Read 'Tis the Season: A Collection of Mimi's Christmas Books for Free Online Page B

ease or to share the experience with words.
    Pi leaned next to her, and before she knew it, he’d helped her to climb on top of the hood. While perched on the warm vehicle, the two lay next to each other using the windshield for a backrest.
    From this view, she looked up and observed the various-sized, graceful palm trees waving their fronds as if playing to a rhapsody of music initiated by the soft breeze. A few night birds flew overhead, calling to each other; their sounds like a musical welcome to a girl still fighting the disbelief that she’d actually arrived. The horizon of clouds interspersed with golden highlights was all she could have asked for. This was the Hawaii of Leilani’s dreams.
    Pi gently nudged her hand and then pointed upward to where an encroaching purplish-pink hue spread its magic over the lightened sky; a phenomenon she’d never seen so strong before. It literally took her breath away.
    His soft voice broke in, and she glanced in his direction. “You seem sad, Leilani. I’ve no wish to intrude, but it shines through your eyes when you look at me. Is there any way I can help you?”
    Leilani wasn’t surprised that he’d zeroed in on her pain. Raw and recent, it hadn’t had time to form a scab.
    “As you know, my mother passed on, but how I wished she had come with me in person rather than as ashes. I begged her many times before the end—promised her she’d be fine and that I’d help her, but she refused.”
    “Poor woman! Choosing never to see her country again because of what? Erroneous prejudices! How shattering!”
    “Pi, you’re an angel. I’ve never thought how much it must have eaten at her, not until I arrived here and saw the beauty she gave up. You’re right, of course. Shattered fits her perfectly.”
    “It must have been hard for you to live with a woman hardened and embittered by circumstances, even if she did orchestrate them by her careless actions.”
    “I loved her.” Leilani thought of all the times she tried to get her mother to smile and feel upbeat about the fact that she was alive and relatively healthy, albeit tied to a wheelchair. Some days, she managed. They’d know peace for months, but then a letter would arrive, or a movie on TV would bring back the bitterness. The older woman would slip into a melancholy that little by little chipped away at the spontaneous happiness that quite naturally bubbled inside Leilani.
    “I’m sure you did. And of course, she loved you?”
    Pi’s question brought back the fear that she’d known since childhood—the fear that drove her into always acting like a bundle of sunshine. If she weren’t that way, would there be anything loveable about her? And just maybe, would her mother stop loving her?
    Now where did that insight come from…the clarity of knowing what insecurity drove her into being the Chatty Cathy that she showed the world?
    Lying under the Hawaiian sky with this delightful character gave her such pleasure that it needed to be shared. She reached for Pi’s hand that seemed to know hers was searching, and she clung. Glancing over her shoulder, she grinned into the old man’s twinkling eyes that returned her delight. Time stopped. Only the wind and waves played on, performing for the two souls who were linked forever.

Chapter Three
    “Pi, are you sure this is the hotel I’m to stay at? It’s positively luxurious.” Leilani had no doubt her eyes had expanded to twice their normal size. She swiveled in every direction, not caring if she looked like the typical gawking tourist.
    “Yes. I have your booking here. You’re on the seventh floor, in room 715. The Jordan Hotels have a sterling reputation, and the Waikiki Jordan is considered one of the premium hotels in all of Hawaii.” He pulled the taxi over to the side and stopped in the brilliant circular driveway under the magnificent archway leading to the reception desk.
    Lighted gardens full of tropical plants graced the entranceway, and glamorous