Chapter Twenty One - Mele Kalikimaka

By the third ring Rudy was awake enough to realize that he wasn’t dreaming. The clock said 5:04 when he knocked it off the nightstand while reaching for the phone.

“Hey man, it’s a powder morning and I got a Woody.” Pete screamed into the phone.

“Congratulations,” Rudy said, holding the phone away from his ear, “do you know what time it is?”

“Why do people always ask you that when you wake them up at five in the morning?” Pete asked, stealing one of Rudy’s lines.

“Anyway, which part of ‘I got a Woody’ sounds like ‘I lost my ability to tell time since you left last night?”

“You mean since we left this morning. We just left you four hours ago.”

“Who is it?” Raven asked in a sleepy fog.

“A crazy man with a Woody.”

“Does he know what time it is?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, and drifted back to sleep.

“I’ll see you at our usual breakfast place at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon in one hour. Be there.” Click.

A second later, the phone rang again. “What?” Rudy said into the receiver.

“Merry freakin’ Christmas.” Click.


Raven wiggled her perfect body into her new black ski suit. It was a tailored fit. Her hair was still messy from the night and her eyes were puffy and not quite open all the way. She wore no makeup and Rudy thought she’d never looked more ravishing. She had the kind of beauty that radiated about her no matter what she was wearing.

“Why can’t ya’ll ski at a normal hour?” she asked.

“Ya’ll? You’ve been hanging around Charlie too much. Fresh snow, that’s why. Virgin powder. Just think about how good that hot tub is going to feel after a day on the slopes.”

She shot him a look that said This had better be worth it. He smiled, knowing that it would.


“Why don’t you two ride together?” Raven asked as they neared the head of the lift line at Snowbird. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been on a ski slope. I’ll probably get off on the bunny hill for my first run, until I get the feel back.”

At the head of the line, Pete motioned for Raven to take the first chair and she got on with a teenaged snowboarder who looked like he’d just won the lottery. They plopped into the chair right behind her and watched her graceful exit at the first ramp.

“Pretty smooth exit,” Pete said. “Doesn’t look to me like she hasn’t skied in a while.”

“The girl’s incredible,” Rudy said, “she does everything and does it well. She pilots a 46 foot cabin cruiser all over the islands, night navigation, sextant, the whole bit. I’ve never met anyone like her.”

“Sex what?”

“Sextant. It’s a navigational aid. Get yer mind outta the gutter, Schmidt.”

“She reminds me of Beth,” Pete said.

“Everything reminds you of Beth. What’s it been now, fourteen years?”

“Fifteen.”

“Fifteen years. Don’t you think it’s time that you put it behind you? That’s a little longer than the standard grieving period.”

“And who told you what the standard grieving period is?” Pete shot back. “Far be it from me to be a politically incorrect griever.”

“I’m just saying, maybe it’s time for you to get on with your life.”

“What makes you think that I haven’t gotten on with my life? What’s wrong with my life?”

“What’s wrong with your life? Every woman you meet gets compared to Beth and, since no one can compete with a ghost, you remain alone.”

“You have no idea what its like to be me,” Pete said, “so why are you trying to tell me how to live?”

“When was the last time you were intimate with someone?”

“I get laid all the time. Hell, you know that.”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about; you get laid all the time. You sleep with women like you’re punishing them all for not being Beth. The truth is, you’re afraid to let anyone get close to you. Beth’s been gone a long time, get over it.”

“And how long do you think it would take you to get over it if something happened to Raven?”

Rudy didn’t have an answer. That was a scenario that he wasn’t willing to consider.

When they reached the top, they slid off the chair and stopped. The air was cold and crisp and a brilliant sunrise was dissipating into the morning sky. Fresh, dry, virgin powder came to well above their knees. Pete popped his Eurhythmics tape into his Walkman and adjusted his goggles

“Don’t you ever get tired of skiing to that tape?” Rudy asked.

“Do you get tired of sex?” Pete asked in reply. “See ya at the bottom.” and he shoved off.

“No, but I change positions once in a while.” Rudy shouted after him.

Rudy took a deep breath of crisp Wasatch Mountain morning, pushed the play button on his Walkman and took off after him to Jackson Brown’s “The Pretender”. His knees were tightly locked and his legs worked the moguls like shock absorbers while the fresh powder took the edge off the bumps.

Some days you ski and it’s okay. Other times everything clicks and you become one with the mountain, the snow and the clean air and you remember why you ski. This day was one of the latter.

When they got off the lift to begin their second run Raven was waiting. She waved at them and took off down the mountain. Pete and Rudy sped after her and it was all either of them could do to keep up. Rudy had thought that the ski slope was the one place where Raven couldn’t keep up with him. Silly boy.


Circe heard the phone ring but ignored it. It was nearly noon and she had been sleeping hard. Her head pounded, her eyes felt like balloons, her mouth was so dry that it was nearly glued shut. It had been a long night of drinking, shooting coke and rough sex; the usual. She and John had both reached the point where they could no longer get off snorting their coke so they had to shoot up.

“Yeah, what’s the good word?” she heard John say. He was silent for a few seconds.

“Killer!” he exclaimed and hung up.

“Circe, it’s done.” He said, shaking her lifeless body. “Did you hear me? It’s done.”

“What’s done?”

