Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

“Aolani is studying to be a nurse. And a fine one you’ll be.
Who wouldn’t want a heavenly cloud by their bedside? Who, I
ask you? We must find a Hawaiian name for you, Josie.”
“I think I’ll stick with the name I’ve got–” Josie began, fully
intending to cut this hospitality short but the man wasn’t done.
“Ah, and there’s Malia. That means beloved. Not by me, of
course,” Stephen guffawed. “Far too young, even though she
adores me. Don’t you, dear thing?”
“You betcha,” Malia said just before she disappeared into
the back of the house.
“She’s not Hawaiian, you know.” Stephen offered this aside
confidentially.
“The Brooklyn accent was a dead giveaway,” Josie assured
him.
“A good ear you have. Puerto Rican. Her real name is
Maria, but you put a grass skirt on her and crown of flowers
and she’s Malia, beloved of the gods of Hawaii, arrived on this
earth on the back of the great turtle or some such. Drink?”
Josie smiled because it was hard not to. She had slept in the
back of the truck despite, or because of, Stephen Kyle’s
singing. It had taken her a few minutes to ground herself after
she woke up. Now here she was, a guest of an English Mad
Hatter in a tropical rabbit hole. Still, there were worse places
to be than this house and were it not for Stephen Kyle she
would be walking the road from Hana.
“There’s a bathroom over there for you to wash up. You’ll
feel so much better if you do. Glad you’re dried out. Anuhea.”
Stephen called to the reclining girl who looked at him with a
smile. “Could you get Josie here a shirt from the cabinet and
see if you can find a pair of flip-flops from the shipment that
was going over to the Royal Lahaina?” To Josie: “I’m thinking
you wear a nine? Yes?”
“Yes, I’d be grateful for the flip-flops, but I’m good with
my shirt. I’ll change when I get to the hotel.”