Hawaiian Destiny

By Margaret J. Norrie

Neil and Jeannie dreamt of a peaceful, happy retirement on Mauis sandy shores, but after just one year, their honeymoon period on the idyllic island seems to be over.

Thanks to the unscrupulous actions of the local unions, their familys financial future is threatened. Their daughter and son-in-law find that their business is threatened by these unions, and the family chooses not to go down without a fight. But in the meantime, they still have to focus on survival, so Jeannie decides to return to work.

She begins selling real estate and is quite successful. But she soon learns that some of her wealthiest clients have been hoodwinked and cheated. Jeannie struggles with her reaction to this information, and in the process she learns that all is not peaceful in paradise. In this, the sequel to Driving on the Left, author Margaret Norrie gives readers an inside look at the shadowy sides of Hawaiis sunny shore life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462071609

Margaret J. Norrie

Margaret J. Norrie was born in England and served in the British armed forces during World War II. She graduated from Worcester University, England, taught in a technical college, and owned a real estate agency in Maui, Hawaii, where she retired. She is the mother of three adult children.

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Hawaiian Destiny

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MARGARET J. NORRIE

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Hawaiian Destiny

Copyright © 2011 by Margaret J. Norrie

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Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed did take place. However, this is a work of fiction. All of the other characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-7161-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-7160-9 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-7159-3 (dj)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 1/4/2012

Contents

CHAPTER 1 Another Sleepless Night

CHAPTER 2 Changing Times

CHAPTER 3 Diversions

CHAPTER 4 Romance, Visitors, And Jeannie’s First Client

CHAPTER 5 The Beginning Of A New Career

CHAPTER 6 Silversword

CHAPTER 7 Converging Visitors

CHAPTER 8 If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

CHAPTER 9 The Other Side Of The Coin

CHAPTER 10 Tribulations And Retributions

CHAPTER 11 Alice In Wonderland

CHAPTER 12 A Different Christmas

CHAPTER 13 Maui Moves

CHAPTER 14 You Know How Little While We Have To Stay

CHAPTER 15 Spirit In The Sky

CHAPTER 16 Adventures In Another Paradise

CHAPTER 17 Uncut Jewels

CHAPTER 18 Changes

CHAPTER 19 Hawaiian Destiny

EPIGRAPH

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word."

Laurence Olivier, English actor-director (1907-1989)

Time does not become sacred to us until we have lived it, until it has passed over us and taken with it a part of ourselves.

John Burroughs, American author and naturalist (1837-1921)

In love for my amazing daughter, whose

Attention was sought by many

But appreciated by few

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CHAPTER 1

Another Sleepless Night

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When Jeannie said the background for her story was Hawaii, her friend commented, I’ve never been there, so I have no idea what it or the people are like. Jeannie thought, there’s so much we tend to take for granted; I’d better begin at the beginning…

Jeannie succumbed to the situation she tried to avoid—thinking—upon snuggling into her wonderful waterbed—well, a jellified mattress really. Her husband, Neil MacLeod, loved it. He often complained about an aching back after spending a night on the bed of an expensive hotel for which he had the questionable privilege of paying. Thinking kept her awake and it was now July, at 2:00 AM, in Maui, Hawaii. Perfume from the night blooming jasmine wafted gently through the glass sliders opening onto the deck. She loved the intoxicating smell. She gave up, got up, and made a cup of hot chocolate.

Maybe if I read something really boring, that will send me to sleep?

Maui—Paradise of the Pacific—How many times had she heard that? But it really was paradise. Where could you go—let alone live—to enjoy sunshine most days of the year? Where frost and occasional snow were confined to the upper slopes of the dormant volcano—Haleakala? Where else, during occasional winter weeks on the Big Island, could she drive to the ten thousand foot limits of a mountain to ski in the morning and descend to the welcoming warmth of the waters of the Pacific in the afternoon?

Where else do so many cultures mingle—mostly amicably—and where else was so much to be learned from them—such variety of food, customs and traditions? Many, originally brought, in turn, to the islands to work in the sugarcane fields, contributed their own individual skills to the island culture.

Portuguese, with their strong work ethic: Descendants of mariners who discovered the land—later to be the southern States—whose knowledge and skills with horses and cattle were needed in Hawaii when King George III of England presented King Kamehameha I of Hawaii with cattle and horses—totally foreign to Hawaiians, whose skills lay in navigation, fishing, creating structures from native trees such as the coconut palm: Being as one with nature in all its ramifications—and its gods.

Japanese, whose inherited traditions in legal matters, art and science, clashed with the laborious life demanded of them in waving fields of cane—progressed to become judges, attorneys, and counselors.

Chinese, traditionally landowners—with properties handed down through generations: Farming crops, rarely selling their land to persons outside their own family.

Filipinos—determined to make life more rewarding for their sons and daughters—industrious workers from the Philippine Islands.

