Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
Reid ate his burger while studying Maliea as she worked with Nani to ensure the child ate enough to fill her little belly.
Nani was tired and cranky, ready to lay down and go back to sleep despite her short naps in the SUV getting to the cabin.
Maliea barely touched her sandwich, too wrapped up in taking care of her little girl. The dark circles under her eyes gave testament to the lack of sleep she’d had in the past two days.
Once satisfied that her daughter had eaten enough, she gathered her into her arms and carried her into the little bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, they emerged. Nani was bathed, her long dark hair combed and braided down her back. She wore an oversized T-shirt that hung down to her ankles.
She ran to Reid and held up her arms .
Reid lifted the little girl and inhaled the scent of innocence, his heart pinching hard in his chest. “Hey, cutie. You smell like popcorn.”
She frowned. “Do not. I smell like shampoo. Mama washed my hair.”
Reid made a show of sniffing her hair again. “I believe you’re right. You do smell like shampoo. How smart of your mother to wash your hair with shampoo and not popcorn.”
Nani giggled. “You don’t wash your hair with popcorn. That would be silly.”
“Is it?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “Then I better stop washing mine with popcorn.”
Again, Nani giggled. She hugged his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I like you, Mr. Reid.”
He smiled down at Nani, his heart fuller than it had been in a long time. “I like you, too, Nani.”
“Can you tuck me in?” she asked.
“I’d be honored,” Reid responded and carried her to the bed, laying her on the side furthest from the door. He pulled the sheet and light blanket up to her chin and tucked it loosely between the mattress and box spring. “That feel all right?”
She nodded.
Before he could straighten, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “Good night, Mr. Reid.”
“Good night, Nani,” he said, holding onto the hug a little longer .
When he let go, she turned to her mother. “Mama, will you read to me from Papa’s book?”
Maliea held up the book. “Wouldn’t miss it,” she said. “Should I start at the beginning?”
Nani nodded and yawned. “Yes, please.”
Maliea opened the handmade book carefully to the first page. “A long time ago, there was a little girl who lived in the Gathering Place.”
Nani pointed at the page. “That’s Oahu and that’s Honolulu,” Nani said proudly. “Papa told me.”
Reid’s heart swelled at the picture the mother and daughter made. With Maliea sitting propped against a pillow beside her daughter, holding the book lovingly made by Nani’s grandfather.
Maliea was an amazing mother. Patient, kind and blessed with a heart of gold.
“One day a man with a red beard came to the Gathering Place on a ship with huge masts. He pretended to be a friend to the king and all the people,” Maliea continued. “But once he got inside the king’s palace, he stole all the king’s gold.”
Nani’s eyebrows formed a V over her pert little nose. “He was a bad man.”
Maliea nodded. “Yes, he was. His other men went through town stealing from the people who lived there.”
“Why didn’t they fight the bad men?”
With a shrug, Maliea said, “They didn’t know they were bad men at first and didn’t have anything to defend themselves.”
Nani glanced at Reid. “They needed Mr. Reid to help them.”
“Yes, they did,” Maliea said with a smile. “Only Mr. Reid wasn’t there. He wasn’t born yet.
“The man with the red beard and all his men took the gold and riches, carried them out to their ship and sailed away from the Gathering Place. The people of the island never saw them again.”
Nani lay back on the pillow with a yawn. “That’s sad.”
“It’s just a story,” Maliea said. “Close your eyes and go to sleep thinking of happy thoughts about mermaids and seashells.”
Nani yawned again, her eyes drifting closed. “Read the next...” Before she finished her sentence, Nani was asleep.
Maliea continued to sit beside her daughter for a couple minutes more and then slipped off the bed. She leaned over Nani and pressed her lips to her daughter’s forehead. “Ko’u aloha, my darling.”
Her fingers brushed the loose hairs around her daughter’s cheeks behind each ear. With another smile at her daughter, Maliea straightened and turned to Reid. “Is it all right if I get a shower?”
He nodded. “Of course. I’ll watch out for Nani.”
“Let me know if she wakes up. I’ll try to make it short,” Maliea said .
“Take your time,” Reid said. “She’ll be fine with me.”
Maliea hesitated a moment longer, then gathered a T-shirt, panties and gym shorts out of the bag she’d dragged from her apartment to Tish’s and now to the cabin. After one more glance at her daughter, Maliea disappeared into the small bathroom.
No sooner had the door closed and the shower was turned on, then Nani’s eyes blinked open. “Mama?”
Reid came to stand beside the bed and took Nani’s hand. “She’s in the shower. What do you need?”
Nani rubbed eyes with her knuckles. “I want her to read some more from Papa’s book. It helps me sleep.”
Reid glanced from the book on the nightstand to the little girl blinking up at him. He wasn’t sure how long Maliea would be in the bathroom. “I can read to you,” he said, almost regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth.
A slow smile spread across Nani’s face. “Will you?”
