Home to Roost (Aloha Chicken Mysteries Book 5) by Josi Avari

Author:Josi Avari [Avari, Josi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950529063
Publisher: Quill Canyon Press
Published: 2019-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Thirteen minutes.

It was long enough to do a lot of things: make a cup of tea, pay a bill, scramble an egg. It was long enough to do three poses of yoga, call a friend, or pick up milk at the grocery store.

It was not long enough to finish a half-hacked tiki surfboard, as Luca Tai was discovering.

The pressure had gotten to the young carver, and he had been struggling for several minutes to jab out some semblance of a tiki face while Ceylon King, beside him, was carefully smoothing sandpaper over his polished and completely carved surfboard for the millionth time.

Continuing down the row, Mano was doing detail work, Ernest was tidying edges, and Chainsaw Chuck was sitting back with his feet on his workbench talking about what a great carver he was. His piece already sat on the auction table and had been there for ten minutes.

Saffron secretly thought he could have done a little more to make it great, but it certainly wasn’t bad for just over an hour’s work.

She heard Luca swear. He was sweating, scrambling. Saffron couldn’t help but be annoyed that he had walked away from his bench in the middle of the competition, spent over half an hour who-knew-where, and had come back to try to finish with so little time left.

He swore again, and Ceylon King said, “Shut up, Tai,” the first words King had said all night.

Before she knew what was happening, Saffron saw Mano leave his bench. She strained to see if he was done, but it looked as if one design on the tiki’s headdress was only half-finished.

Still, he laid down his tools and crossed in front of King’s bench, stopping to stand behind Luca Tai. He laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder, and Tai looked up into Mano’s face.

Saffron could see them both well from where she was, and she saw clearly the desperation in Luca Tai’s eyes.

Mano smiled and patted Luca’s shoulder. “Looks to me like you need some relief,” he said to the young man.

“No,” the young man said, “I need to get this done. I only have a few minutes. I can’t take another break, I already tried that…” Luca was rambling, his panicked words falling over each other like frightened fish trying to swim for deeper water. His lips trembled, and there were tears of frustration in his eyes.

Mano tried again, leaning down and laying a hand over Luca’s to stop the younger man’s crazed jabbing at the surfboard. From the judges’ table, Sophia barked a warning that only one competitor could work on each piece, and Mano held up both his hands to her in acknowledgement.

“You need some relief,” he said again. This time Saffron heard Mano’s intonation on the last word. Though she didn’t know what he meant by it, she could tell it was a code through which he was trying to help Luca.

Luca heard it, too. “Relief?” He said, and looked down at the piece. A wide grin parted the curtain of desperation.

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