Mistwalker by Terri Farley Read Free Book Online Page B

outside caught Darby’s attention. Mrs. Martindale and a man with salt-and-pepper hair, probably her husband, were waving, and Mark Larson, the TV reporter, was trying to get Aunt Babe’s attention.
    Kit and Cricket were there, too, checking out a long table of drinks and pastries, and Darby missed most of what Aunt Babe was saying until someone called Aunt Babe to the phone.
    â€œWhile I take this call, why don’t you go see Patrick. He’ll help you with your leis.” Aunt Babe paused to touch the gold chain of Darby’s new necklace.
    â€œJonah gave it to me,” Darby said. She hoped theincredulity in her voice didn’t sound rude.
    Apparently Aunt Babe didn’t think so.
    â€œThat’s so nice. I’m sure you can arrange the lei so that it still shows.”
    Aunt Babe shooed them toward a gawky figure dressed in khaki slacks, a shirt buttoned to his chin, and glasses. Darby remembered seeing him at school and thinking he looked like Harry Potter.
    Now, though, he stood in a mirrored corner that reflected the orange-and-purple birds-of-paradise flowers. Looking more like a fixture than a boy, he held out an arm draped with leis that gave off a wonderful scent.
    â€œHow’re you doing, Patrick?” Megan asked.
    â€œGood,” Patrick said earnestly. “My septum wasn’t fractured, after all.”
    Darby noticed the bandage under the nosepiece of his glasses, but she didn’t ask what had happened because Jonah had returned to help them put on their leis.
    If fresh ferns, honey, and baby powder could be fashioned into flowers, Darby thought as she put on the lei, they might smell like these blossoms, which Megan called pikake.
    â€œWonderful,” said Aunt Babe, pointing at their leis as she stopped to talk to Mark Larson.
    â€œI keep wondering if it was smart to sell that keiki a horse,” Jonah muttered, with a glance at Patrick.
    â€œHe’s totally accident prone,” Megan explained ina whisper. “Really smart and funny—in that Einstein kind of way—but watch for him at school and you’ll see he always has an elastic bandage on his wrist or knee, or Band-Aids on his fingers.”
    â€œAnd what’s his name?” Darby asked.
    â€œPatrick Zink.”
    â€œOh,” Darby said. The only sign she’d ever seen of the Zinks, the family that shared a border with ‘Iolani Ranch, was their barbed-wire fence.
    â€œThe way they let him play alone in the ruins of the old sugar mill, and along the pali,” Jonah said, “it’s amazing the kid’s not dead.”
    â€œAnd you sold him a horse?” Darby asked.
    â€œIt was an ugly horse,” Jonah said, shrugging. But when Darby didn’t laugh, he looked annoyed. “You think he could hurt himself worse with a horse than runnin’ around in that foggy old sugar plantation like he does?”
    â€œNo,” Darby said, aghast, “but he could hurt the horse.”
    Jonah laughed, and so did Megan, and Darby guessed it was a little bit funny, but her mind was too fixated on her mother to laugh. Why wasn’t Ellen here yet? Darby couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder, searching for her mother.
    Just then, she saw Aunt Babe ease away from Mark Larson and head back to them.
    Behind her, Mark Larson studied his watch. Reporters had deadlines, Darby thought, and thoughshe didn’t see a clock anywhere, it must be getting awfully close to eleven o’clock. Where was her mom?
    Aunt Babe’s smile was brighter than before, as if she had news, but she just adjusted Cade’s lei. “They look perfect,” Aunt Babe said, patting Megan’s shoulder. “And there’s one left, for your mother,” she told Darby. “That was her, calling from the airport in Hapuna! She tried you at the ranch, but of course you were already here. She’s rented a car and she’s on her way.”
    Darby barely suppressed