They did other things, too, though. They spent some time on the beach—not a whole lot, because Anna was fair enough to burn fast. They walked into the ocean. Seawater that wasn’t cold freaked them both out: Angelenos weren’t used to it. They took a tour bus around Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. They saw the old royal palace and went out on a boat to the Arizona memorial.

That sobered Jerry. Looking down at the water there, he could see a shimmering rainbow oil sheen on the surface. It still came up from the battleship the Japanese had sunk almost seven years before he was born. He wondered if Humpty Dumpty’d been down on the bottom of the Pacific by then. He wondered if he’d ever know.

And they took another tour bus to give them a look at more of Oahu. Once you got away from the city, the place was even more preposterously gorgeous. The bus stopped at the Mormons’ Polynesian Cultural Center. The Mormons claimed the Hawaiians and other Polynesians were close kin to American Indians. Jerry thought that was utter nonsense, but the exhibits and shows were interesting anyhow.

Then they flew to Maui. Their hotel, on the outskirts of Lahaina, was on the island’s west coast. Jerry rented a car and they drove along the northern and eastern shoreline to the village of Hana and the seven sacred pools just beyond. Like the trip up Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the drive was beautiful and wearing at the same time. Beaches of white sand, gold sand, black sand. Jungle. Waterfalls. A narrow, twisty road where the driver had to pay attention every second. Jerry was sure Anna saw things he didn’t, because he focused on where the next bend was and what might be coming around it.

The hotel room had a view of the Pacific and, in front of it, a golf course. That was green, but everything on Maui was green. It failed to fill Jerry’s heart with delight. Tim and Alex both played golf. He liked them anyway.

The hotel room also came with its own geckos: little lizards that scurried around after bugs. Jerry caught two on successive days and turned them loose on the small balcony outside. Watching one scurry straight up the stucco wall told him how they’d made it to the fourth floor.

When he and Anna walked into Lahaina, he looked the harbor over to see if the Glomar Explorer was there. The ship wasn’t. That didn’t surprise him. No, they wouldn’t want to risk exposing Humpty Dumpty to the world till they were ready. If they were ever ready.

“I don’t want to visit here,” Anna said, as they got on the plane that would take them back to Honolulu. “I want to live here!”