Page 35 of Two Tickets to Paradise

Cora moved over to the table in the center of the kitchen and gestured at the containers with their covers still on. "Can I help?"

"Sure!" Kawehi gestured at the closest container. "If you can open those up, we're going to finish off the Mac Salad."

"Mac Salad?" Cora shrugged off her confusion and opened the container. "Peas?"

Kawehi nodded toward the big bowl at the center of the table. "Dump it in."

As Cora did that, Kawehi upended the shredded carrots in the bowl.

Cora saw the two brightly colored ingredients fall in amongst a whole ton of cooked elbow macaroni. "This is salad?"

"It's as local as local gets," Maile called over her shoulder. "Have you had a local plate lunch yet?"

"No." Cora tapped the container on the edge of the bowl to get the last few peas in the bowl. "We just got here this morning from Chicago."

"Well," Maile picked up a big ROSS shopping bag full of corn ears and dumped it out on a foldout table covered in newspaper, "we'll have to take you out for a plate lunch while you're here in the islands."

"Okay, great!" Cora opened the last container and found what looked to be canned tuna meat. "What's this? Tuna?"

"Yep! It's all part of the yum."

Maile piped up. "So ono! Just wait!"

Kawehi reached across the table for a long-handled wooden spoon as she lifted a large jar of mayo and tucked it under her arm. "Can you put the tuna in the bowl?"

Cora was game for anything. She'd heard from Cam how good the food was, and she wanted to get the full experience. She dumped out the tuna into the bowl as Kawehi was spooning in the mayo. It looked like a lot of stuff going in, but as soon as she was done, Kawehi lifted her chin toward a shallow rectangular Tupperware container with a bunch of utensils in it. "Can you grab out a spoon if you have a minute and start mixing things together?"

"Sure." Cora looked for a place to set down the now empty container. "One sec..."

"Put it in the sink on the left," Kawehi suggested and Maile added on.

"We'll make your brother wash up tonight."

Cora wasn't intending to let him do that. She didn't want him any more upset than he already was, so she had no plans to leave the washing for him.

After dropping the dishes in the sink, she picked up the long handled wooden spoon that looked like the one Kawehi was using for the mayo and started to mix the contents of the bowltogether. The more it mixed, the better it looked. Little bright bits of shredded carrots and peas turned up with every turn of the spoon. "So, Maile," Cora looked down at the bowl while she spoke, "has Cam really been a jerk to you?"

Kawehi gasped at the question. "Maile! What have you been telling her?"

"The truth." Maile yanked off the outside of the corn cob that she had in her hands, the silky fine hair flying up in the air. "That man... That man makes me so... so..."

Cora looked at Kawehi and bit into her lip. "Should I change the subject?"

Kawehi raised an eyebrow at her cousin.

They watched as Maile made quick work of skinning ears of corn as she grumbled about Cameron. No, Cora couldn't exactly make out what she was saying about her brother.

Kawehi nudged her with her shoulder. "Maybe we should let her stew about it for a while."

Cora looked up at her with a quizzical glance. "You're not worried she's going to go after Cameron like that?"

More cornsilk flew up in the air.

Kawehi shook her head. "I'm not worried that she'll go after your brother."

Cora listened to Kawehi's words but watched as Maile continued to tear into the corn on the table, doing a really good job of cleaning the corn and setting the almost pristine ears of corn into a container. "Really? She looks like she could yank out every single bit of hair off of his head."

Kawehi had to put the back of her hand in front of her mouth to stop from laughing out loud. "True, but there's one thing you're forgetting."

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