The Tsunami Countdown Read Online Free PDF Page A

Teresa,
     it was Rachel’s opportunity to help someone else achieve her dream.
    Teresa had been a nurse when she introduced herself to Kai and Rachel during Lamaze class. Teresa and Rachel had hit it off
     immediately, but the lout Teresa was married to at the time didn’t get along as well with Kai. The two women got even closer
     once Rachel, after years of working on Teresa, finally convinced her to pursue her passion and go to med school. Teresa’s
     husband, who wanted her to give up working altogether and become a stay-at-home mother with five children, filed for divorce.
     To make things worse, it also turned out that he’d been having serial affairs on his business trips. During that difficult
     period, Teresa had leaned on Rachel, and Lani and Mia spent every non-school hour together.
    When Kai accepted his new job, Lani was devastated about leaving Mia. So as soon as Teresa had a week off from her third year
     of residency, she planned a trip to Hawaii, and the Tanakas happily agreed to host them.
    With Teresa visiting, Rachel was reminded that she had abandoned her dreams for practicality, and she didn’t want her daughter
     to make the same mistake. If Lani wanted to become a scuba diving instructor or a professional soccer player or anything else,
     Rachel wanted her to have that opportunity.
    Halfway across the bridge, Rachel was so deep in thought that she nearly ran into Bob Lateen, the chairman of the veterans
     conference. His frown told her she was about to have another problem.
    She shook off her reverie. “Can I help you, Mr. Lateen?”
    “Mrs. Tanaka,” Lateen said, keeping up with Rachel in his motorized wheelchair while she walked, “you assured us that we would
     have sufficient accommodations for our accessibility needs, but there is a serious situation in the ballroom that needs to
     be taken care of immediately.”
    Rachel squinted from the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the skybridge but still maintained a polite
     smile.
    “Mr. Lateen, I want you to know that we take your concerns very seriously, and we value your patronage. I will do anything
     I can to help. Now, what’s the problem?”
    They exited the bridge and came into a lavish foyer. Some of the attendees were already milling about. Rachel and Lateen weaved
     their way through and entered the Kamehameha Ballroom, the largest in the hotel.
    “The problem,” Lateen said, “is that we are supposed to start the brunch in less than an hour, and I can’t even get onto the
     dais.”
    He pointed to the wide raised table at the back of the ballroom. On the right side, a standard staircase led up to the dais.
     On the left side, a short ramp had been constructed over the staircase. Now Rachel could see the problem.
    As instructed, a ramp had been installed, but whoever oversaw the construction either hadn’t done it before or hadn’t thought
     about the needs of the person that would be using it. They had essentially laid the ramp directly over the stairs, canting
     it up at a slope impossible for anyone in a wheelchair to negotiate.
    “If I use that ramp,” Lateen continued, “I will look like an idiot because I will have to have three people help me up. They
     might as well carry me up the stairs on the other side.”
    “I understand the problem, sir. Let me contact the contractor. We’ll have this fixed before the brunch starts.” She pulled
     out her walkie-talkie.
    “Max, is the dais contractor still in the hotel?”
    Max Walsh, her assistant manager, picked up immediately.
    “I’m just signing some papers with him,” Max said.
    “Put him on the walkie-talkie. Now.”
    A second of silence elapsed before John Chaver, the contractor, came on the line.
    “This is John.”
    “John, this is Rachel Tanaka. You and your men need to come back up here immediately. The ramp is installed improperly.”
    “It’s built according to my specs.”
    She edged away from Lateen so that she was out of