Close Out (3 page)

Once again they were blindfolded. This time the ride was faster and bumpier. Sitting in the back, Kai felt as if he would have been
bounced clear out of the Jeep if he hadn't held on.

It wasn't long before they were back in the parking lot at 88s. By now the sun had turned reddish orange and had dropped close to the horizon. Kai and Bean climbed out of the Jeep. In the deepening light, Kai could see that Bean looked a bit green after the bumpy, blindfolded ride.

“Okay,” Goldilocks said. “So you've seen the boards. Next time I hear from you guys, it's gonna be because you've got the money, right? Otherwise, don't waste my fricken time.”

The Jeep's wheels screeched and spun, spitting back loose gravel. Goldilocks took off, leaving a cloud of dust and exhaust.

“You okay?” Kai asked Bean.

“Great,” Bean grumbled, reaching for the hearse's door. “Just great.”

Kai got in on the passenger side and Bean started to drive back toward Sun Haven. Kai's friend had a sour look on his face. “That's the end, dude,” he said. “I mean it. I hate dealing with creeps like that. Don't ever ask me to do something like that again, understand?”

“I thought we made a good team,” Kai
said as he opened the glove compartment and started hunting through the paperbacks.

“Team? What are you talking about? You're insane. Reality check. We are
not a team,
get it? No way am I ever dealing with a creep like Goldilocks again. Ever!”

“Got a piece of paper?” Kai asked.

“Any piece of paper?” Bean asked. “Or a certificate of insanity? Because you are certifiable, know that? And so am I for going along with you.”

“Hey, two peas in a pod.” Kai tore a blank sheet from the back of one of the paperback books. “Got a pen?”

“Writing a will?” Bean asked.

“Chill, Bean, we found out what we needed to know, and we got away unhurt,” Kai said. “I'd say the mission was a success. Now, seriously, a pen?”

Bean reached up to the sun visor. On the other side was a plastic pocket with some pens and pencils. He handed one to Kai. “Mission? Dude, this isn't a video game. That Goldilocks is one serious badass and he's not—”

Kai pressed a finger to his lips. “Quiet. I have to remember.”

“Remember what?”

“Where we were and how we got there.” Kai started to write.

“What are you talking about?” Bean said. “We were blindfolded.”

“I know.” Kai started to write down each turn they'd made and how long he'd counted between them.

“What are you doing?” Bean asked suspiciously.

“Writing down the directions.”

“Directions?”

“Yeah,” Kai said. “For when we go back.”

B
ean was silent for the rest of the ride to Sun Haven. By the time they got there, the sun was well below the horizon and it was getting dark.

“This is the last time I'm gonna say this,” Bean said as they cruised into town. “You're a great guy and a good friend, but I've had it with the cops and robbers stuff. It's over, done, finished. Next time, find someone else to risk his life, because I've retired.”

He pulled the hearse to the curb and stopped. “Here you go.”

Kai looked out the window. They were in front of T-licious. For a second Kai didn't recognize the place.

“You didn't tell me your old man was getting into the surf clothes business,” Bean said.

Kai stared at the storefront. He hadn't told Bean because he didn't know himself. The store not only had a new look, but a new name. It was no longer T-licious Custom T-shirts. It was now T-licious Discount Surf Wear and Custom T-shirts. Displayed in the window were long-sleeved T-shirts and rash guards from some of the top surf apparel companies like Roxy, Hurley, Quiksilver, and Billabong. In addition, stuck here and there to the glass were bright red stickers proclaiming
SALE
!
OVERRUNS
!
OFF-PRICE
!
MANUFACTURER'S SECONDS
!
DEEP DISCOUNTS
!

Looking through the window and into the shop, Kai saw plenty of customers picking through the racks and displays. Most were kids.

He reached for the hearse's door handle, then looked back at Bean. “I really appreciate your help.”

“Oh, yeah?” Bean said. “Well, please show your appreciation by never asking me to do anything like that again.”

Kai smiled. “Did anyone ever tell you that you're cute when you're angry?”

“Get out,” Bean growled.

