Black Sands (2 page)

Annie grinned. “Yes, doctor.”

“I know you think I harp on this too much, but you’ve taken over everything for them since your mom died. They’re never going to let you have a life if you make it too easy for them. They’ve all turned into babies. They’re adults. Make them act like it.”

“I know, I know. I will.” Annie negotiated the
a’a
trail carefully. She didn’t dare drive too fast, or the sharp bits of lava would shred the ATV’s tires. The
a’a
finally gave way to black gravel, and she picked up her speed. “
Harp
is a good word. On a double-word square it would be worth eighteen points.” Talking about Scrabble was better than thinking about the necklace in her pocket. Or about how accurate Fawn’s observations were. Things
had
changed for the Tagama family, but there was no going back. Annie couldn’t bear to see her family suffer anymore, not if she could shoulder the burdens for them and ease their lives.

“I should save my breath,” Fawn said. “I was going to offer to get you an appointment at the Fairmont for a
Lomilomi
massage, but you don’t deserve it.”

Fawn knew how to stab her where it hurt. “Meanie.” Annie turned the corner onto concrete. The long, squat building that housed the offices sat at the top of a small rise and was surrounded by lava fields. To the right of the Hawai’i Volcanoes Observatory was the Jagger Museum, containing a history of the Hawai’i volcanoes. Scientists from all over the world came here to study the geological processes that triggered volcanic activity. She parked the ATV and waited for Fawn to hop off, then dismounted.

Fawn smoothed the locks of hair the wind had teased from her braid. “You’re too young to spend your life in front of a board game. When was the last time you went to the movies or even out to eat?”

Annie scrunched her forehead as she thought. “Um, the last time you and I went. I guess it was last month,” she said.

“My point exactly. Five weeks ago, to be exact. I’ve invited you to do something every Friday since then too, and you always say you have to fix dinner for your dad. That’s not normal, Annie. You’re only thirty, not eighty. And you’re letting him become a tyrant. I think he thinks he’s a Japanese emperor from the 1800s now that your mom isn’t around to keep him in line.”

“I know, I know.” The parking lot beside the squat brick building was nearly empty, and Annie realized it was after five o’clock. Gina’s car was still in the lot though. Annie started toward her Nissan Pathfinder. A movement at the office door caught her eye, and she glanced up to see her boss waving at her imperiously.

“Annie, I need to see you,” Gina called.

Annie sighed. Fawn raised her eyebrows. Their boss, Gina Sarris, turned and walked back inside. Judging from Gina’s stiff back, Annie was headed for trouble. Annie limped toward the building. She didn’t have time for this.

The hum of the banks of computers greeted her as she opened the door. The familiar squawk of the scanner and the click of the seismometer eased her tension a little. She went down the hall, which was lined with pictures of volcanoes in various stages of eruption. Other walls held photo essays of the various studies going on—projects like gravitational studies, electrical processes, gas geochemistry, and ground deformation. She stepped into her boss’s office. It was empty. She went to the office chair by the window.

“Sorry to keep you.” Gina came into the room and moved to her desk. Barely five feet tall, she still wore the heavy work pants she donned when out in the field. A stench of sulfur followed her. The cracked leather chair practically swallowed her. She pulled her glasses to her nose, then flipped open a folder.

“I need to get home right away.” Annie slipped her hand into her pocket and fingered her sister’s necklace.

Gina gave her a kind smile. “Don’t look so scared, Annie. We’re just going to talk.”

Gina had taken over as Scientist-in-charge a little over a year ago. Things had run smoothly under Gina’s supreme organizational skills. Her dark hair never dared to be out of place, and every paper clip on her desk was perfectly aligned. Though in her fifties, she was still beautiful with perfect, unlined skin. She had a faint accent no one had been able to figure out. With her dark coloring, she could be French, Greek, part Hawaiian, or any of the other nationalities in this melting pot.

Annie knew Gina liked her. That was the only thing that might save this interview from going south. “Okay.” She moved toward Gina’s desk.

“It’s good to have you back. How have you been feeling? I noticed you’re only limping a little now.”

“Pretty good. The doctor says the limp may go with time, or it may hang around. But either way, it’s not bothering me much. The pain is gone and it’s just still a little stiff.”

