Page 6 of Try Easy

Keoni raised one eyebrow but didn’t comment. He knew all too well what could happen. The deeper the dive, the greater the danger.

Henry came over to join them, catching the tail end of the subject.

“What do you need a driver for?” he asked.

Bones looked at Keoni, his eyes glittering in the darkness. Keoni shrugged. Driving the boat was an easy job. Anyone could do it, even Henry, a haole from Seattle. Haole was a word that Hawaiians used to describe white people from the mainland who were ignorant of their culture. In Hawaiian Ha meant breath or life,and ole meant without. So, haole literally meant without breath. It was what the first Hawaiians had called the first Europeans, and the insult had stuck.

Keoni gave Henry a hard look and decided he would do fine for a driver. Henry wasn’t so bad. He was even decent at surfing. Keoni nodded at Bones and tipped back his beer.

Bones nodded back. “Heh, you wanna make fifty bucks?” he asked Henry.

“Depends on what I gotta do.”

“Just drive the boat while me and Keoni go on a dive.”

“That’s all? For fifty bucks? Are you crazy?”

“Nope,” Bones said. “You in or wot?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Henry said, stroking the hairs on his chin. “But I need a favor.”

“What?”

“I’m supposed to pick up my cousin and her friend from the airport tomorrow,” Henry said. “But I can’t get off work.”

“No one else can bust their ass for money?” Bones asked, and they all laughed.

Henry worked as a stunt double for a TV show that was filmed in Honolulu. Some days Henry had to run through glass windows, other days he crashed motorcycles. His friends all teased him, but he took it good-naturedly because he made more money than any of them.

“Come on,” Henry said. “I don’t want them to show up and not have a ride.”

“Your cousin look anything like you?” Bones asked.

“No, why?”

Bones grinned. “What time does the plane land?”

“Three o’clock.”

“We’ll be there,” Bones said.

“We?” asked Keoni. “I never said I could go.”

“What else you got going on?” Bones asked, laughing.

Keoni was notorious for doing nothing but surfing or working. His friends and family were constantly trying to drag him out to a party or fix him up with a girl, saying he needed to live more.

Keoni tried to think of an excuse to get out of the chore, but he drew a blank. Reluctantly, he agreed to go.

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