Noelani B. Lee offered her neighbor, Mrs. Macalipat, a cup of tea.

“It’s very kind of you, even though I don’t often drink caffeine this late in the day,” Mrs. Macalipat said.

Noelani looked at the clock in her kitchen. It was well past 8 a.m.

Noelani placed a mug of tea on the table in front of her neighbor. Then she poured herself a cup. “I’m glad you can help me out while I’m gone this week, Mrs. Macalipat. I hate to impose, but my mother is in Honolulu visiting my Aunty Clara and there aren’t many other people in town I can trust.”

“Now, Noe, it’s just fine. You say you haven’t seen your cousin in, what, seven years?”
“That’s right. Wanda, that’s her name, is flying in tomorrow. I lived with her on the mainland for a while.”

“I see,” Mrs. Macalipat said. “How long ago was that?”

“Seven years.”

“That’s a long time. How did you two meet?”

“She’s my cousin.”

“What brings her here?”

Noelani pondered the phone call from Wanda, a few nights before. From out of the blue, Wanda announced she was coming to visit for a week. But instead of staying with Noelani in Hilo, Wanda said she wanted to spend a week “playing tourist” on the Big Island’s Kona Coast, where she grew up. And she wanted Noelani to play with her.
Noelani tried to convince her instead to spend the week in Hilo. But Wanda said she already made reservations at the King Kamehameha Hotel. Too late, cousin, Wanda said. Cancel all your private detective-type jobs. We’re gonna have us a serious staycation.
“I get the feeling she’s homesick,” Noelani said. “But she sometimes does the most unexpected things. She always has, ever since she was a kid.” Noelani laughed. “Of course, when Wanda comes around, trouble usually isn’t far behind.”

Mrs. Macalipat gripped her mug with both hands. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Noe, I don’t think you should spend time gallivanting around the island with a known trouble-maker. Especially one you barely know.”

Noelani tried to speak, but couldn’t. She drank some tea.

“Now you know,” Mrs. Macalipat said, “I’ll be sure to keep an eye on your house and that wonderful fat kitty cat of yours while you’re gone. I always do.”

Noelani wanted to say something, but she again held herself in check. She recalled the last time the oft-befuddled Mrs. Macalipat checked in on Jeff, Noelani’s rotund flame-point Himalayan. It was about a year earlier, when Noelani attended a three-day private investigators’ seminar on Maui. True to her word, while Noelani was gone Mrs. Macalipat collected her mail and left it in a neat stack on the kitchen table. However, she forgot to refill Jeff’s food dish. Being a resourceful feline despite his lethargy-inducing obesity, Jeff discovered a box of bran cereal Noelani left on the kitchen counter. Its contents held him over until Noelani returned from Maui. She then spent the better part of a week searching for the multitudinous turds Jeff left in various hard-to-reach places around the house.

Noelani stood and retrieved a large plastic container from a cupboard. She placed it on the table. “His food is in here. All you need to give him is a little scoop in the morning and one again in the evening.”

“Oh, is that all?”

The fat cat jumped onto Noelani’s vacant chair. He sat down and purred at the plastic container. “It’s all he needs, really, seeing how fat he is.”

“Yes, he’s a tubby kitty.”

“He’ll be fine.” Noelani rubbed Jeff behind his ears.

“I’m sure he will be,” Mrs. Macalipat said. “So, how much do I give him?”

***

When Wanda called with news of her impending arrival, Noelani was on the verge of cracking an extortion and blackmail case involving rival gas station franchisees and a snack food supplier. Even though she knew Wanda would fly home to Las Vegas in a week, Noelani felt a sense of duty to her client. She reluctantly passed what information she had on the case to a cop friend and told him he owed her big time. Then, against her better judgement, she refunded her client’s advance fees.

After Mrs. Macalipat went home, Noelani watched television and nursed a cup of green tea in her living room. She changed channels until she got to the local evening news. She landed in the middle of a sports report about a baseball team from Kailua-Kona called the Diamond Kings and its star player, a tall dude named Dean-something. Being averse to sports of any kind, she changed the channel again. She settled on a Law & Order:
Criminal Intent rerun.

Jeff jumped up on her lap.

“Maybe you should spend the week with Wanda and me, Mr. Man Cat,” she said. “You’ll either lose weight from all our constant activity, or else you’ll wind up in jail with us.”
A rectangular box sat on the end table next to her. Noelani opened it and studied its contents. They sure looked pretty.

She set the box aside and looked at the television. She sipped her tea. The face of Vincent D’Onofrio’s character, New York Police Detective Robert Goren, filled her flat screen.