9.11 - 26. Chapter 26

August 15, 2001

We were driving over to Kai’s house, even though it was only 4:30. I’d spent all but a few evenings over there with him, and had really enjoyed myself. Despite the fact that his father had to deal with this terrible disease, they were really happy together. There was a neat rhythm to their lives, one based on love and respect, and I hadn’t seen them fight once. I smiled ruefully as I thought about how foreign that experience was for me. These people had a routine; they did their thing, and derived their happiness primarily from being with each other. And what was the most surprising thing of all for me was that material possessions did not dominate their lives. They didn’t have much, but that didn’t seem to bother them at all.

“Dude, I’m not sure about your plan for tomorrow,” Kai said nervously. “My mom is going to freak out.”

“Don’t be a pussy,” I groused. “She’ll be happy when she gets over being pissed off.”

“Yeah, but you’re leaving in two days, and you’re leaving me alone with her,” he said.

“I have to deal with my father instead,” I said. “He’s scarier than your mother.”

“Not to you,” he said. “I think you’re more afraid of my mother than your father.”

I laughed at that. “Maybe.”

My phone rang, and I looked at the caller-ID to see that it was Stef. He’d mysteriously stopped calling me a few days after the big blowup with my father, and that had made me a little nervous, since we’d gotten that dinner invitation from Grand on the 7^th. I was worried that somehow the two were related, but I was enjoying my time here on Maui, and I was still seriously annoyed with him, so I’d pushed all the bullshit issues with my family to the side and just enjoyed myself. I reasoned that I’d have to deal with all that shit in a few days anyway. But he was calling me, and I was done ignoring him. I gave Kai an apologetic look and said “It’s Stef,” then answered the call, saying “Hello” in a neutral fashion.

“Hello,” Stef responded cheerfully, as if he were determined to make sure we had a pleasant conversation. “How are you doing?”

There was no reason to be bitchy, and besides, being here on this island has so relaxed me, that it was tough for me to be an asshole, at least for an extended period of time. “I’m doing great!” I said enthusiastically. “How are you?” Kai looked at me oddly, while Stef was momentarily speechless, both of them surprised by my apparently happy mood.

“I am just fine,” he said with forced cheer. “I understand you are planning to return to Palo Alto on the 18^th.”

“That’s my plan,” I told him. “Dad had said something about sending his plane over to get me, but I was just going to book a ticket out of Kahului.” I didn’t feel like having a conversation with my father, and I didn’t want to feel indebted to him by using his plane.

“I have an alternative idea, if it meets with your approval,” he said tentatively. “I was thinking that I would fly over on the 17^th, in the morning, so I could see how things have progressed with your house. Then we could fly back together on the 18^th.”

“That sounds great,” I agreed, shocking him even more. “It’s not done yet, though.” He could hear the disappointment in my voice, and laughed.

“You are not being realistic. Such a project, if it is done right, takes a lot of time,” he said, being a sage. “I hope you do not mind that I have kept in touch with Malcolm about the progress.”

“No, that’s fine, and I appreciate it,” I told him. “Malcolm mentioned that to me.” Malcolm had damn near shit a brick when he’d first seen me after the big blowup with my father, but I ignored the issue and pretended like nothing had happened. His demeanor told me he’d gotten the message. Besides, I’d been laughing my ass off at how he and the foreman had tried to hide their annoyance at finding that the locks had been changed to that door they’d put in. They couldn’t really complain, since the foreman had told me that he didn’t have a key.

“Malcolm said you had plans for the construction crew tomorrow,” he noted, unable to resist digging.

“I do, but just for one day,” I told him, then said no more. I wasn’t sure I could entirely trust him, and I had decided that I would keep my plans and issues from him until I knew that I could. In fact, I’d been reviewing my attitudes about that in general. “Are you coming alone?”

“I am not sure,” he said. “I am trying to get JP to come along, so we will see.”

“That would be awesome,” I said, with genuine enthusiasm this time. “Want me to call and badger him?”

“You can if you want to,” he said. “Would it be alright if I stayed with you?”

