t, amulet, which, leery as always of anything that might mean unfinished business from the olden hippie time

in come messing with her privacy, red-eyeing in to Honolulu on a charter flight in an airplane of uncertain make that was not only the flagship but also the entire fleet of a country he had not, till then, heard of. If Frenesi was half expecting him, it was not in the condition he arrived in, taken over by an itch he c

of Zoyd, settling instead for a reflex headshake whenever they met, with an embarrassed laugh that seemed to mean, "You are so inappropriate for my daughter that even you must see it and be as amused as I am - we're adults after all, and we can certainly share a chuckle, can't we Zoyd." But they were to find themselves, amazingly, on the same side of the law after all, which meant no cus

k Ocean Hotel, a towering dihedral wailful of 2,048 rooms with identical lanais cantilevered into blue space, all facing the Pacific. Far below

great bent facade, folks on their lanais out taking the breezes, eating

ou see I'm alone, yes quite alone, not that th

of, or we could've had this

hen, e

forg

, you come bar

"my mommy didt'n pay for it," but seeing she w

nesi in a bikini and Zoyd in an old pair of baggies - except for the lethal altitude, it could have been year before last, back in Gordita Beach. Above them somewhere another couple were screaming at

, copping rays down on the beach at Waikiki? Zoyd didn't want to be disappointed. It was ignorance of U.S. Attorney Vond's whereabouts, after all,

m not going to fink on my own daughter, am I? Even if I knew any

you're h

got

you've been takin' honest shots at all your life - are you gonna be loyal to somebody like that? All's

jealousy. She might have asked him, but her job these days, it seemed, was just to hold her tongue, keep it sharpened and ready but withheld in a sheath of silence. Doubly frustrating because she was furious as hell with her daughter. Frenesi's involvement with Brock, politically, was appalling enough, but she'd also once again failed to

lu. "So - I don't see Superfuck anyplace, what happened, Stev

y off, we don't

ome asshole just 'cause he's fuck-in' my wife, 'specially if it's a federal rap," while he really wanted just to double over in a clenched bodyfist right in front of her face ... except that she would only shift away

hat he imagined as cold scientific interest dropped the empty can, observing it all the way down, particularly the convergence of its path with that of a pedestrian far below, a surfer carrying a board over his head. Seconds after the beer can hit the board, Zoyd h

gain and again, on the astral night flights he would make to be near and haunt her as best he knew how, seeing her now taking off her bikini, top and bottom, then unhooking her earrings, an act, because of how it revealed her nape, that had never failed to stir Zoyd's heart. She headed for the shower, feeling soiled,

raction of woman, water, soap, steam, and Zoyd's own unseen restlessly throbbing eye, registering it all. Getting accustomed to the only future they would have. What

d to break down, cry, and divulge most of the story before he could get an assistant manager to admit that Fr

to do anything, mm

's t

ilable on the mainland. Some specialize in active volcanoes, others in cliff diving, many go for the classier swimming

o said anythin' about make-believe, dude

course, but

indignity of lying there all splattered by the pool and in my last few s

he airport, and hit the street in search of someplace he could sit in on a keyboard instrument, preferably with people he knew. That he was not headed for the airport owed as much to the indecipherability of the fine print on his ticket, a special excursion offer nobody at the airline said they'd ever heard of, as to a strange cheery fatalism that had often, instead of tears, been known, as now, to overwhelm him. Fuck her, he chirped to himself, today's your release

fting, if not into intersections of high drama and significant fortune, at least away, most of the time, from danger. At some point he found himself back in the toilet

unconfirmed reports of incidents high above the planetary surface that no one talked about in any but the most careful euphemisms. The l

ellow Pages, with a display ad whose biggest type read ALWAYS HIRING. Zoyd called them at about 2:30 A.M. and was

oyd was presented with a thick tattered fake book full of Hawaiian tunes, and on the lounge synthesizer, a Japanese make he'd heard of but never played, he found a ukulele option that would provide up to three orchestral sections of eight ukes each. It would take several flights across the Pacific Ocean and back before Zoyd felt easy

out. On westbound flights, Zoyd's job at the keyboard, like that of the hula dancers, flame eaters, cocktail waitresses, and bartenders, was to keep passengers from thinking about what lay in store for them on the Honolulu end, the luggage misconnected and untraceable, the absent bus links to hotels which had already lost everybody's reservations, the failure of Jack Lord to show up, as promised in the brochure, for photo opportunities. Kahuna's all but unpredic

first Cosmic Pineapple encounter, and then later from coworkers such as Gretchen the make-believe Polynesian cockt

'n' let m

grass

ig Zag,

ac

n up, w

of lov

ight, off 0

in a ro

t to a

your lips

moke f

t cost

gonna h

hat uh little

the time back then, not so hopelessly offensive, anyway, that Gretchen wouldn't allow him points for going to the trouble. They presently had reached a keel even enough for her to start confiding things she'd heard, and a

which was actually polyester, rustling

who

r ... up from Earth, for sure, not

ee who was

could before she murmured, "I'm not crazy

and squinted up at her, eyes mostly lingering on

ll dainty as a robin's egg to the other, which was solid, smaller, of higher mass and speed. As Gretchen had foretold, not exactly a UFO. The captain took what evasive action he could, but the other matched his maneuvers exactly. Finally they stood, side by side above the tropic of Cancer, between them,

ey of peppy tunes. Nobody knew what was going on. Arguments started. Through the port-side windows could be observed the burnished seams, the glowing engines of the other. Last sunlight

on the PA. "This is for our own good. They don't want all of us, just a few. When they get to your seat number, please cooperate, and try not to believe any rumors you hear. And till we get the rest of you where your tick

"This is fun," Zoyd said. "First time I ever heard the cap'

inking. What a bummer. Kahu

t happen on

nt? It would have cost more than Kahuna wanted

ers working slowly, methodically among them. As Zoyd was segueing into the main title theme from Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956), he was distracted by a voice somewhere behind and slightly below him. "What it is, bro! OK if I - sit in?" He saw somebody in a blond hippie haircut, floral bell-bottoms

ding a lead sheet with, inevitably,

, the new sideman proceeding to turn in a respectable rhythm job on the old Hawaiian favorite "Wacky Coc

hear ..

Wack-ky

Wack-ky

a syn-copa

ode

nuousl

e by o

ack-ky

ack-ky

roof like th

drum .

vum

on't

conuts, find s

d I remai

embrace? Must

ack-ky C

, those l

e the

r

of some different profile. Further, Zoyd noticed that every time he hit his highest B flat, the invaders would grab for their radio headsets, as i

usiness card, iridescent plastic, colors shifting aro

like you saved it

hi Fu

UST

ook, Ma

you? T

he uke. "At the point in your life when you really need this, you will - s

th my m

ronment, became invisible in what would be a nightlong party that

place you can hear me. Hah?" No reply. The card went into a pocket, then another, into a long sequence of pockets, wallets, envelopes, drawers, and boxes, surviving barrooms, laundromats, doper's forgetfulness, and Nor