The Whiteness of Bones Read Online Free Page B

hot afternoon at the edge of the palm grove by Lily Shields and Tosi. Tosi was driving the jeep, and Lily sat in the back on top of a pile of towels, a large tin can held between her legs.
    The children were dressed in blue Kaua‘i work shirts, buttoned tightly at the wrist, and jeans. Tosi headed straight up into the mountains behind the plantation. He did not stop until they reached the first gate. Courtney and Brooke looked on curiously as Lily and Mamie jumped out and expertly jimmied the lock and opened the gate.
    “We’re not supposed to do this,” Claire said nonchalantly to the two girls.
    “Do what?” Courtney asked. “Open the gate like that?”
    “All of it,” Claire said. She yawned, having been up very late the night before with Gertrude.
    They passed through several more gates in the same way, and Courtney and Brooke were just beginning to enjoy the windy lawlessness when Tosi stopped the jeep with a lurch. Their heads jerked forward into the back of the seat.
    They were in a thick stand of mountain apple. The crimson-feathered
‘apapane
in the high native forest above them were feeding on the nectar of the
‘ohi‘a lehua
blossoms. At the edge of the trees, by an underground spring, a ditch fed fresh water into a flume. A long line of half-barrels, elevated on trestles, ran for miles down the side of the mountain. Narrow slats of wood were nailed at intervals across the top of the open flume.
    To the cousins’ amazement, Tosi and Lily and Claire slid down into the cold water. Lily Shields held the tin can inone hand as, shoulders hunched from the chill, she waded across the ditch to where the water poured into the barreled flume. She took a big breath and lowered herself deeper into the water. With her head just above the surface, she allowed her legs to float before her into the flume. She grabbed onto the first wood slat with her free hand to stop herself from being sucked down the flume by the fast fall of the water.
    “Last one down is a rotten egg,” she said and she let go of the slat and disappeared in a wake of water. By the time Courtney stepped tentatively to the edge of the ditch, Lily was halfway down Green Valley. Tosi and Claire waited in turn to shoot down the flume.
    Tosi said, “Mamie, you go last, behind them, just in case.”
    “Yes,” Mamie said to the girls, “it is very important that you get out in time. You’ll be going downhill very fast so when you see Claire pulling herself up through the slats, you must be ready to get out.”
    “Get out?” Brooke asked in dumb wonder.
    “You stick your arm up,” Tosi said. “Through the slats. And hold on.”
    Courtney started back through the grove of mountain apple trees. Mamie could see her disappearing through the tufted myrtle.
    “Did you tell her about Lorraine Mitsuda?” Claire asked Mamie angrily. Lorraine Mitsuda had not stopped herself in time and had been swept into the reservoir. She was mangled to death in the big pump. Benjie Furtado was there when they pulled out her legs, or so Gertrude said.
    “No, of course I didn’t.”
    “Who’s Louise Mitsuda?” Brooke asked.
    “I’m going,” Tosi said impatiently. As he hung from theslat with both hands, his pants filled with air and streamed out before him. Then, with a shout of happiness, he, too, disappeared.
    Claire, screaming with excitement, went down after him.
    Mamie looked at Brooke and then she took her hand and they walked back to the jeep together. Courtney was sitting in the jeep. They played Twenty Questions and ate tiny mountain apples until they saw Tosi, Lily and Claire hiking back up the steep dirt road.
    Their clothes were wet. Tosi carried the tin can. There was a tiny, watery trickle of blood on Tosi’s neck, behind his ear. Lily held her right wrist tenderly in front of her. Claire held long spears of yellow ginger and Mamie could smell the flowers long before they reached the jeep. Tosi put the can in the back and Brooke and Courtney