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The Raft
The Raft
The Raft
Ebook216 pages2 hours

The Raft

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Robie is an experienced traveler. She's taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there's a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn't panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.

And then . . . she's in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that's when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there's no sign of help on the way.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 21, 2012
ISBN9781429955478
The Raft
Author

S. A. Bodeen

S. A. Bodeen is the author of The Garden and The Compound, which earned her an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults, a Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly "Flying Start." She is also the author of several picture books, including Elizabeti's Doll, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award. Bodeen grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Her first friends were cows, which she named after characters in books. From there she went on to be a Peace Corps volunteer in East Africa, and has lived in seven states, as well as a remote Pacific island. She adores books and is a big fan of cheese. She lives in Oregon.

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Rating: 3.654040343434344 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Compelling first-hand account of teenage Robie's survival after plane crash, adrift at sea (on, yes, The Raft), and being stranded alone on a desert island. The author maintains a good pace, knows her setting, and the voice is authentic. The addition of a ghostly 2nd person (co-captain "Max") is a good thing or a bad thing depending on the reader's tolerance for such conventions. The average young teen will most likely eat this tale up... and ask for more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    My granddaughter's favorite book that she shared with me. It tells of a young girls who survives tremendous odds with courage. An herorine worthy of today's girls admiration
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Robie flies to Hawaii to visit her aunt. They begin to have a good time but when her aunt has to leave, things get scary now that Robie is all by herself. One night a man was harassing Robie by yanking on her hair because he thought Robie was someone named Lucy. Therefore Robie was so terrified to stay alone she had to get on a flight to Midway, where she and her parents live, as soon as possible. The next morning she gets on a flight. This was unexpected for the pilot but she knows the pilot so the pilot was kind enough to let Robie on. The flight back to Midway had a lot of turbulence but Robie wasn't worried because she has been on many flights before like this. Soon, the turbulence got worse and one of the engines started to fail. Max, the copilot, got the raft ready for him and Robie. Max soon passed away but Robie continued to pretend that he was alive so that she wouldn't be alone. All she had to eat was a bag of skittles. While she was stranded on the raft an airplane did fly overhead but it didn't see her. Robie finds an island and stays there trying to make a fire and other help signals. She knows that sometimes ships stop by islands to see how they are going so she thought she would be found soon. Fortunately she was right and a ship arrived to take her home. Robie was stranded for twelve days but survived with very little food, salt water, sharks, and no one to talk to except made up people. I thought this book was very intriguing because I didn't want to put it down, I had to keep reading. It was very interesting. The author included many objects and other things in the story which brought out a feeling that the story was real. I don't think I would read this book again though because everything was so amazing I would be able to guess every part. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading a false story, but something that could happen, about stranded people.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Robie calls Midway Atoll, a tiny rock a long way west of the Hawaiian islands, home. She lives there with her parents, but often travels to Hawaii to visit her aunt. On one trip, however, Robie decides to head home quickly after visiting her aunt and hops on board a cargo supply flight. What she doesn't realize is she never made it on the flight's manifest, and when the plane crashes no one knows where she's at. Only Robie and a co-pilot, Max, make it off the plane and onto a tiny inflatable raft. S. A. Bodeen's fast-paced survival thriller is tough to put down, even as Robie struggles with her own sanity as food and water are nowhere to be found. A good read for middle and high schoolers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is filled with adventure and tension. The main character, Robie lives through the ordeal of the plane crash and then must find a way to survive on a raft in the middle of the ocean with almost no hope of rescue. I felt her pain and terror in that raft. It is well written and had some very surprising twists.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not bad. Entertaining. I would highly recommend. Give it a try.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing book. Very emotional and the plot twist are just wow! I do suggest if you like sadder type of books with bitter-sweet endings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Short but good. Heartbreaking at times, got me a little choked up there at one point. Not too predictable. I think one of the more believable stories of being lost at sea. Would recommend this to a friend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love reading survival books and I’ve found very few that are to my liking this book is in that few. While a plane crashing a going insane is a fear seeing/reading about other people’s problems makes me feel better about my self. Great book I would recommend
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Why would a white girl have cornrows? It’s cultural appropriation and it would ruin her hair, other than that mediocre book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dumb Teenagers making stupid decisions are usually not my favorite book subjects but once I realized what was actually going on, long before the protagonist says it, I realized it wasn't a bad story. I Loved the descriptions of the birds and the sea and the islands close to Midway. I also understand that this was probably what would actually happen but there just seemed to be something missing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book I soooooo good it made me cry ?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5


