Snowfire (14 page)

“Don't run,” Kit cautioned as Megan and Darby started to. “Walk on your tippy-toes to Hoku's corral.”

Darby had never heard Kit use a term like “tippy-toes.”
He must be happy about Medusa,
Darby thought. That was really cool.

She worried a little as they walked past the round corral. At a quick glance the pen looked empty, but Inky was pretty small. He and Dancer were probably curled up together in a shadow.

Kimo and Cade stood watching the corral from the bunkhouse porch. The porch was just high enough to allow them to see over the fence. Darby couldn't wait to see what they could, so she rushed up the steps to stand beside them.

Of course, a week wasn't enough time to transform a horse, but Medusa looked like her old self, like she'd looked in the wild, before the tsunami.

Her pewter-gray coat, flecked with black, appeared soft as velvet. Her mane rippled in ringlets to her shoulder, and her forelock twirled down to her nostrils.

She raised one hoof, feathered with wispy hair, and moved with surprising care across the corral toward Inky.

She won't hurt him,
Darby told herself. Kit wouldn't let that happen, and neither would anyone else standing there.

Everyone watched in silence as the two horses considered each other.

Medusa sniffed the black colt from nose to tail.

Remembering,
Darby thought.
Medusa must be remembering they're family.

“Been goin' on for over an hour,” Cade whispered. “They keep following each other around.”

When Medusa walked away from the colt, she crossed to the far side of the corral, and Inky followed her long tail, which was dragging on the dirt.

Then the mare did the last thing Darby would have expected: Upon reaching a patch of grass, Medusa lowered herself to the ground into a resting position, her front and hind legs folded, her head nodding.

Inky nickered. Medusa nickered back, and then the colt threw himself down on the grass beside her.

In about five minutes the only part of him not flattened in deep sleep was his tiny muzzle, which rested on Medusa's side as she dozed.

Kit turned to them all, not quite smiling, and Darby crossed her fingers.

 

Darkness had fallen by the time Darby made her way down the path to the broodmare pasture. Hula Girl stood near Luna Dancer, glad to be back with him. Lady Wong saw Darby and nickered a greeting.

“Are we buddies now that we've rodeoed together?” she asked the mare.

As usual, Hoku stood apart from the other horses. Darby knew her silhouette, and though shadows hid her flaxen mane, the moon was bright enough to pick out the white star on the filly's chest.

Hoku stood still, watching Darby, but not yet ready to forgive her. Still, Darby wasn't discouraged. If a wild mare like Medusa could make room in her heart for an abandoned colt, Hoku would remember she had room for one special human.

“
He puko‘a ku noka moana
,” Darby said. She was pretty sure she got her pronunciation right, and after asking Kimo, she knew what Jonah had meant when he'd said it to her.

Kimo said yes, it meant a rock in the sea, but that rock was standing up to the waves pounding all around it, and the saying meant the person it singled out wasn't stubborn, but determined.

Darby smiled into the darkness. She and Hoku could stand up to any trouble because they loved each other.

“I'll be here when you change your mind,” she whispered to her filly, and then she blew her a kiss.

I
n case anybody reads this besides me, which it's too late to tell you not to do if you've gotten this far, I know this isn't a real dictionary. For one thing, it's not all correct, because I'm just adding things as I hear them. Besides, this dictionary is just to help me remember. Even though I'm pretty self-conscious about pronouncing Hawaiian words, it seems to me if I live here (and since I'm part Hawaiian), I should at least try to say things right.

 

ali'i
—AH LEE EE—royalty, but it includes chiefs besides queens and kings and people like that

 

‘aumakua
—OW MA KOO AH—these are family guardians from ancient times. I think ancestors are
supposed to come back and look out for their family members. Our
‘aumakua
are owls and Megan's is a sea turtle.

 

chicken skin
—goose bumps

 

da kine
—DAH KYNE—“that sort of thing” or “stuff like that”

 

hanai
—HA NYE E—a foster or adopted child, like Cade is Jonah's, but I don't know if it's permanent

 

haole
—HOW LEE—a foreigner, especially a white person. I get called that, or
hapa
(half) haole, even though I'm part Hawaiian.

