Tina was at the compressor changing tanks for refills when Jamey rounded the corner.
“Did you dream last night?” He tried to face her, but she turned away, tired of having people witness these moments. “I hope you’re keeping a dream journal,” he asked.
“It’s on my desk.” She nodded in the direction of the shop’s back door. Too many dreams, too few hours of actual sleep had left her feeling only partly in this world. Every night after she woke from dreaming, she’d pace the floor, pour over maps of the coastline, wondering what had happened to Hank’s body.
Jamey leaned on the doorway jamb, studying the calendar. “There might be a pattern to when you have the cavern dream.” He rubbed his chin. “If there is…” He showed her the paper. “Tonight is a possibility.” He smiled apologetically and Tina felt a momentary tug at her heart.
His slightly askew smile was something she found endearing, as well as distracting.
“I’d like to observe you dreaming tonight,” he continued. “What I’m looking for is a sign that you’re in REM and see if you talk in your sleep, move your legs and arms, that sort of thing. I’ll need to be in the same room as you.”
“I don’t think I sleep-talk, or even sleep-walk.”
“I have a theory, but let’s eliminate the talking and walking and make sure you’re in REM.”
Somehow, his request made her uneasy. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me sleeping before,” she whispered, not making eye contact with him. This felt so intensely personal, letting Jamey into her bedroom while she slept. “I don’t know if I can fall asleep with you in the same room.”
“You’ve slept with me in the same bed before.” He shrugged.
Tina’s cheeks got hot.
“Let’s try.” He seemed indifferent to what she was remembering. “And if tonight is another dream night, wouldn’t you want to make the effort?”
She desperately wanted to put a name to what was happening. “Yes.” She did. “I’ll call when I close the shop and you can come over then.” She gulped at the thought that she’d just asked James Dunn to visit her at bedtime.
“I’ll see you then.”
Hank had seemed overly sophisticated for Maui when Tina first met him. Here was a man who’d lived all over the world, had a degree in art history and was semi-retired at the age of forty. He didn’t have much money and was happy about that. She’d heard through the gossip circles, that he was independently wealthy and had followed his Grace Kelly-like girlfriend to Maui. Her father owned art galleries on Front Street and she managed them from California.
The night Tina met Hank at the Kapalua party, she’d just signed the papers to buy the dive shop and was feeling incredible. With every intention of making a success of her life on Maui, she’d celebrated her bravery by enjoying too many glasses of wine. Pepper told her to remain seated, drink some water and eat the plate of appetizers placed in front of her.
From her poolside seat, Tina noticed an intriguing man across the expanse of the deep end. His lanky comfortableness drew her in.
When Tina’s head cleared, she found herself in conversation with him.
“What do you do, Tina?” He took a drink from his highball glass.
“I bought a dive shop today. I teach scuba and have a degree in business.” For the first time in her life, she wanted to tell someone that she had an education beyond the knowledge of Maui’s sea life.
Talk of the ocean led to recipes for cooking. “By any chance, do you have a good recipe for seafood bisque?” he asked.
She laughed to think how useless she was in the kitchen and told him so.
“I love to cook.” He rattled off his favorite recipes.
“You are frighteningly in touch with your feminine side,” she teased.
“I love to eat.” He said it in a way that made Tina think there was an underlying meaning to that statement.
He introduced her to his friend Noble, a large Hawaiian man. They’d been friends for 20 years, and when Hank excused himself, Noble moved in, letting it be known that he was available, where Hank was not. Noble was handsome, probably more so than Hank, but there was something about Hank that reached out and grabbed Tina by the throat. Noble’s presence barely made contact. Months later, Hank would tell her that he tried to ignore her that night. “but you were just so damned cute.”
At an art gallery opening, only days later, Tina sipped a glass of merlot when she saw Hank, his arm around his girlfriend’s sylph-like shoulders. Again Noble tried to engage Tina in conversation. They pondered which paintings were more marketable. But she couldn’t keep her eyes off Hank. Noble was a player, and she had no time for the uncertainty of him when her desperation to have a baby was gnawing at her thirty-two year old body. She wanted a life partner and a family, not a hula dancing playboy.
Tina found herself invited to the “New Year’s Eve Party of the Year” at a Hollywood producer’s house in Wailea. She’d recently broken up with a boyfriend from Honolulu and needed something to brush away her feelings of inadequacy. This was her social debut, not only after the breakup, but after her recent accident with an exploding tank. The chin scar that was left was healing nicely and could now be covered with makeup.
