Naked Portraits Pt. 10

Chapter 49 Room Full of Angels

A couple of miles deep into the lush Manoa Valley, Aly pulled her Toyota into a driveway. I parked the Bronco on the street, Meka slid in behind me in her Volvo. We piled out of the cars.

"This is nice," Hawk said looking at the house with it's tastefully lit sculpted Japanese garden.

"Yes it is," Aly said, "but my place is outback. The front house belongs to—"

"Oshi and Brian two retired university professors," Meka finished for her.

"You know them?" Aly asked.

"Yeah, Brian and Oshi are art patrons and I bump into them every now and then," Meka said.

We followed a path of flat, evenly spaced rock slabs embedded in the ground that led us along the left side of the big house. Motion sensors activated path lights as we advanced. Aly's little house around back was a quaint yellow vinyl sided structure surrounded by a jungle of banana palms, ti plants and ferns. The house was on stilts and seemed sunk into the hillside behind it. Aly led the way up the two flights of wooden stairs to get to the front door. She opened the door and clicked on the lights revealing a surprisingly spacious living room. An impressive collection of small carvings were scattered everywhere in the room. Hand sized bronze, silver, brass and wooden statues took up every available flat space, there must have been close to a hundred of them.

"This is my collection," Aly said, "I can't help buying them. It's kind of a sickness really."

She picked up a delicate little bronze angel with crystal wings. "It cost me a fortune to ship them here."

"They're all angels," Meka observed.

"And female," Hawk added.

Aly picked up an angel made of white stone. "Pick them up if you like. They're fun to touch."

I picked up a tallish snow globe that rested on a shelf and automatically shook it. Artificial snow settled on a tiny angel statue at the center flanked by palm trees surrounded by, of all things, a graveyard.

"This is a little creepy," I said with a frown. A feeling not unlike the one that had descended on me at Hawk's archaeological dig on Maui, enveloped me.

"Yeah I know, freaky thing isn't it," Aly said, "The landlords, Oshi and Brian, gave it to me as a house warming present after they saw my collection. She's kind of sad stuck behind all that glass."

Meka took the globe from me and I was happy to be rid of it. She shook it then gave it a good critical look.

"I know this place," Meka said in wonder. "It's the entrance to a grave yard in Makiki Heights across the street from my house. I've photographed that very angel many times."

Meka handed the globe back to me but I refused to take it so she put it back on the shelf I got it from.

Aly pulled open the curtain in the living room. The large picture window overlooked the front house. Below, lights illuminated a swimming pool and screen enclosed pool deck.

"This place is awesome," Matt said,

Aly nodded. "I scooped it up the moment I saw it. Come see the rest," She led us down a hallway passed a tiny galley kitchen. Photos and framed reproductions of famous angel painting crowded the walls of the hall. Among the angel stuff was an unframed eighteen by twenty four inch painting that looked out of place for there clearly was on angel in it. It was done in an impressionistic style that made me thing of Camille Pissaro. I stopped to get a good look. The painting was dark and shadowy with two figures at the center in odd crossing orange beams of light. Both figures were female, one nude with dark brown skin, the other pale with dark hair dressed in black clothing.

"This is an odd one," I said to Aly.

Aly nodded in agreement. "I got it at a craft fair in Waipahu three months ago. I stopped at a booth to look at it and the woman there just gave it to me.

"Really?' I asked. "She just gave it to you for free? This is skillfully done."

"Yep," Aly said. "I tried to turn it down but she insisted, saying it was my destiny to own it. She was a little crazy I thought. I only took just to get away from her."

"I wish crazy people would give me art," Matt said.

"Gwen gives you art all the time," Hawk said to him.

"I'm not lolo," I said and punch Hawk in the arm.

Aly waved us along to continued the tour of the house. "Bathroom, guestroom, study, master bedroom," she said as we passed doors all on our left. At the end of the long hall (the place didn't look that big from the outside) was a glass door and the only one on the right side. The glass door was delicately inlaid with geometric patterns of frosted green and white glass. Aly pushed the glass door open, hit the light switch and led us in the room.

Hawk summed it up in one word.

"Righteous."

We stood in a room dominated by a raised wooden hot top. The floor was solid cement and felt coarse under foot. The the tub looked seasoned and well used. One wall was made entirely of glass. The space had a distinct Japanese feel to it.