“The money, it’s in my account. That was my attorney, said he’d been trying to reach me since yesterday. He got the legal work straightened out, the stock sale finally cleared and the money was wired into my account yesterday; Two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. That phony Power of Attorney we forged did the trick.”

Circe opened her eyes and sat up in the bed. “Two hundred and eighty thousand? That’s more than we figured.”

“Yeah, and that’s not all the good news either. Dumbo’s book hit the stores yesterday and the twenty thousand dollars for the hardcover is in my account too. Several publishers are interested in the paperback rights.”

“Well, fix us a hit and let’s celebrate.” She said.

“Right here.” John said, handing her the syringe. “Merry Goddamn Christmas.”

“Shut up and do me.” Circe said, throwing the spent syringe on the floor.

If anything made her hotter than coke, it was money. Put the two together and John was in for a wild ride.


Soon-Li gasped and sat straight up in the bed. Her heart was pounding so hard that she was sure Wally could hear it. The room was dark and she struggled to calm herself and get her breathing under control.

“Soon-Li?” Wally said, “Soon-Li, what is it?”

This was one of those times when her gift became a curse. Why couldn’t she be like everyone else and just live her life, oblivious to what was going to happen next? Who needed the responsibility?

“Rudy and Raven.” Soon-Li said.

“What about them?”

“Not sure. It’s started. Bad vibes. I need to call them.”

“And say what? That you have bad vibes? Rudy already thinks you’re a loon.”

“I not crazy!” Soon-Li snapped.

“I know. I know you’re not, but wait until you have something more concrete to say than ‘bad vibes’. Besides, they’re on the Mainland for the holidays; I don’t even know how to reach them.”

Tears formed in Soon-Li’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks, “This so hard Wally. People think I crazy, I not need this. Why me?”

Wally put his enormous arms around her and pulled her tiny body close.

“I know it’s hard but it’s still a good thing. You wouldn’t be here and your family would probably be dead if you didn’t have your gift. Maybe you have it instead of someone else because you can be trusted with it.”

“That not make me feel better.”

“I know,” Wally said as he stroked her hair. “I know. Hey, it’s Christmas, what could go wrong?”

“Christmas just another day in my country, Wally, just another hungry day.”

“Well, one of these days we’re going to get a hold of some money and do something about that.”

“Yeah, one of these days.” Soon-Li repeated after him and she laid her head on his shoulder. When Wally said things like that, it was easy to believe him.


Charlie turned the Jeep off the dirt road into a tiny thicket of trees and cut the motor. He pulled a pint of Chivas from the glove box, took a long swig and rubbed his temples. He was about a mile from the gate and the only entrance to Leonardo Azeri’s ranch on Molokai. Pulling into this spot had become a ritual. Charlie knew he shouldn’t drink so much but it was the only way he could stomach that bastard.

Here he was, early on Christmas morning, on his way to hunt wild boar with Leonardo. The last thing he’d wanted to do this morning was leave Jenny’s bed on Maui and fly his Cessna to Molokai to hunt some mythical animal that everyone on the island talked about but no one had ever actually seen, let alone bagged. The closest thing to wild boar on Molokai was Leonardo himself, but he was just a regular bore.

Jenny would be pretty upset when she awoke and found Charlie’s note. She just couldn’t understand why Charlie had to jump every time Leo whistled. After he ruined her Christmas like this, Charlie knew he would be lucky if Jenny was speaking to him again by New Year. Sometimes he was tempted to tell her what he was up to but it was best if she and everyone else thought he was just a frivolous, rich fool.

Charlie took another swig and started the Jeep. He pulled up to the main gate and a huge Hawaiian carrying an AK-47 appeared next to the Jeep.

“Hi Charlie, Mele Kalikimaka,” he said.

“Merry Christmas to you, Tiny. When did you get back?”

“Just got in last night.”

“Since when do you work the gate?” Charlie asked.

“Oh, just today. Leonardo, I mean, Mr. Azeri, gave some of his security people the day off. Go on up to the house, Mr. Azeri is expecting you.”

Charlie followed the tile drive the quarter mile up the hill to the main house, past the enormous lawn. It was so big Charlie had considered saving himself the drive from the airport in Hoolehua and just landing the Cessna right here. In a place where land was so precious, it was almost obscene to have a lawn that size. Of course, it served its purpose of securing the main house, since there was no way to approach it without running a gauntlet of empty, coverless space.

Charlie parked and headed for the door, where he could see two more armed Hawaiians standing guard. Obviously, not everyone had the day off. It occurred to him that nothing had really changed since his days in Houston. Here he was, working on Christmas. Again.


Rudy and Raven stayed in Salt Lake City, skiing and socializing, until the day after New Year. On January 2nd, Raven caught a flight to a Gallery opening in New York and Rudy went back to Honolulu. It would be a long week for him until she returned but he consoled himself with the knowledge that he’d get a lot of work done.

On the flight over, he was reminded of the last time he’d flown to Honolulu, alone and haunted by thoughts of Circe. He was amazed at how a little less than a year had changed everything for him. He’d probably never see Circe again and that was just fine with him. Circe had been one of the biggest mistakes of his life and he planned for her to remain a distant memory.

At this moment, life was very nearly everything he had ever hoped it would be and many things he’d never even thought to hope for and it was all because of Raven.