rom instinct. Sometimes love is easy, he thought. It's just a given,
just there. Why deny it? Even so, he was afraid to touch her, to open
the door to pain and loss and sexual inadequacy. Old age was coming
soon enough; he didn't have to have his nose rubbed in it. An admiring
whistle cut through his thoughts.

Three young men were standing by a tree in front of them and to their
right. Joe nudged Rhiannon to the left, changing direction, but she
would have none of it. She kept her direction and held her head high.

"Right here, Baby!" One of them was slim and tense; two were heavier.
They were eighteen or nineteen, Rhiannon's age. They moved to block the
walk. Joe and Rhiannon stopped.

"Fucking haole," one said coming up to them. He pushed Joe hard. Time
slowed. Joe sensed Rhiannon reaching into her bag. As Joe stepped back
from the shove, the slim one slipped to the side. I'm going down
anyway, Joe thought. He held the shover's eyes, smiled slightly, and
jammed him under the chin with the heel of his hand, driving him back
and turning him. He grabbed at Joe, but Joe drove him face down into
the gravel. Joe scrambled sideways and was spinning toward the others
when the lights went out.

He came up from a deep hole and opened his eyes. He closed them and
opened them again more slowly. Rhiannon was looking into his face. Far
above her, a cop was looking down. Joe remembered the young guys. He
lifted his head.

"It's O.K., Joe, they're gone." He put his head back down for a moment
and then rolled to his side. He stood up with help from Rhiannon. He
was bruised and bleeding from a scrape on his cheek, but nothing seemed
broken. He let out a breath.

"What happened?"

"I called 911 on my cell phone."

"I was just going by," the cop said. "You lucky."

"They ran when they saw the cruiser," Rhiannon said.

"My partner too fat to catch them," Officer Watanabe said. "You going
to be all right?"

"I think so," Joe said, touching the back of his head. He looked at
Rhiannon. "Are you O.K.?"

"Yes," she said.

"Did they take anything?"

"No."

"You want to come down to headquarters and try identify them?"

"Kids," Joe said. "I guess not. I should have stayed out of this end of
the park."

"Up to you," Officer Wanatabe said. He wrote down their addresses.

"Thanks," Joe said.

"That's what we're here for. We'll hang around, ask a few questions."

Joe and Rhiannon crossed over to the shopping center. He co