Tidings of Love

by Alicia Hunter Pace

  She leaned against her steering wheel. “Snow. I like snow on Christmas. Can you get me that?” she asked.

  Kai looked a bit lost for a second and Clara felt a slight sense of satisfaction to be able to shut him up for once. It didn’t last long. “Yes!” Then he grabbed her and yanked her from the car. She squeaked unintentionally as she almost fell onto the pavement.

  “What are y-?!”

  “I know where to get you snow!” Kai said merrily, dragging her to his truck.

  Clara tried to twist out of his grasp. “What are you talking about? We are on a freaking tropical island, if you forgot!”

  Kai turned and smiled at her. A different smile than the mocking ones he usually gave her. It was more carefree and filled his eyes with some innocent brightness. “The Big Island has many strange secrets, you know. Come on, I know the way.” And he opened the passenger side of his car and practically threw Clara inside.

  “Hey! I’m not going with you! What about my car?!”

  But Kai was already running over to her car and slamming the door shut. She knew it would be fine—the doors locked automatically—but she wasn’t too pleased to feel like she was being kidnapped. Kai was suddenly at the driver’s seat, pulling on a shirt he had left in the backseat. The he pulled the car out and began driving fast down the small roads. Clara held onto the door and looked outside with apprehension. The roads in Hawaii were far too twisty compared to Wisconsin’s flat plains that stretched out straight for miles.

  “Where on earth are you taking me?!”

  He only gave her one of those smiles again. “To your Christmas present!”

  Clara knew she should fight him more and try to get him to turn around. But she found herself more than a little curious on how Kai could produce snow for her. She might not be super close to Kai, but she didn’t feel unsafe with him. She decided that, for one night, she was going to get a little crazy and ride this out for once. She leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms. “You better bring me to the real thing. I don’t want to stop at some shoddy snow cone stand.”

  He laughed. “Don’t worry. Where we are going, the snow will be legit. Oh, and do you get altitude sickness?”

  “Huh?”

  She suddenly felt the car jerk up a steep road and her eyes darted to Kai in terror. His eyes were on the road, though; Kai only looked more determined. “You’d better not, or this trip might get really unpleasant!”

  Chapter Three

  Even as Clara prodded him some more on where, exactly, he was taking her, Kai wouldn’t budge. Wherever it was, it was a long drive. Clara found herself falling asleep against the window, even with her ears popping from the climbing altitude. She woke to Kai shaking her shoulder.

  “Whazzit?” she mumbled.

  He chuckled. “Come on, you don’t want to miss your Christmas present, right?”

  Clara tried to regain her bearings. It was still dark outside and her head felt a bit fuzzy, probably because it was some crazy hour of the morning. This so-called “snow” better be good. Clara stepped from the car and was instantly hit by a blast of icy wind. Gasping and clutching herself as if she had been punched, she felt a little light-headed.

  “It takes a little time to get used to the altitude.” Kai was rummaging through the trunk of his car. “But as long as you refrain from running around and snarling at people trying to do their jobs, you’ll be fine.”

  Clara gave him a withering look, but otherwise didn’t reply. Mostly because her body felt like it was still in shock from the sudden cold. She had only been living in Hawaii for a little over a month; she should not feel this wimpy. Of course, she seemed to be at the peak of some ungodly mountain and she was only wearing her business attire of a satin blouse and skirt. When she finally managed to gain her breath, she turned to ask Kai exactly where they were when she was hit in the face by a woolen blanket.

  “I don’t have any winter jackets, left those at home. But I always keep spare blankets in my truck.” He winked. “You know, for special occasions.”

  Clara stared dubiously at the cloth in her arms. “This better not be…used.”

  Kai laughed, the sound deep and genuine and not a little appealing, as he wrapped himself in his own blanket. Clara dismissed it, assuming that the thin air was doing something strange to her senses.

  “I find most women, as desperate as they are to explore the backseat of my car, do appreciate clean blankets.” He grinned. “And I would hate to disappoint women of such good taste.”

