Kidnapping on Kaua'i (featured by Wattpad 2014)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

One month earlier

This part of Kaua'i has no streetlights, which means the road to the Kaua'i Chinese Club is lit only by the waning moon's faint wash of silver. I don't need streetlights anyway, because no one's more familiar with this egg-shaped dot of an island than me. I especially know the area around Hanalei, my hometown, by heart. After all, I was born in Hanalei fourteen years ago, and I've never left Kaua'i, not even to visit a neighbor island.

The road is lined with tall coconut palms, whose fronds rustle in the light trade wind, matching the sweeping rhythm of the waves caressing the nearby bay. The warm breeze that shakes the palms is flowing over the mountains from the south, pulling the perfume of a thousand tropical flowers along with it. This night is as beautiful as a night can get, but I can't enjoy it, because I'm being followed.

I know who's following me. It can only be one person- one tenacious, single-minded person. He's been on my tail like a shadow for twenty minutes now, ducking in and out of the bushes along the side of the road. Another noise sounds from the foliage, closer now.

Escape isn't going to be easy, but I need to shake my pursuer soon, because I don't want him to figure out where I'm headed. I have a private matter to deal with at the Chinese Club; secret business I plan on doing alone and under the cover of night. I'm going to see Madam Chen, a local mystic who operates a fortune telling business out of the back of the club. She has no sign or regular hours, so I'd had to pay an old Chinese man five dollars to learn how to find her.

I force myself to walk at a normal pace in order to lull my pursuer's suspicion, hoping he'll think I haven't noticed him. Pretending to glance casually at the sky, I decide to make my move when the moon passes behind a cloud.

Wait for it, Lani...wait for it...

Finally, the cloud extinguishes the moonlight, and the landscape plunges from low light into pure darkness; my best chance to disappear has arrived. After dashing to the side of the road, I leap over a ditch and dive headfirst into a tangled mass of vines. The end of a low, sharp branch scrapes my calf as I plow through the thicket, drawing blood, but I refuse to stop. With my heart thundering, I break through onto a small path running alongside the taro patch. It's a path only I know about, or so I'd thought.

My pursuer is already there, standing a few feet away. His mouth is tucked in at the corners, and streaks of dirt line his cocoa-colored cheeks, which have only recently lost their last traces of baby fat.

I sigh and smack my forehead. Trying to elude a thirteen-year-old boy with nothing else to do might as well be impossible. "How'd you know about this path?" I demand.

He ignores my question. "I know you're trying to see Madam Chen. You gonna get in big trouble-trouble to da max!"

"Leave me alone, Pano."

Crossing his arms, he looks at me from under his thick lashes. "No."

"If you agree to go home, I'll let you pick the TV show we watch later."

"Who cares? I like to play video games better anyway."

I give up and start walking down the path again, still determined to get to the club before nine o'clock-Pano or no Pano.

He catches up with me, bobbing up and down as he matches my stride. His feet are too big for him, like a puppy. "I'm jus' warning you, if you go through with this, and Tutu finds out, whoooo boy. Dat's gonna be bad. She says fortune telling is the devil's work."

It's not fair of Pano to threaten me with upsetting Tutu, my adoptive grandmother. I'm instantly mad. "What did I tell you about talking in pidgin?" I snap.