 

hapa
—HA PAW—half

 

hewa-hewa
—HEE VAH HEE VAH—crazy

 

hiapo
—HIGH AH PO—a firstborn child, like me, and it's apparently tradition for grandparents, if they feel like it, to just take
hiapo
to raise!

 

hoku
—HO COO—star

 

holoholo
—HOE LOW HOW LOW—a pleasure trip that could be a walk, a ride, a sail, etc.

 

honu
—HO NEW—sea turtle

 

ho'oponopono
—HOE POE NO POE NO—this is a problem-solving process. It's sort of cool, because it's a native Hawaiian way of talking out problems.

 

‘iolani
—EE OH LAWN EE—this is a hawk that brings messages from the gods, but Jonah has it painted on his trucks as an owl bursting through the clouds

 

ipo
—EE POE—sweetheart, actually short for
ku'uipo

 

kanaka
—KAH NAW KAH—man

 

kapu
—KAH POO—forbidden, a taboo

 

keiki
—KAY KEY—really, when I first heard this, I thought it sounded like a little cake! I usually hear it meaning a kid, or a child, but Megan says it can mean a calf or colt or almost any kind of young thing.

 

kupuna
—COO POO NAW—an ancestor, but it can mean a grandparent too

 

lanai
—LAH NA E—this is like a balcony or veranda. Sun House's is more like a long balcony with a view of the pastures.

 

lau hala
—LA OO HA LA—some kind of leaf in shades of brown, used to make paniolo hats like Cade's. I guess they're really expensive.

 

lei
—LAY E—necklace of flowers. I thought they were pronounced LAY, but Hawaiians add another sound. I also thought leis were sappy touristy things, but getting one is a real honor, from the right people.

 

lei niho palaoa
—LAY NEEHO PAH LAHOAH—necklace made for old-time Hawaiian royalty from braids of their own hair. It's totally
kapu
—forbidden—for anyone else to wear it.

 

luna
—LOU NUH—a boss or top guy, like Jonah's stallion

 

mahalo
—MAW HA LOW—thank you

 

malihini
—MUH LEE HEE NEE—stranger or newcomer

 

mana
—MAW NUH—this is a power you're born with. It's kind of a combination of instinct and intelligence.

 

māna
—MAH NUH—I think to say this, you just hold the
ah
sound longer in your mouth and that makes sense.
Māna
means “knowledge you've gained from the
mouths of others.”

 

menehune
—MEN AY WHO NAY—little people

 

ohia
—OH HE UH—a tree like the one next to Hoku's corral

 

pali
—PAW LEE—cliffs

 

paniolo
—PAW NEE OH LOW—cowboy or cow-girl

 

papala
—PAW PAW LUH—cool fireworks plant!

 

pau
—POW—finished, like Kimo is always asking, “You
pau
?” to see if I'm done working with Hoku or shoveling up after the horses

 

Pele
—PAY LAY—the volcano goddess. Red is her color. She's destructive with fire, but creative because she molds lava into new land. She's easily offended if you mess with things sacred to her, like the ohia tree, lehua flowers, ‘ohelo berries, and the wild horse herd on Two Sisters.

 

poi
—rhymes with “boy”—mashed taro root with the consistency of peanut butter. It's such an ancient food, Jonah says you're supposed to assume the ancestors are there when you eat it.

 

pueo
—POO AY OH—an owl, our family guardian. The very coolest thing is that one lives in the tree next to Hoku's corral.

 

pupule
—POO POO LAY—crazy

 

tutu
—TOO TOO—great-grandmother

 

wahine
—WAH HE NEE—a lady (or women)

Ellen Kealoha Carter
—my mom, and since she's responsible for me being in Hawaii, I'm putting her first. Also, I miss her. My mom is a beautiful and talented actress, but she hasn't had her big break yet. Her job in Tahiti might be it, which is sort of ironic because she's playing a Hawaiian for the first time and she swore she'd never return to Hawaii. And here I am. I get the feeling she had huge fights with her dad, Jonah, but she doesn't hate Hawaii.

