"We go this way," Paula said, regaining her self-assurance.
"Are you sure? I thought our gate was over there."
A cloud of uncertainty came over Paula, casting a puzzled shadow on her expression and revealing her growing feelings of terror.
The noise and constant hubbub from the throngs of people rushing past them made Christy feel dizzy.
"Let's ask somebody," Paula said breathlessly, scanning the bustling crowd, apparently looking for a stranger who appeared approachable and trustworthy.
"We can't just start talking to some stranger!"
"Then what are we going to do?" Paula dug her fingernails into Christy's arm, sounding as panicked as she looked. "What are we going to do? We're lost!"
"Let go!" Christy said. "Where's one of those monitors that shows all the flights and their times?"
"Over there!" Paula pointed to one on the wall behind them. "What flight are we on? What airline? Do you know? I don't even know what airline we're on!"
"It was United, wasn't it?" Christy asked as they scrambled closer to the monitor for a better view.
"There!" Paula said, pointing. "Honolulu! There's a flight in half an hour to Honolulu. That's us, isn't it? Honolulu is in Hawaii, isn't it? Of course it is. Isn't it?" Her voice rose and became squeakier.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Christy's irritation overtook her fear. "But what's the one listed above it? How do you say that- Ka-hu-lu-i?" Christy asked. "I think that's the airport we're going to because that one leaves at the time we were supposed to, and it has a Hawaiian name."
"How do you know it's a Hawaiian name? Honolulu- now that's a Hawaiian name. Kahului could be some place in Bora Bora, or worse, it could be a flight to the Antarctic! We can't go jumping on the first flight we find that has a Hawaiian-sounding name! I think we should go to Gate 87, where the flight to Honolulu is. Everyone knows Honolulu is in Hawaii."
Just then the Kahului line began to blink, and instead of a time being listed, the words "Now Boarding" flashed across the screen.
"Now boarding, Paula! I know that's our flight! I know it! And they're leaving right now. Come on! Gate 57. Where's Gate 57?"
The girls took off, sprinting down the nearest wing of the terminal, then realized it was the wrong one and ran the other way, following signs and bumping into people. Both of them were starting to cry. Panting and blinking wildly, they suddenly recognized the wing they'd started from.
"This is it! I'm sure of it," Christy said. The girls dashed to the waiting area, which previously had been crowded with people. It was empty now, except for Christy's mother, who had her back to them. She stood next to the ticket counter, talking to the flight attendant and using sharp hand motions.
"Mom!" Christy yelled from twenty yards back, not caring who heard her. "Mom!"
"Mrs. Miller!" Paula screeched.
Mom spun around, and instead of welcoming them with a relieved embrace, she planted both fists on her hips. Her face, stern as stone, told Christy everything she didn't want to know.
"We missed the plane, girls," Mom stated. "We missed the plane! Where have you been?"
Christy scrambled to regain her composure and respond as maturely as possible. Before she could say a word, Paula let her emotions rip. With wild sobs, she clung to Mom's arm and went on hysterically about trying to get away from some strange man and getting lost and being afraid the man was going to kidnap them and a whole bunch of other unintelligible garble.
Mom instantly changed her approach and tried to calm Paula down before she drew a crowd.
"Excuse me," the flight attendant said, leaning over the counter and looking much sweeter and more concerned than she had when Mom had been talking with her a few minutes ago. "Are you girls okay?"
Christy nodded.
Paula could have won an Oscar for her reaction. She curled in her lower lip, opened her eyes wide, and let more inky, mascara-stained tears zigzag down her baby face.
Then softly, to Christy's mom, the uniformed woman said, "We did experience an abduction of an eight-year-old girl at the airport last Thursday. Perhaps I should call security."
"No!" Paula said quickly. "I mean, it would take too long. We already missed our flight, and it would take too long to answer all the questions and everything."
"We're okay," Christy added. "Nothing really happened. We got lost. That's all." No one seemed to believe Christy's mild account.
"Let me check on something." The woman lifted the phone and held it in place with her shoulder while typing something on her computer keyboard.
"Mrs. Miller," she said in a professional tone, "why don't you and your daughters have a seat. I'll let you know what I can find out here."
The three of them moved over to the seats in the waiting area, and Mom pulled out some tissues from her purse for the girls. "You sure you're all right?"
