Chapter 23 The Guardian
The Guardian
?Aumakua: family or personal gods, deified ancestors who might assume the shape of animals or plants
Rain fell all through the night. Minnow knew because she had flopped around like a dying fish, awake and thinking about Luke
and wondering what kind of crazy she had gotten herself into. Maybe his leaving had been a blessing, but it sure didn’t feel
that way. It felt hurtful and sharp and sad. What was he so afraid of that he couldn’t tell her? Whatever it was, it felt
big.
The clouds were still there, thick as mountains, and it almost didn’t feel like morning. She dragged herself out of bed and
looked toward Mauna Kea. There was no sign of the sun trying to shine through. Her hair felt as though a slither of serpents
had nested in it overnight, and she could still feel the residue of Luke’s palm against her scalp.
She knew she should call Joe and tell him she was leaving, and see when she could get out on Hawaiian Airlines, but it was early yet.
Instead, she ate a banana, put on her swimsuit, grabbed her mask, fins and dive knife and headed out onto the seawall.
The air was so still and the water so smooth, it felt like stepping into a black-and-white photograph, worn around the edges.
And that reminded her to look through the photo album Woody had left on the counter when she got back from her swim.
He must have pulled it out for a reason.
With lips raw from all the kissing, the snorkel chafed as she put it on. She waded into the water, headed south since she’d
already gone north, and the cold water woke her up immediately. Without the bright sun, or any sun really, everything was
void of color. Minnow had been studying the framed coral reef fish poster on the wall and now it paid off. A family of rockmover
wrasse poked around in the sand. A large cloud of yellow tang drifted near the boat. Several juvenile yellowtail coris darted
in and out of a coral head, orange and white and bearing no resemblance to their purple and spotted future selves.
As soon as she rounded the south end of the bay, a cluster of lava fingers gave way to more of a clean shelf that dropped
straight into the water. The vertical rock was about fifteen feet high and met with sand or smooth black pebbles at the bottom.
Even in the low light, the water was so clear, she could easily see for sixty or more feet. There was something ethereal about
it all and she felt no apprehension, only wonder. That was the secret of the ocean. It could make you forget about what existed
above.
As Minnow swam along, she could hear the humuhumunukunukuāpua?a grinding on coral, little sand makers that they were. And when she dove down, a faint whale song reached her ears. She wondered
what whales thought of lightning. From deep underwater, it was probably lovely. She poked her head up and looked around, checking
for any flashes. The stillness and dense clouds made conditions ripe for another thunderstorm, but there was no sign of one,
just a dab of red over Mauna Kea. Red skies at morning, sailor take warning. The saying was etched into her mind, as it probably was with most seafaring folk.
Minnow kept going. Over fields of finger coral full of delicate snowflake eels.
Across a deeper trench where four turtles floated near the bottom, surrounded by fish.
There was abundant life and beauty here, but it was so much more than that.
Most people had no idea that at least half the oxygen on earth comes from marine plants in the form of tiny phytoplankton floating near the surface.
Whales loved it and so did manta rays. Upset the balance of the ocean and you upset the balance of all life on earth.
Even as she swam along, she went through bursts of plankton. It was almost like swimming through fairy dust. Every so often
she also came upon a shadowy cave in the shelf, but without a dive light, it was impossible to tell how far in they went.
Nor was she about to find out on her own, especially with the toothy moray eel hanging out of one of them, mouth opening and
closing.
The farther she went, the more the knots in her neck and shoulders loosened, but try as she might, she couldn’t entirely shake
thoughts of the hunt and of Luke Greenwood. His words kept playing over and over in her mind. So you’re running away. I guess I had you pegged wrong. She could see how, from his perspective, leaving seemed like a cowardly thing to do. But what did he really know of her? Judging
was easy when you didn’t know the full story. That was her fault as much as his.
At the next little inlet, she came upon a crack in the shelf full of humpback cowries as large as her hand. Smooth and shiny
and a rich coffee brown with speckled tops. She never took live shells, so she hung there admiring them for a while. When
she turned to go, her eye caught something on the bottom lying in the sand. She dove down and picked up a whole cowrie, bigger
than any of the ones in the crack, but this one was heavy with an animal inside it too.
She was about to kick back up for air when the water around her lit up silver.
The fish around her froze for a few seconds, then disappeared into nearby coral heads.
Minnow dropped the cowrie and shot up. At the surface, she looked at her watch.
Forty minutes had passed since she left the house, which meant she had a long swim back.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, but she had a feeling it was coming closer.