“Scars? You don’t have your slippers on today. I kind of miss the designs on your toenail polish.”

Annie managed a smile. “The designs are still there. I just figure no one wants to see the scars.”
Especially me.
Every time she saw her right foot, she averted her eyes. “They’re pretty gruesome.”

Gina closed the folder and folded her hands. “Could you explain what happened today? Monica says you refused to bring her some equipment.”

Annie bit her lip. How could she explain the way fear had paralyzed her? “I couldn’t,” she whispered. She put as much pleading into her expression as she could. “Maybe I’d better stay in-house for a while until I get my bearings. I just froze out there. All I could think about was the pain of falling into the lava.” She rubbed slick palms against her jeans.

Gina shook her head. “We need your expertise in the field. Those new GPS receivers need to be planted. You’re going to have to face your fears, Annie. I know how scary it must have been for you when that lava bench gave way. But you’re a volcanologist. You can’t study volcanoes from inside this building.”

Annie nodded. Gina was right about that, but there was no way anyone who hadn’t gone through it could understand what Annie experienced. One minute she had been walking on solid ground, and the next moment she’d found herself standing in hot lava. The only thing that had saved her was the fact that the stream of lava was so small. The lava in the tube had almost emptied. What if the next time a full river of lava swallowed her? And the pain had been horrific. She still had nightmares about it. Besides, her mother had died out there. Maybe she was cursed to do the same. She wrapped her fingers around the delicate chain on the necklace in her pocket.

When Annie didn’t answer, Gina sighed. “You can’t let this fear defeat you, Annie. Face it and go on with your life.”

“Just a few weeks,” Annie pleaded. “I can’t go out there right now.”

“You can and you will.” Gina’s voice hardened. “What kind of a boss—and even more importantly, a friend—would I be if I didn’t make you face your fears and do what is best for you in the long run? I know it’s hard. But you’re stronger than you realize, Annie. I want you back on the job. You’re too good a scientist to let this beat you.”

It helped to hear Gina’s confidence in her, but Annie cringed at the thought of going back on the lava. “One week,” she begged.

Gina’s face softened. “Okay. But see a professional about this if you need to. I don’t want to lose you. I know I shouldn’t play favorites, but I’ve seen myself in you so many times, Annie. Your quick mind and total dedication to your work is outstanding. You have a bright future ahead of you. Don’t let this experience ruin your career. Get over it. I want my little ‘volcano cowboy’ back.”

Annie’s face burned at the reprimand. She gave a brief nod. “I just need a little more time.”

“One week. That’s the best I can do. I need a crew that can pull its weight. If you can’t get control of this fear, you’re going to need to look for a new line of work. What about your underwater research with Jillian?”

At least this was one area where she wouldn’t let Gina down. “That’s still ongoing. I’m okay in the water.”

Gina nodded and stood, and Annie knew she was dismissed. “
Mahalo
, Gina.” She couldn’t talk anymore. She rose and practically ran from the room. Outside the office, she nearly mowed down Jillian Sommers. “Sorry,” she muttered.

Jillian was Annie’s inspiration. If Jillian could recover from the blow life had dealt when her husband abandoned her, Annie could get over a simple injury. Annie smiled. “You’re here late.”

“You too.” Jillian’s ash-blond curls lay against her sculptured cheeks. She’d lost weight since Noah left. “I was just going over the data from the seamount. Some of our bottom-pressure recorders are going bad. We’re going to have to go down to replace them. What’s your schedule looking like?”

“Maybe Monday?” Annie hoped to get home and find Leilani there safe and sound.

“Sounds good. I’ll touch base with you then.” Jillian said goodbye, and Annie hurried to her car.

T
he fresh, cool air relieved her heated skin as Annie passed through the rain forest. The ohia trees that grew in abundance along the road to her house pressed close to the SUV. The Tagama family had owned the hundred-acre compound for more than fifty years, though she wasn’t sure how much longer they could hold onto it. When she was a little girl, she used to lay under the
hapu’u
ferns beneath the trees and pretend she was a fairy in her house. It was her way of escaping her father’s high expectations. She hated to disappoint him, even as a child. Since her mother’s death, his expectations had risen exponentially. She hardly recognized the demanding man as the exemplary father figure he’d been all her life.

