Whispers Read Free Page A

Teri a world of good. By noon the next day she was feeling much more positive about seeing Mark again. She was ready to settle into the island tempo, to slow down and take things as they came.
    The first item that came was the company luau at the Halekuali’i Resort.
    “Are we going for the whole day?” Teri asked. “Or do you need to come home and get some work done?” Anita had a home business centered in their one bedroom where she had a small computer set up in the corner. She took in a variety of clerical work, including preparing résumés, translating children’s stories into Spanish for a Christian publisher in Arizona, and transcribing medical tapes that arrived in the mail weekly from a large group of physicians in Honolulu. Anita also wait-ressed on Friday nights at a small restaurant.
    “I’m pretty well caught up. I can finish the tapes tomorrow.But I’m going to run into town to FedEx some reports I finished this morning. Do you want to go with me?” “I think I’ll stay around here.”
    “I’m going to stop by the grocery store, too. We need to take a salad with us to the luau. I’ll be back in about an hour, and then we can leave.”
    Teri busied herself around the house, putting up the Hide-A-Bed, washing the few dishes in the sink, and running the vacuum. In the process, Teri discovered a distinct advantage to the small house Dan and Anita lived in: the cleaning could be done in less than an hour. She settled in on the couch, did some channel surfing with Dan and Anita’s tiny old set, and enjoyed feeling warm. Warm and relaxed.
    Anita returned and whipped up a tossed salad. Then they were out the door. It was another beautiful day in paradise. Thin white clouds hung over the west Maui mountains, and the ocean glimmered on their left as they drove to the resort.
    Halekuali’i sat on a flat peninsula of land on the northern tip of the island. The resort covered more than one hundred acres and had four swimming pools, a private beach, and a five-star rating. Only the elite could afford the luxuries of this “house befitting royalty,” which its name meant.
    As soon as they turned down the palm tree lined drive that led to the main lobby, Teri felt out of her league. She had a friend back in Oregon who was a millionaire, so it wasn’t as if she had never been around anyone who had money. But Jessica never flaunted her wealth. She actually had kept it hidden from Teri and many others for her first few months in their small town of Glenbrooke. Still, Teri knew the difference between those who have it and those who don’t. Dan was only an employee here. Teri felt her position was established as well, a visiting relative of an employee.
    “Does any of this bother you?” she asked Anita as theypulled down a side road that led into an employee parking area in the back.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, it’s all so extravagant here. I don’t know if I could work at a resort like this. I’d always feel like a peon.”
    “I don’t feel that way. On Maui it’s the
kama’ainas
and the
haoles
. I think we have the advantage being the
kama’ainas
.”
    “And what is that?”
    “Kama’ainas?
Long-time residents. We’re the ones who get to live here, not just visit for a week. So what if we have to work to serve all the tourists? Danny says we’re the lucky ones because we’ll still be here after they check out. He’ll probably still be carrying their bags when they come for a visit next year. And that’s the point. Tourists come and go. We stay.” Anita parked the car and turned off the engine. “No, I never think of us as peons. We’re
kama’ainas
.”
    Teri wondered if she would feel the same if she ever moved to Maui.
    “Can you carry the salad dressing?” Anita asked. “I’ll take the towels and the salad. You did bring your bathing suit, didn’t you?”
    “Of course. It’s on under my clothes. I have a feeling I’ll be dressing like this for the rest of my