Tongans, whose later arrival in the islands was principally made possible by the efforts of one man, whose own efforts were sponsored by an existing business owner: He recognized the landscaping needs of hotel developments and subsequently aided family and workers with their immigration; likewise Samoans, whose superior strengths contributed to road and bridge building.

Descendants of European clergy from the north-east coast of the American mainland arrived as missionaries to convert the Hawaiian people from worshipping their gods of fire, land and water, to Christianity. This included covering women’s near-naked voluptuous bodies with high-necked voluminous Victorian-style dresses and petticoats; regardless of near ninety-degree temperatures: And forbade men and women from participating in Hawaiian music and dance.

However, it did not take the male missionaries very long to decide there were more profitable possibilities for life in the islands than dispensing the teachings of the church!

For the first time in her life, Jeannie felt like an outsider and it wasn’t long before she encountered the word haoli—literally foreigner or stranger—a non-inclusive title; often spoken with derision. Besides, her skin was the wrong color, even when tanned; and her European features differed from those of Asians and Hawaiians.

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Jeannie prodded the weeds among the coconut palms in the hot sun; dug them out and dropped them into a bucket. She felt dejected, and lonely. She scarcely knew a soul; and those she did know—were her son-in-law and daughter’s—Wade and Helen Merton’s—friends anyway.

Neil was at a property about a mile away, on the other side of the valley, where Duncan was using the backhoe to level the ground and dig trenches for water lines for the new spec. house.

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Where Duncan was using the backhoe

Neil was happy to potter around, helping with measurements and locations. He tanned so easily; he could be mistaken for a local. He’d had six months’ start on her anyway, arriving from England in January 1979; whereas she and Duncan had to wait until Jeannie’s seniors at school took their final exams in July.

They flew in from England via New York at the end of July 1979: To begin a new life in Maui, Hawaii.

Helen drove up in a truck and watched her mother for a moment. Jeannie straightened her back, mopped the sweat from her face with a piece of paper towel and tried to conjure up a smile for her daughter.

What’s the matter, Mum? You’ve got nothing to worry about. After all, she’d retired, and she wasn’t obliged to break her back in the hot sun.

Jeannie said, struggling to hold back tears, That’s the problem—I’ve got nothing to worry about; I’ve been talking to the weeds—and I don’t even like gardening!

She’d always led such a busy life in England. She and Neil each had an engrossing career and a great many friends, but they’d worked until they were worn out and Neil’s responsibilities had taken severe toll on his health. Jeannie knew he should retire.

Jeannie wondered what she could do on this strange island?

She’d always had interesting, responsible jobs, giving her a great deal of independence. She wasn’t the type to have a nine to five existence under a bossy overseer. In any case, this was supposed to be retirement.

They each had savings, and retirement income; why was she even considering work?

Helen said, I’ll go and fetch Daddy, and you can go to the beach to have a swim and get cool.

They each had a quick shower and dressed in swimsuits covered by towel beach robes. Neil drove Helen’s Triumph Spitfire—a final acquisition from the corporation in England where he worked—to the sandy beach down-slope, less than five minutes’ drive from where they lived. He parked the car at the side of the road, gathered towels from behind the seats, and held out a hand to Jeannie, as they walked down a little dirt path to the beach. The water looked inviting, shimmering in the sunshine. Little wavelets, driven by a light breeze, cascaded onto the sand.

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Neil drove Helen’s Triumph Spitfire

They swam for about fifteen minutes, and relaxed, floating on the gentle waves, looking up at the nearly cloudless blue sky. Jeannie felt caressed by the water; some of her usual carefree confidence returned. They came out of the water together, walked up the sandy beach and—after checking any possibility of ripe nuts falling—sat on towels in the shade of some mature coconut palms.

Neil said, Wade has plans for a really unique single story home on that parcel where Duncan’s working. He wants to build a spec, house and make money from the sale of it. I think they’re going to need to borrow some cash from us for that, but real estate has been selling well—until now, it seems.

Until now, thought Jeannie. She didn’t know anything about properties in Maui, but she’d seen the same For Sale signs ever since she and Duncan arrived in July 1979.

That evening, Helen told her parents she’d arranged for them to fly to Kauai for a week. She knew the owners of a famous coconut plantation there, now being run as a hotel, so they’d arrive with a personal introduction and could expect a unique welcome and first-class attention. She felt guilty about her mother’s apparent distress. She was responsible for their move to Hawaii, partly because she knew her father should retire, but also for the financial backing needed by Wade and herself for their construction business. Now, Helen wanted her parents to learn something about the island chain; and Kauai was the furthest inhabited island west. They could rent a car, and explore.

With their adventurous natures aroused, Neil and Jeannie welcomed the opportunity. Helen drove them to the airport in Wade’s Maui Cruiser—a name given locally to any one of the many junkers being driven around at that time—a luxurious vehicle which had seen better days.

As they arranged for a rental car at Kauai airport Neil told Jeannie, We’re provided with a map. This is a smaller, even less developed island than Maui, so it should guide us to the sign for our hotel without difficulty.

They soon discovered the building lay at the end of a long, winding, private