    Robie is a 15 year old girl, visiting her aunt in Honolulu- when her aunt leaves for a sudden business trip, Robie is alone and to be checked on daily by a friend of her aunt. This arrangement falls through but her aunt is unaware and Robie is excited to be on her own. She soon decides she's had enough of being by herself, so she hops on a cargo flight back to Midway (her home). She has made this flight many times and the workers know her. On her way back to Midway, the plane plummeted into the ocean and Robie makes it into the emergency raft with the co-pilot, Max.

    Robie struggles for days, weeks maybe in the raft and faces many challenges. Sharks, dehydration, loneliness, and so much more. Max injured doesn't seem like he will make it. Robie decides to roll him out of the raft to better her chance of survival in this leaking raft.

    She somehow makes it to a tiny deserted island where the situation is not much better.

    Young adult readers will relate to this story because Robie is just an average teenager facing not so average circumstances. This book kept me hooked until the end because I was fascinated and attached to the character Robie and wanted her to survive.

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    It was a quick read, but hard to finish because the main character irritated me so much. I did not like this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Robie is 15-years old and has grown up on a small island in the Pacific. She is visiting a friend in Hawaii, when she decides on the spur of the moment to head home. She manages (last minute) to get on one of the few flights that goes to her island each month; this flight is for supplies, so it is only her, the pilot and the co-pilot. While over the water, the plane goes down; Robie and Max, the co-pilot, make it into the raft and have to figure out how to survive. I really liked this. It took a few (short) chapters before I got sucked in, as it was initially background info to set up the story. But once she got on the plane, I was hooked for the rest of the book. It's YA, so it's a very quick read and I finished in a day (really, overall, probably just a few hours).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Raft is story of survival written from the point of view of a 17 year old girl, Robie. There are parts of this story I find completely believable, and other parts not so much. This selection was made by my young teen daughter, and is a good selection to be read aloud with your young teens.

    If family reading is still part of your routine, this is one I would recommend. I would also recommend this story for readers 11 and up. There are no graphic scenes, no foul language, etc. I only select 11 and up because I think that younger than that and the reader may not be able to relate to Robie's thought, feelings, and experience.

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Raft by S. A. Bodeen is the story of a plane crash and a desperate attempt at survival by a fifteen year old teenager. Robie Mitchell had been visiting her aunt in Hawaii, but now she was cutting the visit short and taking the cargo flight back to Midway Island where she lives with her biologist parents. Through a series of miscalculations, her presence on the plane is undocumented and when the plane crashes into the sea, Robie doesn’t know if anyone is even looking for her. She and the practically comatose co-pilot embark on a messy yet urgent survival journey in the life raft and things get very serious indeed when she discovers they have no water or food. I am a huge sucker for survival stories so The Raft was a compelling read for me. I found Robie both endearing and aggravating in turns as she struggles to do what is needed to survive and make it home to her parents. Like any fifteen year old she is sometimes selfish, sometimes whiny, but I thought that part of the story was quite realistic. The fast paced story has plenty of suspense but I did find some aspects a little too simplistic, but then, I am not the target audience for this YA story. Overall, I think this is a story that would appeal to the younger range of YA readers and, to survivor junkies like me.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The story was ok but the writing seemed really choppy to me. Some of it didn't feel realistic to me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Survival story. A little less than on track at times but I think girls will love it. SSYA 2014
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Since I loved "The Compound" and have had trouble keeping it on the shelves at school, I was really interested in what Bodeen would do with a story that is basically, about a girl who survives a plane crash and ends up on a raft all by herself.Can't spoil things by revealing what kept this from being a really boring story, but I will tell you there's a few things I didn't anticipate. I'm glad I purchased The Raft because those students who love to read works by the same author will not be disappointed by the writing since it is a very similar style to Bodeen's first book. The plot isn't as gripping, but the writing is just as enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Like her other novel The Compound, Bodeen seems to thrive best inside her protagonist's mind: this time we are experiencing the life of Robie, a 15 yr old who lives on Midway Island with her scientist parents, but enjoys time with her aunt when she can fly to Honolulu. Unexpectedly, her aunt's work calls her away, and Robie decides to try and fly back home on one of the cargo flights to Midway. The pilot knows her and agrees to let her fly; she's not so sure about his new, young co- pilot, Max. A terrible plane trip ending in a mid-ocean crash sends Robie into territory she never dreamed of: floating on the ocean ALONE. How she manages to survive and eventually get rescued is the crux of the book, along with maintaining sanity by talking with Max. While in some ways, this book seems insular (almost completely inside Robie's head) the use of marine life/details is knowledgeable and interesting, the psychological trauma Robie faces is realistically portrayed, and the suspense - will she survive? will she be rescued? - is maintained throughout. If students like shows such as Lost or movies such as Castaway, they may enjoy this fast read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Robie is a very realistic heroine. She's kind of bratty and not very brave but the story of how she survives a plane crash creates a sense of empathy for her and her situation. Well written.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a good book to add to any collection of survival stories.This one is told from the female perspective so it will have a very different audience than most other survival /adventure stories for this reading level.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I first picked up The Raft by SA Bodeen because I really wanted something exciting and different. I wanted an adventure story, a story of survival. I got that and so much more.

