Authors: Everett Peacock
“
What
the hell?” Johannson yelled. “Where's my soldier,
then?”
Larry
motioned that he was going to Cabin #94 to get the red headed girl to
hurry on up to the phone.
“
Larry,
the guy who first delivered your telegram, and I have a bad feeling
about the Private. This girl who says she is the Private is in bad
shape. Drunk, sick, looks like a walking corpse.”
Alex
waited for a response but only heard silence. He continued.
“
She's
supposed to be here any minute to talk with you.”
“
Oh,
really? This masquerading wife of his is going to do what? Pretend
she is him, to his own Sergeant?”
Just
then Larry ran back into the office.
“
She
split! Took off, car is gone and her bags too!”
Alex
stared at Larry for a moment, feeling like an idiot for thinking she
would show up. Reluctantly he told the increasingly angry Sergeant
on the other end of the phone.
“
Yeah,
no shit! No matter, I have military police on their way already as
well as what armed Rangers I could find. They should be there, in
your office, any moment. Please do show them around. The airports
are already looking for anyone using Private Turner's ID.”
Sergeant Johannson continued, “And Alex...”
Alex
stood up now, three burly Rangers already entering his office.
“Yes...”
Sergeant
Johannson was furious but had planned ahead anyhow. She knew she
couldn't rely on a civilian to carry out orders in any predictable
manner. Two days had been wasted waiting on this guy to get a simple
message to someone who evidently was never there. She took a deep
breath and finished her sentence.
“
Never
mind.” The phone went dead.
~~~
Janet
was speeding, which she knew wasn't a brilliant idea, but she was
scared and couldn't keep her foot under control. The traffic was
light, but so was the rain, and the roads were getting a sheen.
Finally,
her luck, what little there may have ever been, ran out with the
entry onto the road of a school bus. She hit her brakes to keep from
running into the big fat diesel exhaust pipe, but wasn't going to
make it. She swerved into the oncoming lane to possibly go around,
but a tour van was coming up quickly.
There
wasn't much to do but to swerve back into her lane, behind the
looming butt of the bus, downshift to low and keep on the brakes.
She felt the tug of deceleration and soon felt her tires grabbing
some pavement but pulling hard to the right. The bus was rapidly
accelerating, probably having seen the speeder coming up fast, but it
was too late for Janet's rental car, now with the front right tire in
the soft jungle mud.
The
steering wheel came out of her hands demanding to follow the front
tire into the shallow ditch between her and the Ohia forest a few
meters to the side. In a matter of some small slices of one second,
Janet pushed the air bag remnants out of her face and watched in some
fascination as the big yellow school bus continued down the road.
The tour van passed her going the other way and never stopped. It
was like she didn't exist. No one else's little bubble of reality
had been sufficiently disturbed to stop and help.
Janet
could see a whole lot of mud and ferns up on her windshield, but when
she tried to open her door, the mud and ferns there prevented it.
Rolling down the window she looked out and saw she was nicely plowed
into a ditch that would require a tow truck and more motivation than
she might ever be expected to muster.
The
rain had at least let up a bit she noticed, so she began climbing out
of the window with her one bag. She had to crawl up the steep
embankment to the road, her hands, knees and feet now muddied.
Finally
on the edge of the pavement she turned to look at her car. The two
front tires were flat as well, and the side window on the passenger's
side was broken.
“
Great,
just fucking great!” She looked in both directions. The
stretch of road ahead of her was empty and the hill behind her hid
whatever might not be there. Nothing and no one. Pulling the Army
cap down low on her head, she continued walking in the direction she
had been going.
Her
shoes were shedding the mud slowly. With little traffic she felt
safe walking on the edge of the pavement. Breathing a little more
normally now, she could hear the Coqui frogs chanting in the deep
cover. Large ferns lined the edge of the jungle protecting the
darkness behind them from the casual view of anyone cruising down the
road.
Something
made her focus on the sounds. It sounded strong and it sounded, she
thought, as if it were running straight for her. Coming quickly
through the woods was a mass of heavy rain, pounding the Ohia and Koa
trees. The curtain of dense rain crossed over onto the road, making
it sing. Instantly she was soaked. Her Army cap held the deluge
away from her face, similar to how a snorkeling mask did underwater.
In true tropical fashion it actually got a little warmer with the
rain.
