Free Hero of Hawaii by Graham Salisbury Page B

the wild gray clouds. Tomorrow was party day and it wasn’t looking good.
    Ledward tapped the newspaper headline as he eased the screen door closed behind him. MASSIVE TROPICAL STORM APPROACHES ISLANDS , it said. “Looks like a big one.”
    Darci crossed her arms. “We’re still going to have the party. It’s only going to rain, that’s all.”
    Ledward looked out the window and shook his head. “I don’t know, Darci girl.”
    “It does look threatening,” Mom said.
    Ledward nodded. “Thought I’d come tie down that ramp and get all that tarp up and into the garage. It could get windy.”
    Darci’s careful plans were crumbling like sand in the surf. Two friends had already called saying they couldn’t come because their parents were worried.
    But the storm wasn’t here yet.
    Mom hugged Darci close.
    “We still have today, Darce,” I said. “At least we can do that.”
    Today Stella and her big scary-looking twelfth-grade boyfriend, Clarence, weretaking me and Darci to the Byodo-In Temple as Stella’s present to Darci. The temple was Darci’s number one favorite place to go. You could feed wild birds right out of your hand, and Darci loved birds. They had a giant gong there, too, which was my favorite part.
    Ledward studied the darkening sky. “Better get going soon. My guess is maybe two, three o’clock this thing will hit.”
    I looked up at him. “But we’re still going to have the party … right? Sometime?”
    Ledward clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Sure! But not this weekend, looks like. Anyways, I should take care of that tarp and go home, stay with my dogs. They get kind of antsy when the wind comes.”
    Ledward lived up in the jungle. He had a small banana farm, a hairy black pig, and four spooky hunting dogs.
    Stella looked disappointed as she gazed out the window. She’d spent a lot of time helping Darci with the invitations, and tomorrow morning she was going to make birthdaycupcakes. She had all the stuff ready in the kitchen.
    Mom crouched and looked into Darci’s eyes. “It looks like we’re going to have to postpone your party until next weekend, Darci. I’ll call the parents. I’m sorry, sweetie.”
    “I’ll still make the cupcakes,” Stella said. “We’ll do a practice batch and test them out. It’s fun to bake on a rainy day.”
    Ledward nudged Darci. “Gotta go, but don’t worry, I’ll still cook for your party, whenever it is. What you like, cow brains or pig guts?”
    Stella and Darci made faces at each other. “Eeew!”

    Ledward winked. “I’ll make some burgers, too.”
    Lucky for us Ledward was the best barbecue cooker in the world.
    He and Mom headed out to stake down the ramp and bring in the tarps.
    The slippery slide had been my idea, andI couldn’t wait to try it out. My dad used to come up with ideas, too. Like our last name. He was a singer who gave himself a singer’s name: Little Johnny Coconut. He liked it so much he made it legal … for the whole family. Now we were
all
Coconuts. It was funny.
    For a while.
    But Dad lived in Las Vegas now, with a new wife, Marissa.
    I pushed that thought away.
    A gust of wind rattled the house as Mom and Ledward put the tarps in the garage.
    Ledward drove off and Mom came back inside. “Boy, you can really feel the wind picking up!”
    “That’s how it was back home in Texas,” Stella said. “You always knew when bad weather was coming.”
    Stella’s mom was my mom’s best friend from high school. She’d married a marine and moved to the mainland, where Stella wasborn. But now Stella and her mom couldn’t get along, so Stella had come to live with us for a while. She was a pain most of the time, but when her boyfriend, Clarence, came over, she almost turned into a nice person. She even pulled out this fake laugh, just for him. Ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-ho.
    “Maybe you and Clarence should take the kids to the temple another day, Stella.”
    “No!” Darci said. “You said we could go, Mom.”
    “I know,