Mistwalker (3 page)

All three letters said pretty much the same thing.
Though Ellen Kealoha had high grades and outstanding test scores, each college sought more well-rounded students. If Ellen planned to major in drama, she needed more stage or even backstage experience.

Poor Mom,
Darby thought.

Next, she studied a professionally printed photograph of Jonah and Ellen with Prettypaint, the horse that Tutu rode now.

Tutu was Darby's great-grandmother. A warm and gentle woman, Tutu lived in a rain-forest cottage with Prettypaint and an owl who was friendly only to her. Known as an herbal healer and wise woman, Tutu accepted Darby's intuition for understanding horses as significant but not strange. She and Jonah shared the trait, and for all Darby knew, her mother had once been the same.

Prettypaint was young in the picture. Maybe a yearling. The photo looked like it had been taken at a horse show.

Pale gray with bluish spots on her heels, Prettypaint wore a red ribbon on her halter. Jonah and her mom looked proud as each held one side of the filly's halter, but they both also had an arm crossed across their stomachs and hands fisted with tension.

Was she imagining things, or was she really seeing clues leading up to Mom's decision to run away from the island?

Jonah hadn't packed things in any kind of order, that was for sure. A rosebud corsage and a triangular
note folded origami tight and decorated with smeared pencil-drawn hearts was crammed in with an official-looking letter that wasn't even Mom's.

The letter, from the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), notified Jonah that Ellen Kealoha's college scholarship would be awarded to another deserving student if she didn't claim it in six weeks.

Darby hadn't known that the AQHA gave scholarships. That was something to remember. But why hadn't her mom snapped it up?

Darby's curiosity intensified when she found the stack of report cards tied with a ribbon like love letters.

Wow, of course she knew her mom was smart, but since elementary school, Ellen had earned almost straight A's.

Darby leafed through a bunch of honor certificates, including an award from Lehua High's foreign language department and another for perfect attendance.

Then came Mom's senior-year report card. Her grades had all changed to C's.

The next box was heavier because it held three yearbooks.

Darby flipped through them, looking alphabetically until she found her mother.

This is like time travel,
she thought, arranging the yearbooks side by side. Mom was beautiful in every picture, but the sparkle in her ponytailed freshman photograph was gone by her sophomore year. Her
smile looked forced and her teeth didn't show. By junior year, she looked, well, kind of stuck-up.

Darby gazed into the mirror on the other side of her room and imitated her mother's pose. She lifted her chin, tipped her head, and raised an eyebrow, but the effect wasn't the same, because Mom had really loaded on the black eyeliner and crimson lipstick.

No yearbook for senior year. Had the money for the keepsake gone to buy hay instead or had her mom taken it with her when she left?

Darby was still searching for another yearbook when her fingers grazed the black leather diary.

It slipped free from the stuff around it as if it had been waiting for her.

Holding the book in both hands, Darby argued with herself.

Nothing is more private than a diary.

But Mom left it behind.

Not for
you
!

How secret is a diary when it's not even locked?

She didn't know she was going to have a daughter when she wrote it.

Yeah, there's got to be some juicy stuff in there.

How would you feel if
she
read
your
diary?

If it meant living happily ever after on Wild Horse Island, I'd forgive her.

Haven't you ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?

With stiff, good-girl fingers, Darby was returning the diary to the hatbox when the latch flopped open. A clump of pages, loosened from years of opening and closing, fell out and plopped on the bedspread, right in front of her.

It's a sign,
Darby decided.

“Dinner!” Aunty Cathy's shout from the kitchen startled Darby.

She latched the diary without replacing the fallen pages.

“Coming!” she yelled back.

Carefully, she returned the diary to its place among the yearbooks. Then she stood up and wedged both hatboxes back under her bed.

With a cautious glance at her closed bedroom door, Darby folded back her white tufted bedspread and slipped the clump of pages under her pillow.

“I'll decide later,” she whispered to herself.

Then she smoothed the bedspread back in place and left.

