“Maybe he chose to work with a private patient because he had trouble in a hospital setting,” my father said. “Another reason is that many are attracted to psychiatry or psychology careers to find answers to their own problems. Not everyone succeeds.”
“I hope to God that somebody remembered to lock our house.” I’d been the first one out, following my father to the ambulance, with Michael right after me. Edwin and Margaret were still at the resort, trying to find Courtney and Braden. I hadn’t thought to leave them my key to lock the door.
“Rei-chan, please relax. I’m so relieved the cause was found quickly, and…” Looking bilious, my father cut himself off. I looked wildly around until I spotted a bedpan. Afterward, my father’s voice was barely a whisper. “The more I get out, the better.”
“I’ll stay longer,” I said.
My father shook his head. “I’m in good hands here, so please do what you need to-check the house lock. But not alone, go with your…with Michael.”
After the nurse I’d summoned had arrived to help my father clean up, I said goodbye and went to the waiting room, where I found Michael had been joined by Edwin and Margaret.
“My father’s stable,” I said. “He’s sick to his stomach and still has the headache, but it turned out he was poisoned. It wasn’t another stroke.”
Michael sat bolt upright, and looked ready to say something, but Edwin spoke first.
“Food poisoning can come from shopping at chains stocking mainland food. You should have shopped at the Kapolei farmer’s market. Your Uncle Yosh will take you there next time.”
“I know where the poison was: in the wasabi, which was leftover from sushi that Calvin brought for me. It must have fallen into a place in the refrigerator where the health inspector missed it, but unfortunately, my father found it today and ate some.”
“But why?” Margaret sounded incredulous.
“He may have been concerned I was going to muck up the land deal for his boss. Perhaps they talked about it privately, and it was decided that Calvin needed to make me sick enough, at least, to stop pursuing the matter,” I said.
“I’m sorry.” Edwin’s voice came slowly, and there was a tone to it that I hadn’t heard before. “I invited you to visit Hawaii, thinking many good things could come out of it. I never dreamed…this. But it’s my fault, I guess, just like everything that happened with Braden.”
“Edwin, it’s not your fault,” I said, and was surprised to realize that I meant this wholeheartedly.
“It’s Calvin’s fault,” Michael said crisply. “And we’re going to do something about it, as soon as possible.”
“Braden and Courtney went to find him,” Margaret said. “Thank God they didn’t, and we brought them with us-”
“Before you left, did you lock the door?”
Edwin and Margaret exchanged glances, and shook their heads. “Sorry,” Edwin said again. “Here in Hawaii, we don’t always think of that.”
“It’s OK. If you’d wait here, I’m sure you can see my father in a bit. Michael and I will go back and take care of locking up.”
“Say something to Courtney and Braden on the way out. They’re waiting outside the clinic,” Margaret said.
Michael and I walked out of the clinic together, and found Braden lounging on a low retaining wall, smoking. At the sight of us, he dropped the cigarette in the scrubby area on the other side of the wall.
“That’s how fires start, Braden. Put it out.” Michael’s voice was tight, and I realized he was very angry.
“I did, man.”
Michael picked up the cigarette and stuck the ashy butt right between Braden’s lips. He yelped, and then spit it out on the cement.
“Always extinguish it with something wet,” Michael said. “Now throw it away.”
“How’s Uncle Toshiro?” Courtney sounded anxious.
I answered, ‘He’s going to be just fine, but I want to ask you both what happened when you went to look for Calvin Morita.”
“We went all the way to the Kikuchi house and rang the doorbell, but nobody answered. A person came by and said he thought the Kikuchis went to Maui. He saw Calvin out around the resort, jogging.”
“We better get back.” I pulled on Michael’s hand.
“Isn’t there something you want to tell Braden?” Michael asked. “About the cops taking in Gerry Liang?”
“Oh, of course.” Quickly, I told Braden that Gerry Liang had been recorded admitting that he contracted underlings to dig up rocks all over the island, and that was his smallest problem, given that he’d been booked for attempted assault and kidnapping.
“Is Kainoa going to go to jail, too?” Braden asked at the end of it.
“He’ll probably get some fine or minor punishment for being a middleman in the business, but the more he talks about Gerald Liang’s business practices, the easier things will be for him,” Michael explained.
I was impressed that Braden had asked about Kainoa first, rather than whether he, himself, was out of trouble. I wasn’t sure of the reason, though. “Braden, I wanted to ask you something you couldn’t answer before. It’s about the guy who threatened to kill you-was it really Kainoa?”
Braden looked around as if to make sure there really were other listeners before he answered. “No, I like Kainoa. It was Gerry Liang. He said that to Kainoa, in front of me. If a guy as big as Kainoa looked like he was about to shit bricks, it taught me to look the other way, and keep the mouth shut.”
“Things will work better for you, Braden, from now on.” Michael’s voice was warm. “But I want you to think about what kind of man you want to become, now that you won’t be charged with arson.”
“Whaddya mean, I won’t be charged?”
“No, the arson investigator is definitely dropping charges, but the police expect you to testify in the case they’re building against Liang.”
“Michael, he still needs professional legal help, if he’s going to talk to anyone,” I pointed out.
“He’s got that.” Michael grinned at me. “Hugh talked to Edwin and convinced him to apologize to Lisa Ping and rehire her. It was a good decision, because she’s the one who called with the news about the legal break that’s opened for Braden, if he’s strong enough to take it.”
As Michael spoke, a range of emotions passed across Braden’s face-disbelief followed by apprehension. Finally, he asked, ‘Why did you do this for me?”
“You know my answer already,” Michael said. “I know what it’s like to stand at the edge of a cliff. I stepped back, and look where I am today.”
“It’s a little different for me,” I said, looking warmly at both Braden and Courtney. “I never had any brothers and sisters, and I thought I’d have a child by now, but I don’t. “You two are the only kids in my life. That’s why I don’t want you in reform school or jail, OK?”
“We’re going back to the house now.” Michael clapped Braden on the shoulder, and ruffled Courtney’s hair. To her, he said, “You’re the one who puts up with nonsense all the time, aren’t you? We need to think of something special to do for you, before we all leave.”
34
MOMENTS LATER, MICHAEL and I were driving ten miles above the speed limit back to the resort. Because I was in a convertible instead of the closed-in ambulance, I could see out, and realized we were passing the Hawaiian Homesteads that Josiah Pierce had been talking about. The soaring Waianae mountains were beautiful, but their foothills were marked by shanties and trailers around which wandered children, chickens and dogs. A fierce wind was blowing the laundry hanging on outdoor lines almost horizontal to the ground.
I was starting to feel like a gawker, so I looked fixedly at the ocean on my right. But soon we came to a long, sandy beach filled by hundreds of tents and a few cars and trucks that had seen harder times. Was it a camper’s convention? I wondered, until I saw a weather-beaten baby swing blowing from a tree branch. Hawaiians walked between tents, visiting with each other. Some stirred a bonfire, apparently cooking. So this was an even harsher homeland, for the homeless.