“Of course,” I said, and then felt bad. “I’m sorry about that, I should have asked you. I just figured you’d know you were welcome.”

“I assumed you would not mind,” he lied, “but I did not know if you had other visitors.”

“I’d throw them out for you and Grand,” I said.

He paused for a bit, and then continued on nervously. “Your father was thinking about coming along as well. He was going to call and ask you himself, but he has not been able to talk to you.”

It was really annoying that Dad had set Stef up to ask if he could come over here, especially since my big issue with Stef was that he was like this big information tube that funneled things from me right back to my dad. This just made things worse, and Stef must have known that, which is why he was being so cautious. “I think it would be better for us if he just met me in Palo Alto.” I wasn’t ready to deal with him yet.

“I understand,” Stef said.

“He left me a message a couple of days ago bitching at me for not returning his phone calls, using the line that it was important that we stay in touch with each other so he knows I’m safe,” I said. I figured that if Stef was a conduit, I might as well use him to make a point. “That’s just so much more bullshit from him, so I’m not going to ruin what little time I have left here dealing with him and his assholishness.”

“Assholishness?” Stef asked, chuckling.

“It’s a word. Ask Grand,” I joked, since he’d used it once and I’d given him shit about it.

“I will see you on the 17^th.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said nicely, then ended the call. “Stef’s coming out on the 17^th to see the house, and then fly me back on the 18^th,” I told Kai.

“Cool,” he said sadly, because he was unhappy that I was leaving. I thought that was really cute.

We got to his house and went in to find his mom in the kitchen, cooking. She saw us and gestured to Kai. “Can you go check on your father?”

“Sure,” he said, and vanished.

“You can help me,” she said to me. It was a directive, but I was used to that. “Chop up these vegetables.” She handed me some onions and peppers, along with a few other things. The chopping block was already on the table, so I sat there and started cutting them up. “No, no, no,” she chided. “Smaller than that!”

“Fine,” I grumbled, but smiled at her. “Like this?”

She looked at my efforts with a scowl, and then winked at me. “That’s good.” She’d moved the crappy television into the kitchen, and it was on, showing the 5:00 news. It went off again, so she paused to smack it, and it came back to life.

“You should throw that thing away,” I said.

“I like having it in here,” she said. “This way I can watch TV while I work.”

“You can’t see the TV in the living room?” I asked, giving her shit.

“I can’t, because this wall is in the way,” she said. “I’m tempted to take a sledgehammer and knock it down.” I tried not to grin, as that would happen tomorrow.

“I’ll steal a sledgehammer from the construction guys for you,” I joked. Demolition of the wall would really be more like disassembly. The walls of the front room and hallway were paneled in naturally finished, tropical wood. Matching the aged color would be nearly impossible in new wood, so much of the wall would be salvaged and reused in my project.

Kai wheeled his dad into the front room to watch the news, and once I was finished with my chopping chore, I joined them. His dad didn’t really say much at all, but I’d learned that’s just how he was. “I’m going to bring you up to Will’s house tomorrow,” Kai told him. We’d done that a few times, and he liked it, because he could watch Kai surf.

“Good,” he said simply. We had a nice dinner, and then Kai’s mom went to work. I was sitting there, watching television, when my phone rang again. This time it was Robbie.

I excused myself and went out into the back yard to take the call. “Hey,” I said pleasantly.

“Hello there,” Robbie said. He called me about every three or four days to check up on me. I wasn’t sure if it was because my dad told him to, or because he enjoyed talking to me, but I chose to think it was the latter, since we usually had good conversations. “How are you doing?”

“I’m great,” I told him. “Kai and I are over at his house, hanging out with his parents.”

“What’s for dinner?” he asked, giving me shit, since they usually had fish.

“Tonight it was something with shrimp,” I said. “I like stuff like that better than regular fish.”

“You’re doing better than me,” he joked. Robbie was way more rigid about not including fish in his diet than I was. He claimed he was allergic to it, but I think that was just an excuse because he didn’t like it. “So I hear you don’t want us to come over on the 17^th?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want you to come over,” I said.