"Watch this," Aly said. She walked to a control panel off in the corner and hit some switches. Lights came on outside the glass wall revealing a lush growth of banana trees just a few feet out. "This place is built right into the hillside. You should see it in the morning,"

As we paraded back into the living room, Aly said, "I got Merlot, Cabernet, Mums champagne and Coronas." She went to the fridge and got out a bottle of champagne.

"Lecturing must pay well," Matt said.

Aly laughed. "Normally, you guys would be drinking just beer but the landlords gave me a case of everything on the drink menu as a moving in present. Would you believe it?"

"I would," Meka said. "Your landlords are loaded."

"This sure beats faculty housing," Hawk said as he settled onto the suede leather sofa.

"And the dorms," Matt added.

"And my cramped little Waikiki apartment," I said.

"I have a nice house in Makiki Heights," Meka said. "but I don't have a cool hot tub and mountains for a backyard."

"I like it too," Aly said with a smile as she popped a chilled bottle of Mums.

Aly poured flukes of champagne for everyone and we all found places to sit in her comfy living room. Matt, Hawk and I sat on the suede sofa with me in the center. Meka and Aly sat in the matching lounge chairs.

"Did you hear about the little incident involving my photo?" Meka asked. She quickly gave a short history of her photo of Wahine Lani and the alleged break in a few days back.

As she spoke, I slowly gripped Hawk's hand.

"I know the statue!" Hawk said with excitement, "Gwen discovered her on a—"

I squeezed his hand as hard as I could.

He gave me a quizzical look than squinted at me suspiciously. "Did you see what the offering was?" Hawk asked still eying me up. "Hair perhaps? Some blood? Teeth? A finger? A human heart?"

Meka laughed. "Nothing that exciting. When I arrived at the gallery security was already there along with a hand full of Hawaiian activist students. The activists wanted to take the offering away but the head of security said noway. He wanted to see inside the leaf wrapped bundle calming it was evidence in a crime." Meka laughed, "I guess he was thinking along the same lines as you, Hawk."

"Yeah I know, those offerings can get real extreme with some people," Hawk said as he gave my knee a mildly painful squeeze.

"May I have some white wine?" I asked.

"Help yourself," Aly said.

I slipped off to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of white wine from the fridge as Meka continued describing the event.

"Anyway, the Hawaiian activists insisted that the offering was sacred and opening it would be sacrilege. A fight almost broke out. Sandy Agato, the art office secretary calmed everyone down and even got the activist to open the bundle to let security see what was inside."

Meka took a sip of her champagne. Matt and Aly leaned forward. Hawk's eyes were on me in the kitchen. I swallowed half of my glass of freshly poured wine before Meka spoke again.

"In the leaves was a small wooden box with a sliding top. I recognized the box as the kind that holds compressed charcoal sticks, high grade expensive stuff."

Yeah, I know, I thought.

"One of the activist slid back the lid and inside were short bristly hairs from some kind of animal, a broken stick that turned out to be a paint brush, two scraps of painted cloth, one of a red hand outlined in black and the other a pair of striking eyes of an Asian woman."

"No real human eye?" Matt asked with a laugh.

"Security was disappointed too," Aly said laughing too. "And since nothing was broken or stolen they backed off and the activist spirited away with the offering."

As Matt and Aly peppered Meka with questions, Hawk got up to join me in the kitchen.

"You've been a busy pagan," he said softly.

"What are they going to do with my offering?" I asked a bit concerned for all the hubbub I had created.

"Probably bury it. Who did you fuck to create the offering?"

"Nobody!" I said with slap at his chest. After a short pause I confessed, "I just sneaked Paul Gleason a kiss is all."

Hawk chuckled. "That must have blown his mind."

"Actually, it did," I said with sheepish pride.

In the living room, Meka spoke on.

"All week long people have been coming and leaving offerings at my photo. Sally and Oleander built me some cool pedestals made of stone and wood. It's kinda cool having people worship my art. One woman gave me this." Meka took something from her bag and held it out. It was a black t-shirt with a hand in a red circle.

Oh my god," I whispered looking at the symbol I had created. I wanted to laugh but at the same time felt a little weirded out, not to mention robbed, it was after all my creation. But to claim it I would have to confess to the break in and more seriously, appropriating a religion that didn't belong to me.

