I walked out into the hallway to intercept them. I knew otherwise it would take forever for the room to settle down so I could ask my questions. Tatiana kissed me on the cheek, her long, ash-blonde hair rustling, and said, “Let me give this magazine to your mother and I’ll come right back out.”
When she’d gone in the room, Liliha said, “Well, you’re finally here.”
“Excuse me?”
She was wearing a crisp suit I was sure was by some famous fashion designer, the kind of solid-color thing with brass buttons and epaulets that Nancy Reagan used to wear. Her black hair was perfectly coiffed and her makeup immaculate. It was hard to remember that when Lui first brought her to meet us she only owned one nice dress and lived with her family in a trailer on Hawaiian homestead land on the windward side of O’ahu.
“It’s all your fault that your father is here in the hospital, and you didn’t even come to see him last night. And here it is almost one o’clock before you’re here today. Tatiana and I have been here since early this morning.”
I was flabbergasted. “I was investigating. That’s what I do, remember? I’m trying to figure out what happened.”
“I can tell you what happened. You were indulging yourself in this perverted homosexual marriage business and you dragged all of us into it. You know what you’re doing is wrong but you just won’t face up to it. And now see where it’s gotten you. Your father is in the hospital because of you.”
“How dare you say that, Lili?” Tatiana said, coming out of my father’s room. “Al is in the hospital because he’s sick, and you know damn well Howie and Lui and Kimo have been trying to get him to the doctor. This is not anybody’s fault. Shame on you for saying that!”
“You always defend him!” Liliha said. “You and your silly hairdresser friend. It’s sick and perverted, and this is God’s punishment on all of us for tolerating it.”
I finally found my voice. “Liliha, when you married my brother I took you in like a sister, and I’ve loved you and put up with your eccentricities and your temper for fifteen years. Because my brother loves you, I love you. I always assumed it was the same for you. That because you loved Lui, you loved me-and Haoa and Tatiana and Mom and Dad, all of us. Isn’t that what your religion teaches you, love thy neighbor?”
“Obviously not when your neighbor is gay,” Tatiana said.
“I don’t have to take this kind of abuse. I’ll come back later when things aren’t so upset.” Liliha turned and walked out of the intensive care unit, leaving the double doors swinging in her wake.
Tatiana looked into my father’s room and saw my mother and Aunt Mei-Mei watching Liliha leave, and she led me over to a bench out of earshot. A big-boned woman, she was a cross between a suburban mother and an unreformed hippie, Reeboks and jeans with a tie-dyed blouse and a necklace of big, clunky stones. Her hair, which had been piled up the night before in a fancy do created by her hairdresser friend Robertico Robles, now cascaded around her shoulders. “Lily’s just upset,” she said. “You know how she is. She feels everything Lui does, and if he feels bad about Dad being in the hospital, he just transfers that to her.”
I remembered seeing Lui and Liliha at the Church of Adam and Eve, and I was pretty sure her feelings went deeper than Tatiana wanted to allow. “I never knew she resented me so much.”
“Lui keeps her on a pretty tight string. I know she’s mad that Howie lets me get away with a lot. She’s just jealous. You and I are both a lot freer than she’ll ever be.”
“I don’t feel free most of the time. Sometimes I wish all I had to do in life was get dressed up and talk to the servants once in a while.” Lui and Liliha had a maid, a gardener, and a nanny for the kids; sometimes Tatiana and I got together and wondered what Liliha did all day, besides her nails and makeup. I was beginning to get a better idea.
“Makeup can be hell,” Tatiana said, deadpan, and we both laughed.
I filled her in on my investigation, and asked if she’d seen anything out of the ordinary.
“Well, there was nobody there in leather, which I kind of expected,” she said. “I mean, everybody was so tame. I wanted to see wild outfits, men kissing each other in fits of passion. I wanted Lili to be outraged. I wanted some guy to come up and pinch Howie’s butt.”
“Pity the poor guy who does that.” I told her about the sweaty guy Gunter and I had seen. “Did you see anybody who looked like that?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. Your friend Gunter and that nice boy Robert were bringing plants in from the lanai, and I was helping them put them in the right places. When they finished, I was waiting for Howie to bring me a drink from the bar, and this guy who was sweating like crazy got in line for the bathroom. This older man got on line behind him, and even though the guy was sweating and obviously in some kind of distress, he insisted that the older man go first. I thought that was so polite, and that maybe he wasn’t sick, that he’d just moved here, hadn’t gotten accustomed to the climate yet. Believe me, I know what that’s like.”
Tatiana had grown up in Alaska, and had met my brother while she was bumming around the islands waitressing and sketching portraits on the beach. Theirs was a true love match, and though sometimes awesome fireworks erupted between them, I had often seen the kind of magnetic attraction that kept them near each other at parties, even just hanging around their house. When Tatiana was anywhere in the vicinity, my grip on my brother’s attention was limited.
As long as Tatiana was around, he was okay. And he could be totally with you if she was in a different place, miles away. But if she was in the house or at a party with him, it made him nervous to be out of her sight. He was happiest of all when he was working out in their yard, planting something, weeding, trimming, watering, and she was nearby, reading a book under an umbrella or playing in the pool with the kids. He was grounded by the land and by his love for his wife.
“Would you recognize the sweaty guy if you saw him again?”
“Sure. You know I have a memory for faces. I can sketch him if you want.”
“That would be terrific. I sat with the artist this morning, and I’m sending him over to work with Gunter. After he’s done I’ll have him come up here and compare notes with you.”
“I think Aunt Mei-Mei will want to go home soon, so I’ll take her and while I’m out I’ll stop by the house and get some stuff to draw with.”
“How is Uncle Chin, do you think?”
She shrugged. “I think when you get to be that sick you take the small pleasures you can. He seems to like that boy you brought over. Aunt Mei-Mei says his spirits are a lot better.”
I looked at my watch. “I’d better say my good-byes. God knows what kind of chaos is going on back at the station.”
Tatiana took my hand. “You know we all love you, don’t you, Kimo? I don’t want you to go thinking that Lili speaks for any of the rest of us.”
I kissed her cheek. “You’re the best. Like you said, she was just upset.” I resolved, though, to move the Church of Adam and Eve up on my list. If they could make Liliha feel so strongly against gay marriage, what else could they do?