There would be no escaping her father’s anger if Leilani wasn’t home. Annie had no doubt his first reaction would be to blame her. She slipped her hand into her pocket and rubbed her thumb over the pendant. Leilani would never lose this necklace. It meant too much to her. So what did it all mean? Annie was afraid to find out.

She pushed open the door. “Father? Where are you?” Her pet mongoose, Wilson, scurried to meet her at the door. He wrapped himself around her ankles. An orange peel teetered on his back. She scooped him up and picked it off. “What have you been into?” He was almost dead when she’d found him months ago beside his dead mother and siblings. Though she nursed him back to health herself, he never gained the full size of a regular mongoose. He was only a foot long, head to tail. The warmth of his sleek body gave her courage. She dropped the peel in the trash in the kitchen, then went down the hall to the living room.

Her father scowled when he saw Wilson in her arms. “I told you to get rid of that animal, Annie, yet you continue to defy me. He got in the trash again and dumped it all over the floor. I want him gone.”

Annie’s fingers stilled, and she clutched Wilson closer. “I’ll clean it up, Father.”

Her father’s jaw hardened, and he stepped toward her. “Give him to me. I’m getting rid of that creature once and for all.”

“No!” Annie stepped back. She softened her voice. Harsh words would only make her father more unyielding. “I mean, please give him another chance, Father. I’m still training him. He’ll learn. He . . . brings me comfort since Mother died.”

Her father’s face softened at the mention of her mother. He shook his head, and his frown returned. “You don’t have time to be cleaning up after him all the time. I have some dictation I need you to do tonight.”

“I’ll have time to do both.”

He harrumphed, but he didn’t try to take the mongoose again. She needed to ask him about Leilani, who obviously had not returned. Wetting her lips, she tried to decide how to raise the question without bringing more disapproval on her own head.

Her father peered past her out the glass in the storm door. “Who is here?”

Annie turned. An unfamiliar car crowded to the back of her car. A pale blue Chevrolet, it looked like one of those nondescript rental cars. Maybe it was about Leilani. Annie hurried to the front door. A burly figure got out of the vehicle. She froze. Her nails bit into the palms of her hand, and she nearly turned and slammed the door.

Mano Oana. She hadn’t heard from him in more than a year, not since he called to tell her about her older brother Tomiko, nicknamed Tomi. She wasn’t ready to face him even now. Wilson burrowed against her neck and squeaked. She told herself to move, to go to the door. Her hand shook when she finally reached out and opened it quickly. There was nothing to be gained by delaying the inevitable.

Mano’s gaze fastened on her face, and he gave a tentative smile. As always, she found herself caught by his dark eyes. If eyes really were the windows to the soul, Mano’s soul was full of intensity and passion. His name meant “shark,” and it had never seemed more apt than this minute. He could destroy the even tenor of her life as easily as a great white could thrash a seal.

Annie wet her lips and tried to find something to say that didn’t sound inane. “Mano, what are you doing here?”

“Could I come in a minute?”

She stepped aside silently. Her father had turned his back. He looked out the opposite window toward the Japanese garden her mother had loved so much. A curl of incense drifted around him from the bowl on the table. It was her father’s favorite scent: Joy, a blend of sandalwood and tea leaves that was supposed to evoke memories of happiness, though Annie couldn’t remember a single happy moment since her mother had died. Without her mother’s attention, weeds had choked the path to the koi fish pond in much the same way that the family’s cares had begun to strangle Annie. The bonsai had lost its shape, too, just as her family no longer resembled the perfect unit it had once been.

Mano would find them much changed.

Her father would be no help. Annie turned back to Mano, who hadn’t moved though she’d stepped out of the way. “Come in.”

Mano stepped inside and nodded to her. “Annie. It’s been a long time.”

“Not long enough.” Wilson struggled in her arms, but she held on. She needed him. After a final wiggle, he went still. She stared at Mano. “What do you want?”

Annie had to wonder if his cool self-assurance was just a charade. Her gaze traveled to her father. Though in his midfifties, Edega Tagama’s black hair was still thick and lustrous, but the past months had aged his face. He turned and stared at Mano with an attitude of belligerence. At one time, Mano had been almost part of the family, but he wasn’t welcome here anymore.