    You would think that a book about a fifteen year old girl surviving for days at sea on nothing but a life raft would be very plot driven. The deeper I read, I found that this story is very much about the characters. About a young girl saving herself. About a young man forgiving himself. My heart broke over and over again for Robie, and for the co-pilot of the crashed airplane, Max.

    In the beginning of The Raft, everything seems peaceful. For a moment I thought I had mixed up synopses with another book. But soon enough we are thrust right into the action. Bodeen did a fantastic job of really capturing the terror and panic in Robie and the small delivery plane hurtled towards the water. Robie's actions and reactions were so real. I could not imagine being in that situation, but I'm sure it would look similar to Robie's voice-killing screams, the sheer, thoughtless, all-consuming fear. My heart was racing and I flew through the pages.


    I very much enjoyed reading about Robie -- who is only fifteen -- learning how to survive. She teaches herself to keep warm and dry, to find viable drinking water, to catch fish. How she kept a clear enough head to feed herself is beyond me. But like this book says, you'll never know just how strong you can be. Some of the scenes left me squeamish, and others just broke my heart. Towards the end I had no idea how Robie could ever get herself out of this mess. And the twist!! Holy twist! I won't ruin it for you, but seriously, that was the mother of all plot pivots. I could not even... Jeez.


    I would absolutely recommend The Raft by SA Bodeen to anyone looking for a great story of survival and growth, and to those who are looking for something fresh, something beyond the confines of paranormal romance, and contemporary romance. This book was fantastic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: Short and fast-paced, Bodeen’s writing strikes home in a big way. A good survival story with deep, unique characters.Opening Sentence: The dude with the lime-green Mohawk and dark wooden pegs in his earlobes looked down at me, the long silver needle in his rubber-gloved hand pointed directly at my face.The Review: I’ll be straight with you — the closest I’ve ever been to a plane crash is watching LOST and United 93, but I love survival stories. Love. Probably because I’m good in emergencies and I’m convinced when the zombie plague breaks out I won’t be the first one to die, but my point: even though this novel crosses into literary fiction — a territory I rarely tread, because hey, I hate it — this novel struck me.The novel starts with a small dose of teenage stupidity. Robie’s aunt left her home alone on the condition that her friend comes to check on her everyday, and of course the friend can’t make it and asks Robie to tell her aunt that she’s sorry. Robie, eager to be left alone like an adult, does no such thing. One night she almost gets robbed at night and the experience scares her so much she finds a cargo plane leaving ASAP to take her off Honolulu.The turbulence gets so bad that co-pilot Max throws Robie out of the plane and into an inflatable raft before jumping out after her. So begins our survival story. Max ends up with a concussion and spends most of the novel sleeping — making The Raft about one person, trapped in one tiny place. Let’s get real. Being trapped on a raft waiting for rescue is repetitive and boring; Robie’s survivor instincts kept not only the characters, but the story alive.I don’t think I would have liked this novel if the narrator had been different. Robie begins the novel shallow and a stupid, but as soon as that plane goes down we see the strong young woman