The girl was precious and out of her element, maybe even scared. Reid couldn’t help himself.
He took the book in his hands and carefully opened it.
Nani tugged on Reid’s jeans. “Not up there,” she said through a big yawn. “Here.” She patted the bed beside her. “So I can see.”
Reid sat on the edge of the bed and held the book out to Nani. “Where did you and your mother stop?”
Nani turned the pages past the first story and stopped at the second. “Start there.”
Reid studied the handwritten words for a moment before reading aloud.
“Not long after, the messenger came to the king on Oahu to share the news about the ship with the big white masts visiting the Big Island, just such a ship appeared in the bay of the Gathering Place. The ship's captain had a red beard, just like the one the messenger had described. He came ashore to greet the king. The king had a huge luau prepared and invited the ship’s captain into the palace.” Reid glanced down at Nani, certain she would be asleep by now.
Her eyes were wide, staring up at him.
“Want me to keep reading?” he asked.
She nodded and slipped her hand into his free one.
Reid squeezed her fingers gently and continued to read, “The red-bearded captain and some of his men joined the king in the palace. He ate the food, watched the dancers and visited with the king. When the luau was over, and the captain and his men got up to leave, they turned on the king and took him, hostage. Then they stole all the king’s gold. ”
Nani’s eyebrows formed a V over her pert little nose. “He was a bad man.”
Reid nodded. “Yes, he was.” He continued, a little worried the story would keep Nani awake rather than lull her into a deep sleep. “What the king didn’t know was that the captain was the famous pirate, Redbeard. While Redbeard was stealing the king’s gold from the palace, his other men took all the riches from the people who lived in the village. They even robbed the little girl’s father, stealing the gold and jewels he’d acquired from visitors who’d come to the island before.”
“Why didn’t they fight the bad men?” Nani asked.
With a shrug, Reid said, “They didn’t know they were bad men at first and probably didn’t have anything to defend themselves.”
Nani glanced up at Reid. “They needed you to help them.”
He smiled down at the child’s innocence. “Yes, they did. Only I couldn’t be there. I wasn’t even born yet.”
“I feel sorry for the little girl and the people of the Gathering Place,” Nani said.
“Me, too,” Reid agreed. He continued to read. “The man with the red beard and all his men took the gold and riches, carried them out to their ship and sailed away from the Gathering Place. The people of the island never saw them again. ”
Nani lay back on the pillow and closed her eyes. “That’s sad. The king was nice to him.”
“Yes, he was.”
“That wasn’t nice of the captain to take his gold,” Nani whispered.
“No, it wasn’t,” Reid said softly. “But it’s just a story.” When she didn’t respond, he sat for a moment longer, staring down at Nani’s sweet face. Her dark lashes made little feathery crescents against her cheeks. The sheet rose and fell over her tiny chest as she breathed slowly and deeply.
Afraid to move and disturb the child in her sleep, he stayed where he was and continued to silently read the story, admiring the drawings Professor Hasegawa had painstakingly drawn for his granddaughter.
The story went on to tell of how the little girl was sad and vowed to search for the ship and the pirate who’d stolen her father’s treasures. She wanted to bring everything back to the Gathering Place and to the people they belonged to.
She ran to the water’s edge and spoke with the mermaids along the shore, who told her the ship had sailed with the winds, moving southwest toward Garden Island. Because they hadn’t followed the ship, the mermaids couldn’t be certain where the ship had gone next.
As Kanani stared out at the night sky, a storm blew in from the northeast with powerful gusts that pushed her into the water.
The mermaids helped her back to shore and told her to seek shelter until the storm passed or she would be swept out to sea.
Kanani returned to her home, hunkered down and waited until the winds died down. The next morning, the sun came up over the Gathering Place. Many homes had been flattened or swept away by the powerful winds. She helped families whose homes had been demolished and tended to children while the adults worked hard to rebuild what had been destroyed.
When she finally went back to the sea, it was calm, but the ship was nowhere to be seen.
Too young to sail on her own, Kanani couldn’t follow the ship’s path. She waited, pacing the shore, asking visitors from the west if they’d seen the ship with the huge masts that looked like clouds and a hawk’s head carved into the bow.
Each time she asked, she got the same answer. No one recalled such a ship.
As the days passed, she despaired of ever finding the ship and Redbeard, the pirate.
The little girl grew older and taller, learning how to sail with the wind, going further and further from the shore. One of her village elders taught her how to navigate by the stars. When Kanani was older and strong enough, she left her village, climbed into her canoe with a sail she’d fashioned herself and set off to find the ship with the hawk’s bow and the treasure Redbeard had taken from her people.
Her first stop was the Garden Island. Years had passed since the pirate ship had sailed away from the Gathering Place. She talked with many people, describing the ship, the night and the captain. One after another, they shook their heads. They hadn’t seen a ship but remembered the ferocity of the storm that had flattened homes and swept their canoes out to sea.