“Catch you later?” Kai asked.

“Sorry, I've got plans,” Bean said. “Non-life-threatening ones, for a change.”

Kai got out of the hearse, walked across the sidewalk and stepped into the shop. Dick Dale's “Miserlou,” the anthem of 1960s California surf culture, was playing on a boom box. It was clear that Pat had jumped on the surf craze bandwagon that was currently selling millions of dollars of surf apparel to kids in landlocked states thousands of miles from the ocean who wouldn't have known a beer keg from a board skeg.

Even more amazing, there was actually a line to the cash register where Pat was merrily ringing up sales while Sean rushed to and from the back office where, Kai assumed, he was running off extra credit card slips for Pat's “business associates” in Nevada.

Kai caught his father's eye, but knew better than to interrupt him when he was doing business. The Alien Frog Beast gave his son a hard look, and Kai knew he was ticked off that he hadn't been around that evening to assist in the scam. Kai wandered over to a rack loaded with rash guards. He still hadn't been able to
scrape together the money to buy one for himself, and instead had been surfing bare-chested or in a T-shirt. The one he liked at Sun Haven Surf, an aqua blue polyolefin/spandex long-sleeve made by O'Neill, was listed at close to seventy-five dollars—far more than he could afford.

Kai thumbed through the rack. All the familiar brands were there. He stopped at an aqua blue long-sleeved O'Neill rash guard almost exactly like the one at Sun Haven Surf, except his father was selling this one for thirty-four ninety-five. How could they sell the same garment for half what Buzzy sold it for? Kai pulled the rash guard off the rack. Up close he could see that the O'Neill logo wasn't quite the right size or in quite the same place as the one he'd seen in Sun Haven Surf. The seams were loosely sewn and the material felt thin and rough.

Kai slid the rash guard back into the rack. After two years of living with a crook like Pat, he could pretty easily figure out what the story was. These items weren't manufacturer's seconds, made of the same material but with a flaw that kept them from being sold in regular stores. These garments were knockoffs,
imitations made as cheaply as possible out of inferior materials, and stamped with counter-feit logos.

Leave it to his father to concoct a scam like this.

Kai went into the back office where Sean was running extra credit card slips.

“Hey, Kai, where ya been?” his half brother asked. “Dad's ticked that you didn't come back after dinner.”

Kai shrugged. “Looks like the new scam is a big success.”

“It ain't a scam,” Sean said. “He explained the whole thing to me. Manufacturer's seconds?”

It always amazed Kai that his half brother was so gullible. “And where'd he get these so-called seconds?”

“You know,” Sean said. “That place in Brooklyn.”

“The place where the guys have those strange bulges under their shirts near their waists?” Kai said.

“I asked Dad about that,” Sean said. “He told me Brooklyn's a really dangerous place. Those guys need guns to protect themselves.”

Kai had serious doubts about that, but didn't see the point in arguing. Nor did he think it
was worth pointing out that the guys with the strange bulges under their shirts insisted on dealing only in cash and avoided all forms of paperwork—not exactly the typical way of doing business.

Sean went out to the front of the store and closed the door behind him. Kai stayed in the back. He didn't want to be out front where he would be expected to help sell this bogus crap to unsuspecting tourists. Instead he sat down at the computer and clicked onto Ethan's Web site. Ethan, his mom's boyfriend until her death two years before, was a photographer back on Kauai.

Ethan's site uploaded slowly. Kai's father, the cheapest person on earth, still insisted on using a dial-up connection to the Internet. Finally the page appeared, featuring a beautiful fiery pink sunset shot of Bali Hai, the mountainous point where the road on the north shore of the island ended and the steep, rocky shoreline of the Na Pali coast began.

Kai sat back and gazed up at the ceiling. His mom used to take him hiking along the Na Pali coast, along rocky jungle trails that were overgrown with green vegetation and had a view of the vast endlessly blue Pacific
with the sound of waves smashing into white foam against the rocks below. They'd often stopped for lunch on the cliffs, and if it was winter, they might see the humpback whales who'd come down from Alaska to give birth to calves. Kai knew that a lot of kids thought whale watching was pretty cheesy, but once you'd actually seen those huge beasts—the largest animals on earth—you might change your mind.

