39
Temptation
Ho‘owalewale
To tempt; lead astray; entice.
Less than a week later, I could see it just ahead.
Home.
Not home, I reminded myself.
Kanaloa forbids me from going home.
I’m headed to Piko Point, not my house in Lauele Town.
And if Char Siu and Uncle Kahana just happen to be there, well, what a coincidence, yeah?
I was starving.
I hadn’t eaten in four days, and after the long swim from Respite Beach to Piko Point, I was hungry to the point of delirium.
The late afternoon sky was overcast, making the water murky and dark. Nobody would see me resting on the bottom in the channel where the best waves formed off Nalupuki unless they were scuba diving or spear fishing.
But not even Uncle Kahana would dive here.
The current was too strong, and the fish, too scarce. There
