Rogue Wave

Chapter 10

As Teresa now saw, the Memorial Day holiday's beautiful weather brought out not only the travelers from the mainland, but what seemed like every local on the island. Waikiki was packed. Street parking spaces were nonexistent. Rachel had given them a free pass to the Grand Hawaiian's parking lot, but it was full, so Teresa and the girls finally pulled into the garage at the massive Hyatt Regency Waikiki. By this time, a discussion between her and Mia had escalated into a heated argument.

"Mom!" said Mia. "Rachel let Lani get her ears pierced. And my friend Monica got a tattoo on her ankle."

Teresa popped open the hatch. "Ears are one thing. If you want to get them pierced, I'm with you. But a navel piercing? You're too young. And don't even start with the tattoos." Mia had been bringing up the subject of belly button piercing for over a month.

"What is the difference between getting my belly button pierced and my ears pierced?" Mia's voice was headed into whine country.

"Ear piercing is so common now that it's just a decoration. Belly button piercing still has more of a sexual connotation. You're not mature enough for it."

Mia pulled her boogie board out and slammed it to the ground.

"Be careful with that!" Teresa said. "It's not yours. Are you trying to prove my point?"

"Mom, I'm almost 14. I know a lot of girls my age that have them."

"Maturity is not just about chronological age," said Teresa.

"And it's not sexual."

"Sure it isn't." Teresa locked the car and headed toward the sunlight beckoning from the garage exit. "Come on. I want to see what the legend of Waikiki is all about."

Mia reluctantly picked up her board and followed her mother.

"Lani," Mia said, "don't you think Mom should let me get it pierced?"

Lani obviously didn't want to get involved, so she uttered something as noncommittal as possible. "I don't know."

Mia heaved an elaborate sigh. "When did you get your ears pierced, Mom?" Ah, Teresa thought, changing the angle of attack. Not gonna work, kiddo.

"When I was 16. I was lucky your Nana let me do it then."

"Yeah but…"

"The next words out of your mouth better not be 'You're old.'"

"But things are different now, is what I was going to say."

Teresa stopped at the exit. "Mia, I just don't like the idea of you lifting your shirt to show some boy your navel ring. I know it's totally illogical given that you are going to be prancing around the beach in a bikini in a few minutes, but that's the way it is. For now. We can talk about it again when you turn 15." Teresa knew that this wouldn't be the last time she heard about it until Mia was 15, but she was clear that it wouldn't be brought up again today. Mia ground her teeth, but said nothing.

"Good," Teresa said. "Let's go find some beach."

They emerged from the Hyatt onto Kalakaua Avenue, the main drag up and down Waikiki. To the west, the view was obscured by the hundreds of high-rise hotels and condominiums that extended to the office buildings of downtown Honolulu. In the other direction, Kalakaua stretched past the last hotel on Waikiki about a half-mile away, where it passed the zoo and Kapi'olani Regional Park until it ran into Diamond Head, the massive extinct volcano that served as Honolulu's dominant landmark.

Teresa loved the views, and just for fun, she had looked at some real estate web sites before coming, but after about fifteen minutes she'd stopped. The homes here were way out of her range.

The Honolulu landscape resulted in some of the priciest real estate in the world. The narrow strip from the peaks to the beach was less than two miles wide in most places, meaning the only direction to grow the city was up. Dozens of immense luxury hotels-some more than 30-stories tall-loomed over Honolulu, and thousand-square-foot condominium units didn't go for less than half a million dollars. The majority of the hotels and condos were concentrated in Waikiki.

Once Teresa had seen a map of Waikiki in her guide book, she realized why it was so packed. Waikiki itself was actually a peninsula bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the south and the Ala Wai Canal on the west and north. The canal, built to drain the swampland that Waikiki stood on until the 1920s, drew a sharp boundary between the magnificent skyscrapers of Waikiki and the squat landscape on the other side. Only three bridges near the Ala Moana shopping complex linked the peninsula to the rest of Honolulu on that side, and the resulting traffic jams were a constant source of irritation for drivers. The only other way off the peninsula was to the east, through the Kapahulu residential neighborhood that abutted the zoo and the Ala Wai municipal golf course.

