This Is Paradise Read Online Free Page A

family, already setting herself apart from us as we set our sights on mainland jobs and graduate programs.
    Our voices echo as we leave the hotel bar. In the lobby, we pause to check that we have house keys and sweaters, that no one has to use the restroom, that no one forgot a cell phone or purse. We are standing in the hotel lobby saying our goodbyes when a couple staggers through the front entrance. We can hear the woman’s voice—loud and authoritative—describing a club she visited in Los Angeles. For a moment we study her and the man she’s with: he has high cheekbones and olive skin, full lips, extraordinarily tiny ears; she has a ski-jump nose. We remember the nose. She’s the girl from the ABC Store. Her brother joins them in the elevator. The door closes, and we look back at each other.
    “Oh, to be young again,” Laura says lightly.
    We kiss each other on the cheek and promise it won’t be so long till next time. Paula reminds us that her baby shower is in one month. “And men are welcome, so bring your boyfriends!” she adds cheerfully.
    “I think you got the last good one!” Kiana means to sound playful, but a rough edge finds itself in her voice. How do we admit that finding a man who is as successfuland as driven and as single as we are is not an easy task?
    Paula chuckles humbly. “Oh, no. Plenty other Jasons where I found mine.”
    “At the Lava Lounge?” Laura asks. We start laughing again. We pause only when the smell of pakalolo wafts over us. We look around the lobby, and the young woman’s brother is already back. His eyes are round and red. We look at each other, eyebrows raised.
    “Wonder where he got that from,” Esther says.
    “I should probably arrest him,” Paula says, sticking her hands in her pockets. “But I’m off duty right now.” We watch him slink through the front entrance toward Kalākaua Avenue.
    “Where’s his sister?” Laura asks.
    Esther glances around the empty lobby. “She must still be upstairs.”
    Paula frowns. “I hope she knows that man she’s with really well.”
    “Probably just met him tonight,” Kiana says drily. “I guess that’s the point of vacation.”
    The party begins to break up. Paula offers a ride home to Laura and a couple of others who live on Diamond Head, and they leave. Kiana and Esther linger with the rest of us to talk about Paula’s baby bump and the steadiness of Jason’s job as a photographer. They live in an ʻohana behind his parents’ house. With two kids they’ll outgrow the tiny cottage in no time, but they’ll never be able to affordtheir own place. We also wonder about Laura’s resort design, worried that another development will push housing prices further upward, making it harder still for our people to remain on their land. “And what about water usage?” Esther demands. Even in conversation with us, she turns hot-blooded lawyer when the subject of land rights comes up. But Kiana rests a hand on Esther’s shoulder, and the tension dissipates.
    We kiss each other on the cheek one last time. We’ve let another half hour slip by. As we reach the front door, we spot the tourist girl and her date exiting the elevator. They breeze by us, their heads bent together, his right arm thrown protectively around her shoulders. They are heading for the back of the hotel, where the veranda overlooks the ocean. From there they can gain beach access. Leaving the carpeted lobby, she trips and falls to her hands and knees. But she’s up again in a second, giggling with embarrassment, and he laughs with her. He slips his arm around her waist and grips her tightly, steering her away from the lobby.
    The humid air carries the sound of their voices to us. “Baby,” he says. “Watch yourself.”
    But she’s not listening. She just keeps repeating, “This is it. This is paradise.”
    They descend the stairs of the veranda and cross the patio. Her body pitches forward as she walks as if she’s in a state of perpetual