  “Depends on your definition of ‘good taste.’” But Clara was wrapping herself tightly in the blanket, praying that it would at least stall frostbite for a little longer. She looked around, but they seemed to be in a rather desolate area. There were a few, small dome-like buildings not too far away, but otherwise it was barren—and very dark. She wondered if she should be feeling a little worried about being here alone with a guy she’d only known a few weeks. “Where are we?”

  Kai didn’t answer, just closed up the car and began to walk towards the buildings. He carried a flashlight to help guide the way. Clara was struck by the odd color of the rock beneath them. It was rather reddish. “You don’t know it? It’s the Keck Observatory. My dad used to work here. I practically spent every weekend up here with him. But that’s not why we’re here.”

  Clara looked at the buildings. The name did sound slightly familiar, like she had read it at some point in a textbook many years ago. “Why are we here?” she asked, absently.

  “Well, it should be just around …ah! Perfect!” He pointed just off the path to something lying on top of the ground. His flashlight illuminated something white against the red rock.

  “Snow!” Clara practically squealed. She momentarily forgot that Kai was watching, forgot that he would probably mock her for this for the next month, and forgot that she was a mature, adult woman and not a toddler. She sprinted to the small mound, hardly caring how the short run left her absolutely breathless, and immediately ran her fingers through it. It was a fine, frozen snow that would be useless for snowballs or snowmen. But it was snow, genuine snow.

  Giggling like some madwoman, Clara lifted up several handfuls and threw it into the air, just to see it sparkle in Kai’s flashlight. She had only been in Hawaii for a little over a month, but she’d felt like she would never see snow again. And as her fingers grew numb from the cold, she felt like she could have been home. Well, it would be like home if Wisconsin had the landscape of Mars and the altitude of thousands of feet above sea level.

  “You really missed snow that much?” Kai sounded amused.

  Clara studied him for a moment, but decided he wasn’t trying to be mocking. “You don’t understand. In Hawaii, it’s eighty degrees and sunny and freaking perfect all the time. At home we only get days like that for a few short months. Otherwise it’s freezing rain or high winds or other cold weather. But the one highlight of winter is the snow. Because snow comes around Christmas and stays long afterward. It’s like a good memory.” She held a small handful, letting it fall between her fingers.

  “So you like snow because you people have to find something enjoyable about winter?”

  If they had been at work, Clara would have instantly defended herself. But it seemed the sight of snow, and probably the altitude, was soothing her Midwestern pride. “You could probably say that. But snow is beautiful, and fun if the right consistency.”

  Kai reached down and touched it himself. “It seems just cold to me. But I think I get it.”

  Clara wiped the snow from her hands and began to rub them together to bring the warmth back. “Do you really?” she asked dubiously.

  He shrugged “My mom used to always get excited to come here too. She was from Hokkaido and thought her family should know what real cold was and what snow is like.”

  “Hokkaido?”

  “Japan. In the mountains. Been there a couple times. Just as cold, but the snow there can get insane.” He grinned. “It’s pretty cool, bu
t I can understand why she decided to settle here, in the end.”

  “Oh, I see,” Clara commented lamely. She knew Kai was half Japanese. But many of the people who lived here were some mix of Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino, South American, and American. Really, as much as Clara felt like the foreigner, everyone else seemed to be just as foreign.

  Clara wrapped the blanket closer around her, trying to bring back some warmth. Now that her burst of excitement was gone, she realized just how damned cold it was here. “You know, if I wasn’t here right now, I would never believe Hawaii could get snow.”

  He grinned and reached out to help secure the blanket around her. “Just like how most tourists think Hawaii is full of pristine white sand beaches, when most of them are cultivated by the resorts?”

  For some reason, Clara felt herself flush. “I know what a plastic beach is, if that’s what you’re hinting at,” she muttered.

  “You’re one of the few.”