They both nodded and blew their noses. "Mom, I'm really sorry. We got lost, and-"
"It's okay, honey. Marti and David boarded the flight, and I had you paged. I also tried to get us on another flight, but they're all booked. Right before you came up, the gal was telling me that the best we could get would be three seats on a flight leaving tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night!" Paula wailed and began to cry all over again.
"That's my birthday!" Christy bleated, joining Paula in another round of tears.
Just then a security guard drove up in a tan motorized cart. "Mrs. Miller? Would you like to get in? I'll drive you to the gate."
Mom looked questioningly at him. The woman at the desk then slipped out from her spot behind the computer and placed a tender hand on Paula's shoulder. "I've cleared three seats for you on another carrier. You'll have to change planes in Honolulu and take Aloha Airlines Flight 210 into Kahului."
She handed Mom some tickets and pointed to the handwritten information at the top of the packet. "Make sure you give them this code number when you check in on both flights. It's very important that you show them this number."
She turned and smiled sympathetically at the girls. "You two look out for each other on your vacation now, okay?"
Before any of them fully realized what had happened, they were seated on the cart and whisked away through the crowds to the other side of the terminal. Mom showed the tickets and the special code number, and they were immediately ushered onto a waiting plane and given three seats in first class.
People looked at them, and the flight attendants treated them like royalty. In a few minutes, they had their seat belts on, and the plane was taxiing down the runway. The roar of the engines matched the roar of emotions revving up inside Christy.
She leaned over and whispered to Paula, who was watching the smoggy world miniaturize below, "Why do you think they treated us like that?"
"It must've been because of the abduction thing. They thought we had been chased by a kidnapper."
"But Paula, that's not what happened at all! They thought that because you made it sound that way."
"Well, I was scared!"
"I was too! But you shouldn't have lied."
"I didn't really lie, Christy." Paula looked offended.
Christy clenched her teeth and gave Paula a serious look.
Paula broke into a big smile and breathed a lighthearted laugh. "Relax, will you? You should see yourself right now! You look like that old prune-faced lady who used to work at the post office. What was her name?"
Christy was not pleased with the comparison. The prune-faced lady at the post office, a lady whose glares had frightened her as a child, was not a person she wanted to remember and definitely not a person she ever wanted to resemble.
"Besides, I don't much remember what I said." Paula reached for her headphones and began to untangle the cord. "Everything turned out fine, so I think it's best if we just don't say any more about it, okay?"
"It isn't right, Paula. It's deceitful."
"Why? Nobody was hurt, and we didn't get in trouble. Actually, it turned out great. If we hadn't been crying and frightened and everything, they certainly wouldn't have given us all the special treatment. They never would have put us on this flight, and we wouldn't have left until tomorrow night. Think about it, Christy. Would you like to spend your birthday at an airport or on the beach?"
"On the beach, of course, but-"
"Then give it a rest!" Paula interrupted, confidently reclining the plush, first-class seat and popping her headphones into place. "Face it, Christy. This is what your friend Katie would call a God-thing."
Five hours in an airplane is long enough for anyone to "give it a rest." Christy pretty much decided to put the whole morning ordeal behind her. She couldn't convince herself, like Paula had, that the "happy" ending to their run through the airport was a God-thing. But she certainly didn't want the rest of the trip to turn into one big, ongoing emotional battle with Paula.
So Christy decided right before they landed in Honolulu that she'd have to do everything she could to show Paula the difference between right and wrong, truth and lies. After all, she was a Christian and Paula wasn't.
The first thing Christy noticed when they got off the plane was how sweet the air smelled. It was midday when they arrived, and the air felt warm and balmy. She'd expected that from the movies she'd seen and from her idea of what tropical weather felt like.
But the flower scent dancing in the air was unexpected. The wonderful fragrance came from young Polynesian women dressed in tropical attire, their arms looped with fragrant leis, who greeted certain travelers as they exited.
Following the many signs, the girls trotted after Mom, who led them directly to the Aloha Airlines booth and presented the flight transfer papers she'd been issued in Los Angeles. They were ushered within minutes onto a nearly full plane and were barely in their seats before the plane took off.