underneath all the frivolity of everyday life on Hawaii. She fought against her circumstances and stayed alive. She had to witness some pretty horrific things on that raft, survive horrible conditions — but she did it, and it felt real. Everything about The Raft felt real. It doesn’t sound like the story should be interesting, yet I was engrossed the whole time. (Note: It took me about two hours to read. It’s SHORT.)But no novel is perfect, and OMG Robie would not stop going on about seabirds. Like, I’m sorry, I don’t care about the mating habits or nesting or any of that. There were pages and pages about these birds and honestly, there’s some deep symbolic, metaphorical meaning behind them — they fly free while Robie and Max are trapped, or whatever — but it pretty much smacked you in the face. For pages.As you can tell from the excerpt below, the writing style of The Raft isn’t a normal narrative. It’s more poetic, more distant from the narrator than I was used to reading, but it worked. At the same time, if you don’t like it in the beginning, it’ll only annoy you more as the story goes on. For me, it didn’t matter. The voice pulled me in and kept me engaged and the writing style never disrupted the flow for me — but I know a lot of other readers who wanted to chuck the book at a wall for every broken sentence.If you like survival stories or are looking for a contemporary that’s going to pluck at your heartstrings, The Raft is a great read.Notable Scene:I want to live.Fighting with every kick, every ounce of reserve I had left,the light got brighter,closer,and I reached up,planning to burst out into the air.But I couldn’t.I was at the surface, I knew I was.But my hands touched a barrier. Something was there, soft and yielding, but I couldn’t push through. The red was all around it.FTC Advisory: Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan provided me with a copy of The Raft. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I first picked up The Raft by SA Bodeen because I really wanted something exciting and different. I wanted an adventure story, a story of survival. I got that and so much more.

    You would think that a book about a fifteen year old girl surviving for days at sea on nothing but a life raft would be very plot driven. The deeper I read, I found that this story is very much about the characters. About a young girl saving herself. About a young man forgiving himself. My heart broke over and over again for Robie, and for the co-pilot of the crashed airplane, Max.

    In the beginning of The Raft, everything seems peaceful. For a moment I thought I had mixed up synopses with another book. But soon enough we are thrust right into the action. Bodeen did a fantastic job of really capturing the terror and panic in Robie and the small delivery plane hurtled towards the water. Robie's actions and reactions were so real. I could not imagine being in that situation, but I'm sure it would look similar to Robie's voice-killing screams, the sheer, thoughtless, all-consuming fear. My heart was racing and I flew through the pages.


    I very much enjoyed reading about Robie -- who is only fifteen -- learning how to survive. She teaches herself to keep warm and dry, to find viable drinking water, to catch fish. How she kept a clear enough head to feed herself is beyond me. But like this book says, you'll never know just how strong you can be. Some of the scenes left me squeamish, and others just broke my heart. Towards the end I had no idea how Robie could ever get herself out of this mess. And the twist!! Holy twist! I won't ruin it for you, but seriously, that was the mother of all plot pivots. I could not even... Jeez.


