Page 7 of Pallas & Kawehi

That got under his skin.

Pallas was used to shutting people like that down, but he hadn’t in this case. Once the guys had decided to bowl, he gave them more leeway than he wanted, but it didn’t look like the business was very popular. At least at this hour.

When he got back to the base, he’d see about talking to some of the other guys.

KBAY didn’t have a bowling alley. They had a lot of things, but not that.

The closest locations would probably be Fort Shafter over the Ko’olaus or Wheeler Air Force Base?

He’d look it up later, but for now, he wanted to try this dish, the oya… oyaku something.

He used his knife and fork to cut off a piece, but before he could put it in his mouth, the older man sitting a few spaces away from him started laughing.

He stopped with the bite just a couple of inches away and turned to look at the older man. “What’s up?”

He gestured back, his shoulders rising with his ongoing laughter. “You don’t need a knife for that.”

Pallas dropped his chin and looked at the other man. “Really?”

He gestured at the caddy poised on the edge of the counter. “You should put some soy sauce on there. It ends up in the rice and that’s super ono.”

“Okay.” He reached for the soy sauce bottle and drizzled a little on the piece he’d just cut off. When he picked up his fork again, he saw that the soy sauce had made the rice under turn a little brown in places. He put the bite into his mouth and the flavor surprised him.

Warm, homey, delicious.

“Comfort food.”

“Can’t go wrong with local foods,” the older man nodded at him, “or local women like Kawehi there.”

“Kawehi.” Pallas said the name and nodded. “Pretty name.”

“Pretty name,” the older man commented, “beautiful woman.”

Pallas almost laughed, a sensation he hadn’t felt in quite some time. “Are you two…”

The older man huffed out a breath and rolled his eyes. “No play games with me,” his voice had hardened a little. “And you bettah not be playing games with her.”

Me?

Pallas shook his head. “No. No games, I just came in to get a bite to eat.”

He could tell that the older man’s approval of him had dipped a bit. There had to be a story here.

“They say that your generation, whatever it’s called, is smarter than we were, but I’m not so sure given what I see here.”

Pallas lowered his fork back into the bowl. “What did I say?”

He had a feeling that the man might have just waved it off before, but now, he’d put his foot in it, and he hoped it wasn’t all that deep of a hole.

“You might have just come in for food, but I see that you found something else,” he rushed on, “I may be old, but I’m not dumb. If you can’t see it, well… then I’m glad you just think she’s pretty.”

The older man said it in such a way that Pallas was ready to agree with him.

“I take it that you know Kawehi well?”

“Eh, you come from around here and you know everyone. You know the man who leaves his trash can out for two days before he brings it back into his yard. You know the guy who screams at his neighbors for not cutting the grass until it’s knee deep. And you’d find out that Kawehi is the real deal.”

“Are you like this with all the new customers?”

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