Page 106 of Try Easy

“Listen, lady,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today, so tell me, is this your picture, or not?”

Lou cleared her throat and answered, “Yes.”

“Okay. Good. I want to buy your picture and print it in my magazine,” he said, enunciating slowly and carefully as if Lou was a small child. “Do you want to sell it?”

Lou wet her lips. Her throat was dry, but her hands were damp with sweat. She gripped the phone tighter and answered clearly. “Yes,” she said.

“Good,” he sighed. “What’s your address?”

Lou recited her address automatically.

“You should get something from me in the next week. Sign the consent form, and I will get a check to you as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” Lou said. She had a million questions, but she was too excited to ask any of them.

“We want to do an interview with the man in the picture. Can you give me his name?”

“The man in the picture?” Lou asked.

“Yes. The man in the picture,” Mr. Orlandi said, his voice stretched thin with impatience.

“Can you describe him?”

There was silence for a minute, and then he said. “He’s tall and dark-haired. Looks like something out a Hawaiian history book.” He went on to add, “The board I recognize. It’s a Dick Brewer model, the Himalaya. He only made about a dozen of those in ’63.”

“That’s Keoni.” She felt a stab of pain in her heart as she said his name. “Keoni Makai.”

“Do you know how I can get in touch him?”

“He lives in Hale’iwa, Hawaii.”

“Wait, let me write that down. Holly-what?”

“Hale’iwa,” Lou said, slowly and clearly, pronouncing it the way Keoni did, with the glottal stop and the w like a v. Ha-lay-ee-va.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You’re welcome.”

Lou held the phone to her ear for a long moment after Mr. Orlandi hung up in California. Finally, the dial tone sounded, snapping her out of her daze. Lou pressed the button to disconnect, then found the Seattle phone book and dialed up Pacific Camera. Her finger shook as she spun the oscillating dial on the face of the phone. She felt like she might faint.

Until she spoke with Mr. Tollison, she wouldn’t believe this was really happening.

When Mr. Tollison answered the phone and confirmed that he had been the one to send in the photo of Keoni, Lou sighed and slumped against the counter.

“I hope you aren’t angry,” Mr. Tollison said, sounding embarrassed.

Lou was far from angry. She was ecstatic. She hung up the phone with tears of joy streaming down her face and sank down to the kitchen floor. She was still sitting there staring into space, not quite believing her luck when Penny came in the front door.

Lou hadn’t cleaned up the mess she’d made when she’d dropped the groceries. Oranges had spilled out of their container and rolled across the kitchen floor, and the carton of milk was lying on its side losing its chill.

“Lou?” Penny asked, coming into the kitchen. “You left the front door open.” She looked down and saw Lou crumpled on the floor, and her mouth dropped open. “Jesus! What happened?”

Lou transferred her glazed stare from the tile floor up to Penny. Tears blurred her eyes, and she blinked them away, looking up at her friend.

“I’m going to be in a magazine,” she said, swallowing the thick lump of emotion in her throat. “Well, Keoni is,” she corrected.

Penny squatted down next to Lou and picked up the milk carton. “What are you talking about, honey?”

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