Ji Hyo felt lost.

She had made up her mind last night to be with Gary, feeling such relief at the decision, but a mere hour later, Jong Kook had disrupted that relief and had brought her back to that same sorry state of indecision that had been haunting her since she arrived. And now, both Gary and Jong Kook were gone, on the road somewhere having a talk, and she worried about them in light of what had happened the last time they confronted each other.

Ji Hyo couldn’t think in the house. It was too quiet, too empty. And so, thinking she might take a walk down by the beach, she left the guestroom and wandered down the hall, peeking into Sun Marie’s room on the way. It was midday, but Sun Marie was in bed. Finding that strange, Ji Hyo walked into the girl’s room to check on her.

Sun Marie was sleeping, her eyes tightly squeezed closed. Ji Hyo put her hand against the girl’s forehead, thinking she might be coming down with something, but the girl’s forehead was cool to the touch and damp with sweat. Sun Marie moaned then, a small mumble of disquiet. Maybe she was dreaming, Ji Hyo thought. She reached down and grabbed a teddy bear from the floor, placing it in Sun Marie’s arms. The girl instinctively squeezed the teddy bear and rolled over in the bed.

Ji Hyo smiled, thinking that Sun Marie would be fine, and continued her walk down the hallway. She opened the glass doors that faced the lanai and saw that the skies looked dark, as if about to rain. Ji Hyo had always liked the rain, the way it seemed to wash away the worries of the world, leaving a clean slate, a new chance, a rebirth. She found an umbrella in the entryway closet and walked back to the glass doors, closing them behind her before walking across the lanai, past the willow tree, and down to the beach.

Kaimana put the last load in the wash, that small laundry room white and cold. She felt uneasy, as if the walls were closing in on her. Something was not right. She walked up the stairs, the steps creaking beneath her feet as she made her way to the main floor of the house. It was quiet. She knew that the men were out. But where were Ji Hyo and Sun Marie?

She checked around the house but found only empty rooms. On her way back down the hall, she heard Sun Marie softly crying. The girl’s bedroom was the only room she had not yet checked, and she walked in now, expecting to find both Ji Hyo and Sun Marie inside. But the little girl was alone, whimpering in her sleep.

Kaimana sat down on the bed beside her and pulled the covers up to Sun Marie’s shoulders. She began to sing then, her voice low, hoping only to soothe, not wake, the little girl. The sound of the ocean, Kaimana sang, soothes my restless soul.  The sound of the ocean… rocks me all night long…

Sun Marie suddenly sat up, her eyes open and her face white in fright.

“What is it, dear child?”

Sun Marie’s lower lip began to quiver, her voice shaky. “Mommy,” she said.

Kaimana shook her head. “She’s on her journey, child. We talked about this. Remember?”

The girl slowly looked up at Kaimana then, her voice shaky as she said, “Mommy can’t go, Miss Kaimana. She can’t.”

The old woman peered into the little girl’s green eyes, trying to read her thoughts.

“She’s at the place, Miss Kaimana. The place…”

“So she has found the leina. Her journey has ended then. She will soon make the leap–”

“No, Miss Kaimana! She can’t.”

Kaimana leaned back and breathed in deeply. “Can’t? Or won’t?”

Sun Marie looked back down. “Won’t. Mommy won’t go. She said she has to… warn us first.”

“Warn us?”

Sun Marie slowly nodded. “Mommy was crying, Miss Kaimana. She was so sad. She said she wants to move on but can’t. Not yet.”

“Why, dear child? What did she say?”

“She said… she said she didn’t want to inter… inter–”

“Interfere?”

Sun Marie nodded. “But she said she has to because she knows, she knows something, something bad.” She began crying then, her words coming out in spurts between her sobs. “Something bad… going to happen… to Auntie Ji Hyo.” 

Jong Kook swerved the car around, the tires skidding across the wet road.

Gary was still clutching the phone, the hard case pressed so deeply into his palms from his tight grip. “Hurry, hyung!” he said again.

“What did Kaimana say? Yah, Gary-ah? What happened?”

They approached the flooded part of the road that they had crossed earlier, the water beneath the tires now higher and causing the car to hydroplane. Without that traction, without that contact between the tires and the road, the car seemed to glide like a boat above the water’s surface. Jong Kook couldn’t control the car but tried anyway. He eased off the gas and tried to steer, tried to maneuver the car so that they wouldn’t go off the road.

“Hyung!” Gary yelled, as the car swished back and forth in the flood.

“Yah, I know, I’m trying, Gary-ah.” Jong Kook put his foot back on the gas pedal, trying to