Authors: Everett Peacock
“
Go
to my boat and get my medical kit. Hurry!” Wally knew Janet
was too injured to move without first giving her some pain relief.
“
Do
you see another wave Wally?” Star asked. The concern in her
voice struck Wally deep. His love, his companion of many years, was
now afraid, afraid of the sea. Great, he thought, and I'm a
fisherman.
“
No,
baby, nada!” He took another look just to be sure. The
horizon was clear, the points of land on either side of them were old
black lava rock against blue sea. No white water. He looked over
toward the vacation rentals to his left. They were gone.
“
How
is Jimmie?”
“
She's
all buss up Star. We gotta get her to a hospital.”
His
son soon had climbed the tree with sixty feet of rope and the seat
cushions. He also had the small medical kit that Wally kept in his
boat. Injuries at sea, while fishing, could be debilitating. If the
weather turned bad you couldn't afford the luxury of pain, you had to
get to port.
“
Thanks
son,” Wally whispered. “Here, help me.”
Both
of them used their one free hand, the other holding onto to the tree,
to prepare the syringe. Wally had prepared 15mg of morphine
capsules, which he now stuck the needle into, drawing out the liquid.
“
Let
me see your foot, Jimmie,” Wally said with the certainty of a
man determined to fix a problem.
Janet
moved her leg as best she could, giving Wally a look. Several of her
toes seemed broken, but the veins on the top of her feet were what he
needed.
“
A
little poke and you will be a lot better. OK Jimmie?” He
looked into her eyes, beyond the clouds of confusion and deep into
what he knew were cascading spasms of pain. “Here you go,
girl.”
It
took them half an hour to get her down and into Wally's boat. Star
seemed quite a bit better, walking normally now. The other fishermen
had returned from their search and rescue mission and had anchored
offshore again.
Wally,
with Janet comfortably secured in his boat, prepared to leave. His
son had his anchor in his boat as well, ready to push away.
“
I'll
take her over to Hilo bay, where we can get an ambulance.”
“
Good,”
Star said, leaning into the boat, touching Janet's hair softly.
“
Hop
in, Star,” Wally said.
She
hesitated and turned to look back at her home, now virgin beach and
coconut grove. Wally noticed her reluctance.
“
Starshine!
There is nothing left. The waves took it all. Nothing!”
“
I
know, I know.”
“
Look,
even those two story vacation rentals are gone, Star.”
Star
looked quickly over to the other side of the bay, where three
beautiful homes had been built, where many a party had celebrated
what she herself could every day. There was nothing but rubble, and
sand.
Wally
watched her closely, hoping to find an angle to convince her into
getting into the safety of his boat. He knew Star's story well. She
had grown up in this area, decades of living at the very boundary
between earth and heaven.
“
Come
on Starshine, we can come back in a few weeks if this thing blows
over and see what we have left.” He looked at her, imminently
afraid of her unpredictable behavior when it came to her heart.
“OK?”
Star
was unable to look into his eyes, afraid of his persistence, his
undeniable logic. She was watching the little yellow tangs play
around her feet as she stood in the shallow water.
“
Star!
For God's sake, we gotta get your friend to a doctor. Get in!”
Wally's
son was already moving away from the beach into the deeper waters,
looking back as he did. He knew his Dad's girlfriend, his Auntie,
was a free spirit. She had a big heart that seemed rooted in the
land deeper than anyone he had ever known himself. He was proud of
her for that, if not worried sometimes about the decisions she seemed
to make.
Star
reluctantly climbed into Wally's boat. He immediately pushed off the
sand and dropped his twins into the water, threw them in reverse and
quickly retreated.
The
waters were still of floating debris, forcing Wally to pick his way
carefully. His son had already stopped, clearing rope from his
propellers.
Wally
pulled up next to him to see if he could help. He was still worried
that they were close enough to shore to get caught in another
tsunami.
“
Small
kine,” the young man said. “There!” he tossed the
old nylon into his boat, so no one else would have the pleasure.
