Lett should’ve felt something for Charles Selfer but nothing came to him—no remorse, no sadness, no maxims about reaping and sowing. He felt about the same as one did seeing an ant unlucky enough to scurry into the path of a boot heel. He asked Kanani to keep checking the papers and radio, but the story never returned. He didn’t expect it to. He imagined Selfer in a cell, possibly a psych ward, raving about a secret camp for which he was only a tool, and no one would believe him. They might brand him a dipsomaniac, a Commie, an assassin, anything that suited their machinations. Perhaps they’d experiment on him with their new drugs. The new agency called the CIA would certainly need fresh guinea pigs.

***

Another afternoon, Lett jolted awake on his cot in his shack and feared his nightmares had returned. But it was something outside. He shuffled out to his lanai. Across the stream, between two bushes flowering red, stood a Chinese woman. Kanani stood behind her. They pulled back when he looked their way.

Lett was sure it was Miss Mae. But Kanani wouldn’t admit it. She’d surely made a vow.

***

The next time Kanani reported to him, she told him the camp compound they’d known as The Preserve was completely cleared away. She’d had locals she could trust check it out. The front gate was still locked but had no guard, only an older wartime off-limits sign. They’d spied on the place from the perimeter fence. Eventually they found a way in and walked through the compound. It was a ghost camp, like so many on islands here and throughout the Pacific after the war. It was as if none of them were ever there.

***

The last time she came, she had another flower in her hair, this one pink with long petals.

“You’re ready,” she told him. “It’s time you go back to your wife.”

Lett nodded. “How?”

“We’ll send you there. I told you.”

“It’s Miss Mae, isn’t it? Miss Mae is arranging this. Don’t tell me she’s not because I saw her, and don’t tell me I didn’t see her because I did.”

Kanani lowered her head. “Okay. Yes. She was here.”

“Why? I understand why Miss Mae would. But why would you help me like this?”

“You saved my behind back there in Kona Town, Wendell Lett. I never forgot that. But that was just the start, wasn’t it? And, maybe I might have fallen for you one lili bit meanwhile. So you go. I’m helping you go. That’s how much I care for you.”

She hugged him a long time, then she turned and disappeared inside the lush greenery.