Mom twisted around in her seat to talk to Christy. "That was a tight connection! Marti and David flew directly to Maui. We're only about an hour behind them. Maybe a little less."
"Look how clear the water is," Paula remarked as they soared over the Pacific Ocean. "You can almost see to the bottom."
"Alissa used to live here," Christy said, "and she told me the water is really warm."
"Who's Alissa?"
During their quick island-hop to Maui, Christy told Paula about the gorgeous girl Christy had met on Newport Beach last summer. Christy had thought Alissa had a lot going for her, but she had gotten involved with a bunch of guys, one of whom was Todd's best friend, Shawn.
"You mean Shawn, the one who died last summer in the surfing accident?" Paula asked.
"Yes."
"Wasn't he on drugs or something?"
"It's a long story, but yeah, he'd been smoking dope."
"And this guy was Todd's best friend?"
Christy nodded. "Anyway, Shawn and Alissa were together for a while during the summer, if you know what I mean."
Christy spoke softly, not sure how much of this her mom might overhear. Paula leaned closer, waiting for Christy to finish the story.
"Well, Alissa got pregnant, and she had a baby girl last spring. She named her Shawna Christy because of, well, you know, because Shawn was the father, and Christy because we were kind of friends."
"And she kept the baby?"
"Last I heard she was going to try to raise it on her own."
"If that ever happened to me, I'd give the baby up for adoption," Paula said matter-of-factly. "Wouldn't you?"
"I don't plan to ever be in that situation!"
"Nobody ever plans to be in that situation, Christy. It just happens."
Christy lowered her voice even more, though inside she felt like raising it. "It's not going to just happen to me. I'm not going to bed with a guy until our wedding night. I won't have to worry about it just happening."
"I used to think that too," Paula said wistfully, looking out the window. Then she turned to face Christy, and with a mist rolling over her ocean-blue eyes, she spoke softly. "I'm the only virgin I know, Christy. Except for you."
"Oh, come on."
"I'm serious. Of all the girls I hang around with, I'm the only one. Do you know what a freak they think I am? If I don't get a boyfriend during this trip..." Her voice trailed off, and she turned her gaze back out the plane window, ending the discussion.
Christy leaned back into the seat and let Paula's words sink in. She couldn't believe Paula had changed so much that she now couldn't wait to give away her virginity so she'd fit in with her friends. Christy had become close to a group of Christian girls during the past school year, and all of them seemed to be trying as hard to keep their virginity as Paula and her friends were trying to give theirs away.
More than anything else that had happened on this trip so far, the last few sentences from Paula hit Christy like a gust of wind, strong enough to bend her opinion of her lifelong friend. She didn't want to see Paula turn out like Alissa.
The pilot's calm voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing their arrival. "We are now beginning our descent into Kahului Airport. The time is 1:20, and the temperature is a balmy 86 degrees. We hope you enjoy your stay on the Valley Isle, and mahalo for flying Aloha Airlines. Aloha."
Paula and Christy grabbed their purses.
"That was sure a quick flight! My hair is a mess!" Paula gasped.
"Mine too! Do you have a mirror?"
"Here, help yourself." Paula opened her purse and offered its contents to Christy.
The two girls quickly combed their hair in an effort to be presentable.
The plane made a smooth landing, and soon the passengers were standing, excitedly squishing into the aisle and moving like cattle toward the front exit. The flight attendant, wearing a flowered muumuu and a gardenia behind her ear, smiled and said her Hawaiian thank-you of mahalo to each passenger.
The herd of passengers kept Christy, Paula, and Mom boxed in as they moved through a long passageway into the terminal. Christy's gaze swooped back and forth, looking for Todd. She felt almost panicky with anticipation.
Todd! Where are you?
"Stay together now, girls," Mom instructed. "Keep an eye out for Bob. Marti said she'd tell him to wait at the airport for us."
You look for Bob; I'm looking for Todd!
They stepped expectantly through the automatic doors. The only official island greeter was a warm trade wind that gusted on them, destroying their hairdos.
Oh, great! So much for fixing my hair!
"Aloha!" said a warm voice behind Christy. "You made it!"
It was Uncle Bob, heaping flower leis on them, all delivered with kisses and much commotion. Christy looked behind Bob, then to the side of Mom, then over Paula's head.