  His voice was soft and something about his words sounded strangely like a compliment, though Clara didn’t know why. She also didn’t know what to say so she looked away, and found herself looking at the sky.

  It was a clear night, though this high up, it was probably clear most of the time. With no trees or mountains, the sky seemed to engulf them. The moon had finally set, and she had never seen so many stars in her life.

  “Is that the Milky Way?”

  “That large band of stars that takes up most of the sky? Yes, that’s the Milky Way,” he responded dryly.

  “Don’t be a brat. I’ve never seen it before.”

  But her words didn’t have their usual heat, just as Kai’s weren’t really that condescending. He stood beside her, close enough that they were almost touching, and looked up as well. So close that Clara could almost feel his body heat and had the irrational urge to press herself against him. Obviously, the cold was making her senseless.

  “You know my dad used to tell me stories about the stars.”

  It took Clara a moment to process the information. “What? Like myths?”

  Kai shrugged. “Sort of. I don’t think any of the stories he told were based off anything. Sometimes I would make something up for him too.” He pointed. “See those four bright ones, in that zigzag kind of line? That was a snake and just below it, those few clusters, were mice. I told my dad the snake was eating the mice.” He snorted to himself. “I wasn’t very good at it, but my dad got really into it. I think he spent too long looking at the stars.”

  Clara stared up at the sky, but she couldn’t distinguish any shapes. Not even a snake and some mice. “Where is the snake? All I see are dots…everywhere.”

  “Over there, near the ones that look like a triangle.” He pointed again.

  Clara searched, but she was beginning to feel like she was missing something. “I seriously don’t get this. There are way too many stars out here to see anything.”

  Kai sighed and moved behind her. Suddenly, his blanketed arms were around her and he was holding her wrists. His head came dangerously close to her as she felt his breath in her ear.

  Lifting her arm, he pointed to the sky. “See, look for the really bright ones.” He traced a triangle. “My dad said this was Pele. Those three are her hips.” He moved her arm over. “And these are her torso and head. Then all around are the rivers of lava that are her hair. See?”

  Clara squinted, desperately trying to ignore the way his words, so close to her ear, were sending small shivers down her neck. “…maybe?”

  Kai chuckled and moved her arm to another section of the sky. “Over here, these five, they are the petals of a plumeria flower. And those seven, just beside it, are a young girl with a basket trying to collect them.” He traced the girl carefully and Clara felt she could almost see it.

  “Yeah, and she is wearing a lei around her neck.” She moved her other arm. “And over there is a house with a boy watching TV.”

  Kai was silent for a moment. “Really? You see that?”

  Clara shrugged away from him to twist around. “What? You can call that cluster a girl picking flowers, but I can’t call that a boy watching TV?”

  He grinned. “Alright. Then over there is a man missing his bus.”

  Clara looked to the sky and pretended to examine it closely. “Yes, and he has thrown his donut to the ground in fury.”

  “And a dog is eating the crumbs.”

  “No, the dog and an old man are battling for it. It’s a frosted sprinkled doughnut, after all.”

  “And the old man’s wife is watching with disgust.”

  Clara giggled and drew the blanket closer around her. She was freezing, but it would be far too weird to ask Kai to wrap his arms around her again. “You know, some dead ancient Greek astronomer is watching us with disgust.”

  Kai laughed, running a hand through his hair. “No, I think just about every stargazer would look at us with disgust. To say the constellation of Orion is an old man battling with a dog for a discarded donut must be some criminal offense to any astronomer.”

  Clara looked back up, frowning. “What’s Orion?”

  Kai chuckled and slung an arm over her shoulders. “Precisely.”

  Clara let his arm stay for the time being. It was a warm arm, after all. “Where’s your dad now?”

  Kai sighed, shrugging. “Died two years ago, heart attack.”

