So when Hana comes back inside and sits on a stool beside him, Jim watches with as much pleasure as apprehension the process of these two friends getting acquainted. Hana is plopped on a stool, the wind has pushed her hair into its usual disorder, and as Dennis would say, she looks like something the cat dragged in. But Abe clearly enjoys talking to her; she’s got a quick wit and can keep up with him. In that realm they’re both far beyond Jim, who only laughs and cuts chilis for the dip. Abe, curious as always about people’s work and their livelihoods, questions Hana closely about how the art business is carried on, and Jim learns things he didn’t know before.

“And you?” Hana says. “Jim says you’re a paramedic?”

Abruptly Abe laughs, elbows Jim. “Telling her about us, eh?”

Jim grins. “All lies, too.”

Abe nods at Hana. “Yeah, I work for the OC Freeway Rescue squads.”

“That must be hard work sometimes.”

Jim winces a little inside; when he says things along these lines Abe tends to scowl at him or ignore him. But now he says, “Sure, sometimes. It’s up and down. You get callused to the bad parts, though, and the good parts stay good always.”

Hana nods. She’s eyeing Abe closely, and he is inspecting the chili con queso; and she says, “So you two were on the wrestling team, hey? How long have you known each other?” Abe grins at Jim. “From the beginning.”

Then Sandy and Angela come in from the yard entrance, and it’s time for more introductions. With Sandy there the tempo jumps and pretty quickly they’re jabbering away like they’re old friends who haven’t seen each other in a year. Hana chatters as much as any of them, chiefly to Abe but increasingly with Sandy and Angela. Angela, bless her heart, couldn’t be friendlier. And then the crowd begins to arrive, Humphrey and his sometime ally Melina, Rose and Gabriela, Arthur, Tashi and Erica, Inez, John and Vikki, and so on; the party begins in earnest, people swirl in the slow ocean current patterns of parties everywhere. Hana stays on her stool and forms a sort of island around which one current swells; people stop in this eddy to talk to her. She asks a lot of questions, tries to sort out who’s who, laughs. She’s a hit. Jim, coming back to her after many small forays out into the currents, is pleased to see Hana and Abe engage in a long conversation, and Sandy join it; then Hana and Angela have a talk that leaves them laughing a lot, and even though Jim suspects that he is the subject of the laughter, he is pleased. All going so well.