Horror in Paradise Read Online Free Page A

care of, she said. The bones that were disturbed during construction belonged to three people who were not happy with the blessing they had received. In the lobby she noted the structure of the building, and as I lingered with her I could feel all around her a strong outpouring of warmth. Heavy and tall, she looked like the old pictures one sees of Hawaiians of special importance. But her eyes were different from those of any human face that I had seen in all my sixty years. They appeared to have merged into one single eye which had grown in size to cover her face from temple to temple, eyebrow to cheek. “There is nothing wrong with your place,” she said, as soon as we reached the entrance to my apartment on the fifteenth floor, “but I’ll bless it anyway.”
    “Please do not,” I replied. “I don’t want you to bless my place only. I want you to bless the entire site. If you bless the site, my home will be included, the home of everyone else, and our common domain. My father always said, ‘No amount of wealth can make me feel rich, if all around me are poor relatives.’ How can I be happy in my own home, if I’m surrounded by unhappiness?”
    “All right,” said she, “I’ll bless the site, then your place.”
    So I proudly ushered her onto my lanai, where she paused for a long moment, slowly surveying the city, and sky, and sea from Punchbowl to Diamond Head. “You see, the three people are unhappy, because the bones of each one are not together.”
    “I don’t blame them,” said I. “I wouldn’t like to have one arm of mine on mainland China and the rest of me here.”
    “Exactly,” said Emma. Extending toward the sky her left hand, as the hand nearer to her heart, and her right hand downward, as if touching the three spirits one by one, she blessed them gently and reassuringly in a voice as warm as that of the brightly shining sun. “In a little while we will all be one,” she said in such a way that I thought I had never before known grace. She paused for another long moment, then smiled, turning toward me very slowly but with evident satisfaction: “Everything is fine now. They are happy. Now let’s see the rest of your place.”
    The blessing seemed an instant miracle. Nobody followed me again, nor was I disturbed by any more racket in my ears. In fact, it has seemed so quiet since then that I sometimes actually wish for noise, just to be certain other people are living here.
    Emma gave my home a most detailed blessing, moving slowly and quietly from room to room, pausing with deliberate looks into the distant sky, scrutinizing carefully each comer of every room, touching all major items of furniture, silently verbalizing her blessings and following each of them with a smile. She would lay her great hand on walls, counters, and those appliances that have wires or pipes connected to the ground, at the same time waiting and listening but not moving on until satisfaction beamed over her face, permeating the air with a mother’s gentle assurance. While we were moving around my bedroom, she looked at the closet and asked what was in it. “May I have a look?”
    “Of course,” said I and opened the doors. “Look anywhere. Nothing but clothes.”
    But pointing toward one corner, “What’s in that?” she asked.
    “My footlocker. I store my mainland winter clothes in it.”
    “Something else too. What?”
    Then I recalled. “Oh, some scrolls that I don’t want to get damp.”
    “Scrolls!” Emma looked at me sternly, “You mean scrolls which the Chinese people respect and you chuck away in a dark comer like that? Hang them up! Don’t you Chinese people always have a place in your home where you keep a scroll hanging? A place for respect?”
    “Yes,” said I. “In this apartment the place would be above the altar table in my living room facing Diamond Head.”
    “Then hang the scrolls there.”
    I promised I would.
    After Emma finished blessing my apartment, I told her about the