He looked at the computer again. Ethan's site had contact information. Kai only had to tap a few keys to send him an e-mail. He felt that tug. Ethan was a great guy. While Pat, Big Chief Hockaloogie, may have been his birth father, there was no doubt in Kai's mind that Ethan was hie real father.
But then Kai's mom had died
….

The door opened and Pat came in. Kai quickly closed the Web site, but not before, his father got a look.

“Still dreaming about going back, huh?” his father said.

Kai was tightlipped.

“Well, dream on, sonny boy, because it ain't gonna happen,” the Alien Frog Beast gloated. ÜWhat the hell would that Ethan guy
want with you? You ain't his kid. That's over. Wake up and smell the bacon.”

Kai fought the temptation to ball his hands into fists and hit him with all his might. Birth father or no birth father.

“Get up,” Pat said.

“Why?” Kai asked.

“Why the hell do you think?” Pat snapped. “I need you out front to help sell. You see how crowded it is out there?”

“I guess people must really love those cheap knockoffs,” Kai said.

Pat's eyes narrowed menacingly. “Well, ain't you one observant little punk.”

“You're doing this just to give Buzzy Frank as much grief as you can, aren't you?” Kai asked. “I mean, it's not even about the money. Buzzy forced you to pay all the rent up front, and you're so pissed off, you'll do anything to get back at him. I'm surprised you didn't just firebomb his store.”

“Why? So he can collect insurance?” Pat asked. “Overstate the damages and then make a mint on the fire sale? I'm not doing that guy any favors.”

Kai resisted the urge to laugh. Only his father could look at torching someone's
store as doing that person a favor.

“Did it ever occur to you that not everybody is totally dishonest?” Kai asked. “That not everybody goes around looking for every possible opportunity to scam the rest of the world.”

Pat grinned, revealing his cruddy little yellow teeth. “Hell, yes, sonny boy, if everybody was a scammer, there'd be no one left to scam. Thank the lord there are more of them than there are of me.” But the grin turned hard. “Now, you gonna help sell or not?”

The stale air in the back room grew still. Kai suddenly realized that he'd come to a turning point. He didn't know how or why it was happening at this very moment, but it was.

“Not,” he answered.

The Alien Frog Beast Chief Hockaloogie stared at him for a long time, as if he too understood what this meant. Then he held out his hand. “The keys.”

Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out his key ring. He removed the store key and tossed it in the air. His father caught it.
Good riddance,
Kai thought. He never wanted to set foot in this store again.

But his father reached out again. “And the apartment key.”

This time Kai hesitated. As if the meaning of his father's words wasn't completely obvious, Pat decided to spell it out for him. “This is the end, sonny boy I've had all the crap from you I'm gonna take. You don't want to play on my team, fine. You go find another team. And that means another place to live.”

“Before I give you the key,” Kai said, “there are some things I'd like to get first.”

Pat's hand closed into a fist. “Make it fast.”

F
or once Kai did as his father said. Almost as if he didn't want to take the time to think too much about it for fear that he'd change his mind. He walked to the house with the basement apartment he and his father and Sean had recently moved into. On the way, he passed the Driftwood Motel. The office was dark and the no vacancy sign was on. Kai went a few more blocks, let himself into the apartment, got his things, and headed back to T-licious.

By now it was late and Sun Haven had grown quiet. The stores had gone dark and the sidewalks were lit only by the orbs of streetlights. The lights were still on in T-licious, but
the store was empty and the door was locked. Sean and the Alien Frog Beast must have been in the back, counting the night's take. Kai thought of knocking, then changed his mind. He slid the apartment key through the mail slot and turned away.

He was free. Finally. Each step down the dark sidewalk felt light, as if he were walking on air. It felt good, but edgy and unsettling, too. For the first time in his life he was completely alone in the world. No one was concerned with his whereabouts, or his safety, or his health. From now on it was all on him, and him alone.