Earlier in the day, Pepper had insisted she get out of her wetsuit and make an effort. “Come on Tina. We’re thirty and single. Let’s do the party. We’re on the guest list,” she’d pleaded. Without really trying, Tina looked smashing in a sequined mini dress and stilettos. And from the moment they walked past the bouncer at the door, the two women attracted male attention from every direction.
Hank stood by an outdoor fountain talking to a group of rock stars and did a double take when he saw her. This time Hank approached her. “I remember you. Tina, right?” His twinkling eyes made her heart flip and she secretly hoped the absence of the girlfriend was significant. After an initial conversation about the paintings in the house, Tina professed she knew nothing about art. “I am a total Crayola girl.”
Hank took her by the arm. “Let me give you the twenty minute art history crash course,” he said, as they strolled towards the hallway’s collection. At some point she revealed that she owned paintings. “Inherited,” she said. “They were my grandmother’s. I’m not sure if they’re worth anything. It doesn’t matter because I’ll never sell them. Some painter named Hebert. Maybe Jacques or Francois? Francois, I think.”
“Never heard of him, but perhaps you’d like an appraisal?”
Tina stared at the sexy man in front of her, sizing up what he’d said and how he said it. “They’re at my house in airtight containers.” She smiled coyly, unsure what direction they were taking and how far they’d go with this.
“As they should be. The salt air will ruin them.” His voice was all business now. There was a pause and then Hank’s attitude changed like someone hit him in the chest. “I’m engaged.”
Tina thought he might be kidding. “Did you mean to say ‘I’m engaging’?”
He paused. “I’m getting married next month. I just thought this conversation was starting to take a turn.” He flashed a sweet conciliatory smile at her, and Tina’s face felt hot.
“I know you’re engaged,” she lied. “Congratulations, by the way.”
Flirting came to a grinding halt at that moment.
“Yes, thank you. Although I’m not entirely sure we’ll make it to the wedding.”
“Then you shouldn’t be making appraisal appointments with single women.” Tina walked away and avoided him for the rest of the evening.
Days after, Tina heard the news that Hank and his fiancée had split. Hank would later say that their conversation had been a turning point for him. “Ingrid and I fought our way closer to the wedding date. It wasn’t good. I had doubts and I’m sure she did too, because before I could end things, she did.”
Tina wondered.
Then one bright Maui morning, Hank found Tina painting the interior of her shop just off Front Street.
“I see I’ve had a good influence on your artistic creativity.”
“I remember you,” she laughed, holding her paint roller away from the wall. “Hank, isn’t it? The art appraiser.” She’d actually been using him to fantasize about sex for months.
“If I jump in here to help you, I can’t guarantee you’ll end up with a run of the mill store.” He smirked like there were twenty other meanings to what he said.
“I’d love the help, but no fancy stuff on the walls, just blue.”
He came back the next day and the next, finally taking over the remodeling of her dive shop. A few weeks later, Hank had turned it into one of Hawaii’s coolest looking stores, with aquariums all over the walls and a giant model of a humpback whale hanging from the ceiling.
“It looks more like a trendy nightclub,” she said.
“Then it shall function both as a dive shop and as a work of art.” He’d taken her in his arms and kissed her fiercely. By now they’d all but set the date.
The sign, “Tina’s Dive Shop” stayed above the front door for a few more months, until they were married in a little ceremony on the beach in Wailea. After that, Hank took his gig as the shop manager seriously -- as serious as Hank Perez could be about anything. He set up a juice bar in the shop, played current pop music and hired the Parrot Guy to take Polaroid’s to draw people to the front door. They’d had a grand party to celebrate the raising of the new sign designating “Tina & Hank’s Dive Shop.”
“We are getting ready to touch down on Maui in an hour.” Tina’s parents were phoning from the First Class section of an American Airlines flight to KahuluiAirport.
“What? You’re kidding!” Her heart rate jumped through the dive shop roof.
“Your Father and I are coming to Maui to check on you.” Her mother was probably leafing through a junior league publication while she talked.
“In an hour?” Tina was not ready to see these people she called ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’. Not at all.
“We will see you at the airport.”
Tina’s truck sped across the isthmus that joined the two lumps that made up Maui. Pulling into the newly renovated MauiInternationalAirport she took a deep breath and looked at Obi in the passenger seat. “Here we go, boy.”
Thirty minutes later her parents were driving her nuts and they’d barely been on Maui long enough to sweat. For one thing, her father failed to mention he’d hired a car. Of course they would prefer the luxury of a chauffer-driven Lincoln to her pick-up truck.
