At the edge of the park a brick-brown young man with ten tattoos and hair as wild as a lion’s mane offered to take a picture of them with his parrot. Condley absently waved off the man, who then squeezed his bird’s legs, a secret command, until it began to curse them.

“Fuck you,” squawked the pissed-off parrot as they walked away. “Fuck you. Fuck you.”

Condley finally laughed, flipping off the parrot, and then gave Maria an apologetic look. “Sorry I’m a jerk. Some things are bothering me.”

She thought about that for a moment, eyeing him shrewdly. “Brandon, you are my prince. I would give anything to see you happy. But you are a very emotional man. You have too much emotion, really. That’s why you hide it with your silly jokes and waste it with all your fighting.”

“Well, here I go again.”

“What, Brandon?”

“I can’t talk about it.”

“You always say that.”

“Then it must be true.”

They neared the old hotels at the center of Waikiki’s most famous stretch of beach. Looking at them and remembering his early days on Oahu, Condley was overwhelmed with a sudden undefinable nostalgia, and on top of it a sense of hopelessness. Life moved on. Kids were born and grew up, parents grew old and died. Beaches and cities and civilizations rearranged themselves to meet the new needs of the future. But Brandon Condley still puttered along, now passing checkpoint infinity on the road to nowhere in particular.

Maria watched him carefully, seeking clues in his averted gaze. “You want to have the final conversation. You don’t want to be around me anymore. You’re moving to Viet Nam. You’re not coming back, is that right, Brandon?”

“I can’t even see tomorrow, and you’re talking about next week?” He put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him for a moment as they walked, a gesture of reassurance. It seemed impossible, but he really did care for this woman who had gathered up the best assets God had given her and turned them into a successful business, however publicly deplored. “I just need to go see somebody.”

“A different woman?”

“It’s not a woman, Maria. Why does everything have to be about another woman? It’s business.”

“Your business is dead people. Dead people can wait until tomorrow.”

“It’s important.”

She sagged a little as they walked. “I took the whole day off just for you, Brandon.”

“Then come with me.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Have you ever met a Marine Corps general?”

She brightened, a devilish smile growing on her beautiful face. “I think I knew a few. Before they were generals, anyway.”