“Just not your father,” he said.

I sighed, and then explained things to him. “Look, this is going to be really stressful for me. I’m going to have to say goodbye to Kai, and I really like him. I don’t need to pile Dad and his issues on top of that. That’s why I want to wait until I get back to Paly to see him.”

“I think he was hoping that if he was there, he’d be able to help you out,” he said.

“I know he loves me, and he probably feels shitty for what he did, and that may actually get me a real apology from him,” I said, getting a snaugh from Robbie. “But if he’s here, it will be emotional, whether we fight, or get along. What I need him, and you, to get is that I’m going to be tapping out on emotions. I don’t need anything else tossed in. Can you help him try and understand that?”

“I can,” Robbie said, clicking with me perfectly.

“Besides, if this is as bad as leaving Rome was last year, then I’ll need help when I get back, not before I leave,” I said.

“We’ll see you in Paly on the 18^th,” Robbie said, saying it as if it were a pledge.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I hope this works out alright,” he said, talking about me leaving here, and leaving Kai.

“So do I,” I said.

August 16, 2001

It was 4:00, and I was exhausted. We’d come over here in the morning to get Kai’s father. I’d made some excuse about having to run some errands in town, while Kai had taken his dad up to my house and gotten him and the nurse situated in the gazebo. He really liked it there. I’d gotten him some binoculars so he could watch Kai surf more closely. Then I’d come down here to coordinate things with the construction guys. Malcolm had helped me with this project; his way of trying to make me not be pissed at him, not that I was. As soon as Kai’s mom had left, these guys had swooped in, and we’d been so organized, it was like a construction swat team attacked their house.

There was only one major snag, and that was that the building inspector had been an hour late to review the changes we’d made by removing the wall between the kitchen and the front room. He probably figured an hour was no big deal, but on our schedule, that was a massive pain in the ass. Still, the guys had worked around that, and Malcolm had just finished taking care of some last minute details. “I think it turned out quite well,” he said.

“I think it did too,” I told him. “You guys were awesome!” I gave the construction guys envelopes with cash in them to thank them, not that I hadn’t paid them too, and they vanished quickly, so they wouldn’t be here when Kai and his parents got back. I knew Malcolm was dying to stick around for what he called ‘the big reveal’, but I didn’t see him getting along with Kai’s parents all that well. He was way too chic for them, even though he’d done a really nice job with their house. He smiled at me, and took off as well.

They’d put a beam across the area where the wall had been, to hold up the ceiling. The wood from the old wall now covered it and looked like it had always been there. It also covered the backsides of the new base cabinets that formed an island across part of the opening. Kai’s mom could face the TV as she worked at this counter.

My phone rang, and it was Kai. “We’re almost there,” he said nervously.

“They just finished and left,” I told him. “I’ll meet you out front.” I walked out in front of the house and stood there waiting for him, and was a little freaked out to see his mom drive up. “Hey there!” I said pleasantly, hiding how nervous I was.

“What are you doing here so early?” she asked in the same way. Just then Kai and his father drove up. She gave me a confused look, but went over to help his dad out of the 4Runner and into his wheelchair.

I stood in front of the door, stopping her before she went in. “I bought you a present.”

She scowled at me. “I thought we talked about this, after you bought us the television.”

I shrugged. “You took me in, treated me like part of the family, so I wanted to do something to thank you.”

“What did you do?” she demanded, as she pushed past me. She walked to the door and screamed. “What happened to my house!?”

Kai gave me a knowing look, and then wheeled his dad in behind her. His dad actually gave me a grin, probably enjoying seeing his wife get all wound up.

I followed them in and closed the door. “I thought this would make it nicer for you in the evenings, and make things easier around the house.”

She was stunned, as she stood there, looking at her front room, which looked nothing like it had before. The wall had been removed, and that had turned the small kitchen and small living room into one larger room. There was a new sofa and chair, along with a new coffee table, while the kitchen had been completely updated with new cabinets and countertops. We said nothing, letting her take it all in. “Where’s my wall?”

