Running Hot

TWO

After they closed the restaurant for the night they followed their usual custom and walked down Kuhio to the Udon Palace. Milly Okada, the proprietor, brought them huge bowls filled with steaming, aromatic broth and plump noodles. She gave Luther a knowing look when she set the soup down in front of him.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine, Milly.” Luther picked up the chopsticks. “I just need some of your udon, that’s all. Been a long night.”

“You’re depressed again,” she announced. “You should be feeling better now that your leg is almost healed.”

“For sure,” Petra agreed. “But he’s not feelin’ better. He’s feelin’ worse.”

The wound had healed but his leg was never going to be the same. The damned cane would be a part of his life from now on. He was still coming to terms with that fact but that was not why he was feeling low tonight. He did not know how to explain the real problem to anyone.

“I am feeling better,” he insisted. “Just a little tired, that’s all. Like I said, it’s been a long night.”

“I’ll get you another beer,” Milly said.

She disappeared through the fluttery panels of red-and-white cloth that screened the kitchen from the dining area.

“Milly and Petra are right, you’re depressed again.” Wayne used his chopsticks to slurp up a mouthful of noodles. “Take the J&J job. That will make you feel better.”

“Yeah,” Petra said. “That will get you out of this little funk you’ve been in for the past couple of months.”

Luther glared at them across the small table. “The job Jones offered is make-work. A two-day babysitting gig on Maui.”

“So what?” Wayne tapped the chopsticks on the rim of his bowl. “It’s work. Means you’re back in the game.”

“No,” Luther said. “It doesn’t mean that. It means that Fallon Jones is feeling sorry for me, maybe even a little guilty because of what happened on the last job. He’s decided to throw me a bone.”

Petra snorted. “Get real. Fallon Jones doesn’t do sympathy and he wouldn’t recognize a guilt trip if one bit him on the ass.”

“Okay, I’ll concede that Fallon is not given to indulging the finer feelings,” Luther said. “That leaves only one other reason why he left that message in my voice mail.”

“What?” Petra demanded.

“The job is so low-rent he doesn’t want to waste money paying for an agent to fly from the mainland.”

“Huh.” Petra shrugged. “Maybe. My advice is to take the bone.”

“Why?” Luther asked.

“Because you need to gnaw on something besides your own thoughts. Working for J&J again, even if it is just a two-day bodyguard job, will be good for you.”

“Think so?”

“Yeah,” Petra said. “And there’s another reason you should take the job.”

“What?”

“I’ve got a feelin’ about it.”

“You had a feeling about the last job,” Luther reminded her.

They all looked at the cane hooked over the back of a chair.

“This feelin’ is a little different,” Petra said.