IVe come to paint the town with you, Luana. I mean that. Thev tell me Hawaii is the most beautiful spot in the world. I want to put it on canvas.”

“We’ll have a grand time,” Luana said, remembering the fine paintings that Margaret had done.

Ben said, heartily, “This is a real treat, Margaret. Luana hasn’t seen you since we went to the Mainland when you and Tom were married.”

“Ten years ago!” she laughed. “Tom will be here as soon as he can arrange it.” Her voice softened wistfully. “We want you and Luana to go through the Temple at Laie with us.”

“We’ll try to,” Ben said.

“Where’s Tutu?” Emma Lu asked, looking around. “Why isn’t she here?”

“She’s waiting on the pier,” Ben explained.

Benjy said, “She can’t climb ladders. She says she’s half dead.”

“Benjy!” Ben looked at him, reprovingly. “Your Grandmother is forever young in heart. Think of her that way.”

“He doesn’t ever think,” Bo said, disgustedly. “He just talks.”

“No one is ever old in Hawaii,” Emma Lu interrupted. “This is the land of eternal youth.”

Margaret was looking at the twins with the old yearning in her eyes. Luana felt her heart reach out to her. Margaret and Tom had been married ten years, and still no babies.

“You are the cutest boys I ever saw,” Margaret said as she stooped to kiss each tanned cheek. “Emma Lu is so proud of you. She told me you are both deacons now and pass the sacrament.”

“Let’s show Aunt Margaret the town,” Pixie suggested.

“When do we surf-ride?” Phil interrupted.

“Right away,” Ben said. “You can drive us to the beach as soon as we dock.”

“Oh, look!” Benjy yelled, “There is Aloha Tower, Aunt Margaret. Look how pink it is.”

“It is pink!” she answered, rapturously. “Pinker than frosting on a cake.”

“Pinker than a monkey’s tongue,” Bo said.

“Pinker than the rainbow,” Pixie breathed.

The big white liner came slowly to port. They all watched as the sailors threw the heavy ropes that the workmen below fastened to the huge iron stanchions on the pier. Then they hurried down the ramp to where Tutu was waiting for them, holding the Roselani lei she had made for Emma Lu.

“Aloha, my darling,” she whispered, as Emma Lu hugged her tenderly. “I have been waiting for this day. It would be more than I could bear to part with you again.”

Luana, watching them, saw the sudden shadow in Emma Lu’s eyes. She was keeping some secret from them, Luana thought, with a mother’s intuition.

Emma Lu swung Tutu’s hands as she used to do when she was a little girl several years ago.

“Aloha to you, darling Tutu!” she sang out gaily. “This is my happy day, too. I love the Roselani lei the best of all. And you remembered!”

“This is Lei Day, Aunt Margaret,” Benjy told her. “Know how I remember when Lei Day is coming? May Day is Lei Day,” he chanted. “Our teacher told us Don Blanding was a poet, and he gave us this idea in 1928. Everybody in all our seven Hawaiian Islands has to wear a lei. All except Kahoolawe maybe, because that island is only a target practice island for the Navy and the Marines. We even have cowboys in Hawaii, Aunt Margaret. They wear leis on Lei Day.”

Ben smiled. He patted Benjy’s head as they walked along.

“Fm depending on you boys, and Pixie, too, and Philip, to give your Aunt Margaret a real story about Hawaii while she is our visitor.”

“I want to show her the lolani Palace,” Pixie said. “It’s the only palace on American soil, Aunt Margaret.”

“I can hardly wait,” Margaret answered.

“Here we are,” Ben said, as he opened the door of the big car they had rented. “We always leave our own car at the Maui airport. Phil, you drive. We’ll let Tutu and Margaret sit up front with you. The boys and I will take these jumpseats in the middle. Mama and Emma Lu and Pixie can have the back seat all to themselves. All set?”