“I saved you the work of taking it down with a sledgehammer,” I said, smiling at her. She gave me a dirty look, but then it softened.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, then got severe again. “You shouldn’t have done this.” She turned on Kai. “Did you know about this?”

“Yeah,” he said simply.

“They took the wall down so now this is one big room,” I said, focusing on the details. “These floors are bamboo, and they’re nice and firm.” It had been rough using the wheelchair to move from the linoleum floor in the kitchen to the carpeting in the hallway and living room, but now it was a uniformly even, smooth surface.

She walked into the kitchen and looked down the hall. “Did they do the whole house?”

“No, only the front room, the kitchen and the hallway,” I told her. We didn’t want to intrude into their bedrooms.

“I have new appliances!” She looked at her kitchen, impressed with the new stuff we’d gotten.

“You can’t stain or hurt these,” I said, pointing out the Corian countertops and backsplashes. Kai had been adamant that granite would have been too flashy for her. She ran her fingers across them approvingly. “Do you like the color?”

“Doesn’t matter if I do or not, they’re here,” she said grumpily.

“Do you like the color?” I asked again, in a severe tone that was faked.

“I like all the colors,” she said. “You painted the walls?”

“We had to,” I said, “the cabinets are slightly different sizes.” She walked down the hall and looked around, as if noticing something was different. She couldn’t quite place what had changed, so I solved her mystery. “The doorways are wider, so it’s easier for a wheelchair to get through.” The crew had used more of the wood to hide the changes in the framing. Even the new doors looked like they had always been there. “And the wood floors will make it easier for the chair to roll,” I added finally.

“You should not have done this,” she said to me sternly.

“Yeah, I should have,” I told her.

She wiped a tear from her eye, and then gave me a big hug. I saw Kai behind her, looking relieved. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said sincerely.

She pulled herself together, and gave Kai a hug too, then turned her attention to her husband. “Look Mano, we have a new couch!”

“Nice,” he said. We’d actually set up a place for Kai to park his father in the wheelchair when he was watching television, with a small end table next to him in case he wanted to put something there, like a drink.

“I told you before, no more presents. You did this anyway. So now I’m telling you again. No more presents.”

“One more,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” Kai asked, since even he didn’t know about this one.

“I said I have one more present for you,” I told them. “Then I’m done.” She gave me an exasperated look, but she wasn’t really mad, she was just not used to people doing things for her.

Kai rolled his dad into his ‘parking spot’ so he could watch television, and turned it on for him, while his mom fluttered around the kitchen, making sure things were pretty much where she wanted them. We’d gotten new cabinets that were a light colored wood, and she seemed to really like them, but of course we hadn’t transferred things to the right drawers. “I need to make dinner.”

“Well some of the paint is barely dry and you shouldn’t cook here tonight, so I ordered pizzas,” I told her. “With meat on them.”

“So what’s this other present?” Kai demanded. The doorbell rang, and it was the pizza dude, so I used that as an excuse to blow him off and pay the guy. We sat around the new kitchen table and ate our pizza.

“That was a really nice thing you did for us, Will,” his mother said.

“It’s karma. You all have treated me really well,” I said.

“Bah,” she growled.

I stopped eating and looked at her intently, so she’d know I was serious. “I live in a family where we have lots of money, and lots of love, but it’s really intense and emotional all the time. Sometimes it’s like a constant roller coaster. Here, with you guys, I’ve been happy and content. I feel like I belong here. That probably doesn’t sound like much to you, but it means a lot to me,” I said, and got all maudlin, so much that my voice cracked.

“We are going to miss you when you leave,” she said sadly. “You are always welcome here. You should treat this house as if it were yours. It practically is, since you paid for all this.” I laughed at that.

The doorbell rang, and Kai got up to go answer it. They didn’t have a lot of people stopping by in the early evening. “I’m looking for a William Schluter,” a man said.

“That’s your last present,” I told her. She scowled at me again as we walked to the front door. “I’m Will Schluter,” I said to the guy.

