JoAnn Bassett - Islands of Aloha 07 - Moloka'i Lullaby by JoAnn Bassett Read Free Book Online Page A

softly stirred the branches of the Norfolk Pines lining the airport access road.
    “It’s almost spooky,” I said.
    The doors to the Geo were unlocked, so we stashed our stuff in the back and began a search for the keys. We checked the tops of the front tires and under the mats in the back seat. We even rummaged through the trunk. No luck.
    Hatch climbed into the driver seat and there they were—dangling from the ignition switch. The keychain was a single ring, decorated with a thumb-size Hawaiian warrior helmet made from the tough outer shell of a kukui nut.
    “I guess they weren’t worried about someone stealing the car,” I said.
    We both laughed.
    “The guys at the station told me that’s how they roll over here,” Hatch said. “Welcome to the land of ‘no worries’.”
    We drove out of the lot and I felt a flutter in my stomach. The last time I’d been to one of Maui County’s remote islands—Lana’i—I’d been alone and running for my life. Now I was with Hatch, leisurely checking out a part of my home state that I’d inadvertently ignored. I felt at peace, and secretly grateful to Amanda and Richard for giving me a reason to explore Moloka’i, the “most Hawaiian” island.
    I was pretty sure the wedding venue was going to turn out to be beautiful, and Hatch and I were getting along better than ever. Everything was falling neatly into place. After three years of shocking news and unforeseen tragedies, it was about time I got cut a break.
    Finally. I felt as if the black cloud of calamity was moving on, leaving me with nothing but blue skies ahead.
     

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 7
     
    In my discussion with Sifu Doug I’d learned there was only one town on the island: the small town of Kaunakakai, on the south side. It was about a twenty-minute drive from the airport. Since my primary objective of this initial visit was to line up as many local vendors as possible, Hatch and I had agreed it would be best for us to get a place in town for our short stay.
    The drive from the airport into town was downhill and uneventful. There were few cars on the road, and the passing scenery was mostly open fields or stands of trees: kiawe , and Cook and Norfolk Pine, along with a smattering of towering ironwoods. Once we got down to the coastal road, we passed a few modest houses with spacious yards, but even near the beach, there was nary a shopping mall or high rise in sight.
    We drove by a thick grove of coconut palms. They were some of the tallest I’d ever seen, but a few looked pretty scraggly. Toward the west end of the grove, some of trees were missing their crowns, making them look like sway-back telephone poles. They’d apparently taken a hit, either by time or high winds.
    I squinted at a brown wooden sign as we drove by. It said, “Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove.”
    “Wow,” I said. “Have you ever seen so many palms in one place?”
    “This grove was planted in the 1860’s, by order of King Kamehameha the Fifth,” said Hatch. “Apparently they planted a thousand trees here.”
    “Where did you hear that?” I said.
    “I read it on a website back at the station. I was looking to see if there were any good surf beaches over here.”
    “And are there?”
    “Yeah, but they’re mostly on the west side. In the winter the waves are huge.”
    We took a left at a gas station and went into town. I was surprised to see Kaunakakai was much smaller, and a lot less hectic, than Pa’ia.
    We drove four short blocks past worn wooden buildings with false fronts and small, dark windows. There was a stucco government-style building with cop cars in the parking lot at the far end of town, across from a school with a well-maintained ball field. Beyond that, the town dwindled to a few blocks of small homes with tidy yards. 
    “Was that the whole town?” Hatch said.
    “I guess so,” I said.
    “Where is everybody?”
    “There are only about seven thousand people on the whole island,” I said.
    “Yeah, but