    I would absolutely recommend The Raft by SA Bodeen to anyone looking for a great story of survival and growth, and to those who are looking for something fresh, something beyond the confines of paranormal romance, and contemporary romance. This book was fantastic.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My standards for this book were heightened by the fact that I just recently read Survive, which I loved and that was also about a girl who finds herself in a crazy life or death situation.I found the main character, Robie, hard to care about, which isn’t good when you’re supposed to be rooting for her survival. She was immature, whiny, and selfish. When you’re stranded with another person fighting for survival wouldn’t you think it would bring the two of you together and you would take care of one another? Nope, that wasn’t the case. The only food on the Raft is a bag of Skittles but does Robie share them? NOPE. She eats them all while Max is sleeping, and later when she catches a fish once again she eats her share and leaves nothing for Max.The “big plot twist” was easily guessed early on and when this “twist” was finally revealed at the end we are practically beaten over the head with it to make sure we fully comprehend what happened. This just frustrated me.I did like that the ending wasn’t abrupt. It went further than just the conclusion of this horrible event, which I found very satisfying.For a book where the main characters life hangs in the balance for most of the book it was way too easy to put down and forget about. I should have been enraptured in her fight for survival; instead I could’ve cared less.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very good young adult novel that kept my interest throughout the story. I say it is a good "young adult" novel but it could just as easily be an adult novel, all it would have needed was an older protagonist. The story is good and tight and the girl, "Robie", is very likable, there is even a very well done twist in the story. Other than being a bit short, I have no complaints about this read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fast, great read. I started this in bed one night & decided this wasn't something to start then, I'd want to keep on reading. This is considerred Young Adult, but interesting enough to totally engross me. Funny thing is, I'd just read Unbroken by Hillenbrand for book club, and this turned out to compliment it well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing book from start to finish, I loved it. So many emotions of fear, uncertainty, guilt, etc flowing through the reader. What I enjoyed most about this book is the great plot line of being out on sea, ALL ALONE. No food, no water, no cell phone, no ONE! And the worst part, the thought that you could possibly die a slow death if no one finds you. I admit that, that thought right there makes me shiver. I think I'd go crazy or worse kill myself so that I don't have to do it slowly. How Robie manged to endure all this terror is beyond me.There's no love interest but there is a great friendship. Being out there with one other person to share the stress that you are going through is helpful. Max is great at keeping Robie calm as well as sane. There are times where she wants to break down, then Max comes in, bringing her back to the surface.There is an awesome twist in the end. It made me smile. I had no seen that last bit coming and have to admit that the author did a great job, investing in the reader in the character.The Raft is an brutal, emotional story that steals the reader away. Skillfully blended emotions, allow the reader to fully put themselves in Robie's shoes. An enjoyable moving story, The Raft is highly recommended!

Book preview

The Raft - S. A. Bodeen

one

The dude with the lime-green Mohawk and dark wooden plugs in his earlobes looked down at me, the long silver needle in his rubber-gloved hand pointed directly at my face.

Wait. I swallowed and gripped the arms of my chair.

Jutting out one hip, he rolled his eyes. Do you want your nose pierced or not?

Yes, just … can you tell me something worse? I pointed at the needle. Something that is worse than that?

He probably thought my request was insane, but that was how I coped with unpleasant things. Once I found out something worse, then it was easier to deal with. Whether it was a filling at the dentist or an end-of-term physics test, finding out things that were worse helped me deal with new challenges.

Green Mohawk Dude seemed to think about it as he looked around. A blond pregnant woman in tall suede boots and a fuchsia halter dress browsed through the gold hoops. With one gloved finger, he pointed at her. Childbirth. Fairly certain that hurts worse.

I’m fifteen. My turn to eye roll. Something a little more relative? Not so obviously inappropriate? I got ready to leave.

He pointed down at his black flip-flops. See my big toes?

My glance went downward and I flinched. His toes were big and callousy with yellowish nails. Easily the ugliest toes I’d ever seen.

Sick.

Green Mohawk Dude said, Last year I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Coming down, my toes got smashed into the front of my boots. Ended up losing both my big toenails. Took them eleven months to grow back.

I asked, And that hurt worse than getting your nose pierced?

Guess so. He shrugged. Now, can we do this?

Nodding, I closed my eyes as he shoved the needle through my skin.

A rush of stinging flooded up my nose. Holy crap! My eyes watered so bad I had to blink like crazy, then I finally gave up and kept them shut for a while. When I did open them again, first I glared at the green-haired liar standing in front of me, then looked in the mirror to check out the diamond adorning my nose. Sweet.

No swimming in pools for a month. Even though they’re chlorinated, they could have germs. And lakes, rivers … avoid those. The ocean too. Just to be safe. You don’t want to get it infected. He handed me a plastic baggie with alcohol swabs and Xeroxed instructions. So now you can go back to the mainland with the new look you got in Honolulu.

Um, yeah, I said, suddenly wondering just how much trouble I would be in when my parents saw my nose. Actually, I don’t live on the mainland. I live the other direction, out on Midway Island.

Midway as in the Battle of Midway?

I nodded.

His eyebrows went up and he nodded. Very cool. You’re lucky.

Lucky.

If I had a dollar for every time someone called me that, I’d be rich, because that’s all I heard when I told people about my life.

When I told them that I lived on a coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific:

Lucky.

When I told them that I didn’t go to a real school:

Lucky.

When I told them that I hung out among dolphins and monk seals and nesting albatross:

Lucky.