I walked out front with him to a modified minivan, with a wheelchair lift on it. “I’ll need you to sign here,” he said.

I signed off on the form, and handed the keys to Kai. “Easier for you to lug your dad around,” I told him. They all just stared at me, completely amazed.

“What’s that in the back?” asked Kai, the first to get his act together.

“A motorized wheelchair, so your dad can zip around the house on his own,” I said. The guy who delivered the van showed us how to use the lift. We took the wheelchair inside and Kai helped his dad into it, and the guy showed us how to work the controls and how to charge it up. Mano bumped into the couch, then the table, as he tried to get the hang of it, which was actually pretty funny. Kai’s mom got ready for work and headed out; annoyed that she couldn’t spend more time in her renovated house, while Kai, his dad and I hung out like we usually did. Only Kai’s dad was really having fun, zipping from room to room in the house.

“I think my dad likes the wheelchair,” he said with a grin. “That was a really nice present.”

“It’s worth it to see him be able to get around on his own,” I said. I would hate that, being unable to go from room to room, to have to completely rely on someone else for my basic care. And while I recognized that I had issues with controlling my own life, I figured that most people would appreciate that too. Being around someone like Kai’s dad, who was battling with a major disability, had opened my eyes to what life was like if you couldn’t walk. It wasn’t fun, but it didn’t have to be miserable.

We watched television like we usually did. “You ready for bed, Dad?” Kai asked his father.

“In a minute,” he said. He wheeled the chair over so he was next to me. “I don’t know if you understand how awful it is not to be able to even get yourself from one room to the other, to have almost no control over your life, and no control over your body.”

I was shocked, and so was Kai, based on his expression. Kai’s father didn’t open up like this, and he sure as hell didn’t use that many words. “I don’t, but I know I wouldn’t like it, and I wouldn’t deal with it very well,” I said honestly.

“So this independence you gave me is huge. It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten. Thank you,” he said. And then a tear fell down his face.

I instinctively leaned in and hugged him, and even though his muscles weren’t strong enough for him to hug me back, I could tell that he wanted to. “You’re welcome,” I said, and wiped a tear out of my eye. He nodded, and then wheeled the chair down the hall, with Kai trailing behind him.

August 17, 2001

“Thank you for coming with me,” Stef said as the plane descended into Kahului.

“It’s not a problem. I have fond memories of Hawaii.”

“You do?” he asked.

“This is where Sam and I became partners,” I said, remembering that, and remembering him. “It was back in 1968. We’d come back from Vietnam and I’d been so stressed I insisted that we spend a few days in Oahu.”

“I had forgotten all about that,” Stef said. “Does it bother you that Tony and Will do not seem to be able to get along?” It was reasonable that thinking of Sam would trigger thoughts of his handsome son who so resembled him.

“As I have told you, I largely avoid getting involved in teenage drama.” He scowled at me. “Tony is obviously struggling with who he is. I’m not sure how that will turn out, but I suspect that despite the drama, Will’s friendship with him is a good thing.”

“It is good for Tony, perhaps, but I am not sure it is good for Will,” Stef said.

“I disagree. Life is not always easy. This past year, Will has had to grapple with some interesting relationship challenges. I think he has learned from them, and the lessons he has learned have not been too painful,” I said. “Tony has shown him that men are not always who they say they are, and that his perceptions are not always reality.”

“I think he is quite taken by Kai,” Stef said.

“And he has probably learned how painful leaving Kai will be after his experience in Rome last year,” I said. It had been hard to watch Will grapple with the pain of separating from Berto. “It seems that he has better luck with men he meets during the summer, on vacation, than he does with those he meets at home.”

“That is most certainly true,” Stef noted, “since neither Kai nor Berto have yet broken his nose.”

“Yet,” I joked. “What is our plan?”

“A car is picking us up at the airport and taking us to Will’s house,” Stef said. “He offered to collect us himself, but it is his last chance to surf with Kai, so I arranged transportation for us.”