  Clara blinked and looked away. “Oh, sorry.” She suddenly felt extremely awkward. “I didn’t mean to…”

  She heard him chuckle and looked back to see him giving her a strange expression. “I’m the one who brought him up, yeah? It’s okay. Everyone says I inherited my easy-going attitude from him.” With his free arm he brought his blanket closer and smirked. “Figured, if I’m going to live up to being a carefree brat, can’t stop just because he died.”

  Clara bit her lip. “Don’t be like that.”

  “Like what?”

  She waved a hand. “Flippant. It’s okay if you think I’m being nosey… or if you think it’s not really a laughing matter because…well, because it sucks. You don’t have to laugh and joke all the time.”

  “Is that why you hate me at work? Because you think I’m acting fake?”

  “I don’t hate you.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, I just really annoy you.”

  She stared up at him. “Well, everything does seem to be a joke to you, you know. And you’ve worked here longer than I have, are even closer to the guests than I am, and have all these crazy ideas but they’re always impractical or even dangerous, like having guest sleepovers near the pool. And two weeks ago, when that poor child had a seizure near the beach? Everyone was freaked out by it, but you go around the rest of the day, pretending like everything was fine. And you just always flounce around like you don’t have a care in the world.” Clara bit her lip, hard, trying to stop. But she was on a terrible ramble. “And I’ve been such a bitch, and you never even bat an eyelash. And…and…” She took a deep breath. “I guess I just want you to sit down and…be real for a second.”

  Kai didn’t say anything, just stared down at her like she had suddenly grown another head. Clara frowned, embarrassed and frustrated. She didn’t even know what she was talking about, but she meant it. She meant every word.

  Clara tried to move away, but Kai’s arm tightened on her shoulder. She automatically reached up and grabbed his hand to remove it, but stopped when his hand gripped hers back, almost painfully.

  “You know my mom says…she always says.” He stopped and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they looked a little more raw. “She lives in Hilo, across the island. Doesn’t celebrate Christmas, really.” He shrugged. “That’s why I work over Christmas at the resort. But I always visit her for New Year’s. She cares about that much more.”

  Clara felt the hand holding hers relax just slightly.

  “When I was younger, I remember she used to get really bent out of shape during New Year’s. She was mostly this soft-spoken kind of woman, but durin
g this time of year, she would become crazy. Super stressed and picky and generally bitchy. My dad and I used to just deal with it, because it would pass and she would eventually apologize and be normal again. Then, when I was ten, my dad took her to Hokkaido during winter. And suddenly she was like a different person.”

  Clara sighed; she understood that. “She just missed home?”

  “Yeah, she really did. After that year, Dad would always take her up this mountain around New Year’s and let the ‘cold do the trick,’ as he put it. It wasn’t the same as going home, but we could tell that it made a difference.” He exhaled deeply. “You know, it’s because of her that I brought you here.”

  “You thought the cold might ‘do the trick’ for me, too?”

  “Well, yeah, but more than that…”

  Clara blinked. “What?”

  “You remind me of her, sometimes.”

  Clara flushed and drew her body away. “I remind you of your mom? Thanks?”

  Kai suddenly stepped in front of her, looking panicked. “No, I mean—” He raked a hand through his hair. “God, you have no idea how hard it is for me to talk to you like this.”

  Clara frowned. “Like what?” She couldn’t help the hardness that crept into her voice. She probably would have found a flustered Kai to be amusing, if she didn’t feel like she was being a little insulted.

  “Seriously. It’s hard for me to talk to you seriously.”

  Clara drew the blanket a little closer around her. “What, so you can’t take me seriously?”

  “No! I—” Kai reached out and grabbed her shoulders. “I’m not serious with anyone, okay?”

  Clara stopped, eyes wide. “What?”

  He shook her gently. “I’m the cool, water-off-a-duck’s-back guy at work. Nothing fazes me and everyone likes me and no one really…” He bit his lip. “And I don’t know what kind of first impression I gave you, but you didn’t just like me like everyone else. When I smiled or flirted, you didn’t appreciate it. And now I understand why, I could only really get a good reaction from you when you… thought I was serious.”