Despite the astronomical costs of land, many buildings still dated from the post-war building boom that saw smaller 10-story buildings go up. They provided cheaper and quirkier accommodations for those who couldn't afford the mega resorts. Teresa knew it was only a matter of time before they would be replaced in order to squeeze every last dollar from tourists' pockets. She supposed that was the cost of capitalism.

Teresa, followed by Mia and Lani, plunged into the throng of people crowding Kalakaua Avenue and crossed the road to Waikiki Beach. They passed a magnificent banyan tree and stepped onto the beach itself.

As Teresa searched for a spot big enough for the three of them, she heard people speaking Japanese, French, German, Spanish, and a few languages she couldn't place. Like all beaches in Hawaii, Waikiki was open to the public, so a mish-mash of all walks of life mingled with the guests of the expensive resorts.

Two boys, both about 16, walked past. Tan and lean, they looked like younger versions of Brad. They gave the girls an appraising look and the taller of the boys spoke to them as they went by.

"The surf's a lot better by our condo." He pointed his thumb in the direction of Diamond Head.

The girls laughed, and the shorter boy yanked his friend and kept walking. The boys' attention to her daughter tickled Teresa, but she hid her amusement.

She was paying attention to the boys and didn't notice a grungy man in blond dreadlocks going in the other direction until she bumped into him. He said "Buds?" in a voice so low that Teresa wasn't sure she heard him properly. But she had treated enough homeless people to know not to encourage him, so she didn't stop him when he continued on without pausing.

"What did he say?" said Mia.

"Buds," Lani said. "It was a Rasta trying to sell pot."

"Oh great," Teresa said. "They've got drug dealers on the beach?"

"Just ignore them. They're harmless."

"And how do you know about them?"

Lani rolled her eyes. "I've never bought any. But they're all over the place. Why do you think dad won't let me go down to the beach near our house?"

"Maybe he's got a point."

"He's overprotective. I can handle those guys."

"Well, I'm not worried about it here. There must be thousands of people on the beach today. But one of us should always stay with our stuff."

Teresa stopped at an open patch near an impressive hotel called the Outrigger Waikiki. She dropped her bag and started spreading out her towel. She had a clear view to the breakwaters on either side, and the waves coming in were good-sized, but still mild enough for safe boogie boarding.

"How's this?"

Mia made a show of propping up her boogie board in the sand. "So Mom, since it's safe around here, Lani and I are going to walk down the beach."

"We just got here. Don't you even want to get in the water? Look how clear and blue it is. It's gorgeous."

"Yeah, it's great," Mia said, stripping down to her bikini. "But I saw some great T-shirts back there, and I want to get some souvenirs while we're here."

Lani piped in, now down to her bikini as well. "Yeah, and we want to get sarongs for the luau tonight."

Teresa wasn't very concerned about letting the girls go off on their own. Mia had been babysitting for three years now, so walking around the beach, especially with someone else, wasn't worrisome. Teresa looked at her watch. It was still a couple of hours until lunchtime.

"All right. How long do you think you'll be gone?"

The girls looked at each other and shrugged in unison.

"There's a lot to see," Mia said. "Maybe an hour or two."

"You have some money?"

Mia waved her wallet. Babysitting money.

"Sunscreen?"

"We put it on at the house."

"OK. But be back by 11:30. After a morning in the sun, I'm going to be starving."

"Thanks, Mom," Mia said as she and Lani turned toward Diamond Head and began walking. "You're the best."

"Bye, Aunt Teresa," said Lani.

Teresa gave them a wave. She was actually relieved to have a little time alone. After she liberally applied sunscreen, her plan was to immerse herself in a good mystery novel for a peaceful morning.