I
t figured that on a night when she was preoccupied with a mystery mare, her mom's arrival, the pages under her pillow, and Hoku's spooky reaction to the one-rein stop, there'd be five people at the dinner table.

In celebration of tomorrow's ceremony, Aunty Cathy had invited Cade to dinner.

As Darby came down the hall from her bedroom, Cade crossed the threshold of Sun House. Turning his hat in his hands and shifting from foot to foot, he glanced at her and nodded but kept talking to Jonah.

As she passed, Darby heard Cade confide his uneasiness at intruding on a family dinner. Still, he'd accepted the invitation. That was a first since Darby had been here.

“Better than sitting alone while Kit meets his girlfriend and new horse in town, yeah?” Jonah asked him.

“Yeah,” Cade agreed.

Given the chance, Darby would have chosen time inside the Animal Rescue Society barn, watching Kit and his girlfriend, Cricket, bond with Kit's newly adopted mustang, Medusa. On the other hand, maybe Cade hadn't been invited.

The table was set on the lanai, one of Darby's favorite spots on the ranch. The wide balcony overlooked hundreds of green acres of ranchland, grazed by horses and cattle of many colors.

An evening rainbow arched among the hills. Darby had just wished on it when Aunty Cathy said, “I seem to remember negotiating a deal to share dinner-cooking responsibilities. Not with you, Cade, but with these other three.”

“Mom, you won't help your own cause by making dinners like this.” Megan held up a pinkish forkful. “I mean, if you make guava shrimp curry and I slap together Spam sandwiches, who's going to show up on my nights?”

Darby nodded. She could follow directions to make a basic casserole, but the simplest thing on this table was rice. Even using a rice cooker, she couldn't strike a balance between burning it brown and leaving it pale and soupy.

“Thanks for inviting me
tonight,
” Cade said.

Jonah gave an amused snort and Megan stuck out her tongue at Cade.

Darby tried to figure out what was different about Cade as, with the faintest of smiles, he helped himself to more macaroni salad.

As usual, Cade wore a roomy paniolo shirt of beige linen. It looked just like his others. Brown skin, brown eyes, blond hair in a tight paniolo braid—all that was the same. Darby couldn't have explained what it was, but since he'd stood up to Manny, his abusive stepfather, there'd been a change in Cade.

He quit chewing and met her stare. Darby looked down at her plate.

“I'll cook tomorrow,” she volunteered.

“Your mother will be here, and I want you to have time to talk with her,” Aunty Cathy said.

“How long is she staying?” Megan asked.

If Darby hadn't been trying to look anyplace except at Cade, she might not have noticed Jonah's fingers tightening on his fork.

Please let them get along,
Darby thought, but she didn't say it.

“Just the weekend, I think,” Darby said. “She mentioned she had to shoot an important scene on Wednesday.”

“I can't help it,” Megan said. “I'm excited to meet a real star.”

“I'm glad she'll be here for the ceremony at Babe's,” Aunty Cathy said.

“What will we do with all that lovely money?” Megan stared off the lanai as if bags of gold floated near the pasture rainbow.

“I know what I'll do,” Cade said.

“Yeah?” Jonah asked.

Cade nodded, flushed, and said, “I'm saving for land of my own.”

Jonah frowned, then cleared his throat.

“You know, as my hanai'd son, that…” His voice was constricted, as if something had wrapped around his neck.

Aunty Cathy leaned forward, forearms bracketing her plate, as if she could help.

“…you're welcome here, forever.”

“Yeah,” Cade said.

“Would it be rude to ask if the Crimson Vale place belongs to your mom or Manny?” Darby asked.

“Sure it would,” Cade said, “but since I don't know the answer, I guess that's okay.”

It was then, as he tried not to laugh at her, that Darby realized it was Cade's face that looked different.

“Did you shave?” she asked.

“Oh my gosh!” Megan put a hand over her eyes as if she was too embarrassed to look at Darby.

“What?” Darby yelped. Why would he be self-conscious about shaving?

“Are you six years old?” Megan asked.

“Mekana,” Jonah reprimanded softly.

