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sunshine, she said, “If it wasn’t for you, I never woulda been born.”
    Dinah gave her a sharp look. “What do you mean?”
    “I heard Mama arguin’ with Gran about divorcin’ Daddy. Gran called Mama a quitter and Mama said if you hadn’t made such a big fat fool of her, she wouldn’t have married anybody, especially not Daddy.”
    Dinah froze. This was an omen. Turn on your heel this instant, she told herself. Turn and take the next flight back to Manila. But Marywave snatched her hand and began running and she felt herself dragged, irresistibly, over the cliff into Claude Ann’s life again.

Chapter Three
    The Olopana Hotel was located in a swank residential neighborhood at the end of an alley overarched by massive banyan trees. It was 7:30 by the time Claude Ann turned her rental car into the twilit hotel drive and, at first, Dinah couldn’t make out what was happening in front of the entrance. There seemed to be some kind of a disturbance. A shadowy mob brandished torches and waved signs. A police car with its lights flashing sat parked under the portico and two uniformed cops and a valet appeared to be in a dispute with an immense woman who was shaking some kind of a bamboo rattle. As Claude Ann’s car pulled closer, Dinah read the crudely lettered signs. Uwahi Joose! and Garst Steals From The Kanaka Maoli And See Pele’s Revenge .
    “It’s those damn people again.” Claude Ann parked behind the police car and put a hand to her face. “See what I mean?”
    “Roll down your window, Claudy.” Dinah craned her neck to see out the driver’s side window.
    “That ugly ol’ battleax has been harassin’ us all week and the police can’t seem to do a damn thing about it.”
    The big woman’s voice thundered. “Dat buggah Garst tink our land just dirt and rocks to be dug up and planted wid houses. Da land is da body of Pele. No moa houses!”
    Claude Ann ticked her fingernails against her teeth, as if poised between fight and flight. “They just won’t let up. All those hateful, nutty signs. I thought Hawaiians spoke English.” Tears welling, she launched out of the door. “Go away! Go away, you people! Go away and leave me and my fiancé alone.”
    A burly, brown-skinned cop lowered his arm like a turnstile in front of Claude Ann. “Go inside the hotel, ma’am. Don’t escalate the situation.”
    Dinah got out of the car, moved around beside Claude Ann, and took her arm. “Let the police handle it, Claudy.”
    “Well, they’re not handlin’ it. What’s that sign about revenge? Are they threatenin’ us, officer? What do those other signs say?”
    “Dey say Pele can’t be zoned.” The big woman’s voice rumbled, low and freighted with foreboding. “Pele can’t be platted and subdivided. Tell yo man he bettah leave Uwahi alone.” The red light from the police car strobing across her broad, pugnacious face lent an aura of menace.
    “It’s a free country,” said Claude Ann. “People can do whatever they like with their own property.”
    “Please, ma’am,” said the cop, taking Claude Ann by the arm and turning her toward the door. “Do as I ask. Go inside and let the police handle the problem.”
    Claude Ann threw off his hand. “Whose side are you on?”
    “They have a right to hold a peaceful demonstratation, ma’am.”
    The big woman pointed her bamboo rattle at Claude Ann. “If Garst wants a beef, we geev ‘im beef. You tell ‘im Uwahi bring ‘im bachi plenny koke.”
    “What kind of mumbo jumbo is that?” demanded Claude Ann. “Officer?”
    “It’s pidgin,” said the cop. “She says the Uwahi project is bad karma.”
    “Sheesh!”
    A TV truck rolled up behind Claude Ann’s car and a man with a shoulder-mounted camera jumped out and began to film the scene.
    A blond reporter got out on the other side of the truck and futzed with her microphone. “Get a tight shot of those signs, Perry. Zoom in on Eleanor and the ringleaders.”
    “Be careful her ugly mug