"These shirts are all over campus," Meka said, putting the t-shirt away. "Even Sally's bronzes got some attention. Someone ringed each with fragrant flowered leis and made ti leaf skirts for them. Sally was tickled when she saw them. A news crew showed up and Sally and I made the evening news. A friend called me from Maui and said that people are visiting the Wahine Lani statue in droves. She is now one busy Goddess."

"Always was," I mumbled in the kitchen.

The evening progressed and the conversation wove and twisted from one subject to another, never stopping, flowing on a slow easy current of beer, wine, champagne and good company. I was getting to like Aly and Meka was making quite an impression too. Hawk talked about his new tentative friendship with the local guy A.J. whose life he saved.

"That A.J. is one hot Hawaiian guy," Aly said. He is a stack of dreams with all those manly tattoos."

"You catch one yet?" Meka asked Aly.

Aly's sudden deep blushing was all the answer we needed. Everyone laughed and gave her naughty girl oohs.

"Tell us," I said feeling mellow from all the wine. I snuggled close in with Matt, in the mood to touch his smooth skin. I guy shouldn't have such perfect skin I mused.

"Yeah, in detail," Hawk added.

"No editing. Leave in all the dirty stuff," I insisted.

Aly pondered for a second and then said, "You can read about at Literotica dot com. I wrote my little encounter down and submitted it."

"Matt visits that site all the time," I said.

"I do not!" Matt said immediately.

"Dude," Hawk said, "Whenever you use my computer clear your history when you're done."

"You can do that?" Matt asked.

I rolled my eyes. "How can someone as smart as you be so lolo about computers?" I asked dumfounded.

"Literotica?" Meka said. "That's a very popular amateur erotic story sight. I have a friend that submits stories there all the time."

"You write erotica?" Matt asked Aly, clearly doing his best to move the spotlight off him.

"Just that one time after too much white wine," Aly said with an ain't no big thing wave of her hand.

Matt picked up Aly's laptop resting on the coffee table.

"I know where you're going," Aly said with a roll of her eyes.

He nodded as he brought up the Literotica site. "What category?"

Aly sighed. "Erotic coupling. The title is 'Under the Maui Sky' by Kim Gold."

"I'm gonna read it out loud," Matt said.

"Oh come on," Aly said. "This is so embarrassing." She covered her face with her hands but made no serious move to stop him.

Matt read, "Under the Maui Sky by Kim Gold ..."

Chapter 50 Noah's Flood

Debra Cho was tall for an Asian girl. At an even six feet, her height made her look like a supermodel but there was nothing model thin about her. The woman had a full figure and curves in all the places that mattered. Then add to her bombshell figure natural blond hair, she officially cornering the market on the exotic. To say that the girl stood out was an understatement. Fortunately, she had the brains to match her looks. In less than a year she claimed the number three spot in her Minnesota based tech company.

In August, her company opened a branch in Honolulu, Hawaii to get closer to the South Korean and Japanese markets. The number one tech job was up for grabs. With the job came a fat raise and a choice Waikiki apartment. The moment Debra heard this news she started a fierce campaigned to get the head tech job. The raise and Waikiki apartment were nice perks but she would have taken a cut in pay and shared a room with a crackhead in a rundown tenement if it meant no more Minnesota winters. Of course Debra Cho got the job.

The day she landed, her new boss met her at the airport and drove her straight to the new Honolulu office. Minutes after her arrival, the computer system went schizophrenic. Total panic ensued. Adding to the bedlam was the ongoing construction of the facilities. Debra was informed that the building contractors had fallen behind schedule and showed total indifference to the chaos it was causing. Her boss was totally inept and incapable of making decision on her own. What seem like an extravagant raise in salary at the beginning, turned out to be hard earned ... and not enough in Debra's opinion.

Every day as she left her Waikiki apartment for work, she saw the ocean less than a mile away through her balcony window. Unfortunately, that would be the closest she would get to the Hawaiian surf for some time because of the chaos at work. To stave off depression, she would tell herself that it was February and she was in Hawaii and not Minnesota.

A month down the line, the day arrived when things were running close to the way they were designed to. Debra went to her lab assistants and said, "I am booking a flight to Maui to forget this place for the weekend. Don't call me unless there is a fire or the government wants us to clone Elvis or Kurt Cobain."

Wasting no time, Debra drove home to her Waikiki apartment and packed for her getaway on Maui. She booked a flight to Maui then took a taxi to the Honolulu airport were she boarded a DC-10. On Maui, She drove her rental car to the south shore of the island to a resort area called Wailea. Debra had picked her getaway resort after reading one line in a brochure that said the ocean was no more then ten paces away.

