It wouldn"t matter, though. It hadn"t mattered when she told her about the bathing suit or chasing the movie star at the airport. Christy could tell by the kind smile smeared across Mom"s face that, regardless of what she said now, it wouldn"t matter.
"Let me give you some advice my mother gave me when I was a little bit older than you." Mom paused, then precisely formed her words. "If it is meant for you and Todd to be together, then nothing or no one will be able to break you up. If you"re not meant to be together, then nothing you try will keep you together."
Christy rolled Mom"s words over in her mind before asking, "Did Grandma say that about you and Dad when you two were dating?"
"No, actually, it was when I was crying over a boy I liked very much. His name was Chuck Clawson."
"What happened to him?" Christy propped herself up on her elbow, intrigued because Mom seldom shared this kind of story.
"Well, as it turned out, he married my best friend, Pat."
"Oh, great!" Christy flopped back onto her pillow. "You"re supposed to cheer me up, Mother."
Mom looked as if she had expected Christy to be enthusiastic about her story. "Don"t you see? G.o.d had someone better for me, and that was your father. I didn"t know that at the time because I hadn"t met your father. All I knew was how much I liked Chuck and how much I wanted him to like me."
Releasing a deep sigh, Christy said, "It"s hard, Mom. It"s really hard."
"Yes, it is hard. So don"t make it any harder, okay?"
After a moment Christy pulled herself up. "Okay, I"ll try. I guess I"d better go apologize to everyone."
"I"ll go with you. I want to see if Bob has any more coffee. I can smell it from here."
"I want to apologize to everybody," Christy announced to the group, which was seated around the patio table, feasting on scrambled eggs and toast. "I didn"t mean to act like that."
"Don"t worry about it!" Paula moved her chair closer to Todd to make room for Christy. "If everybody forgot my birthday, I would"ve thrown a bigger fit than that!"
"Happy birthday, Christy." Bob kissed her on the cheek. "Have a seat, and let"s try to start this beautiful morning all over again. It"ll be a happy birthday, I promise. Ready for some eggs?"
"Sure. They look great." Christy pulled up a chair and listened as they discussed their plans for the day.
More than once Todd caught Christy"s eye and looked like he was trying to ask her something or tell her something. She wasn"t sure which. Even though it perplexed her, it made her feel closer to him and gave her hope that he really wanted to continue his "nice, healthy relationship" with her and not start something with Paula.
She didn"t have a chance to talk to him alone until later that afternoon. All seven of them piled into the van and went snorkeling at a beach Todd called Black Rock, named for the lava flow of black rock that protruded out into the water.
Black Rock was high enough and the water deep enough that many high-diving tourists followed the supposed old Hawaiian custom of jumping from the rock into the warm water below. Todd jumped three or four times for their cameras and tried to convince David to go off with him. But once David climbed to the top of the rock and found it looked too scary to jump, he took the rocky trail back to the beach.
Christy loved snorkeling. She released handfuls of bright green peas into the water, then watched the fish swim quickly to gobble them up. The colors of the fish amazed her.
Later she stretched out on an air mattress, floating on the calm water above the fish. Todd suddenly popped his head out of the water right by her raft.
"Did you see those little yellow ones?" He lifted his mask up to his forehead.
"I like the ones with the blue and yellow. They look almost iridescent underwater," Christy said.
Todd agreed and then, in his usual right-to-the-point manner, said, "What was going on this morning?"
"What do you mean?"
"You made it sound like you were upset about your birthday, but something else was bothering you."
"No, nothing was."
"Christy," Todd rested his arms on the raft"s side, "you"re a bad liar. Your eyes give you away."
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, her face lifted toward the sun. "I was just tired, that"s all."
"Oh, right!" Todd said, and the next thing Christy knew, he had tipped the raft and dumped her into the water.
She came up laughing and splashing as Todd tried to get on the raft.
"Oh, no you don"t!" She tried her best to flip him over but didn"t succeed.
They both laughed and splashed each other, and then Christy dove under the raft and tried pulling it out from under him. Todd reached under and grabbed her wrist, pulling her up out of the water.
"Okay, okay, we"ll share." Todd slipped into the water up to his waist, resting his elbows on the raft. Christy did the same on the other side of the raft.
Todd didn"t use any words. He spoke only with his eyes. Christy knew what he was asking, and she knew she couldn"t lie.
"Okay, Paula"s bothering me. She"s changed so much since we were friends back in Wisconsin."
"So have you."
"Yeah, but I changed for the good when I became a Christian last summer. I know that sounds egotistical, and I don"t mean that I"m perfect now or anything."
Todd smiled.
Christy could guess what he was thinking. "I guess I proved that this morning, didn"t I?"
"None of us are perfect, Christy."
"Right, but the thing about Paula is she"s not even trying to live morally or anything. I wish she"d become a Christian. I"m worried she"ll turn out like Alissa."
"Turn out like Alissa? Alissa"s not done yet."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Shawn, for instance. Now, he"s done. He doesn"t have any more choices or any more chances. He"s dead."
It sounded so blunt. Christy winced inwardly and waited for Todd to continue.
"You know, I prayed for Shawn every day for more than a year. As far as I know, he died without ever surrendering to Christ. And now-" Todd looked away as he spoke-"he"s done. They have a word for it in Hawaiian: pau."
"Pow?" Christy repeated.
"Yeah, pau. Means "finished," "complete," "no more chances." Shawn is pau. But Alissa"s not. And neither is Paula."
Christy fluttered her legs in the warm ocean water and felt the sun pounding on her back. She thought she understood what Todd was saying.
"I"ve been praying for Alissa," Todd continued, "every day."
"And you think that"s what I should be doing with Paula? Praying for her?"
