Sujata Massey - Shimura Trouble

“Flames on both side of the road now,” I said to Michael in a low voice.

“I guess the fire must have traveled through tree root systems to the other side.” Michael powered down his window and called out to the firemen, ‘How far ahead is the closing?”

Someone shouted something back, and Michael rolled up the window again. “I could barely understand him, but I think he just said try to go through.”

“Try? What kind of advice is that, to drive through a fire?”

“They wouldn’t leave it open if we couldn’t make it,” Michael said.

“This is a hell of a first date.”

“Let’s not count tonight. We’ll start fresh tomorrow-that is, if we live until tomorrow,” Michael added grimly.

During the time we’d been talking, the smoke had become lighter. I could see clearly again, and while there was fire on the right side of the road, it seemed to be spreading right back up the mountain. Had the wind changed?

“You did it!” Michael said as Kainani’s hibiscus hedge appeared. As I took the Kainani exit, a short bridge over the highway into the resort, my heart rate slowed to normal. There was no fire here on the emerald green lawns, where the in-ground sprinklers were going full-blast. The guard booths had been abandoned, and the gate was up, so we went straight through.

“Look!” Michael pointed at the golf course, where five lean golden animals streaked swiftly across the green. They looked like wild dogs, and I guessed they were a family because there was a range of sizes.

I slowed at the turn so the dogs could get across the street bisecting the golf course. I imagined they’d left their mountain home in desperation, but what would there be for them here? I kept my foot on the brake until the dogs had passed, then drove the remaining block to the Pineapple Plantation gate, where I stopped again. We’d made it.

After a half-minute, Michael asked, ‘Do you need to call the house to get someone to buzz you through?

I shook my head. “My keychain has a microchip that activates the gate, but I’d rather not hurry through.”

“Why?”

I turned to him, and took both of his hands in mine. “Michael, I’m not sure I should have brought you. I didn’t prep you about what might happen. I don’t know if you can endure it.”

“Come off it!” Michael laughed lightly. “What could be so terrible after all we’ve just passed through?”

I took a deep breath and said simply, ‘My family.”

TOM WAS IN the garden with his back to us, busy filming the fire ravaging the mountains. At the sound of our approach, he spun around. “You returned safely. We were so worried.”

“It was quite a drive,” I said, preparing to introduce Michael.

“You must tell me about what you saw, along the road. And have you brought with you the Four Guys on the Edge ?”

“Just the one,” Michael said, smiling and stepping forward to shake hands with Tom. “My name is Michael Hendricks. Are you the infamous Tsutomu?”

“Tom. I always prefer Americans to call me Tom.”

“Michael drove back with me because of the fire,” I said. “And he’ll join us for dinner.”

Tom took his hand back from Michael and nodded at me. “Everyone’s waiting for you to prepare the meal, but the television was exciting enough to distract them. Come in, both of you.”

“The gauntlet’s not as bad as you led me to believe,” Michael whispered to me as we followed Tom into the house. When he saw the interior, his voice rose a few octaves. “Wow, this place certainly beats my hotel room, doesn’t it?”

“I wasn’t in your hotel room-and remember, shoes!” I hissed at him because he seemed ready to stride with his weathered Topsiders into the living room. Everyone had turned from the television to inspect the two of us: Edwin, Margaret, Courtney and Yoshitsune on one side, my father, Hiroshi, and Calvin Morita on the other.

“This is my friend Michael Hendricks-he helped me drive here, because of the fire.” I went on to introduce everyone to Michael.

“How kind of you to accompany Rei,” my father said stiffly, when it was his turn. “I’m Rei’s father, Toshiro Shimura. I have to ask, though, how will you return to your hotel, now that the road is closing?”

“If the road hasn’t re-opened in a few hours, I’ll stay in the hotel we passed on the way in,” Michael said. “And I apologize for intruding on your family. I now understand my arrival this afternoon placed Rei in a dangerous place at the wrong time. I’m sorry for that as well.

“Eh, these fires, we must drive in and out of them-no other way to survive!” Uncle Edwin said. “Our way of life. When was the last time we had a really big fire, Margaret? Six years past?”

“It was three years ago,” Calvin corrected him. “I know, because I’d just started in my position. Michael, let me introduce myself. I’m Dr Calvin Morita, a neighbor here in Pineapple Plantation.”

“Yah, the fire was 2005,” Uncle Yoshitsune chimed in. “I remember that some neighbors dredged the water out of my pond to wet down the firebreak. Three of my fish died.”

“That’s terrible about your fish, Uncle Yosh. Hopefully the fire won’t get close enough to Honokai Hale for that to happen tonight,” I said, trying to be jocular in order to drag attention away from Michael.

“Nobody there to throw water; the police made everybody leave,” Yosh said.

“Hey, will you join me in a drink? So I won’t be the only one?” Calvin invited Michael.

“No thanks, I think it would just put me to sleep,” Michael said. “What about you, Rei? Since you’re not driving any more tonight?”

“No, thank you. Where’s Braden?” I finally realized who was missing.

“He’s gone upstairs to watch the FX channel,” said Tom.

“I’ll call him down. Braden, you get your behind down here!” Margaret stood at the foot of the stairs and hollered up.

“So, you a sailor, huh?” Edwin said to Michael, as Braden eventually dragged himself down the stairs. “Been stationed at Pearl Harbor for long?”

“Well, I’m actually based in Washington, DC, although I did live at Pearl when I was a boy; my father worked there. I was actually sailing with friends in the Transpac race.”

“For a guy your age, it’s a long time to be enlisted,” said Edwin, who clearly still misunderstood the situation. You going try for promotion or get out?”

“Both are possibilities.” A twitch at the side of Michael’s mouth told me he was trying not to laugh. And I suddenly understood why he was letting Edwin believe he was a Navy sailor-he was creating a cover close enough to a semi-truth without actually lying. My father’s expression was closed, but Uncle Hiroshi was frowning, and Tom was looking at Michael with a considerably less friendly expression than before. Braden, who’d trailed downstairs, gave Michael a sarcastic salute before flopping down next to his sister and staring with a bored expression at the television news.

The situation seemed to worsen after Margaret asked Michael where in Hawaii he had attended high school. Michael mentioned a place called Punahou; I’d never heard of it, but it obviously meant something of significance because Braden hooted, and Courtney looked up from her book with an expression on her face that almost looked like envy.

“You were a Punahou graduate, and then you enlisted in the Navy?” Edwin sounded incredulous.

“I didn’t graduate from Punahou; I was actually there less than a year.”