 

Cade
—fifteen or so, he's Jonah's adopted son. Jonah's been teaching him all about being a paniolo. I thought he was Hawaiian, but when he took off his hat he had blond hair—in a braid! Like old-time vaqueros—weird!
He doesn't go to school, just takes his classes by correspondence through the mail. He wears this poncho that's almost black it's such a dark green, and he blends in with the forest. Kind of creepy the way he just appears out there. Not counting Kit, Cade might be the best rider on the ranch.

Hoku kicked him in the chest. I wish she hadn't. He told me that his stepfather beat him all the time.

 

Cathy Kato
—forty or so? She's the ranch manager and, really, the only one who seems to manage Jonah. She's Megan's mom and the widow of a paniolo, Ben. She has messy blond-brown hair to her chin, and she's a good cook, but she doesn't think so. It's like she's just pulling herself back together after Ben's death.

I get the feeling she used to do something with advertising or public relations on the mainland.

 

Jonah Kaniela Kealoha
—my grandfather could fill this whole notebook. Basically, though, he's harsh/nice, serious/funny, full of legends and stories about magic, but real down-to-earth. He's amazing with horses, which is why they call him the Horse Charmer. He's not that tall, maybe 5'8”, with black hair that's getting gray, and one of his fingers is still kinked where it was broken by a teacher because he spoke Hawaiian in class! I don't like his “don't touch the horses unless they're working for you” theory, but it totally works. I need to figure out why.

 

Kimo
—he's so nice! I guess he's about twenty-five, Hawaiian, and he's just this sturdy, square, friendly guy. He drives in every morning from his house over by Crimson Vale, and even though he's late a lot, I've never seen anyone work so hard.

 

Kit Ely
—the ranch foreman, the boss, next to Jonah. He's Sam's friend Jake's brother and a real buckaroo. He's about 5'10” with black hair. He's half Shoshone, but he could be mistaken for Hawaiian, if he wasn't always promising to whip up a batch of Nevada chili and stuff like that. And he wears a totally un-Hawaiian leather string with brown-streaked turquoise stones around his neck. He got to be foreman through his rodeo friend Pani (Ben's buddy). Kit's left wrist got pulverized in a rodeo fall. He's still amazing with horses, though.

 

Cricket
—is Kit's girlfriend! Her hair's usually up in a messy bun and she wears glasses. She drives a ratty Jeep and said, to his face, “I'm nobody's girl, Ely.” He just laughed. She works at the feed store and is an expert for the Animal Rescue Society in Hapuna.

 

Megan Kato
—Cathy's fifteen-year-old daughter, a super athlete with long reddish-black hair. She's beautiful and popular and I doubt she'd be my friend if we just met at school. Maybe, though, because she's nice at heart. She half makes fun of Hawaiian legends, then
turns around and acts really serious about them. Her Hawaiian name is Mekana.

 

The Zinks
—they live on the land next to Jonah. Their name doesn't sound Hawaiian, but that's all I know.

Wow, I met Patrick and now I know lots more about the Zinks. Like, the rain forest—the part where Tutu told me not to go—used to be part of the A-Z (Acosta and Zink!) sugar plantation and it had a village and factory and train tracks. But in 1890, when it was going strong, people didn't care that much about the environment, and they really wrecked it, so now Patrick's parents are trying to let the forest take it back over. They hope it will go back to the way it was before people got there. I still don't know his parents' names, but I think Patrick said his dad mostly fishes and his mom is writing a history of the old plantation.

Oh, and that part Tutu said about the old sugar plantation being kind of dangerous? It REALLY is!

