Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

Josie pulled at the t-shirt suctioned to her midsection as they
walked to the big truck Stephen had pulled to the side of the
one lane bridge. She reached for the passenger door handle but
he stopped her before she opened it.
“Not there, my darling. You’ll get a face full of pineapples.
Come on around back.”
Josie did as she was told, checking out the artwork on the
side of the paneled truck. It was a veritable explosion of
Hawaiian art: flowers, surfers, waves and wahinis in rainbow
colored grass skirts. In curlicue fonts painted in pink, the truck
screamed Shave Ice! Pineapple by the Slice! Mango Cola! In
the center of it all, was a huge picture of Stephen Kyle dressed
in the plaid shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and hoisting a
pineapple in each hand. A wreath of flowers encircled his head
and emblazoned like a manic psychedelic halo over that head
was the word Keoloko.
“Nice,” she said as she joined him behind the truck.
“Pays the bills.” Stephen Kyle cranked the handles down
simultaneously and pulled open the huge double doors in the
back of the truck. He threw out his arms like a ringmaster.
“There you are.”
Josie looked inside. The cavernous space was packed with
things: boogie boards, boxes of umbrella beanies, a hanging
rack of clothes, and a bed. Everything, including the spread on
the mattress was emblazoned with the Keoloko logo.
“You live here?”
“Hardly. Come on. Up you go. I’m not a masher.”
She was barely inside when he slammed the door. The truck
went dark except for the light coming through a small window
that looked into the cab and through the front windshield. A
moment later, the engine came to life smoothly and the truck
lumbered back on to the road just as the rain began to fall
again. For the next two hours Josie laid on the mattress drying
out, counting the twists and turns on the Hana Highway, and