Bet Your Bones
Copyright © 2011 by Jeanne Matthews
First Edition 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2011920307
ISBN: 9781590589052 Hardcover
ISBN: 9781590589076 Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9781615952885 epub
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
The historical characters and events portrayed in this book are inventions of the author or used fictitiously.
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Contents
Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Epigraph
PART I
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
PART II
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Part III
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
More from this Author
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Dedication
Thanks to my editor, Barbara Peters,
for her help in shaping the story,
and for their ideas and encouragement, I thank Joe Winston,
Jeanne Kleyn, Gail Boyer Hayes, Sal Gordon,
Pat Snider, Dianne Eret, and
most especially, Sid.
Acknowledgments
The myths recounted in this book came from the following sources:
Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods, collected and translated from the Hawaiian by W.D. Westervelt, Boston, Ellis Press (1916).
The Legends And Myths of Hawaii, by His Majesty King David Kalakaua, edited with an introduction by Hon. R.M. Daggett and with an introduction to the new edition by Terence Barrow, Ph.D., Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. (1972).
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, The Sacred Songs of the Hula, by Nathaniel B. Emerson, A.M., M.D., Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. (1965). Originally published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1909.
Materials found in the Bishop Museum, The State Museum of Cultural and Natural History, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Epigraph
On Mauna Loa, the greatest of the Hawaiian mountains, lived Kane-ia-kama, a high chief and an incorrigible gambler. Whenever and wherever the game of konane was played, he bet. Eventually, he gambled away all of his wealth until he had no possessions left. One night while he was sleeping, he dreamed that the voice of a god called out to him from the forest. “Try your luck again, Kane-ia-kama. Challenge the villagers to a game and play the black pebbles.”
But Kane-ia-kama cried, “I have nothing left. My treasures are all lost.”
And the voice replied, “Bet your bones. Bet your bones and see what will happen.”
—Hawaiian Myth
***
Absit omen. (May it not be an omen).
—Anonymous saying
PART I
Chapter One
On the Philippine island of Mindanao, there are shamans who divine the future by drinking the blood of a freshly slaughtered hog. This supposedly conjures the Spirit of Prophecy, which warns of any trouble looming on the horizon. At an altitude of 30,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, Dinah Pelerin was forced to rely on the oracle of microwaved sausage links and Bloody Marys. The Spirit didn’t speak to her, but she foresaw only too well the trouble that lay ahead of her: the bride would wear white; the groom would wear black; and she, the reluctant maid of honor, would wear the onus of guilt she’d worn for ten years running. A secret guilt dressed up in—she consulted the letter again—tangerine chiffon, for crying out loud.
Having spent the last two months on Mindanao studying the customs and beliefs of the indigenous tribes, Dinah had picked up the habit of watching for omens. In the Philippines, everything was an omen. Dropping your purse was an omen. It boded poverty. Taking a shower too soon after ironing boded a wrinkly face. Falling asleep with wet hair boded blindness. Dinah wasn’t irrational enough to believe these particular superstitions. But playing maid of honor twice for the same bride gave heightened meaning to the word ominous.
She had cordoned off the memory of Claude Ann’s first wedding as if it were a crime scene. Whenever she and Claude Ann spoke, neither alluded to that tearful day ten years ago or to the series of misunderstandings and missteps that led to the altar. Dinah never asked and Claude Ann never reported on the state of her marriage. But it had lasted for a decade and Dinah was beginning to think that, just maybe, Claude Ann had drifted into a life of domestic contentment. Until now. Until out of the blue, Claude Ann had written to say that she was divorced, reengaged, and set to plunge down the aisle again with a man she’d known for barely six weeks. The ceremony was planned to take place on the last day of June on the Big Island of Hawaii. On the lip of a volcano.
Dinah added another splash of vodka to her tomato juice. The volcano sounded like a bad omen.
“Three more hours,” said her seatmate. “We’ll be in Honolulu by supper time.” She was a plump, intense looking Filipina who’d been working Sudoku puzzles ever since they boarded in Manila. Apparently, she’d grown bored with number crunching and wanted to chat. “Are you on your way home?”
“No. I’ve never been to Hawaii. Do you live there?”
“I wish. I’m visiting my sister. You’ve got a funny accent. Where do you come from?”
It was the second Bloody Mary, thought Dinah. Alcohol had a way of exposing her Southern roots. “The U.S. Georgia, actually. But I’ve been away for a long time. I’m an anthropologist.” It must be nerves that made such a lie jump out of her mouth. Well, it wasn’t a total lie. She was an aspiring anthropologist. Just because she wasn’t employed by some university or other didn’t mean she wasn’t doing anthropology. She’d sweet-talked two professors from Emory into letting her tag along on their Mindanao expedition, hadn’t she? She sa
id, “My specialty is myths.”