“
Perfect!
Just perfect!” Janet was yelling holding both arms high up in
the air, daring the gods to strike her down.
A
car she never heard passed her from behind and hit the brakes,
stopped and backed up to her, window slightly down.
“
Hop
in, I'm going to Kapoho.”
Janet
stared at the older woman inside of an old Toyota Tercel. She had
beads in her hair and was wearing some kind of hippie print dress
“
I
wasn't hitchhiking,” Janet deadpanned.
“
Well,
you should be! Hop in before you get run over.”
Janet
stood and stared another long moment, almost in a daze. However,
when the lady put the car back into first gear, she rallied and
reached down for the door handle.
“
Honey,
you're soaking wet,” the lady exclaimed, seemingly surprised.
“Reach into the back there and get my beach towel. I won't
need it now anyhow.”
Janet
couldn't quite read this lady. Did these rural people really pick up
strangers in the rain? “Thank ... thank you.”
The
Toyota struggled through the first few gears getting back up to
speed, before the lady let it coast a bit in the heavy rain
She
looked at Janet for a long moment before watching the road again.
“Who you running from honey? Not that it's any of my business.
I just want to know who might be coming up fast in my rear view
mirror.”
Janet
immediately turned around to look behind them, but saw nothing, but
heavy gray rain.
“
Seriously,
is someone looking for you, now?” The lady looked in the mirror
herself and sped up a bit.
Janet
looked over at her again and saw something friendly, something that
moved her to the first bit of honesty in months. “The
military, I guess.”
The
lady looked up at her haircut again and then back to the road.
“
OK,”
she said, pausing just a moment. “So where are you going
then?”
Janet
fidgeted a bit with her bag. These were sure a lot of questions.
The rain was still coming down hard and she would rather ride than
walk, even if the questions were coming fast.
“
The
airport. Hilo I think is what they call this one up ahead?”
The
lady looked at her again with a bit of a confused expression. “The
airport honey? Are you kidding? The military will certainly have
that covered don't you think?”
Janet
had not considered that in her haste to leave Cabin #94. No doubt
they would have police looking for her soon. They would find her
abandoned car and soon figure she had caught a ride to Hilo.
“
So
where are you going, again?” Janet asked, trying hard to smile
just a little.
“
I'm
going home, to the Kapoho area.” She looked at Janet one more
time before putting on her right blinker for the turn into Pahoa
town. “You're welcome to come with me. I live with several
old hippies you might find interesting. Some of them are
still
on the run, some forty years later.” She laughed out loud.
Janet
felt ten thousand weights lift off her chest. What she needed right
then was a good idea, and here was an excellent one. “OK, that
sounds good.” She looked at the beads in the lady's hair
again, they gave her hair a rainbow of colors. “I'm James...”
she coughed a little. “I mean Jimmy.”
The
lady looked over at her again. “Jimmie with an ie on the end?”
Janet
nodded.
“
Cool,
I'm Starshine Aloha.” In another moment she turned the old
Tercel sharply to the right and punched the reluctant accelerator as
they found a good long stretch of downhill road ahead of them. “Nice
to meet you Jimmie,” she said fidgeting with the windshield
wipers. “You can just call me Star.” She looked down at
her car and punched the dashboard slightly, “I think I've got
at least one headlight working.” She was right.
Janet
saw the dark blue of the ocean ahead at the bottom of the long road
they were on. Star glanced over and caught her looking.
“
We
live at the end of the road. I'm going swimming at Champagne pond
before dark. You want to come along?” Star asked.
The
clouds seemed to be lifting as they descended from the higher
altitude Belt Highway, the rain suddenly disappearing. Janet could
feel the air warming up as well. The road was increasingly lined
with pregnant coconut palms, guiding them toward the sea.
“
Do
you live near the ocean?” Janet whispered, incredulous.
Star
smiled. She flipped off the windshield wipers and rolled down her
window, letting her hand surf the airstream like a kid. “Yes.
Yes we
do
Jimmie.” Star took a long deep breath of the fragrant air,
something Janet was doing as well, having rolled her window down as
well. Star always loved going home and probably loved it more when
she could share it. Proudly, she announced to her new friend their
destination.
“
We're
headed for the very edge of paradise.”
15
Paperwork
would kill her before the Taliban ever did.