amond Head. Did he
want to go back east? It felt better to sit under the banyan tree and
watch it get dark. It seemed a more forward direction, whatever
happened. He decided to say goodbye to Maine and to Woodstock, but he
couldn't. No wonder we say, "See you," he thought. Anything but
goodbye. "Aloha" is a much better word--hello and goodbye, gladness and
grief, love, all of it.

11

The lobby of the Edgewater Hotel was busy. "My home away from home,"
Joe said, checking in.

"We try," the desk clerk said, returning Joe's credit card.

Joe walked to the Elliot Bay Book Company and asked a woman at the cash
register if he could buy a gift certificate. "For a wedding present,"
he added.

"We can do that. How much for?"

"A thousand dollars." This would leave him seriously low, but to hell
with it.

She struggled with the computer. "I lied. We can't do that; the
computer won't take it."

"Two for five hundred each?"

"That'll work," she said.

"O.K., one for Kate Burke and one for Jackson, umm, Arendal. Jackson
Arendal." He would explain that he wasn't trying to tell them how to
split it.

He walked back to the hotel and began writing a story in the bar where
he had watched Fanatuua earn his money. Across the room, a sturdy woman
seated in a wheelchair studied him through thick glasses. Two hours
flew by like minutes; she was gone when he got up from the table.

In the morning, he put on jeans and his best aloha shirt, walked to the
pier next to the hotel, and boarded the Victoria Clipper. The San Juan
Islands are a three hour trip from Seattle, north out of Puget Sound,
across the Strait of Juan De Fuca, and nearly to Vancouver Island in
Canada. The catamaran hummed along while passengers sunned themselves,
took pictures, and moved about the cabins. The captain announced the
islands as Washington's "banana belt," free of the rain shadow cast by
the Olympic Mountains.

Friday Harbor is sheltered by low pine covered ridges. Joe walked up
Spring Street and checked in at the Friday Harbor Inn where Kate had
made reservations. The house she had rented was in Eagle Cove, a few
miles from town. He went down toward the ferry to look for a cab and
was hailed from across the street. It was Max.

"Yo, Max!" They decided to have an ale in a brew pub on the corner.
They sat by a window looking out on the sidewalk.

"Here's to Kate," Joe said, raising his glass.

"Kate." Max was cheerful.

"Is your mom