“That was thoughtful of you,” I noted. We had a smooth landing in Kahului, and the car met us just as it was supposed to. It was a very brief ride to Will’s house. We pulled up to the front and saw a minivan parked there. The minivan seemed a bit odd until I noticed that it had been configured to accommodate a wheel chair. Stef breezed into the main house, and began to comment on all that had been done, or still needed to be done.

“Well hello there, Malcolm,” Stef said, as he saw the interior designer. “You are making excellent progress.”

“We are, despite our detour yesterday,” he said.

“And what did you do?” Stef asked.

“Will asked us to reconfigure Kai’s house so it was easier for his father to get around,” he said. I pretended not to hear them because I was mildly annoyed that once again Stef was probing Malcolm for information about Will, and what he was doing. Malcolm took us on a tour of the house, and indeed, they had made a lot of progress.

We got to Will’s bedroom and Stef noted what had been accomplished. “This is where the alcove was sealed in so he could make his sex room,” Stef told me. I rolled my eyes at him. “Let us see what he has done with it.” Stef eagerly headed to the bathroom, and from there into a closet, where he found a very strong door firmly closed in his face.

“Will asked the construction crew to install this door. It is an exterior door, made of metal, and would be tough to break down,” Malcolm told Stef.

“He has the only key?” Stef asked.

“The construction foreman kept a duplicate key for the locks after they put the door in, but evidently Will had the locks changed, so now he’s the only one with a key,” Malcolm said, and was clearly irritated by that. I found the situation so comical I could not stop myself from smiling, and seeing the exasperated expressions on the faces of both Malcolm and Stef made me finally laugh out loud. They gave me relatively unpleasant looks, which I ignored.

“I fail to see the humor here,” Stef said.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “It really is not funny. It is rather symbolic, I think. He cannot trust you, so he has put up an impervious door to keep you out. And it seems that he was right to feel that way, since he had to change the locks to do so.”

“It is just a room,” Stef said.

“I will be out back,” I said simply, and without waiting for a reply, I went out onto the pool deck. I saw a man in a wheelchair out by the gazebo, gazing out at the water with binoculars. A woman sat near him, reading a book. I strolled down to see who they were. “Good afternoon,” I said politely.

“Hello,” the nurse said.

The man put down his binoculars and looked at me, said “Hello,” then resumed looking through his binoculars. He couldn’t look all that long, because they were heavy for him to hold up. From the way his muscles seemed to be deteriorated, and the way he had trouble holding his neck steady, it appeared that he had muscular dystrophy.

“I’m JP Crampton, Will’s grandfather,” I said.

The man lowered the binoculars again and gave me his full attention. “I’m Mano Keolani, Kai’s father. Your grandson is a wonderful young man.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “I happen to agree with you.”

“They are getting out of the water now,” he said, gesturing toward the surf. I watched as they made their way ashore, navigating the reef by paddling through the keyhole, as Will had explained to me. I sat with them and watched as Will and Kai came out of the water and then walked up the steps, such as they were.

It was very rewarding to see the smile on Will’s face when he saw me. “Grand!” he all but shouted enthusiastically, and ran over to give me a big hug.

“You are getting me wet,” I said, pretending to be annoyed, “but it is good to see you.”

“Grand, this is Kai,” Will said, introducing us. He was a very handsome young man, especially standing there shirtless, wearing only swimming trunks.

“JP Crampton,” I said, as I shook his head. “I was enjoying your father’s company as I watched you surf. You are both quite accomplished.”

“Thank you,” Kai said shyly. He certainly was attractive, with a cute smile that was reminiscent of Robbie’s.

“Have you been here long?” Will asked.

“We just got here. Malcolm is giving Stef a tour of your house and giving him a progress report,” I said. “They were a bit stymied by your metal door.” That made him laugh, as I knew it would.

“We’re going to go get cleaned up, and then Kai’s mom is making dinner for us at his house,” Will said.

“You can see all the changes to our house Will made for us while he was here,” Kai said.

I looked at Will and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “That sounds like it will be both fun and informative.”

“I think you’re right on both counts,” Will said, and then dragged Kai off to go take a shower.