The House at Sandalwood (33 page)

It seemed unimportant now that the years were gone. I tried to dissuade him but he said stubbornly, “She wants to. And I want her to. We’ve got to clear your name.” There seemed no point in arguing about it. I touched the small, delicate orchids around my throat and remembered how much orchids had meant to me when I was a girl. Knowing this was the peace symbol between Deirdre and me, I felt that this wreath of little flowers strung on a bit of twine meant more to me than all the flowers in the past.

At the airport Stephen bought several leis and dropped each one over my head while I protested, feeling ridiculous. We laughed a good deal. He kissed me, a very slight brushing of his warm mouth on my cheek, each time he dropped the lei, but always it was a laughing gesture. As he dropped the last lei and kissed me, his forefinger traced my lips. I saw his eyes, the depths, the expression, and looked away quickly.

Good-byes were yet to come. I had said good-bye to Michiko and Ito Nagata the night before, but there they were, waiting to add fresh leis, cinnamon carnations,
pikake
, white ginger, and my commonplace favorite, pink plumeria, and before I knew it I was crying. It was a wonderful thing to have friends like this, people who had always believed in me, long before Deirdre’s memory made the truth official.

Ito hugged me at the last before sending me on my way. “
Me ke aloha
,
Judith.”

“You brought me my aloha greeting, and now my aloha farewell comes from you, my dear friend,” I told him lightly, but he knew the feeling behind my words and understood my gratitude.

We hugged each other again and I rushed to board the big plane. I moved into my window seat, thankful for the dozen leis that doused my own perfume and gave me sufficient excuse for my red eyes. I looked out the window and pretended to make out individual faces. My view was blurred by tears, but I was intensely relieved to be putting two thousand miles between me and Deirdre and Stephen. My relationship with them had cost too much nerve-wracking tension, too much passion that had to be restrained. And I couldn’t help thinking of William Pelhitt. That damnable Berringer family, father and daughter! What pain they had caused!

The plane lifted off the runway, circled, headed out toward California, and I had no more time for tears. Although I occasionally thought of Deirdre’s husband, the memories receded further and further into the past. My future was going to be quite different, and it would be free of the strangling ties that had nearly ruined both Deirdre’s life and mine. I looked out the window. I had never seen a sky so vividly blue. We were soon far above sea and clouds, but I took the sky for my omen, and my spirits lifted with the soaring plane.