“Do you still have that dog?” Her mother asked before saying hello.
Tina’s defensive bristles stood at attention. “Yes, I do. He’s my constant companion, Mother, and his name is Obi.”
“I’m not saying he isn’t and don’t get all huffy with me, young lady. I just asked.”
It was going to be a long two weeks.
At baggage claim Tina searched for their expensive luggage set on the carousel.
“You can join us for dinner at eight. Father made reservations at The Bay Club for three.” Elizabeth Greene looked sideways at her daughter.
Tina handed the suitcases to their driver who had no idea what kind of verbal abuse he’d have to endure over the next week.
“Unless you want to bring the dog to dinner and we’ll change the reservation to four.”
She and her mother finally shared a smile, but even so, Tina didn’t know if she was mentally ready for the two oddballs she called mother and father. She attributed the alienation she’d always felt to their inapproachability. Part of it was that Elizabeth was not born into money and was desperately afraid of showing her meager upbringing. Raised by her drunken grandmother, Elizabeth Alton needed her life to be orderly, clean, and proper. Especially after having twins to secure her marriage, and then losing one to an accidental drowning. After that tragedy, Elizabeth ruled the family like a crazed dictator. The closest Tina got to a childhood pet was a bush in the garden that attracted butterflies. She’d sit and watch them circle the blooms, but when her mother noticed, she’d had the gardeners cut it down.
“Bugs are dirty,” she’d told Tina. It took many years for Tina to realize that pets weren’t germ ridden, disease-carrying dirt balls, but sources of unconditional love.
When the air-conditioned town car pulled up to collect the passengers, Elizabeth turned to her daughter. “You are holding up better than you let on.” From her distance of six feet away, Elizabeth Greene was exhibiting her unusual method of mothering. “I’m glad to see that, Kristina.”
The absence of a hug was noticed and her mother broke away from the moment to join her husband in the back seat of the limo. What little affection Elizabeth Greene had for children had died along with her other child.
She loved her parents, knew they meant well, but it would be fourteen days of steely patience if they were planning on spending much time around her. Maybe they’d leave early if their curiosity was satisfied about her state of well being. She’d hide the fact that she was holding on to a thin ledge of sanity with the tips of her fingers.
Tina drove back to the west side with Obi. Her parents had ridden in her truck only once; her father lectured the whole way on why she should’ve bought a Chevrolet instead of a Ford.
Driving along the coastal road, Tina sang along to a Janet Jackson song. Things were going well at the shop and she dared to feel confident that the new instructors would work out. Finally the shop’s problems were under control.
Back at the shop gear was being unloaded from the truck. Pepper and Jamey had done the morning charter with the new dive instructor –Shelly.
“How’d it go?” Tina asked Pepper when they had a private moment.
“Shelly and Jamey had gotten on like a house on fire, if you know what I mean.” Pepper smirked. “Heavy flirting,” she said, with a strange look in her eyes.
In the alley Shelly asked Jamey if he’d mind showing her the beach dive locations that afternoon.
“I’m not the best resource, seeing I don’t live here. Pepper’s the expert,” he’d said. “Want to show her, Pep?” he’d called in the backroom. Tina almost laughed out loud to hear the buck pass. And that he knew they were standing, listening. He’d called her friend “Pep”, a nickname she detested.
Jamey’s humor always made her laugh, whether he meant to or not.
* * *
Pulling his jeep alongside Tina’s truck, Jamey made a note that it had been left at an angle as though she’d been in a hurry. The second truck was still there, just like the day he’d picked up the wallet. Was it Hank’s? The lights were on inside the house and music floated outside from the upstairs deck.
Obi barked above him. Dogs who announced visitors were helpful. He climbed the stairs to the second floor balcony and met the brindled dog at the top. “Hello boy. It’s me,” he said, extending his hand for a sniff.
“Come on in.” Tina saw him through the patio door. She stood in the middle of the kitchen, holding up a Corona. “Want one?”
“No thanks.” Jamey slipped out of his flip flops and opened the screen door. “Whose red truck?”
“Noble’s. He must’ve gotten a ride to work.” Seeing Jamey’s expression, she explained. “He lives in the cottage in the backyard. Hank’s best friend. Didn’t I mention Noble?
Jamey watched her search the drawers in the kitchen.