The clouds had darkened and electricity tickled her skin.
Swimming this far down the coast under such dark skies had probably been reckless, but it was too late to worry about it now.
Fish near the surface could get electrocuted, which meant she could too. In her boat captain class, Minnow had learned that
when lightning strikes the ocean, its current spreads out over the water, potentially harming or killing anything near the
surface. Keenly aware of this, she took off toward the house, staying close to the rocks and keeping an eye out for any possible
caves in the water or on land. She found when she was coming from the other direction, things often appeared that she may
have missed on her first pass.
She was swimming hard but evenly, trying to remain calm. Sending off fear vibes would not serve her well. A ruffle appeared
on the water, and soon there were whitecaps. She had to move to slightly deeper water to avoid being pushed onto the urchin-infested
rocks or jagged lava. She wished Woody was here. Or Nalu. Or even Luke. Especially Luke. There was something about him, even
after last night, that made her crave him in a way she had never craved a man.
Ever.
Ten minutes into her return, as the lightning moved closer, she noticed the gaping mouth of a lava tube just above the surface
of the water. It would have been easy to miss if she hadn’t been poking her head up at regular intervals, taking stock of
the sky. Maybe it would be worth it to try to scale the rocks and wait out the storm. She swam in for a closer look. Black
wana with footlong spines blocked the immediate area. It was getting harder to see with the rough conditions.
She kept going, looking for an out, when she sensed something behind her. She turned and did a quick three-sixty. There, on
the periphery, her eyes snagged on a dark shadow. She squinted for a better look, but a small whitecap broke on her head,
filling the water with bubbles. Minnow sank down, her back toward the rocks. This time the outline was clearer.
Large shark.
Her hand went to her dive knife. She came up for air, keeping her eyes locked on the animal.
The next flash of lightning showed the shark in all its splendor. Broad head, vertical stripes, pale underbelly. At least
fourteen feet. Big but nothing like a Sister. No claspers, so it was female, and the fact that she was still out there was
a good sign. She was curious. Minnow was close enough to the rocks, where she could make a scramble for it, but this shark
displayed no aggressive behavior. Propelled by the slow side to side of its tail, the animal kept moving in her direction
but was ten yards or so out.
As she approached, she dropped beneath the surface, watching Minnow. There was no doubt about that. Minnow let out all her
air and dropped to the ocean bottom, hair floating around her. When the shark passed by, she noticed a deep scar up near its
mouth. Her hand squeezed the knife handle as her heart banged around in her chest. She maintained composure, staring it down
the same way it stared her down. They were two intelligent beings sizing each other up. Both predators, both wary.
But this was a special moment and she knew it. The shark kept swimming, and Minnow watched its three-foot-high tail slowly
disappear into the dark beyond. She felt a rush of relief combined with wishing she could have frozen time for a few moments
and just taken it all in. When she came up for air, the rain was spilling down hard, dappling the surface of the ocean. The
wind stopped as quickly as it had whipped up, and Minnow headed in the same direction the shark had. Toward the house.
A few minutes on, the water turned blurry and noticeably colder, as happened around freshwater springs. There was a cave,
too, one she had missed on the way down. Sandy bottom, blue light at the far end. Had she not just encountered the tiger shark,
she might have gone in, but she remembered Woody talking about a sacred cave around here. A home to his family’s revered ‘aumakua. Maybe this was where her tiger had gone. The opening was wide but low, and she could hear the sound of water scraping on rock.
Then out of the side of her eye, she caught a flash of movement and turned to see that the shark had swung around and was
swimming back her way. Not ten yards out but in a line that would bring it right to Minnow. Its energy had changed and she
could tell by the way its pectoral fins were down that the shark was coming back for another look. Or perhaps a taste. Instinctively
she backed toward the rocks. I come as a friend, Minnow repeated over and over in her mind.
The shark shot toward her, and though she held up the knife, it was laughable. There was nothing a small blade of steel could
do against four thousand pounds of muscle and cartilage. Still, she would die fighting. Hit it right in the nose, and the
animal might retreat. Miss the nose, and it would swallow her arm. But instead of colliding with Minnow, the shark passed
within a foot of her, smacking her shoulder with its tail. Minnow spun around just in time to see its jaws open wide and its
gills ventilate as it clamped down on a small turtle. Lightning flashed down and for a moment everything turned red. Minnow
felt for the turtle, but her relief was bone-deep and pungent. Immense.
She swam for home.