Page 21 of Try Easy

Keoni cast around for another excuse, but he couldn’t think of anything.

“Come on,” Bones said, slapping Keoni on the back hard enough to make his ribs rattle. “Be cool.”

“I am cool,” he said. “Just take me home, will you? Then you can do whatever you want after that.”

Bones shook his head at Keoni as if he was crazy. “Whatsamattah you?”

“Nothing,” Keoni insisted, walking back to the car.

He opened the door for Lou, and she slid along the seat, making room for him. Bones got in the front and started the car.

“Everything okay?” Lou asked.

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to Keoni’s parents’ house,” Bones said. “It’s not far.”

Lou unfolded the pamphlet again. “Where is it?” she asked, seeming genuinely interested.

She spread the map on the seat between them and leaned over it, her hair spilling forward. Keoni breathed in the honey scent of her shampoo and felt the soft sweep of her hair on his forearm.

He turned toward her and pointed on the map, running his finger south along the mountain range that ran the entire length of the windward side of the island.

“Here,” he said, stopping at a brown valley that was tucked into the steep green slopes of the mountains.

She leaned forward to study it. “Right between these mountains?” she asked. “Must be beautiful.”

“It is.”

Keoni’s parents’ house was his favorite place on the island besides Waimea Bay. Set deep in the valley of the Ko’olau Mountains, his parents’ place had views of the mountains, the city, and the ocean.

Keoni folded up the map. He made sure to hand the brochure back to Lou faceup, because he was pretty certain his picture was on the back cover. He didn’t want her seeing it and thinking he was some kind of big deal.

“My house might not be what your expecting, eh?” he said.

Lou put the brochure back in her bag and looked up at Keoni, waiting for him to go on. After a moment, her eyebrows drew together, and she asked, “What do you mean?”

“You’ll find out,” he said.

Soon after they exited the city, Bones turned onto a hilly road that ran parallel to the coast. The road was made up of small houses with postage-stamp-sized yards. As they wound higher into the hills, everything got bigger.

The yards stretched out, the houses grew, and the trees reached higher. The dark green foliage on the trees looked like something out of a fairy tale. Flowers grew on shrubs, in pots, and up the sides of fences. The car climbed higher into the mountains and then dipped down a steep descent.

At the bottom of the hill, Bones turned onto a gravel road that lead to a valley between the green ridges of the mountain range. He took another turn, and they came upon a gate that was guarded by two large Chinese-style stone lions.

Keoni glanced over at Lou as they drove past the red-roofed pagoda that held a sign reading Manoa Chinese Cemetery.

Her mouth dropped open, and she reached for her camera as if on automatic pilot.

“You live in a graveyard?” she asked.

Keoni nodded. “A Chinese graveyard.”

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