About to give up, a woman stopped her. “Go. Speak with Old Man Rangi, the man on the hill. He sees everything.”
Kanani climbed the hill overlooking the windward side of the island. There, she found an old man weaving a basket made of palm fronds as he stared out to sea.
“Old Man Rangi, do you remember the night of the big storm so many years ago?”
The old man nodded. “I lost my wife to the sea that night.”
“I’m so very sorry,” Kanani said. “Did you see a ship pass in the night during that terrible storm?”
Old Man Rangi’s eyes narrowed as he looked out at the calm waters. “The night my wife was swept away, I saw something in the distance. As she disappeared beneath the waves, a flash of lightning lit the sky. A ghost ship appeared with huge white sails and a carving on the bow in the shape of a bird’s beak.” He turned to look at Kanani. “As I live and breathe, I swear the ship had come to claim my sweet Noelani, to carry her away to the land beyond.”
Kanani was sure the old man had seen Redbeard’s ship. “Did the ship land on the Garden Isle?”
The old man shook his head. “The storm tossed the ship, sending it on toward the Forbidden Isle. Recovery from the storm was delayed by another storm the next night. Though my people tried to stop me, I paddled my canoe to the island a few days later, hoping to find the ship and my Noelani.”
Kanani touched the old man’s shoulder. “And did you find them?”
His fingers stopped their weaving motion. “The people of Niihau refused to talk to me and threatened to throw me off the island if I didn’t leave on my own.”
“Did you leave?” Kanani asked.
The old man stared down at his motionless hands. “I couldn’t leave until I knew the truth. I asked one more man if he knew what happened to the ship. He was so angry that he and several others carried me to my canoe and tossed me in. As they pushed me out to sea, a small girl swam out to me carrying a pineapple to give me strength for the journey home. As she clung to the side of my canoe, she whispered, ‘The ship ran up on the rocks in the storm. Everyone on the ship was swept out to sea.’ ”
“No survivors?” Kanani asked.
The old man shook his head. “She didn’t say. I assumed none.”
“And the ship?” Kanini asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t see it. I assume it was swept out to sea with the storm that hit a day later.”
A sound pulled Reid out of the storybook. He glanced up to find Maliea standing in the doorway of the bathroom, her damp hair combed smoothly back from her forehead.
“Did Nani wake?” she asked in a whisper.
He nodded. “I read more of your father’s story to her.” Reid’s lips twitched on the corners. “I admit, I got caught up in it and kept reading after she fell asleep. Your father was quite the storyteller.”
Maliea nodded. “He liked to incorporate his research in the stories he told Nani. I told him he should write books and publish them. Other children might love the stories as much as Nani.”
“This story is obviously based on the pirate Redbeard and the treasures he stole from Oahu.” Reid frowned down at the handmade book in his hand. “Do you think all of the story was based on his research?”
“Sure. I’d bet some of it is based on his research. It’s a fact that he interviewed people whose ancestors had passed down the legend of the theft on Oahu and the big storm that caused so much damage. ”
“And the sighting of the ship passing Kauai in the night?” Reid asked.
Maliea’s brow furrowed. “Yes.”
Reid pulled his cell phone from his pocket and searched the internet for Kanani Akamu. The name appeared in an article written by Joe Akamu, who claimed to be the great-great-grandson of Kanani, a woman who’d lived through the pirate raid of Honolulu and the great storm that had almost wiped Honolulu off the map around the same time.
Reid shook his head.
“What?” Maliea came to stand near him.
“Kanani Akamu was a real person who lived in Honolulu at the time of the great pirate raid and the storm.” He looked up into Maliea’s eyes. “Your father must have read about her in this article by the woman’s great-great-grandson.” He held out his phone for her to see the article.
As Maliea read the words, she frowned. “I always thought Kanani was a name he made up for Nani.”
Reid searched the internet with the name of Old Man Rangi. When nothing came up immediately, he added “1884” and “storm” to the search.
The name Ahe Rangi appeared in an article documenting the lineage of the Rangi-Manoa family from the 1800s through to modern-day Hawaii. Reid grinned up at Maliea. “Old Man Rangi was a real person as well.” Again, he handed the phone to Maliea .
She read the article and sank onto the end of the bed. “My father’s journal wasn’t the only place he documented his research. He included it in my daughter’s storybook.” Maliea took her father’s book from Reid’s hand, her face paling. “Whoever ransacked both apartments was looking for something. Do you think they were looking for this?”
Reid’s cell phone vibrated in his hand. He glanced down at the screen where Rex’s name was displayed. The man wouldn’t call him this late unless it were important. Reid answered the call on the first ring, “Bennet here.”
“I went out for a jog an hour ago and noticed a car parked on the side of the road not far from the cabins,” Rex’s voice came through the line in a whisper. “It was still sitting there when I got back from my run. The boys and I sneaked out the back door to investigate. Seems the car is occupied, and the guy inside has some kind of equipment pointed at your cabin. By the looks of it, it could be a listening device.”