“Sorry,” Megan apologized. “It's just the very first time, I think, and that means our Cade is all grown-up.” When her sugary tone evoked no response from Cade, Megan moved to playfully sock his shoulder but Cade blocked the punch and gave a long-suffering sigh.

“Time for the news,” Jonah said, pushing back from the table. “C'mon, Cade, watch TV with me while the
wahines
clean up.”

“That means ‘the women,' right?” Darby asked.

Aunty Cathy stood and began gathering plates from the table like a seasoned waitress. “Don't let him get a rise out of you.”

“Why not?” Megan pretended to glare after Jonah as he turned on the television and settled into his favorite chair.

“I have pineapple whipped cream cake in the kitchen,” Aunty Cathy said.

“Maybe we won't share,” Darby teased.

“I heard that,” Jonah called after them.

 

Stuffed full of dessert, Darby was leaning back in her chair on the lanai, mulling over what she should do about her mother's diary, when Megan interrupted her thoughts.

“Unfair!” Megan shouted.

“What is?” Darby asked.

She stared at the girl she sometimes called “sis” and reconsidered the connection. Megan's shout was
so random, Darby had no idea what Megan was talking about.

“Didn't you hear what he said?”

“He” who?
Darby thought.

Aunty Cathy gestured toward the living room as Megan went on, “He's saying something about two of the three young people being honored tomorrow helped save Moku Lio Hihiu's wild horses during the flood. He left me out, even though I was over on Oahu representing my school.”

“…dramatic new rescue footage you'll see only on Channel Two…” As the voice of Channel Two reporter Mark Larson floated to the lanai from the television in the living room, Darby understood.

“I've got to watch,” Darby said, and followed after Aunty Cathy and Megan as they left the lanai.

Megan sprawled on the floor in front of the television. Aunty Cathy sat on the couch without crowding Cade.

Not that he would have noticed, Darby thought. Sitting there with his gaze fixed on the television screen, hands resting on his knees, Cade looked hypnotized.

Darby stopped behind Jonah's big chair. After one glimpse of the news report, she didn't want to go closer.

She'd forgotten how awful the island had looked just after the tsunami. Shooting from the TV helicopter, the camera showed tobacco-brown water strewn with debris and dead animals.

When reporter Mark Larson, wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirt, filled the screen, Darby let out the breath she'd been holding.

“By morning, the
kai a Pele
, Pele's tide—traditionally a punishment from her sister the sea goddess, angry because Pele poured lava into her realm—had receded.” The reporter spoke in a storyteller's voice as the camera scanned the dawn sky, then dropped to show the wet, huddled horses.

“The wild herd had been stranded for twenty-four hours. Although the tsunami took some of them, the horses on the spit of lava rock were also prey to rain, sharks, and floating debris. Surrounded by danger, the horses were not about to come ashore on their own. Finally, they were rescued by dedicated equestrian volunteers.”

“Hoku!”

“Don't tip me over, Granddaughter,” Jonah said when Darby bumped the back of his recliner at the sight of her horse on television.

It was weird to see Cade, Kit, and herself riding three across. Reflections of Joker, Navigator, and Hoku showed on the wet sand.

It was like a movie, except that she recalled images the camera didn't show, like Kit tying down his Stetson with a stampede strap and Cade leaving behind his prized hala hat and green poncho, going barefoot in jeans and a white T-shirt into the wind and waves.

The camera pulled back to show an earthquake-
damaged house, a flooded taro field, plastic fence set up to funnel the horses to safety, and finally the red trucks with firefighters beside them, waiting.

And then things really got weird. The view shifted to Mark Larson inside a helicopter. He shouted over the rotors as he pointed toward a trail of white spume on the water below.

“And here comes another volunteer, there on the Jet Ski.” His voice deepened and took a reprimanding tone. “A misguided soul, to judge by our interview with the Animal Rescue's expert. She indicated that the mechanical rescue of wild animals—wait, can you get that?” Mark Larson stopped his commentary to talk to the camera operator.

Suddenly there was a shot of Manny steering at high speed toward Hoku.