“This drink will be my insurance to sleep.” She held up the beer. Reggae music boomed from the living room speakers and Tina danced around the kitchen after finding the bottle opener. “Beer, my downfall, I’m afraid. But you already know that.” She flashed a big smile his way, the first one of that intensity and honesty he’d seen since returning to Maui. This version of Tina reminded him of the nights they’d spent with an empty bottle of wine alongside a pack of condoms on the nightstand at the Hyatt.
He leaned on the counter top. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Not a lot.” She stopped and held the Corona in mid air. “This is my first beer.” Her voice dropped to an exaggerated whisper, “but I had wine with dinner. It’s just that my parents are in town and blah blah blah…” She stroked Obi’s back with her foot, balancing precariously and taking a swig of her beer at the same time. “And I’m on medication that makes alcohol intensify.”
He reached to grab her arm just before she toppled over. “Ah, your parents.” He nodded, like he knew the need to escape from parents, though his mother died when he was four and he loved his father with a vengeance. “I take it you’re not ready for bed.”
Tina laughed. “Ha! In any other situation I would’ve said something really funny about you needing to buy me dinner first but…” She grabbed his hand and led him to the couch where he sat.
She fell over, practically on top of him. “Whoops.” Sliding off, she scooted down the length of the couch. “Sorry.” The colorful throw pillows made a cozy nest and she patted the couch for Obi to sit between her and Jamey.
“I’m glad you’re here. I appreciate your help.” Words sounded fuzzy around, like Tina was obviously making a supreme effort to speak clearly. She laughed at her own drunkenness. “I hate it when I slur. Do I sound slurrish to you?” She looked at Jamey like she just realized something. “Oh no, did I drink too much? I don’t usually do this but, oh my God, does it ever feel good to feel this GOOOOD!” she shouted. “Hey, I deserve to have a fun time. I’m a widow, my business is barely surviving, I’m having strange dreams and hallucinations, and my parents are in town trying to convince me to sell the dive shop and move home to Seattle, so what the hell. I’m going to have a drink… or six.” Tina took a long chug of her beer.
“They want you to sell the dive business?” Jamey was shocked they didn’t know this was what kept her sane.
She looked at Obi. “But I am a big girl and don’t have to do what they say anymore. Dr. Chan says that I don’t have to spend my life trying to be the perfect child for them just because my brother died.” Tina looked up and shook her head, as if to clear it and then leaned over to kiss her dog’s head. “Oh, Obi. You’d hate Seattle.”
This was getting interesting. He listened, another one of his gifts for extracting information.
“It wasn’t my fault. My twin’s drowning.” She looked off to a corner of the ceiling. “I will always wonder why Mother often left us alone like that, playing by the pool. She’d go in the house. I had time one day to dig a hole in the lawn with my spade and fill it with pool water. That day she came out and spanked me for digging.” Tears filled her eyes. “After Kristoffer’s death, I did everything they wanted, but not now. I can’t. This is where Doc Chan and I draw the line. I’m not going to move to Seattle and marry that boring ex-boyfriend and have 2.5 children. Heck, my eggs are drying up and I’ll be lucky if I have 1 child, even if I got married tomorrow.” She sat up straight and looked at him.
Jamey spoke. “Let’s make sure that you don’t have to move to Seattle if you don’t want to.” He watched her lovingly stroke Obi and remembered when he’d been the recipient of all that attention. Tina had soft, lovely hands. Once she’d said “I’m very tactile” as she lightly tickled his lower abdomen with her fingers.
“Leaving Maui won’t solve anything.” He couldn’t help saying it.
She hadn’t heard him, lost in her own thoughts. “I wanted a baby so badly.” Tina glanced in the bedroom’s direction. “Hank too.”
Footsteps sounded outside and Tina eyes widened. “Oh shit, here comes Noble. I don’t want him to know you are here, watching me dream and talking and everything.” She stood and seemed to be looking for somewhere to hide. “He’s so fussy about me and I didn’t tell him everything. I’m really trying to avoid him right now.”
“Tina, it’s okay, we’re old friends.” He motioned her to sit on the couch and she plunked down. Noble’s emotions were evident before the man opened the screen door. Jamey readied himself. Noble was a big man up close. This was the man who’d run out on the deck when he drove away that morning with Hank’s wallet. A strange aura surrounded him. Jamey was sure it was the anger.
Noble stopped, took stock of the sight in front of him, then opened the screen door and came in. “What’s up?” He looked cool but was mad as hell.
“Nothing.” Tina was trying to sound sober. “Noble, this is my friend Jamey Dunn and this,” she waved her hand towards the Hawaiian dude in the doorway, “is my beloved rock, Noble.”
