“Franklin applying for a job?” Noelani asks.

I deal out the last round of cards. “He was turned down,” I say, wishing he was hired for the observatory crew so he could stay home for a while.

As if Nori knows what I’m thinking, she says, “Not using our local boys doesn’t make sense, yeah; instead they bring in workers from the mainland. Doesn’t sound like good business to me.”

Nori glances over at me and smiles, knowing how much I hate it every time he leaves. I quickly gather up my cards, only to realize it isn’t that Franklin didn’t get the job that’s bothering me, it’s that he seemed almost happy to have been turned down.

Answers: December 18–20, 1935

Answers

December 18–20, 1935

35. Lava

35

Lava

Koji pulled his truck into the driveway of the green bungalow. He’d spent the morning with Samuel and the boys out on the boat, and had planned on driving back to the market, but Daniel was again lingering heavily in his thoughts. Koji had been down in Hilo for the past two days and hadn’t seen him yet. He turned off the engine and sat in his truck, staring at the house. He could almost convince himself that Mariko would step out onto the porch at any minute, her apron hanging loosely around her neck as she smiled and waved him in. He remembered the warmth of her body pressed against his, how hard it was to leave her in the early hours of the mornings to return to Puli. No matter how hard he willed Mariko to return, the porch remained empty and he couldn’t bring himself to get out of the truck.

Koji gazed at the fruitless mango tree and imagined its branches once again heavy with mangoes. He loved the tree almost as much as she did. Wasn’t it what had finally brought them together?