“
Good
job,” Wally proudly said. “Let's pick our way out
carefully.” He looked at Star, still staring back at the
beach. “Star, can you stand watch on the bow please? Look out
for logs and such?”
She
looked back at Wally and then down to Janet, asleep on the seat
cushion couch in the shade of the boat's bikini top.
“
Sure.”
Walking slowly she made her way to the front of the boat,
immediately yelling out. “Log!”
Wally
threw his engines into reverse for a moment, enough to stop their
forward progress. Nervously he looked back at the beach. At fifty
yards they were still too close in case another earthquake decided to
stir things up.
“
Move
left about two feet or so,” Star directed. “Slowly.”
Wally's
son moved slowly in behind them, following their cleared path. Both
boats were running at just above idle. Star was constantly looking
back at the beach, until Wally would point ahead.
“
Stop!
Stop!” she suddenly announced.
Both
boats came to, with the son's boat sliding easily up to the right
side of Wally's.
“
What,
Star?” Wally demanded, frustrated with their slow progress.
Just
ahead in the clear waters were dozens of green sea turtles, all
headed to the shore. The Hawaiian sea turtles, or Honu, were large,
certainly a hundred pounds or more.
“
Honu!”
Star said, almost laughing. “Wally, the honu are returning,”
she looked at him with conviction and a sparkle in her eye. “They're
going home, Wally.”
Both
fishermen had a lot of respect for the turtles, as both competitors
for bait fish and as a sign that the ocean waters were healthy. But,
few had made the mystical connection between them and humans like
Star had. Wally knew this and was rapidly getting worried as he
watched them swim by his boat.
“
Star.
That's a good thing, maybe they are exploring the flotsam for food.”
“
Yes,
it
is
good.” Star was watching them fly beneath the boat, surfacing
at times for air and a quick glance at her. A light wind moved her
pareo, tied above her breasts and hanging to her knees, as a colorful
flag.
Wally
had seen this before with his long time girlfriend. She was tuned
into nature to the point of being blind to the inherent dangers
there. He would have bet she would have been hurt or died a dozen
times since he met her and he would have lost each time. Something
in nature, something in the universe, loved her right back.
Something there kept her out of harm's way, despite whatever she did.
“
Star,”
Wally attempted. “We can come back tomorrow, check on things
you know. The turtles,” he silently cursed their timing.
“They'll be around for you to play with then.”
Janet
woke a little, surfacing from her morphine nap to find acute pain in
her back, in her feet and in her head. Still she tried to sit up
when she heard Star talking about turtles.
“
Where?”
Janet said hoarsely. “What turtles, Star?”
“
Hey
there!” Star smiled. “Are you any better?”
Janet
shook her head, and tried to stand, falling back into the seat.
Wally moved over to help her stand, putting her hands on the
windshield.
“
There,
Jimmie,” he pointed. “The turtles are swimming right
past us.”
“
Wow!”
Janet laughed. “Look at them all!”
Star
was walking back to the stern of the boat, now leaning on the engines
as she watched them.
“
Beautiful,
aren't they, Jimmie?”
Wally
kept an arm around Janet as he continued to prop her up so she could
see.
“
Oh,
yes!”
“
And
brave, too!” Star added. “Heroic, actually.”
Wally
had never heard that said of green sea turtles, but he knew he would
hear an explanation soon, one that would color Star's personality
even brighter. Crazy as she might be, he loved that she embraced all
creatures as special. Fishermen had a degree of that as well, except
that they ate what they appreciated.
Star
had taken off her slippers and had climbed up on top of the railing
of Wally's boat.
“
Star...”
Wally moaned. “What are you doing?”
She
turned to look at her boyfriend, and then over to his son, and back
to Janet.
“
They
are going to the beach, to protect it. To guard it against the
lava.”
“
Auntie!”
Wally's son was getting the same thought that his dad had.
“
Jimmie,”
Star said, now turning to her injured friend. “Honu have a
connection with the sea and the beach. They know when it is safe.”
She turned back to watch the last of the turtles move past the boat
on their way to the white sandy stretch Star still called home.
“They are defending the magic, and I must go with them!”