She checked in, dumped her stuff in her spacious, third floor, light infused hotel room. She pulled back the drapes and looked at the blue-green ocean with content ... and lust. She stripped and put on a modest bathing suit. Armed with sun block, a beach towel and a good cheesy thriller, she went down to the lobby and made a beeline to the beach. She counted eight-two steps before she stood in sand, well over the ten paces promised in the brochure.

Blatant false advertising she thought.

But all was quickly forgiven as she wiggled her feet deep into the warm Wailea sand. She picked a spot to spread her towel then sat and watched the early beginnings of a Maui sunset play out before her eyes and thought of how far away from Minnesota she was. She just couldn't believe that it was February here too.

"Nothing is more beautiful then this," Debra said to herself contently.

She was wrong.

The dreamiest man Debra had ever laid eyes on stepped out of the gently churning surf and headed her way. The guy had coppery dark skin stretched over a perfect frame of muscle and bone. As he drew near, her eyes flickered from perfect pecs to a six-pack stomach flatter then a Minnesota prairie. The red and black tiger striped, spandex swim trunks he wore accentuated his beautiful sculpted thighs and displayed a respectable bulge where it counted. The guy ran right passed her and some water splashed off of him spattering her right forearm. Shamelessly, she licked the moistness off her arm savoring the salty taste. She turned to assess the guy's backside, which was as perfect as his front. The dream disappeared from sight behind a clump of coconut palms.

"Toto, we are not in Minnesota any more," Debra whispered.

Toto growled lustfully.

Debra waited for the sky to lose all of its gaudy color and then went to the hotel restaurant and ordered a grilled aku steak surrounded with a teriyaki, Kula onion salsa on a bed of fragrant jasmine rice and washed it all down with two glasses of sweet white wine. Then for desert, she had banana sorbet and a sinful wedge of chocolate cheesecake with a sweetened creamy cup of Kona coffee. After her fine dinner, Debra waddled to her room and took the world's longest bath. Once in bed, her Hawaiian merman filled her mind's eye and she put her vibrator through its paces. She went to sleep with a smile on her face.

In the morning, Debra went down to the restaurant and gorged on a sinful breakfast of tender strips of Kobe steak, two sunny side eggs, fried taro, half a papaya and more Kona coffee. As she ate, she watched the ocean waves come and go from the open-air deck of the restaurant. After her sinful breakfast, she walked to the beach via the pool. At poolside she saw her dreamy Hawaiian masturbatory fantasy from the day before talking to the bartender.

After dream boy left the pool area, Debra walked over to the bar and flat out asked the bartender, "The guy you were talking to, is he a guest?"

"No, az my cuz Noah," the chubby Hawaiian bartender said. "He the golf pro fo' the hotel."

Noah, a nice biblical name, she thought absently.

Debra thanked the bartender and went back into the resort lobby to signed up for a late afternoon golf lesson with instructor Noah. She spent the time before the golf lesson well oiled in a bikini on the pool deck reading a paperback novel. The pool boys kept checking in to see if she needed anything every five minutes to the point of annoyance. Finally, the chubby bartender, Noah's cuz, intervened.

"Leave the lady alone you pests! Go do yo' work!" He gave her a wink and a smile. The pool boys stayed away for the remainder of the afternoon. That earned him a twenty dollar tip.

At three, she went back to her room to shower and change. At four, she sat waiting in the lobby for the start of her golf lesson. A middle aged Japanese couple waited with her. Debra wore loose beige shorts that accentuated her ass and showed maximum leg. Up top she wore a clinging short sleeve white shirt that showed enough cleavage for visual impact but still allowing for taste. The Japaneses guy kept stealing little looks at her when he thought his wife wasn't looking. Her height, blond hair and Asian features always drew such attention, but here in the Hawaiian Islands it was ten fold. She had hoped that she would blend in better because of her Korean half. But her height and blond hair made her stand out even more then she ever did in Minnesota.

Noah finally showed looking good in khaki shorts, a dark blue polo shirt and a white ball cap with the name of the resort on it. She was four inches taller then he was. She could tell immediately that he found her attractive, but she worried about the height difference. Most men found tall girls sexy, but at the same time intimidating. Aly knew from experience that her height scared guys off more often then not.