Michael glanced at Josh, who nodded. “Sure.”
“Will you stop in Makawao and pick some up on the way home?”
“No problem!” Josh called. Gunning the engine, he popped the clutch and shot out of the clearing.
Katharine watched the truck disappear, shaking her head. “Do you suppose he always drives that way, or was he just showing off?”
Rob slung his arm around Katharine’s shoulders. “Will you stop worrying? Believe me, Josh knows exactly how to drive that truck. I only had to pull him back on the road once on the way out here.”
Katharine couldn’t tell from Rob’s tone whether he was kidding or not.
Michael hung onto the dashboard as the pickup bounced along the ruts, wishing it at least had seat belts. “Will you slow down?” he complained. “What if we break an axle?”
A peal of laughter rolled from Josh. “We won’t! But even if we do, so what? From here, we could hike to your house!”
“Are you nuts?” Michael shot back. “We’re miles away.”
Josh shook his head. “We just circled around. If you went the other way when you left the clearing, you’d come to a path. All you have to do is climb over a couple of fences, and you come out about half a mile up from where you live. I’ve been out here lots of times. Sure never knew there was somebody buried up there, though.”
Dusk was falling as Josh finally pulled out of the eucalyptus grove and parked the truck in front of the Sundquists’ house. But instead of getting out of the cab, Michael sat thoughtfully gazing out at the fading panorama of the valley far below. “Hey, Josh?” he asked.
Something in his voice made the other boy pause. “Yeah?”
“Up there at that sulfur vent,” Michael went on, his eyes finally shifting to look at his friend, “did you really smell anything?”
Josh hesitated, then shook his head. “I didn’t smell a thing.”
“So why did you lie?”
Josh shrugged. “Didn’t feel like arguing. I just figured it was better to agree with him.”
“You think Rob really smelled it?”
Josh frowned. “Sure. Why would he lie?”
Michael felt a shiver of apprehension. “Then why didn’t we smell it?” he asked. “How come we didn’t smell anything at all?”
A quizzical expression spread across Josh Malani’s face. “What’s going on with you? You sound like you’re scared or something.”
Michael shook his head. “I’m not scared, exactly. But I just keep thinking about Kioki, and—”
Josh jerked on the door handle and swung out of the cab. “Will you quit worrying all the time? I’m telling you, whatever happened to Kioki doesn’t have anything to do with us. Everything’s fine!”
But as Michael got out of the truck, he still kept wondering:
If everything was so fine, how come Kioki was dead?
CHAPTER 14
Smoke and steam were billowing up from a great tear in the surface of the mountainside, and a curtain of fire hung against the black night sky. It was as if the entire mountain were ready to explode. Katharine shuddered as she stared at the image on the screen.
Rob Silver, sitting next to her on the sofa, picked up on her fears instantly. “Take it easy,” he said. “It looks a lot worse than it is.”
For half an hour they’d been watching the live coverage of the new eruption on the Big Island, and although it was the third time Rob had reassured her, Katharine still sat staring, nearly frozen in horror, at the hellish images being broadcast from the next island — an island that suddenly seemed much closer than it had only an hour earlier.
“I know that’s what you keep telling me,” she replied. “And I understand that these aren’t the kind of volcanoes that explode. But you have to admit, it’s very, very scary-looking.”
Josh Malani, sprawled out on the floor next to Michael, gazed at the fiery scene as if mesmerized. “Wouldn’t it be neat to be there? You can go right out onto the lava flows and look down into the crevices where it’s still red hot.”
“Maybe we can fly over there,” Michael suggested. “Maybe—”
“Maybe Josh can go home, and you can go to bed,” Katharine interrupted, shutting off the television with the remote. “You both have school tomorrow, remember?”
“Come on, Mom, turn it back on,” Michael pleaded. “It’s only a little after ten, and—”
“And it’s ‘educational’?” Katharine interrupted, reading her son’s mind. “I don’t think we need to go through that one, do you?”
Josh Malani, hearing the slight edge that had come into Katharine’s voice, scrambled to his feet. “I think I better get out of here,” he said.
A couple of minutes later, as he and Michael were going out to his truck, he said, “I like your mom.”
“Yeah, right,” Michael groaned. “She just kicked you out, and sent me to bed.”
“So what?” Josh countered. “She let me come up here for dinner, and no one got drunk and started yelling.”
Michael studied his friend. “Is that what happens at your house?”
“Not every night,” Josh said a little too quickly, wishing he’d kept his mouth shut. “I guess it happens to everyone, though, doesn’t it?”
“Sure,” Michael replied, though certainly nothing like that had ever happened to him. Then: “Hey, if you want, you can stay here tonight.”
Josh hesitated, then shook his head. “I better go. Don’t want your mom thinking I’m moving in.” His smile flashed. “Besides, I’m not sleepy. I think I might just drive around for a while. Wanta come?”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Like my mom’d let me.”
Josh shrugged, gunning the engine. “Okay. See you tomorrow.” Shoving the transmission into reverse, he whipped the pickup around, shifted into low, and shot away, laughing as he watched Michael try to duck away from the plume of dirt his spinning tires kicked up. But as he turned down Olinda Road, his laughter died away, and the strange restlessness that had been creeping up on him all evening came over him once again.
Except it wasn’t exactly that he felt restless.
It was something else — something he couldn’t quite get a grip on.
Part of it was his chest, which felt kind of funny. It didn’t hurt, exactly, and didn’t feel congested, like he was getting a cold.
It just felt — weird!
Coming out onto Olinda Road, he turned up the hill. Though the night was getting chilly, he left the windows wide open. Finally, near the top, he turned left and began winding back down toward Makawao. As he came around a curve, his headlights swept across a familiar figure.
Jeff Kina, his huge frame hunched over, his head down, was walking along the side of the road. Josh slowed the truck as he came abreast of Jeff. “Hey! Whatcha doin’?”
Jeff, startled, squinted in the darkness, then recognized Josh’s truck. “Just walkin’,” he said. “Didn’t feel like going to bed, and — I don’t know — I just felt sort of weird. Like if I couldn’t get out of the house I was gonna go nuts or something.” He fell silent for a moment, then: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s what happened to Kioki, you know?”
“Nobody knows what happened to Kioki,” Josh reminded him. “Hey, want to go do something?”
Jeff shrugged. “Might as well,” he agreed. Pulling open the passenger door, he climbed into the truck and Josh continued down the hill toward Makawao.
Neither of them paid any attention to the car that was pulled off the road just below the next curve.
The driver, though, noticed them, and as soon as Josh’s truck passed him, he turned his car around. In accordance with the orders he’d been given a few hours earlier, he continued following Jeff Kina.