“Hi Noble.” Jamey stood to shake hands but Noble stayed halfway across the room, oozing hatred.
“Jamey.” His gaze held on Tina.
She smiled in her tipsy fog. Noble’s mood softened at that.
“So, are you guys just hanging out or what?” Noble walked a few steps and Obi sniffed at him, his tail between his legs. Ah, the dog didn’t like Noble.
“Hangin’ and talkin’,” Tina said in a singsongy voice that showed how drunk she was.
Noble sat on the low armrest of the couch beside Tina, his leg brushing hers. Jamey almost let a laugh escape. You didn’t have to be psychic to understand what Noble was trying to convey. ‘This woman is my territory’ oozed from his pores. If body language didn’t already say it all, he could almost hear Noble’s growl. In a few sentences, Jamey learned that Noble had just finished work at the Hyatt show ‘Drums of the Pacific’ where he was a hula dancer. “Tina’s favorite show in the islands,” Noble said.
“How’d the show go tonight?” Tina slurred.
“Good.”
“Were you a dancer growing up?” Jamey needed to get to the heart of this guy.
“I took classes when I was a teenager. My mother had a ballet studio.”
Tina seemed surprised she’d learned something new about Noble.
They smiled at each other and Jamey nodded at them like this was really interesting information. So this was the man in Tina’s life. The one she was excited and confused about. Jamey hoped Noble couldn’t read his thoughts.
“Jamey is helping out on dives right now.” Tina looked slightly uncomfortable. “He’s Katie’s uncle.”
Noble looked down his nose at Jamey.
“He’s supposed to be on vacation, but we’ve put him to work.” She gestured to Noble and blurted, “Noble was Hank’s best friend.”
This was strange. Jamey would back off. Noble was probably waiting for her to put Hank to rest before he moved in on Tina.
The conversation was stilted for far too long before Tina took the last sip of her beer. “Well guys, I’m tired now, so I’m going to bed.” She stood and looked at both men sitting on the couch. “Party is over.” She clapped her hands once. “Chop chop. Time to go. Everybody up and out.” She made a swishing motion with her hands, as if to sweep them from her house. Noble seemed to be waiting to see what Jamey was doing, but Jamey wasn’t sure if Tina remembered that he was staying.
Jamey took the lead. “I’ll escort you to your room and see that you actually find your bed.”
Noble stepped between them. “That’s okay, newcomer. She knows where her bed is.”
Jamey wasn’t sure how to diffuse this situation, but, before he could, Tina stepped in, giggling. “Newcomer! Oh Noble you are too funny.” She hugged the big guy. “Good night sweet, noble Noble. Don’t worry about me.” Her words slurred together, as she broke her hold and turned to Jamey. “I’ve known Jamey a long, long time. Longer than I’ve known either you or Hank. Isn’t that funny new information?”
Tina grabbed Jamey “See?” She stretched up and kissed him full on the lips. Jamey broke off the kiss, gently easing her away. Tina didn’t seem to notice. “Jamey is no newcomer. He’s an old comer.” She laughed at her joke. “Sweet dreams, Noble.” Tina grabbed Jamey’s hand to lead him to the bedroom, but he turned to Noble. “We’re old friends. That’s all.” He considered leaving, but he needed to see her dream if he was going to help her. It was too good an opportunity to waste.
“I’m a yell away.” Noble’s scowl would’ve brought lesser men to their knees.
“She’s safe with me, man.” Jamey felt like an intruder. Why was Tina avoiding Noble?
“Leave please, Noble.” Tina jumped in. “Jamey’s just going to tell me a bedtime story. Bye.” She walked to the bedroom and Jamey followed, prepared himself for the possibility of Noble jumping him from behind.
Once inside the room, Tina slammed the door shut. “Oops!” she called through the door. “Sorry Noble!” Tina fell onto her bed. Face first and didn’t move.
Jamey opened the door but Noble was gone, his footsteps descending the front stairs, a reminder that the big guy wouldn’t be far.
Tina looked like she was out for the night. The chivalrous side of him wanted to move his car and pretend to drive away just to set Noble’s mind at rest, but he didn’t want to miss the dream. Especially because a long dream could be over in less than a minute.
Then again, she might take awhile to get into a dream state from passing out drunk. He closed the door and locked it, then quietly lay down on the far side of the bed, facing Tina. He needed to be close when she dreamed. At least he told himself this as he lay staring at her, drinking in her smell of plumeria and too much alcohol, listening to the sound of her breath.