“Then you’re gonna love Hawaii. They’ve got tons of crazy myths.”
“Thanks. I’ll look into them.”
“You ever hear of Pele?”
“I’ve read some of the legend.” Pele had figured in one of Dinah’s college courses, something about the significance of oral literature in the development of preliterate cultures. The early Hawaiians believed that Pele created the volcanoes and they worshipped her with chants they called meles and a risqué dance they called the hula. “She was a fire goddess, right?”
“Was? Don’t you believe it. Her spirit still lives inside Kilauea Volcano. My sister, the one I’m visiting, she says Pele’s been real angry the last few weeks. Lots of tremors and Kilauea hissing and spitting all the time.”
“Which island is Kilauea on?”
“Hawaii, the Big Island. It’s growing bigger every day from all the lava spilling out of Kilauea.”
Frowning, Dinah skimmed Claude Ann’s letter. Had she dropped the name of the volcano beside which she’d be tying the knot? Of course, not. How like Claude Ann to specify the color of the dresses and neglect to mention an erupting volcano.
“A man fell in a steam vent and got cooked just last week down near Ocean View. My sister sent me the news clipping.”
Dinah shuddered. “Was he hiking?”
“Nobody knows where he came from or where he was going. No car, no ID. He had a head wound and some broken bones. It’s kind of a mystery. The police thought he might have been the victim of a hit-and-run and he stumbled into the vent trying to go for help. Most likely he was drunk or he wouldn’t have been crossing the road in the middle of the night.” The woman pointed at the empty vodka bottles on Dinah’s tray table. “Pele likes booze, too. If you go to Kilauea, you can stay on her good side by leaving her a bottle of gin.”
Dinah couldn’t decide if she’d been warned or insulted. She didn’t reply.
The woman went back to her Sudoku. Dinah polished off her Bloody Mary and brooded. In spite of the miles that had come between them and the taboo subject of Claude Ann’s marriage, Dinah and Claude Ann had remained best friends since they were children. They had grown up together on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in Needmore, Georgia, a town whose name summed up its cultural opportunities to a tee. Needmore needed more of everything except scandal, which Dinah’s family bestowed upon the community the way some families bestow monuments and museums. After her father flipped his pickup and died under a half-ton of marijuana, the Pelerins became pariahs. If it hadn’t been for Claude Ann’s love-me-love-my-dog loyalty, Dinah would’ve been the leper of Needmore High. Wussing out of her wedding, however uncomfortable or close to a spitting volcano, wasn’t an option.
“I got to stretch my legs,” said her seatmate, folding her tray table and standing up. “Got to watch out on a long flight or you’ll get blood clots.” She straightened her back and toddled toward the rear of the plane.
Dinah never ran short of things to watch out for. Or people. She reread Claude Ann’s description of the groom-to-be. His name was Xander (“short for Alexander”) Garst. He was a “super brainy scientist with a phenomenal personality, an absolutely to-die-for house on the Big Island, and two children from a former marriage.” She raved for half a page about his drop-dead great looks, his sophisticated manners, and his fabulous sense of humor.
That last trait was a welcome twist. Heretofore, Claude Ann’s cup of tea hadn’t included a sense of humor. She’d never shown much of an interest in science either, not that having similar interests was a prerequisite to marital happiness. Sometimes, opposites really did attract. Anyway, sex trumped everything, at least in the beginning. Dinah hoped with all her heart that this new bird was Claude Ann’s Mr. Right. But whether he turned out to be a dreamboat or a disaster, no way could Dinah be blamed. This time, the nuptials would be one hundred percent on Claude Ann’s head.
Chapter Two
The 757 roared low over the southeast coast of Oahu and the sapphire-blue waters that had made Honolulu a tourist mecca. Dinah recognized Waikiki Beach from the million pictures she’d seen of it and there was no mistaking Diamond Head crater in the distance. As the plane touched down and taxied toward the gate, she wondered what qualities in addition to looks and humor would appeal to the older and wiser Claude Ann. She was bound to be a lot choosier now. In spite of the letter’s giddy tone, the ordeal of divorce would have quelled her youthful tendency to impetuousness and made her more cautious about men.
After the usual delay in hooking up the jetway and unlocking the doors, Dinah wrestled her carry-on out of the overhead bin and melded into the ant column of tourists shambling out of the plane and proceeding toward Customs. Once she’d been cleared for entry, she made a beeline toward ground transportation. As she exited the non-secure area, Claude Ann called out her name and waved excitedly from the back of a crowd of lei-bearing greeters. Dinah forgot about qualms and omens and ran into her friend’s outstretched arms.