“You can rent anything over here. Aunt Margaret,” Philip told her as they cruised along King Street. “One big company bought all the war surplus jeeps and rents them out to visitors. One company painted them pink and put fringe on top. They’re keen for mountain travel. Look, Dad, we better explain directions here in Honolulu to Aunt Margaret, so she’ll never get lost.”

“Let me. Daddy,” Bo said. “I know how.”

Ben nodded, and Bo went on: “Everyone says ‘Mauka’ if they mean toward the mountains. They say ‘Makai’ if they mean toward the sea. If they want to go toward the big sugar mill west of Honolulu, they say ‘Evoa.’ Only it’s spelled ‘E-W-A.’ And if they want to go toward the beach, they say ‘Waikiki!’ “

“Well done!” Ben said. “I couldn’t have done a better job, son. You have a very good teacher.”

“Tutu taught us,” Bo said, smiling proudly at his grandmother.

“She’s the best teacher in the whole world,” Benjy chimed in.

Tutu turned to look at them. Her faded cheeks pinked up and her eyes twinkled, but her voice was humble.

“I am not informed on the new teaching methods, boys. I am sure you have a fine teacher at your school. But I do know my Hawaii from the tops of the volcanoes to the coral beaches and the blue, blue sea. ‘Ask me of Hawaii,’” she quoted, “‘I will tell you of islands so ravishingly beautiful it is like living in a flower, though snow may cap their lofty mountain peaks.’”

“I love it already,” Margaret told her. “And the people are so friendly looking, all smiling. See them over there, every kind in the world!”

“That’s right;’ Phil agreed. “In that crowd on the corner, there are Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Tahitians, and that tall man is Portuguese.”

“But they are all completely, passionately American, Margaret,” Ben said. “We call the undiluted Caucasians Haoles. They are only about twenty per cent of the population.”

“What’s a Caucasian, Daddy?” Benjy wanted to know.

“You’re one, stupid!” Bo whispered.

“But I’ve never seen so many kinds of people all in one city,” Margaret said.

“You’ll get used to it,” Ben told her. “You’ll soon realize they are your countrymen. Hawaii is a true democracy.”

Wait until you hear them sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’” Tutu murmured. “Then you will be sure they are all Americans.”

“Or, ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints!’” Luana chimed in from the back seat. “A good many are Latter-day Saints.”

“Let’s show Aunt Margaret the statue of old Kamehameha on the next corner,” Bo suggested. “He was the first big powerful king of all the islands. Aunt Margaret,” he went on dramatically, as Phil drove slowly past the statue. “Eight chiefs threw their spears at him all at once …”

“He was super-king,” Benjy interrupted. “He dodged two spears, knocked three out of his way, and caught the other three in his hands!”

“Let me tell her!” Bo cried. “Daddy, make Benjy let me tell my own stories. He always butts in.”

Ben smiled indulgently at his twin boys.

“I know, Bo. But Benjy is ten minutes older than you are. Forgive him for trying to keep ahead of you. And, remember, we can’t tell Aunt Margaret everything at once.”

As the conversation and the sightseeing went on, Luana and Emma Lu were talking together in low whispers.

“I know. Mama,”’ Emma Lu was saying breathlessly. “I should have written home about it. But you know how we Harringtons love surprises.”

“But Emma Lu, an engagement is so serious. Your Father should have been consulted before you promised to marry anyone.”

“Oh, Mama, I love him so. I’m sure you will, too,” Emma Lu protested. “And I’ve only been engaged since last week. There’s hardly been time to consult with vou. Look, Mama …”

She lifted a gold chain around her throat. A diamond ring dangled from it.

“I won’t wear it until you and Daddy approve,” she said. “Will you ask Daddy for me. Mama?”

Luana looked at her husband, laughing with his twin boys. He was devoted to his family. There was no sacrifice he would not make for them. But he demanded their respect and obedience in return.

“No, Emma Lu,” Luana answered in a quiet voice. “You must tell him yourself. He would expect you to do that.”

(To be continued)