the woman became breathtakingly beautiful!
And she was coming his way.
The thing winked at her!
Nah, it couldn’t have.
Ellie eyed the small statue tucked among the flowers. A tiki god, probably, and obviously old, its wood weathered and cracked in places.
She’d seen similar carvings at the Polynesian Cultural Center when the convention arranged a trip there. But they’d been huge. This one stood only about three feet high.
Around its neck hung several leis, she assumed in honor of the party. Yet something else about it seemed different from the others she’d seen.
The eyes, Ellie realized. The carvings at the Cultural Center didn’t have such wide awake eyes…eyes with a glint of mischief in them staring right back at her.
Ellie shook her head. Get real, woman!
She was just overtired. Overstimulated.
After working with no letup for the past couple of years, being around so many laughing partying people was tiring—even these gregarious Hawaiians, whose pleasure in the moment seemed to waft as naturally as the light tropical breeze.
Perhaps sensing this, Georgie, her young dancing partner, had brought her to this relatively secluded spot before leaving to fetch her a soft drink.
Dismissing the carving from her thoughts, Ellie found herself a seat on a low wall bordering the garden to await the child’s return.
Lush tropical blossoms perfumed the night, and she closed her eyes the better to enjoy their scent and the music and laughter from the party just beyond. She smiled to herself when she heard her brother’s full-bodied laugh.
And just like that, a dark smothering wave of loneliness washed over her.
On a sharp breath Ellie fought it back. This had happened a lot lately, and she was having none of it. She loved her life. She loved her job.
Okay, she needed this vacation. She was tired. Being alone, however, was a choice, not a tragedy.
Prickles shimmied up the back of her neck…. With a small gasp, Ellie’s eyes flew open.
Someone stared at her! She could feel their intense gaze. She also felt conspicuous and embarrassed at being observed in what she thought was a private moment.
Scanning the crowd, ready to coolly outstare whoever found her introspection so interesting, she could find no one looking her way, however.
Yet someone’s knowing observation kept her awareness on full alert.
Slowly, cautiously, Ellie turned her head…and came nose to nose with the crimson orifice of a hibiscus blossom, its golden pistil thrust forward in the flower version of a raspberry.
Startled, she drew back, only to laugh softly at her own paranoia. The rude hibiscus would pay for its impudence, though. Snapping it from its stem, Ellie hooked it over one ear, her fingers brushing one of her flower-shaped earrings in the process.
No sarong, Grammie, she thought, but I feel a hula coming on.
Still smiling, and about to turn away, she again started violently, this time with a small muffled shriek. Nestled among the blossoms and thick foliage, the tiki stared back at her, its carved face a study of violence, its eyes infinitely sad and lonely.
She leaped to her feet.
“Here’s your soda, Miss Ellie.”
Georgie stood beside her, offering an aluminum can, his face one big beam of gap-toothed smile.
“What? Oh. Uh, thanks, sweetie.”
Ellie took the soda gratefully and downed a healthy swig. From the corner of her eye, she checked out the carving.
The thing hadn’t moved a muscle, its wooden head still angled toward the spot where she’d been sitting. Only, she wasn’t sitting there anymore. The statue’s gaze wasn’t following her at all.
Time to leave. She’d be a certified basket case if she didn’t get back to Chad’s apartment and get some rest. Three days of back-to-back workshops at the convention in Honolulu and a busy day since her arrival at her brother’s apartment this morning made for one pooped, overimaginative tourist.
After dumping her luggage in his spare bedroom, Chad immediately whisked her off for a long drive to loop the island. When they returned, she’d played baseball with the kids next door and been invited by them and their grandmother to this party.
Now her busy day—heck, her busy week, busy year, busy decade—had caught up with her. She needed her bed.
When Georgie ran off to play with the other children, Ellie searched for her brother to tell him she was leaving. Chad was never difficult to locate. With his easygoing, always friendly personality, all she had to do was find the group with the most laughter.
Then she looked for her hosts, Janie and Tom Kamehana, to make her goodbyes, and finally went to Nona, the children’s grandmother who had invited her to the luau in the first place.
“You’re leaving us,” Nona said before Ellie could speak. The old woman took Ellie’s hand in her own brown one, the clasp warm and strong. “You’re tired,” she added.
Ellie smiled. “Yes. But I’ve had a wonderful time. Thank you for inviting me.”
“And your brother. All this time living right next door and I didn’t realize,” Nona said. She tilted her head, smiling wryly. “Careless of me.”
There wasn’t much Ellie could say to that. The old woman still held her hand.
“How did you like my garden ornament?”
Ellie strove for diplomacy. “Well, it was, uh—”
“Interesting, yes? I saw you looking at it.”
“Is it a tiki god?” Ellie asked cautiously, unsure of the manners involved with the direction the conversation had taken.
“I’m not sure,” the old woman replied. “A few years ago one of the children found the carving washed up on the beach of the cove and brought it home. I placed it in the garden. But it’s different from the usual, wouldn’t you say?”
Feeling completely out of her depth, Ellie smiled. Nona still held her hand. “Everything in Hawaii seems different from the usual to me,” she answered apologetically. “I’m from Texas.”
Nona nodded her head. “San Antonio.”
Ellie didn’t remember telling her that, but she supposed she had. Or perhaps Chad did.
Finally Nona let go her hand. “You might enjoy a walk on the beach, child. Such a beautiful evening. The moon will be lovely on the water.”
“Perhaps I’ll do that,” Ellie replied politely, having no intention of doing any such thing. All she wanted was her bed and the opportunity to forget about wooden