 

Patrick Zink
—is geeky, super-smart, and seriously accident-prone. He looks a little like Harry Potter would if he wore Band-Aids and Ace bandages and had skinned knees and elbows. He says he was born for adventure and knows all about the rain forest and loves Mistwalker, his horse. He's not into his family being rich, just feels like they have a lot to pay back to the island for what their family's old sugar cane
plantation did to it environmentally. He likes it (and so do I!) that they're letting the rain forest reclaim it.

 

Tutu
—my great-grandmother. She lives out in the rain forest like a medicine woman or something, and she looks like my mom will when she's old. She has a pet owl.

 

Aunt Babe Borden
—Jonah's sister, so she's really my great-aunt. She owns half of the family land, which is divided by a border that runs between the Two Sisters. Aunt Babe and Jonah don't get along, and though she's fashionable and caters to rich people at her resort, she and her brother are identically stubborn. Aunt Babe pretends to be all business, but she loves her cremello horses and I think she likes having me and Hoku around.

 

Duxelles Borden
—if you lined up all the people on Hawaii and asked me to pick out one NOT related to me, it would be Duxelles, but it turns out she's my cousin. Tall (I come up to her shoulders), strong, and with this metallic blond hair, she's popular despite being a bully. She lives with Aunt Babe while her mom travels with her dad, who's a world-class kayaker. About the only thing Duxelles and I have in common is we're both swimmers. Oh, and I gave her a nickname—Duckie.

 

Potter family
—Ann, plus her two little brothers, Toby and Buck, their parents, Ramona and Ed, and lots of horses for their riding therapy program. I like them all. Sugarfoot scares me a little, though.

 

Manny
—Cade's Hawaiian stepfather pretends to be a taro farmer in Crimson Vale, but he sells ancient artifacts from the caves, and takes shots at wild horses. When Cade was little, Manny used him to rob caves and beat him up whenever he felt like it.

 

Dee
—Cade's mom. She's tall and strong-looking (with blond hair like his), but too weak to keep Manny from beating Cade. Her slogan must be “You don't know what it's like to be a single mom,” because Cade repeats it every time he talks about her. My mom's single and she'd never let anyone break my jaw!

 

Tyson
—this kid in my Ecology class who wears a hooded gray sweatshirt all the time, like he's hiding his identity and he should. He's a sarcastic bully. All he's really done to me personally is call me a haole crab (really rude) and warn me against saying anything bad about Pele. Like I would! But I've heard rumors that he mugs tourists when they go “off-limits.” Really, he acts like HIS culture (anything Hawaiian) is off-limits to everyone but him.

 

Shan Stonerow
—according to Sam Forster, he once
owned Hoku and his way of training horses was to “show them who's boss.”

 

My teachers
—

Mr. Silva—with his lab coat and long gray hair, he looks like he should teach wizardry instead of Ecology Miss Day—my English and P.E. teacher. She is great, understanding, smart, and I have no idea how she tolerates team-teaching with Coach R. Mrs. Martindale—my Creative Writing teacher is not as much of a witch as some people think. Coach Roffmore—stocky with a gray crew cut, he was probably an athlete when he was young, but now he just has a rough attitude. Except to his star swimmer, my sweet cousin Duckie. I have him for Algebra and P.E., and he bugs me to be on the swim team.

ANIMALS
!

Hoku
—my wonderful sorrel filly! She's about two and a half years old, a full sister to the Phantom, and boy, does she show it! She's fierce (hates men) but smart, and a one-girl (ME!) horse for sure. She is definitely a herd girl, and when it comes to choosing between me and other horses, it's a real toss-up. Not that I blame her. She's run free for a long time, and I don't want to take away what makes her special.

She loves hay, but she's really HEAD-SHY due to Shan Stonerow's early “training,” which, according to
Sam, was beating her.

Hoku
means “star.” Her dam is Princess Kitty, but her sire is a mustang named Smoke and he's mustang all the way back to a “white renegade with murder in his eye” (Mrs. Allen).

