Hero of Hawaii (4 page)

“Hey!” Stella said. “Are you a dog?”

Not many things were as exciting as a big rain, and this was
huge
!

We headed back home.

The wind rocked the car at every stoplight. Rain pounded down so loud you had to shout to be heard.

Darci leaned closer to me, stretching her seat belt.

By the time we got down into the valley below Maunawili, the rain was coming down so hard Clarence had to slow the car to a crawl. You couldn’t see the road. The wipers were going as fast as they could and still you couldn’t see.

“Awesome!” I shouted.

It was like being tumbled around in a
wave, where you didn’t know which way was up and which way was down.

Cars pulled over to wait it out.

But Clarence kept crawling ahead. “Not smart to stop here.”

I leaned closer to the front seat. “Why?”

“Low land. Could flood.”

“Ho,” I whispered.

I’d never seen a flood. But I knew what it was. Lots of water making rivers where rivers shouldn’t be.

We crept uphill and back down the other side into Kailua.

The streetlights were out. Traffic inched ahead, one car at a time. Fog grew on the insides of the windows. I made a smiley face, then wiped it into a square so I could look out. Everything was blurry.

Lightning blinked in the black sky, followed by huge blasts of thunder that exploded overhead.

“Holy smokes!” I shouted.

Darci gripped my arm.

I leaned closer to Clarence in the front seat. “Have you ever seen it like this before?”

“Nope.”

“You really think it will flood?”

“Prob’ly.”

I sat back. Cool.

The first thing I checked when we got home was the river. It still looked the same. My skiff sat in the long swamp grass just above the waterline. Probably I should haul it higher up, I thought. My dad gave me that boat just before he and Mom split up. I didn’t want to lose it.

We ran from the car to the garage and burst into the house.

Mom was in the kitchen. She looked frazzled. “Thank heaven you’re all home safe,”
she said. “I’ve never seen it rain like this in my entire life!”

I wiped rainwater from my face with my hand. “Mom, we couldn’t even see the road. Clarence had to drive slower than you could walk!”

Mom looked at him. “Thank you for driving safely, Clarence.”

“No problem.”

Stella grabbed his hand. “Let’s go find you a dry T-shirt.”

“Look in the hall closet,” Mom called after them. “There’s a box with some of Johnny’s old clothes in it.”

Mom pushed Darci and me out of the kitchen. “You kids jump into something dry, too!”

“In a minute,” I said, and ran to our big living room window. The river sailed past our
yard, draining water from the lowlands to the ocean, just a few blocks away.

My skiff was probably filling up with rainwater. I should have left it bottom up.

Mom and Darci joined me.

“The river’s getting fatter,” I said. “And muddy.”

Mom crossed her arms. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.”

D
arci and I changed and went back into the kitchen.

Mom wanted to know how it was up at Ledward’s house. She grabbed the phone, started to punch in his number, and then stopped.

There was a puddle of water on the counter
where we ate breakfast. Mom frowned and looked up at a slow drip plinking down from the ceiling. She handed me the phone. “Here. Call Ledward and see how he’s doing while I take care of this puddle.”

I punched in his number as she put a cereal bowl under the drip.

The phone rang six times before he picked up.

“Ledward,” I said. “It’s a storm!”

He laughed. “That it is, boy. How you doing down there? I was just about to call your mama.”

“We’re good,” I said. “Mom wants to know how you’re doing.”

“Fine. The dogs are howling, but my pig likes it. You got electricity?”

“Yeah.”

“Mine’s out. Lucky the phone still works. Your mama there?”

“Yeah, sure.” I handed the phone to Mom and ran back to the front window to watch the river.

Now stuff was floating in it. The current was picking up, almost like a riptide. I saw a piece of lumber go by, a tree branch, a cardboard box, and some white packing foam.

The wind banged up against the house, shaking it. Trees and bushes swayed and danced around the yard, and the rain was falling sideways. Sharp drops snapped against the window like firecrackers.

A striped beach ball from somebody’s backyard sailed across our lawn and bounded down to the river. It made me itchy to get out in the storm. I didn’t want to miss any of it.

But who would go with me?

Darci was hiding under her blanket in her bedroom with
Officer Buckle and Gloria,
her favorite book.

Julio?

“Mrs. Coconut,” I heard Clarence say from the kitchen. “I can use the phone?”

“Over there by the toaster,” Mom said.

“Thanks. Calling home, see if they okay.”

I got up and went into the kitchen.
Clarence was wearing one of Dad’s old T-shirts. It was too small for him. The bowl on the counter under the drip was filling up. Mom was looking at the ceiling, chewing her thumbnail.

“Hey,” Clarence said into the phone. “I Stella’s house. You okay there?”

He listened.

The wind outside howled.

“Yeah, good,” Clarence said. “I going stay here for now. They live by the canal. It could flood … yeah … yeah … bye.” He hung up.

“Everything okay?” Mom asked.

“Can’t find our cat, is all.”

Mom nodded. “Probably found a nice dry spot to wait it out.”

That was when I remembered Streak. I hadn’t even thought about her! Where was she? I ran out into the garage. She wasn’t in her usual spot by the door.

“Streak,” I called. “You here?”

Streak came crawling out from under the car with a smudge of car grease on her head.

I squatted down. She was trembling. “Come,” I said, picking her up. “I got a better place for you.”

I carried her into my room, which was right there in the garage. When Stella came to live with us and took my old room in the house, I had to move into the storage room. Ledward helped me clean it up and make a bedroom out of it. I liked it.

I set Streak down on my lower bunk and piled my dirty clothes around her to keep her warm. But when I went to the door she jumped off and followed me.

“Don’t want to be alone, huh?”

I let her into the kitchen.

Mom looked at Streak and raised her eyebrows.

“Just for the storm, Mom. She’s scared.”

Clarence waved me over to the window. “You better drag up your boat. The water coming higher.”

I looked out to see the river lapping at the stern of my skiff.

W
hen I ran outside, the wind nearly blew me off my feet. Raindrops stung as I leaned into the storm and staggered down our sloping yard to the swamp grass at the edge of the river.

Small wooden rowboats are heavy, and even heavier when they’re half full of rainwater. The wind had blown my tin can bailer
out into the river, so I tried to lift the side of the skiff to let the water pour out.

“I help you!” Clarence shouted.

I dropped the skiff, and the wind blew me off my feet. I tumbled into the boat with a splash and got tangled up in the oars.

Clarence laughed and pulled me out.

“Dang oars,” I said, squeezing water from my T-shirt.

Ledward and his dumb ideas. He’d attached cables to the oars so if they fell into the water I could just haul them back in.

Actually, it was a good idea. Except that I usually got tangled up in the cables. It drove me crazy. Last time I’d almost cut them off.

Clarence and I dumped the water out and dragged the skiff up into the yard. We left it upside down with the oars tucked under it.

As we headed back to the house I saw Streak looking at us out the living room window. I picked up my pace. Mom better not see her out of the kitchen!

In the garage, Clarence and I took off our shirts and wrung the water out. Inside, I grabbed Streak and wrapped her in my wet T-shirt to hide her.