“Aloha, honey.” Claude Ann lassoed her with a garland of fragrant white flowers and gave her a big hug. “You don’t look too bagged-out for an aging Pocahontas.”
Dinah laughed and gave her a pretend tomahawk chop. She was proud of her Seminole ancestry, maybe even a bit vain, and Claude Ann liked to razz her about it. “Thirty-one’s not so old. It didn’t keep you from landing a new husband, did it?”
“No, and he’s a pip. I can’t wait to show him off to you.” She hadn’t lost any of her sparkle. Her brown eyes shone with their familiar, teasing mischief and her heart-shaped face, framed by a cascade of coppery-blond curls, radiated warmth and vitality.
Dinah stood back and took in her high wattage smile. “You look happy, Claudy. Really and truly happy.”
“Honey, I’m over the moon.”
A wiry little girl with sulky eyes, sorrel hair, and a face full of freckles shoved in between them. “I’m Marywave.”
Claude Ann’s smile waned and she looked almost apprehensive. “You remember Marywave, I suppose.”
“Of course, I remember.” Dinah smiled and held out her hand. “You’ve grown since I saw you last, Marywave.”
She hugged to her chest a small, white leather Bible and ignored Dinah’s hand. “I’ll be ten in September.”
“My, my.” Dinah took back her hand. “Time flies.”
“Daddy says the reason you don’t come to visit us when you’re in Needmore is ‘cause you can’t stand him.” Her drawl was even thicker than Claude Ann’s.
“Your daddy’s mistaken, Marywave. The last time I was in town I had a lot of family business to take care of. I barely had time to meet your mother for lunch in Atlanta before I had to leave again.”
Claude Ann gave the child a sour look and turned back to Dinah. “Oh, nevermind Marywave. She’s goin’ through a weird phase. Come on. Let’s find the bar and I’ll tell you about my new life.” She grabbed Dinah’s suitcase and started down the concourse, her long tan legs striding out as if she were skating.
Dinah followed a few paces behind, glancing over her shoulder once or twice at Marywave, who poked along clutching her Bible.
Outside the bar, Claude Ann turned around and put a hand on her hip. “Step it up lively, y’all. We haven’t got all day.”
Marywave scowled. “Daddy says strong drink is an abomination unto the Lord.”
“Jiminy, Marywave.” Claude Ann made an exasperated face. “Don’t be a pain in front of Dinah. Give me a break, okay?”
Dinah still had a buzz from the Bloody Marys. She said, “Maybe we should put off drinks until dinner, Claudy.”
“No. I’ve been lookin’ forward to your getting here all week and I won’t be pushed around by this pest.” She took Marywave by the scruff of the neck, propelled her into the bar, and parked her on a red vinyl bench next to the hostess’
station. “You can sit right here and read your book of abominations and thou-shalt-nots and wait for us. Maybe you can latch onto some other poor, thirsty sinner to preach to.”
The hostess arrived with menus. “May I seat you ladies?”
“Is there a table where we can keep tabs on my daughter?”
“Of course. This way.”
The hostess seated them at a sun-dappled table beside a window under a row of hanging pots with trailing jasmine vines. Claude Ann glared at Marywave. Dinah looked over her shoulder and saw Marywave glaring back.
Claude Ann said, “She’s about to moralize me to death. Hank’s pumped her full of so much religious rigmarole she can’t open her mouth without versifyin’, mostly about my sins. Let me tell ya’, it’s depressin’ when your nine-year-old calls you a harlot. And she snubs Xander like he’s the Devil incarnate.”
“I gather that she’s not on board with the new marriage.”
Claude Ann rolled her eyes. “She got it in her head that sooner or later, I’d tuck tail and go home to Hank. She doesn’t understand how miserable he’s made me these last couple of years. I smiled and stuck it out as long as I could. I didn’t want to upset Marywave or scandalize the neighbors. Except for your family, nobody in Needmore gets divorced. But after Hank had that scary car wreck and nearly died, he changed. He was always kind of a fuddy-duddy. But there toward the end, it was like he totally forgot how to have fun.”
A waitress came and Claude Ann ordered two “Koko Heads” without asking Dinah what she’d like. “No menus,” she said. “We’re not gonna eat.”
Dinah’s stomach grumbled. “But Claudy, I’m hungry.”
“Eat some of these macadamia nuts.” She pushed a bowl toward Dinah. When the waitress had gone, she said, “We’re gonna have a fancy gourmet dinner with Xander at the hotel.” Her eyes darted back to Marywave, as if she weren’t sure she’d stay put. “She takes after Hank, doesn’t she?”
Dinah answered warily. “A little maybe. She has your nose. And great bone structure.”