 

Navigator
—my riding horse is a big, heavy Quarter Horse that reminds me of a knight's charger. He has Three Bars breeding (that's a big deal), but when he picked me, Jonah let him keep me! He's black with rusty rings around his eyes and a rusty muzzle. (Even though he looks black, the proper description is brown, they tell me.) He can find his way home from any place on the island. He's sweet, but no pushover. Just when I think he's sort of a safety net for my beginning riding skills, he tests me.

 

Joker
—Cade's Appaloosa gelding is gray splattered with black spots and has a black mane and tail. He climbs like a mountain goat and always looks like he's having a good time. I think he and Cade have a history; maybe Jonah took them in together?

 

Biscuit
—buckskin gelding, one of Ben's horses, a dependable cow pony. Kit rides him a lot.

 

Hula Girl
—chestnut cutter

 

Blue Ginger
—blue roan mare with tan foal

 

Honolulu Lulu
—bay mare

 

Tail Afire (Koko)
—fudge-brown mare with silver mane and tail

 

Blue Moon
—Blue Ginger's baby

 

Moonfire
—Tail Afire's baby

 

Black Cat
—Lady Wong's black foal

 

Luna Dancer
—Hula Girl's bay baby

 

Honolulu Half Moon

 

Conch
—grulla cow pony, gelding, needs work. Megan rides him sometimes.

 

Kona
—big gray, Jonah's cow horse

 

Luna
—beautiful, full-maned bay stallion is king of ‘Iolani Ranch. He and Jonah seem to have a bond.

 

Lady Wong
—dappled gray mare and Kona's dam. Her current foal is Black Cat.

 

Australian shepherds
—pack of five: Bart, Jack, Jill, Peach, and Sass

 

Pipsqueak/Pip
—little shaggy white dog that runs with the big dogs, belongs to Megan and Cathy

 

Pigolo
—an orphan (piglet) from the storm

 

Francie
—the fainting goat

 

Tango
—Megan's once-wild rose roan mare. I think she and Hoku are going to be pals.

 

Sugarfoot
—Ann Potter's horse is a beautiful Morab (half Morgan and half Arabian, she told me). He's a caramel-and-white paint with one white foot. He can't be used with “clients” at the Potters' because he's a chaser. Though Ann and her mother, Ramona, have pretty much schooled it out of him, he's still not quite trustworthy. If he ever chases me, I'm supposed to stand my ground, whoop, and holler. Hope I never have to do it!

 

Flight
—this cremello mare belongs to Aunt Babe (she has a whole herd of cremellos) and nearly died of longing for her foal. She was a totally different horse—beautiful and spirited—once she got him back!

 

Stormbird
—Flight's cream-colored (with a blush of palomino) foal with turquoise eyes has had an exciting life for a four-month-old. He's been shipwrecked, washed ashore, fended for himself, and rescued.

 

Medusa
—Black Lava's lead mare—with the heart of a lion—just might be Kit's new horse.

 

Black Lava
—stallion from Crimson Vale, and the wildest thing I've ever seen in my life! He just vibrates with it. He's always showing his teeth, flashing his eyes (one brown and one blue), rearing, and usually thorns and twigs are snarled in his mane and tail. He killed Kanaka Luna's sire and Jonah almost shot him for it. He gave him a second chance by cutting an X on the bottom of Black Lava's hoof wall, so he'd know if he came around again. Wouldn't you know he likes Hoku?

 

Soda
—Ann's blue-black horse. Unlike Sugarfoot, he's a good therapy horse when he's had enough exercise.

 

Buckin' Baxter
—blue roan in training as a cow horse and I can stay on him!

 

Prettypaint
—used to be my mom's horse, but now she lives with Tutu. She's pale gray with bluish spots on her heels, and silky feathers on her fetlocks. She kneels for Tutu to get on and off, not like she's doing a trick, but as if she's carrying a queen.

 

Mistwalker
—is Patrick's horse. She's a beautiful black-and-white paint—bred by Jonah! He could hardly stand to admit she was born on ‘Iolani Ranch, which is silly. Her conformation is almost pure Quarter Horse
and you can see that beyond her coloring. And what he doesn't know about Mistwalker's grandfather (probably) won't hurt him!