Todd nodded, his smile returning. "And love her for who she is, not for who you want her to be."
"That"s hard to do, Todd. I want her to become a Christian so badly."
"That"s good. I want her to become a Christian too. You know, it"s really G.o.d"s kindness that leads us to repentance, not His judgment. We have to start praying, Kilikina."
Christy recognized that name as the same one Todd had used at the airport. "What does that word mean?"
"Kilikina? That"s your name in Hawaiian. Actually, it"s Hawaiian for "Christina." "Christy" would be Kiliki."
The word sounded like a wild bird call with the syllables rolling off Todd"s tongue. Christy loved the way he said it. "Say it again."
"Kilikina."
"How did you know it?"
Todd looked down, almost as if he was embarra.s.sed to give her his answer. Without looking up he said, "When I was in the third grade here, there was a haole girl-"
Christy interrupted. "What"s a how-lee?"
"A white person. You know, blond, fair-skinned, blue-eyed. Someone who"s obviously not Polynesian. Only four of us haoles were in my third-grade cla.s.s-me, two other guys, and then this girl named Christina."
Todd looked at Christy and smiled a third-grader kind of smile. "I had an awful crush on her. The teacher called us all by our Hawaiian names in cla.s.s, and Kilikina was the first name I learned."
Todd looked cute, the sun lighting up his hair, elbows propped up on the raft, confessing his first crush to her.
"What"s your name in Hawaiian?" Christy asked.
He hesitated, then smiled and said, "Koka."
"Koka?"
"Yeah. I hated it because all the kids called me Koka Cola."
Christy laughed and noticed someone on the sh.o.r.e waving to them. "Is that my uncle?"
Todd looked across the bright glare on the water. "Looks like he wants us to come up. Come on. I"ll give you a ride."
Their time together ended too soon for Christy. Every time she talked to Todd she felt like she learned something new about him, and they became closer to each other as a result.
When she slid all the way onto the raft and stretched out on her stomach, she took in a sweeping view of the clear sparkling lagoon, the curving sh.o.r.eline dotted with tourists, and behind the hotels, the smooth green West Maui Mountains wearing their afternoon halo of baby"s breath clouds.
I will always remember this day...forever. I never would have guessed I"d spend my sixteenth birthday on a tropical island with Todd. Somebody pinch me; I must be dreaming!
She didn"t need to be pinched. At that very moment, Todd toppled the raft, and the dousing proved to be sufficient evidence that she was awake. They splashed each other some more before Christy resumed her position on top of the raft, then holding on tightly, she called, "Take me to sh.o.r.e, mister, and no more funny stuff!"
He looked like a sea turtle, sticking his neck out of the water at intervals while tugboating her raft back to sh.o.r.e. Christy laughed aloud with glee, wondering how she could have been so angry this morning or why she ever felt Paula could possibly come between her and Todd.
"Marti and your mom already headed for the car," Bob told them when they arrived back at the beach towels, breathless and sparkling with salt.w.a.ter. "David"s over there by the tide pools, trying to catch a fish, and Paula is about twenty yards down the beach, talking to some guys. We need to get going."
"What are we doing for dinner?" Christy asked.
"That"s our little surprise," Bob said with a wink. "Why don"t you go find Paula? Todd, you get David, okay?"
Christy jogged off down the beach and found Paula sitting on a gra.s.s mat next to two guys. By the looks of things, they enjoyed her entertaining conversation. Paula introduced them as Jackson and Jonathan, two members of a band called Teralon.
"We need to get going," Christy said politely. "It was nice to meet you both."
"We"re going to a luau tonight." Then Paula immediately pressed her hand over her mouth, her baby-doll eyes opening wide, and cutely added, "Oops. You didn"t hear that, Christy."
"You"re in trouble now, Paula," one of the guys teased from behind his dark sungla.s.ses.
"I"d better go." She rose to her feet. "Maybe I"ll see you guys again."
"You never know," the other guy said as Christy and Paula walked away. "If not here, then hopefully in heaven!"
"Were they Christians?" Christy looked back over her shoulder and returned their friendly wave.
"Slightly!" Paula said. "Of all the guys on the beach, I have to pick two Jesus freaks to talk to. They really were sweet, but all they wanted to talk about was "the Lord."" Paula shook her head. "First Todd this morning with all his bits of spiritual wisdom and now these guys. What"s going on here?"
Christy broke into a wide grin, using all her self-control to keep from laughing aloud.
Paula saw the grin, though. "What?"
Christy didn"t say a word. She didn"t have to. Paula came to the same conclusion Christy had and voiced it with an air of disgust.
"Oh, don"t you dare try to tell me meeting those guys was one of your little G.o.d-things!"
"Okay, Paula." Christy kept grinning. "I won"t tell you."
"Go ahead," Todd encouraged. "Try some poi. You put two fingers in like this."
He stuck his fingers in the small wooden calabash bowl in the center of the table and quickly drew the sticky gray substance to his lips.
"It looks too gooey," Paula said, making a face. "What does it taste like?"
Todd licked his lips and stuck his fingers back in the bowl. "Like, um, like poi. That"s it! It tastes like poi. Come on, Christy. The birthday girl can"t go to a luau and not eat poi."
Christy bravely dipped a finger in and drew it to her lips. "What is this stuff, anyway?"
"The old Hawaiians ate it. It comes from the root of the taro plant. They pound it to make it mushy like this."
Christy touched the tip of her tongue with the poi, which had the color and consistency of wallpaper paste. Paula, sitting directly across from her, watched her reaction.
"It doesn"t really have a taste." Christy turned to Todd, who sat next to her. "Did you eat this stuff all the time you lived here?"