“Viewers, I have an unconfirmed report that the man on the Jet Ski is Manuel Billfish and the girl on horseback is Darby Kealoha, Lehua High School student and great-niece to ‘Babe' Kealoha Borden.

“Mr. Billfish was ordered not to take a mechanized vehicle into the water during the rescue attempt. Harassment of a federally protected species, like the wild horse, is a felony.”

For a moment the sound grew too scratchy to understand, and even though she knew how this story ended, the sight of her frightened horse made Darby's fingernails sink into the fabric of Jonah's chair.

Seeing the events again, Darby remembered
hating Manny. Her brave horse had tolerated strange weather, sounds, and smells, and then Manny had zoomed at her with a snarling metal beast.

Darby didn't remember Hoku rearing. She didn't remember falling.

“Hold a good thought for that young lady under the storm waters,” Mark Larson said on-screen, “and we'll move in closer to help if we can.”

Megan took an audible breath and said, “You sure stayed under for a long time.”

Aunty Cathy's gasp was almost a scream, as she pointed. A close-up showed a piece of corrugated iron rocking on Jet Ski–generated waves. It bounced about a foot into the air.

“That was you. I saw your hands, your head,” Aunty Cathy said. “That's what bruised your head, that big piece of metal.”

“I don't think so,” Darby faltered, but she touched her head, trying to remember.

For a split second, the camera showed Joker leaping waves. Cade hurled himself off the Appaloosa. Hair streaming loose, he hit the water.

“A woman is coming to Darby Kealoha's rescue,” Mark Larson said, but the mutter that followed made it clear he'd realized his mistake.

The jiggling camera caught Cade's ripped T-shirt before the focus widened to take in his hands. He gripped Hoku's rein while he kept Darby's head above the waves.

“I beg your pardon, viewers….”

If Mark Larson said anything interesting after that, no one heard. Everything was drowned out by Megan's laughter. She'd clearly gotten a kick out of Cade being called a woman, but Darby was preoccupied with a slow-motion replay on the television.

“Crazy superhero, yeah?” Jonah said. He leaned toward the couch from his chair and gave Cade's shoulder a shake.

“Naw,” Cade said. He looked at the floor as the TV reporter's voice continued.

Darby watched herself act like a…what? She could only come up with an expression she'd read. She'd acted like an
ungrateful wretch
. Had she been so dizzy and bewildered, hypothermic, maybe, out there in the ocean, that she'd really shoved Cade away hard enough that he'd made a big white splash, so she could climb onto Hoku without help?

“I don't remember it like that,” Darby said, not really talking to anyone until she turned toward Cade and said, “Thank you.”

Megan was still laughing her head off, so probably no one heard.

Except Cade.

“He mea iki,”
he said, which she took for
You're welcome.
Then, as the TV report ended, Cade grumbled, “I hope they never show that again.”

“Me too,” Darby said, but her mom had told her about news services picking up local stories and
printing them in newspapers all over the world. TV news services must be the same.

That meant people all over Hawaii, maybe all over the world, would see Manny's intentional harassment of Hoku. That was good. He'd stay in jail.

They'd also see her fall. Oddly, that didn't embarrass her. What mattered was that Hoku, a mustang born free and wild, had stood by her human, just like she had today.

Yes!
Excited chills raced down Darby's arms. This was a dramatic story. Some news service might broadcast the story in Nevada. She could picture her friend Samantha Forster dancing in delight over the wonder of wild horses.

Darby's smile faded as she realized worldwide viewers would see Cade ride to her rescue. She grimaced. That part, she could do without.

“Megan, it's not that funny,” Aunty Cathy said, finally.

Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, Megan said, “Oh, Mom, it is, too. They thought Cade was a girl.” Another round of giggles shook her, but she held up a finger because she had more to say. “But the good thing is, Cade will have a chance to set the record straight tomorrow.”

“No,” Cade began.

“See if you kept that torn shirt, yeah?” Jonah teased.

The whole situation was a happy one, Darby told
herself. Pouting because she looked like she'd nearly drowned instead of swimming like a champion was childish. She decided to leave the room before she ruined everyone's fun.