Fireworks flashed through Honolulu's evening sky, climaxing in a thunderous burst at midnight. The Asian ritual of blasting evil spirits out of the New Year had become an excuse for a vulgar display of pyromania.

Colby stared numbly at his little plastic hula dancer Maile, wildly swinging her hips on his coffee table. The doll was sound-activated to sway and twirl to the tune of "Pearly Shells," and the fireworks had her in a dancing frenzy.

Nani had given him Maile as a wedding gift, to remind him of how they'd met when she danced the sunset show at the Moana. He was charmed by the statuette's surprisingly warm smile. Back then, Nani's smile never stopped either.

The ringing telephone cut through the din. Colby nervously lifted the receiver.

"She's gone," the female voice said.

"Lei? Is that you?" Colby strained to hear. "There's a lot of noise."

"Nani. She's gone. I thought you should know."

"Damn." Colby looked at his watch. It was 12:15. "Did she make it into the New Year like she wanted?"

"They just pronounced her. You know there's no way my superstitious sister would enter the spirit world until the fireworks scared away the demons."

"Damn. Why wouldn't she see me, Lei?"

"You cheated on her, Colby. What did you expect?"

"I apologized a thousand times. She was so sick for so long. I was so lonely."

"And she wasn't? You're 37, Colby. It's not like your dick was going to shrivel and fall off if you'd waited until she was gone."

"Well, she got her revenge. I'm condemned to a lifetime of feeling like crap."

"It wasn't revenge. She just didn't want betrayal to be the last face she saw in this world. Honor her by living your life as the man she thought she married."

"I needed to see her, Lei, to make things pono."

"You know, they won't move her to the morgue for an hour if you'd like to come say goodbye. I don't think she'd mind now."

A starburst rocket exploded above Colby's lanai. Maile started back to life, but her battery was spent.

"Damn."

David Shapiro is a Hawaii-based newspaper columnist, editor and occasional writer of fiction whose work has appeared in several online journals. He can be reached at davids@aloha.net.

New Year's resolution for 2003: "Pay a lot more attention to the quality of my creative ideas."

Copyright 2002 by David Shapiro

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