“I got one question,” she said. “This house isn’t big enough for me, not if it’s going to be the boogie kine, too. Not if other girls coming, going.”

Selfer nodded, so she came around and stood before him.

“No, it’s probably not,” he said.

“Seems like that Main House over there has more room,” she said, batting eyelashes.

“First, you prove yourself. And then? Well, we shall see, won’t we?”

“See what?”

“Easy, easy. You just got here. For now, you assume more of a forward operating position. Along the way, there might be a special assignment or two.”

“Ah. There it is. Let me guess: you like me playing the gal who’s such a good listener.”

“As I say—droll. You don’t wish such special treatment?”

Kanani lowered her cigarette holder. “There’s only one problem. Maybe I’ve seen this picture show already.”

“Not quite like this you haven’t. Any other girls—women—might be capable of comfort, but not of listening correctly. You can. It’s a proven fact.”

“Ho, careful there. ‘Comfort women,’ that’s what the nasty Imperial Japanese Army used to call them.”

“How soon we forget,” Selfer said.

Kanani glared at him. “What are you paying me, eh? Let’s talk about that.”

Selfer chuckled. “You know how this works. You can move up, out of the bordello.”

“Boogie house, we call ’em.”

“As you like. And, you control all tips.”

“Hallelujah,” she said.

“Is there not a Hawaiian word for that?”

“Oh, sure. But you wouldn’t like the sound of it.”

“I think I like your style, Miss Ogawa.”

Kanani gave a little bow. “Try call me Miss Alana,” she said with a thicker accent. She blew out more smoke. If she gave it any more of an angle it would be blowing right up his behind. Still, she figured she had to feel things out a little. She shrugged and added, “Anything’s better than Honolulu. Things were worse enough during the war. The haole policeman, they tolerated boogie houses but only in the way they liked. Police Chief, he set all the rules—‘Ten Commandments,’ we called them. You like me to recite them for you?”

“It’s okay, I already heard—”

“We couldn’t even use our own beaches, on our own island, and all because we made your sailors and soldiers feel good before going off to die.” And she was one of the lucky ones working for a good mama-san. Kanani made sure not to mention Miss Mae by name. Still, she wondered if he’d ever heard of her. She might have to find out eventually.

She added a little grunt.

Selfer’s expression had not changed as she spoke. He crossed his legs. “By the by, don’t you have another question for me?”

“What kine?”

“About Wendell Lett. About how he is.”