by Noe Dearden
OTHER ECHOES
By
Noe Dearden
Copyright 2013 Noe Dearden
*****
Chapter 1
Dark fell as Charlotte Banks’ plane began its descent into Honolulu. The flickering overhead television read 6:49 Hawaii Pacific Time. Charlotte counted forward in her head. It was well past midnight in Philadelphia. She’d left only twelve hours ago, but it felt like forever. A world away.
She closed her eyes and pretended she’d never left. Her mother would be heading home from the restaurant now, after the late shift waiting tables. Charlotte imagined her mother waiting for the NiteOwl bus, sitting alone under the orange street lights. Her pockets would be stuffed with tips, mostly one dollar bills. Of course, knowing mom, she would blow it all on drugs. Or maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe this time she would really keep her word.
“Look.”
A voice broke through Charlotte’s thoughts and her eyes snapped open. The middle-aged man sitting in the adjacent window seat tapped at the plastic windowpane.
“Spectacular, isn’t it?”
Charlotte gazed at the darkening sky streaked a dusky purple. Below them, the choppy ocean reflected the last of the sun’s failing rays, and the island itself was aglow with city lights.
“Yes,” she replied without much feeling.
A crowd of tourists in the center row of the plane was oohing over the scenery. Some were half-standing to get a better look at the vista. Then the plane made a sudden dip and the flushed tourists gasped and scrambled back to their seats.
Maybe we’ll die, Charlotte considered. She’d read somewhere that takeoffs and landings were the most dangerous part of air-travel. Maybe a sleep-deprived air-traffic controller would make a mistake. Maybe there would be a mechanical failure with the engine. Whatever the cause, the crash would happen fast, but not fast enough to spare everyone the fearful recognition that this was It. Death in paradise.
Charlotte laughed at her own melodrama as the plane rumbled smoothly onto the tarmac. The sound of her laughter was surprisingly loud, even over the roar of the engine and the wheels grinding and scraping on the runway. The man next to her turned with a smile.
“Happy to be in Hawaii, huh?” he said.
The way he spoke, it was obvious he thought her answer would be yes. For some reason, that innocent remark grated on Charlotte’s nerves. Probably because his assumption – that she would be happy in Hawaii – was one her mother shared as well. And everyone else. They all thought Charlotte was lucky to have this “opportunity.” It was such a joke. As if going to Hawaii would make up for all the crap that happened last year. As if she could dance hula and frolic through the rainforest and forget that she had problems. That she was messed up. That she’d done a terrible thing.
This trip was a big mistake. Even Charlotte, who was only sixteen, knew that much. You couldn’t slap a band-aid on a bullet wound and expect it to heal.
Uncomfortably, she realized that the man was still waiting for her answer. She cleared her throat and looked away.
“Thrilled,” she said. “Absolutely thrilled.”
*****
Meanwhile, Emi Kapono and her parents were seated on the black, faux-leather seats in the airport baggage claim. All around them, throngs of rumpled travelers rushed past to a soundtrack of corny Hawaiian music blasting over the speakers.
In her right hand, Emi clutched the plastic box containing a pikake lei their neighbor had made from his backyard jasmine plants. In her left hand was her phone. She thumbed through some old emails and pulled up the photo of Charlotte that her aunt had sent last week.
Emi had looked at the picture several times already. She was fascinated by this strange cousin she had never met – a cousin who looked absolutely nothing like Emi, though they were almost the same age. The girl in the photo had green eyes rimmed in black eyeliner. The dark makeup seemed too mature for someone with such delicate, child-like features.
What was most striking to Emi, though, aside from the girl’s blindingly platinum hair, was her pose. The photo was cropped at Charlotte’s shoulders, but there was the suggestion of her body just out of sight. She was reclining against a white wall. Her hips were probably thrust forward to allow the shoulders to fall back so languidly. Her head was tilted so that her dainty chin lifted to the air and her eyes looked down at the camera through dark lashes.
Emi tried to put a finger on what the photo made her feel.
Threat, she decided. It was weird, because the girl in the photo had doll-like features. But there was something confrontational about her, too. Emi didn’t much care for the look of this cousin. She turned off her phone’s screen with a snap.
“This must be her flight,” Emi’s mom said, standing to scan the crowd. Meanwhile, Emi’s dad strode to the baggage carousel to position himself right where the bags were starting to appear. That was so typical of him. Her dad liked to be at the front of every line.
