Pink Lips Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kail is my sister?” Willow asked as she tugged on the strap of her pink overalls.
    Anoki smiled as she looked at the little girl sitting next to Willow. She stuck her tongue out at her youngest daughter as the horns on top of the small steamboat started going off, alerting them that they had reached their destination.
    â€œYes, baby, just like you and Kail.” Anoki removed the straw hat from her head and let it hang by a string around her neck.
    Anoki opened her eyes. The sunlight bathed her skin as the boat approached the dock. She tried closing her eyes. What had happened in Philly was something she didn’t want to deal with today. Thoughts bit at her brain, forbidding her to gather her thoughts.
    She was worried for Willow and Kail; they were innocent. They shouldn’t have had to go through any of this. She rubbed the scar the bullet left on her arm, her stomach growling. She reached in her backpack, and then counted the wad of money she had brought with them. She dug in once more and found her pocket-sized mirror. She looked so different with short hair. She had to cut it if she didn’t want anyone to recognize her back in Philly or there in Hawaii, for that matter.
    Anoki touched her chest. She winced. She could still feel the pain from it all. Flashbacks danced in her head like a two-step. She saw Nicole, the housekeeper, running to her side as her vision went in and out. Memories of hospital staff surrounding her with panicked faces played in her mind. She remembered waking up after an extensive surgery. As if living through what she had experienced wasn’t enough, she was told that she was pregnant and that her baby would live.
    That year she spent in the hospital seemed like a decade. All ofit seemed worth it once her baby girl Kail was born. When she looked into her little girl’s face, she knew that fighting for her life was her only option. She had to be a trooper for her kids. Although she considered Kail a blessing, she couldn’t believe that her and Rock’s last time making love had produced a child.
    Anoki stood there grateful for everything Nicole had done for them. Making sure her and Willow’s existence was unknown, and going with the façade that they were dead was no easy task. Hiding them out for years and treating them like family was something Anoki never could forget. She couldn’t repay her if she wanted to; she would forever be appreciative.
    Anoki quickly gathered their belongings, then placed the straw hat back in place on her head. She had to wear it in case somebody noticed her, even with her hair cut short. She reached on the collar of her shirt to grab her shades to put on her face. She could never be too careful.
    â€œAloha,” beautiful Hawaiian women greeted them as Anoki guided her girls off of the boat.
    â€œAloha,” she replied as she held the back of her girls’ necks. “Stay close,” she whispered as she released her grip to focus on the luggage dangling on the inner part of her arms.
    Anoki looked down at the warm crushed, black glass sand that got darker at the water’s edges that slid off and on her feet while she walked. She looked back at the volcanic rocks spiking from the water. She could see sea turtles basking on the hot sand and more grazing on the algae growing on the rocks.
    Anoki was home as she watched fishermen cast their nets hoping to bring home a delicious catch for dinner. The smell of coffee being roasted in the coffee plantations hit her; assuring her she had really made it back. The palm trees casting their soothing shadeon sunbathers, who watched the red sun drop into the ocean, hoping for the famous green flash, finally convinced her that it wasn’t a dream and after twelve long years, she was really home.
    â€œWhat does ‘aloha’ mean?” Willow asked as she sunk in and out of the black sand.
    â€œIt’s how Hawaiians greet each other. It’s the way we say