Page 10 of Try Easy

Airport in Paradise

Honolulu Airport

January 21

Lou

Lou stoodat the top of the stairs outside the airplane and took a deep breath. The Honolulu airport smelled like flowers and the ocean.

“Hurry up,” Penny said, poking Lou in the shoulder. “The rest of us want to see Hawaii, too.”

“I’m going,” she said.

Lou was wearing high-heeled espadrille sandals that laced around her ankles, and she could only move so fast down the stairs. When she got to the tarmac, she spun around in a circle, causing her skirt to flare around her knees. She tilted her head back at the impossibly blue sky, letting the sun kiss her face.

“I love it here already,” she said.

Penny linked arms with Lou as she joined her on the tarmac. “Me, too,” she said. “Let’s stay forever.”

“I don’t think Joe or Paul would like it if we stayed here.”

Penny’s boyfriend, Joe, was going to propose soon, or at least that’s what everyone thought. Penny and Joe had been dating as long as Lou and Paul. Both couples planned on getting married, and Lou and Penny were going to buy houses next to each other in Seward Park, the oldest and most beautiful waterfront neighborhood in the city.

“Forget Joe,” Penny said. “Maybe I’ll get married to a Hawaiian instead, and live in a grass shack for the rest of my life.”

“Surf all day and go to luau parties every night,” Lou said, joining in on the fantasy.

“I can give hula lessons,” Penny said, swiveling her hips.

“And I can take pictures of Hawaiian sunsets and sell them to tourists,” Lou said.

They laughed, strolling arm in arm across the tarmac. They were young and beautiful and had two weeks of nothing but sun and fun to look forward to. Most of the men and about half the women they passed turned to stare at them. Dressed in their colorful island attire, Lou and Penny made a striking pair.

Lou could already feel the pace of her vacation days settling in. No one seemed to be rushing. Unlike at home, no one seemed to care what time it was.

Lou glanced around at the tourists with their cameras held to their faces. They seemed to have all day to get their bags and find the nearest beach.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Lou said.

“Which part? The grass shack?”

“No, the pictures.” Lou stopped walking and unzipped her shoulder bag. “Let me find my camera.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Lou. You’ll look like such a tourist.”

“We are tourists.”

“I know, but it doesn’t mean we have to look like them,” Penny said.

Lou ignored Penny and brought her camera to her face. She snapped a few pictures of the palm trees and then scanned the tarmac for another shot. She slowly panned her camera across the tourists walking into the airport, and then over the people waiting to pick up their loved ones. They stood in a line behind a rope, carrying flowers and colorful Hawaiian leis. Lou stopped to snap a picture of a little boy riding on his father’s shoulders, and then swept her camera over the other faces in the crowd. She froze on a tall, dark-haired man standing behind the rope.

Lou zoomed her lens closer on his face and gasped. He had a split lip and a gash on his forehead. Under the frame of his sunglasses, she could see a purple bruise marring his bronzed skin. His mouth moved into a crooked half smile, and Lou realized that he had caught her staring.

Her cheeks burned as she dropped her camera and hurried to catch up with Penny, who had stopped walking and was looking at the line of people behind the rope.

“Whoa,” Penny said. “Do you see that?”

Lou followed Penny’s gaze to see the man she had been looking at through her camera.

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