Christmas Runaway Read Online Free PDF Page B

and handed it to her.
    The form looked official and her name added to the winner’s line calmed her lingering unease. Indeed, for the first time in her life, she'd won a contest. Considering the bad things that had happened to her today, it looked as if her luck changed.
    Soon, adorned with the beautiful leis she'd admired from afar, she was ensconced in the back seat of the outlandish vehicle. The moment she'd entered the taxi, she'd relaxed. Swiveling in every direction, she studied the interior and pleasant shock had her mouth hanging open.
    Hanging everywhere were the cutest souvenir-like trinkets. Plastic pineapples, palm trees, dolphins and so many other knick-knacks like a tourist might use to fancy up a fridge back home. He'd even strung twinkle lights and Christmas ornaments around the front dash. The sight made a laugh bubble up inside until she couldn't contain it. 
    Leilani leaned forward to make sure her driver could hear her over the soft Hawaiian music flowing from the radio speakers. "I must tell you how much I love your decorating style.  I've jazzed up my Bessy and always thought I was the only person who liked this kind of thing."
    "Bessy?"
    "An old puddle-jumper I've had for years. The mechanics groan every time they see me coming, but she just keeps going, and I don't have the heart to abandon her to a junkyard."
    "I see. You're attached to a possession made of rubber and steel?" Was that a smile she heard in his voice?
    "Heavens no! I'm attached to the memories it holds. The first time behind the wheel on my own, so nervous my foot shook while the van jerked, racing at twenty-five miles an hour." A giggle broke loose at the memory. "Driving my mother to the hospital the day after I’d finally saved enough to buy the specialized wheelchair vehicle. No more having to rely on friends or scrambling for money to pay the hospital transfer costs.  I swore Bessy seemed to know her way to the carport on the side of our house, because there were many days I drove home exhausted from the nursing academy. I…. listen to me ramble on." She removed her hands from the seat ahead and leaned back. "Like I said before, the car seems like an old friend."
    "A kindred spirit at last. I'll admit to feeling the same way about Beauty." He wiggled his eyebrows in the rear-view and she fell a little more in love.
    Relaxed now, Leilani cast off the horrible dread of arriving in Honolulu alone. At the last moment, her best friend Shana had backed off from coming along. Not her fault exactly, but procrastination about applying for a passport had the same result.
    So Leilani had found herself alone on her very first flight, first time leaving home, in fact first adventure that would take her from the safety of the ordinary. Needs – must as her mom used to say. Forced to ignore the nail-biting, knuckle-clenching panic, she'd let Shana accompany her to the terminal. When her remorseful friend reiterated the frantic list of do's and don'ts, she’d bravely nodded and stepped into the future.
    "This is my first time away from home. I thought I'd be terrified, but it isn't nearly as hard as I expected."
    "Good! Don't you worry, little one. I'll be around to look after you while you’re in Waikiki. So where is home?" His voice soothed.
    Leilani released the stiffness in her shoulders and answered. "I live, um, lived with my mother in a city on Vancouver Island called Victoria. She passed away last week. I…I'm bringing her ashes back to Hawaii. She was born here, left the day she married my father and her wish to return never changed."
    "But she never returned?"
    "How did you know?"
    "Something in your voice. There’s a sadness when you talked about bringing her home."
    "You're right. She never did return. Soon after she arrived in Canada, she became pregnant with me. Then when she and my dad finally managed to save enough money for a trip home, she was involved in a hit and run accident with a drunk driver.”
    "How very