It was late August and the tail end of summer tourist season. Most of the arriving passengers were locals returning from vacations on the mainland. In a crowd of tan, smiling locals, Charlotte stuck out like a surly albino.
“Charlotte, sweetie!” Emi’s mom said, rushing with embarrassing enthusiasm to embrace her niece. Emi hung back to watch.
Leave it to mom to make a complete fool of herself in front of everyone and their grandmother and not even care.
“Emi, bring the lei. C’mon!”
As she stood stiffly to receive her aunt’s embrace, Charlotte looked as uncomfortable as Emi felt about this whole situation. Even if her hands hadn’t been burdened by carry-ons, Emi suspected her cousin would not have returned any hugs. Charlotte’s “stop touching me” vibe went undetected by Mrs. Kapono, however, who continued doting over her niece.
“Thanks,” Charlotte said when Emi placed the flower garland around her shoulders.
“This is Emi,” mom introduced. “And Uncle Eddie’s over there – see? He’s waiting for your bags. How many do you have? Two?”
“I don’t have any check-ins,” Charlotte said.
“Oh!” A brief silence ensued. “Okay, well, that makes this easy. We’ll head on home then.”
Emi eyed Charlotte’s two carry-ons in disbelief. They were only a misshapen duffel, not particularly large, and a pink patent hand bag. Those were all Charlotte’s worldly possessions? Emi’s heart surged with pity. This girl had so little. How could Emi have felt threatened by someone who came from such humble circumstances?
“Here, let me take your duffel,” Emi said, feeling suddenly generous.
“Honey, we’re over here. Charlotte doesn’t have any luggage,” Emi’s mom hollered to her husband over the heads in the crowd.
Her loud voice caused several people waiting for their bags to stop and look up. Emi cringed again. She and her parents never blended in. They were all tall, especially by island standards. Her dad was a good six-foot-five and her mom was six feet. Emi was five-foot-nine and still growing.
Her dad pulled through the crowd grinning, his arms flung wide for a hug. Emi tried to imagine what he must look like from Charlotte’s perspective. Probably weird. He was a mix of Filipino, Japanese, Hawaiian and Dutch-Irish, so he was doubtless not like anything Charlotte had seen in Philadelphia.
“Charlotte,” dad boomed, crushing his niece in one of his usual bear hugs. Charlotte looked like she was afraid of being smothered to death.
“Isn’t it uncanny how much she looks like Annie? If you told me my sister stuck herself through the Xerox machine, I’d believe you,” mom said as she plowed her way through the crowd.
Emi’s parents chattered non-stop the entire time they were walking to the car. Charlotte barely got three words in edgewise.
“We�
��re so excited to have you here, you have no idea,” mom was saying as they stepped into the parking garage elevator. “I haven’t seen you since you were just a little baby, and now look. Gosh, it’s hard to believe it’s been so long. I’ve been trying to get you two out here for years. I was so thrilled to hear from your mom. She’s okay?”
Charlotte shrugged.
“Well, you’re going to love Hawaii,” mom barreled on. “I came here seventeen years ago and never looked back. There’s no place like it. I really mean that.”
“You’re going to like Staley School, too,” dad chimed in. “Emi adores it there. Don’t you, Em?”
“Yes,” Emi had to agree. As schools went, Staley wasn’t bad.
“Are you hungry, Charlotte? We can stop and get dinner at a restaurant.”
Charlotte shook her head.
They reached the SUV and Emi went to put the duffel in the back. She pulled her mom aside while Charlotte climbed into the back seat.
“Can you chill, mom? You’re talking her ear off! It’s embarrassing,” Emi said as she tossed the bag on top of the boogie board and beach chairs that had been stashed in the trunk.
“Please don’t pull the surly teen act right now,” mom said. “I know you’ve been upset over your boyfriend lately and…”
“Mom, this is not about that,” Emi interjected. “This is about you being all hyperactive in front of strangers and freaking them out.”
“Charlotte’s not a stranger.” Mom closed the trunk. “She’s family, and she’s been through a rough time. The least we can do is make her feel at home while she’s here.”
With that, she crossed to the front of the car and disappeared into the front passenger seat. Even after she closed the car door, Emi could still hear mom’s loud voice asking Charlotte about her layover in Phoenix.
“Ugh!” Emi exhaled in frustration. She could only imagine what Charlotte was thinking right now. No doubt she was regretting having to live with a bunch of loud, dweeby Hawaiian freaks. This family was a total embarrassment!
