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we’d just head up into the forest,” Joel said calmly. “Hunker down and wait for help. Wouldn’t take long, and we have food, clean water, and it’s plenty warm.”
    “If we run out of food, Joel can forage for us, right?” Bella added, unable to resist the dig.
    Joel took a drink of his beer and shrugged. “Look for fruit, catch fish for our supper. We’d actually do all right.”
    As long as she didn’t have to eat bugs, Bella found the idea of foraging in the forest for food intriguing. As the soft evening breeze tugged gently at her hair, she gazed longingly at the shadowed forest above them. If only she were just here to explore, hike up into the inviting green towering over her and forget DelRay and all its concerns.
    “You could hunt for wild pineapple,” Cassie added.
    Everyone looked at her, and she giggled. “Snap! You should see your faces. I know pineapples grow in fields.” Bella smiled at her, glad the model had lost her frightened look.
    “Hawaii has plenty of native fruit,” Tanah said. “Bananas and mangoes.”
    “Macadamia nuts,” Matt added triumphantly.
    “Guava,” Tanah said. “That grows wild. We picked some on a hike last week.”
    “Every one of those was brought by settlers,” Frank said. “Like our ancestors. In their long canoes, they brought with them many plants that grow wild today. Our noni, used for medicine. Ti, used to wrap fish for cooking. Yams and taro.”
    “The more common fruits were brought later,” Bella added. “Guava, banana, mango, macadamias, avocadoes, all brought in the 1800s.”
    “Cash crops,” Joel said. “Some go wild. Happens all over the tropics, sometimes creating some real pests.”
    “There’s other cash crops grown in the islands too,” Matt added, his eyes twinkling.
    “Oh, Kona Gold.” Cassie giggled. “Definitely a lot of that around here.”
    “Marijuana.” Camille shook her head. “A harmless part of the island lifestyle, surely.”
    “Maybe,” Frank put in. “It’ll make you hûpô , foolish. Dere’s plenty other drugs coming on our islands dat are pure poison.”
    “Kona Kula,” Joel said. “I heard about that on the news. That’s bad stuff, all right.” He shook his head.
    Bella and Frank nodded somberly. Sold to the naïve and credulous as an herbal concoction similar to hashish, the new drug was actually a powerful hallucinogen that was even more addictive than meth, if that were possible. Several people had already died on the islands from ingesting what they believed to be harmless amounts.
    Bella was the only one here who knew that two of her cousins had nearly died preventing huge shipments from being distributed throughout Hawaii.
    Tanah made a face of distaste. “Oh, I hate talking about depressing things like that. Let’s cheer up, people.”
    Bella reached out to touch one of the sprays of purple blossoms nodding over the table. “There are native plants that can be eaten, but only by those who know how to prepare them properly. This is vervain, also known as rat’s tail. Tastes like shiitake mushrooms. Of course, eat too much and it’s a sedative.”
    “Really.” Her gaze sharp, Camille took a frond from the bouquet and studied it, rolling it in her hands. Bella reached out to tuck in another flower Camille had knocked loose, suppressing a surge of irritation at the woman’s disrespect for the plants.
    “Wow, you know a lot about plants,” Matt said to Bella.
    Frank nodded. “’Ae, you’ve been studying up, Nani. But you forgot da lilikoi.”
    Bella gave him a look, hoping no one would take up his conversational cue. But Joel cocked his head, eyeing her through the fronds of the centerpiece. “Lilikoi,” he repeated. “I know I’ve eaten that somewhere. Southeast Asia, I think. What is it again?”
    “Just a fruit that grows on a vine,” she said. Frank’s eyes danced.
    Joel snapped his fingers. “Got it. Lilikoi, also known as passion fruit. Delicious. Wonder if there’s any