her family's death.
Details of the fire created a deceptive mystery. She knew all the employees at Motorhead personally. They were part of her community. They wouldn't have had anything to do with the fire. Kitiona's suspicions focused on Motorhead's parent company, Amerastar.
She reasoned that her father didn't have any enemies until he tried to form a union. Then strangers started showing up around town. They made threats that fell on deaf ears. The strangers had no idea of the community's closeness and culture.
She remembered one story about two guys that tried to beat up her father. One evening he walked into town after work. Two of these out-of-towners spotted him. They stepped in front of him from in between the jewelry store and the pharmacy on Main Street. According to witnesses, one guy put his hand on her father's chest. The other guy circled behind him.
Words were exchanged. Patea, her father, started to walk away when the guy in front swung at his head. Patea caught the guy's fist when the other guy made a move from behind.
Kitiona's father was the strong, silent type. Patea's strength more than matched either of his two attackers. He didn't need any help disposing them.
But suddenly Patea heard a screeching scream from behind. He twisted the fist of the first man so hard that the man fell immediately to his knees. When Patea looked back, he saw Jared sticking a hot soldering tool into the other man's ear.
Jared had witnessed the entire confrontation. Jared got involved to help his best friend's father. He snuck up behind the second man and swung the hot tool at the man's head. The man reacted just as the tool entered his ear. The hot tool burned a hole through the top half of the screaming man's ear.
At home later that evening, Patea told his family that these two men represented the anti-union movement. Everyone knew that they were from outside the local Motorhead community. Kitiona asked her father why did they want to hurt him. He simply said follow the money. She did that instinctively after the fire and it led her to Amerastar.
She found herself at the kitchen table searching for direction. She wondered if the two guys chasing her were the same two guys that attacked her father.
She finished her yogurt. She washed it down with an apple-banana fusion drink. Then she thought that a good clean up might spark an idea or two.
Kitiona took a shower in the porcelain tub surrounded by a plastic see-through curtain with turtles, fish and palm trees stamped all over. She had picked up some exotic smelling Lush shower gel called 'Garden of Eden' and used it generously all over her body.
She proudly took to washing the tribal tattoo on her back. The large diamond shaped tattoo meant hope, home and the future to her. She used a back-scrubbing brush to suds over it. As she was scrubbing the emblematic tattoo, she closed her eyes. She was back home, saying to her friends, let's go down to the ponds and cool off.
She slowly opened and focused her eyes. Her mission became clear. She wasn't home because her mom, dad, brother and cousin were all dead. She had to find the people responsible for their death. These were the same people responsible for her being in the shower instead of in an oceanside pond with her friends.
After being chased around the City for the last few months, Kitiona realized she did not have the resources for a lengthy, in depth investigation. She realized that she was going to need help, and maybe lots of it. But where was she going to get help?
Feeling challenged, she energetically pushed the shower curtain back towards the wall. She got out of the tub, toweled off and put on jeans and a t-shirt.
All this worrying was making her hungry. Her stomach began growling. She checked the refrigerator. “Nothing here but more yogurt,” she moaned softly to herself. She knew that Azalea's was open. So, she threw on her oversized windbreaker.
The corner market sat adjacent to Kitiona’s flat. She exited her building and turned left. She approached Azalea's market. Before entering the front doors she noticed a older man walking across the street, kitty-corner from her. She recognized Ben, the guy she helped yesterday. She stopped and walked into the street to intercept him.
"Hi Ben," she said smiling at him.
Ben looked up and a huge smile beamed from his face. Someone watching would have thought he was in love. "Kitiona!”
"How are you doing today?" she asked sincerely.
"Well I feel better today. I think the dizzies were caused by a virus. I'll know more in a day or two. Are you hungry young lady?" he asked.
She paused for a moment. She thought to herself, this guy seems harmless. He couldn't be connected to the thugs who were following me the other night. "Yep, starving," she said honestly.
"I know a place that serves the best lunch-time stew in town,” he said happy to have company for his regular lunch. "Chuck's restaurant is close by.” He started to walk in that direction. She two-stepped and caught up.
They made a left on Jones Street. Their conversation started with the weather. By the time they got to Chuck's, their discussion progressed to life in the City.
Ben led Kitiona to a table halfway to the rear of the restaurant. A server stopped by the table with two glasses of water. Ben raised his head from looking at Kitiona and ordered two bowls of stew with extra sourdough bread and butter. He also asked for hot green tea. He nodded at Kitiona.
She said, "I'll have hot green tea, too."
They both began adjusting their thinking from an acquaintance to a friend mode about each other. He asked her how long she'd lived in the City.
"About six months,” she answered.
"What brought you here?"
Now Kitiona needed to be careful. She had a good feeling about Ben. But she needed more than feelings. There was something coming through his personality she couldn’t identify. She was halfway there to trusting him with her mission, but reasoned, she needed to know more about him before opening up. "I'm here to visit some people and answer some questions," she said quietly.
Before Ben could get into his 'cross-examination' style, she continued, "What type of work are you in?" He had nothing to fear by opening up his personal life to her.
For no particular reason, he began to answer her by describing his daughter. After the divorce, his daughter, Natalie lived with her mother. College graduation had brought them intellectually closer. But they still remained physically apart because of her work. Her career as an international TV producer took her all over the world. Natalie taught Ben how to email, text and even use Skype on his new Smartphone so they could stay better connected.
He continued after looking to see if the server was coming. "Well young lady, beside a father, I am a retired attorney. My courtroom days were exciting, but because of a bout with cancer, I decided there was more to life than law." He proclaimed this with a touch of regret in his voice. "I retired a dozen or so years ago.”
He thought about the four young people he overheard talking case law at this very restaurant just a day or two ago. Hearing them talk sparked his law memories. Those days weren't as bad as he sometimes remembers, especially law school with all that youthful, we can conquer the world, excitement and expectation.
The word attorney caught Kitiona’s attention. Thoughts started peppering her brain. Maybe this is the type of person she needed to confide