For three years, my parents had been research biologists on historic Midway, now a national wildlife refuge, so I lived there too, in the old admiral’s home called Midway House. Sure, there were cool things like having my own golf cart and making my own hours for home school and getting to hang out with National Geographic photographers. Plus the fact I knew more about ocean fish and seabirds than most postgraduate researchers.

Those things did make me feel lucky.

But then there were other things that did not make me feel so lucky.

Like having the Internet crap out for days at a time, and not even owning a cell phone because there was no reception, and getting only three television channels, one of which was CNN, none of which were MTV. What’s the point of even having television?

Not to mention being the only kid among fifty or so adults, which left me no one to talk to except for Facebook friends, and that was only when the Internet worked.

Lately it seemed there were a lot more days when my life felt less like luck and way more like suck.

I paid Green Mohawk Dude, tipped him a little, and then headed back for AJ’s apartment.

What saved me from going crazy most of the time was Dad’s sister, my aunt Jillian, who lived in Honolulu. AJ, as I called her, had a place right on Waikiki Beach and was a consultant, which meant she got to do all her work from home. She was way younger than Dad, only about thirty, and when I couldn’t take the isolation anymore, my parents would throw me on the supply flight returning to Honolulu from Midway and send me to her. And that’s where I had been spending the month of June.

When I walked in, AJ was on the phone. Her long brown hair was up in a clip and she had a plumeria-laden cover-up on over her red bikini. AJ’s eyes widened when she saw my nose, then she gave me a thumbs-up. As soon as she hung up, she came over and grabbed my chin, eyeing my new piercing. Let me see this diamond I paid for. She grinned. Your parents are never going to let you come here again.

I tossed my green crocheted purse on the table. I’m getting my suit on.

*   *   *

AJ spent every day sitting by the pool with me, although she did try to get me to branch out. She called through the bathroom door: Can’t we do the beach today, Robie? We can get a good spot by the Hilton.

Nope. I put on my purple cheetah bikini. "Two words. Sand and waves."

She laughed. For someone who lives on an island, you are the most ocean-aversive person I’ve ever met.

I love the ocean! I protested, as I opened the door.

AJ groaned. You just don’t like to touch it.

Exactly. I just like to look. I pointed at my nose. Plus I have instructions not to go in the water.

She shook her head. Finally, your perfect excuse to not get wet.

We went down to the pool. Wearing my contented smile, I leaned back on my pool chair and turned on my e-reader to Stephen King’s newest, which I was almost done with. There was absolutely nowhere else I would rather be at that moment. Now, this is the life.

She asked, So what shall we do tonight?

Every evening we headed off to do something, like see a movie or get pedicures at Ala Moana Center. My toes currently sported bright orange polish, rhinestone flowers on both big toes. One night my aunt surprised me by having a friend of hers come and give me cornrows. My dirty-blond hair was almost to my waist, so it took forever. When she finished, I looked in the mirror and tried not to show my shock. With my tan, the cornrows looked a little tacky. And I didn’t look anything like myself. But I didn’t want to make AJ feel bad, so I lied and said I loved them. My dad would like them, so I planned on keeping them until I got back to Midway, just so he could see. Plus it was kind of fun to walk around, feeling unrecognizable.

AJ waited for me to answer about tonight.

International Market Place? I suggested.

Sure. Cheesecake Factory after?

Definitely.

That evening at the International Market Place, a collection of booths and shops selling anything and everything, I found a henna tattoo stand where a pretty Hawaiian lady, dark hair to her waist and three rings in her nose, beckoned to me.

I wanted a real tattoo, but my parents were already going to freak over my nose. AJ had signed the permission form only after I promised to take all the blame. That’s how deep her coolness went. She had even sprung for the diamond, which, even she admitted, totally rocked. So, given I’d already used up my quota of quasi-permanent bodily changes my parents would dislike, I started to look through the book of henna tattoo samples.

AJ tapped me on the arm. I’m going to be right over there by those shell planters.

The tattoo lady asked, You want your aumakua?

What’s that?

Your ancestral guide. The spirit that protects your ohana. Your family, yeah?

I’m not Hawaiian.

The tattoo lady smiled. Mine is the honu. She pointed to a picture of a sea turtle.

I love green sea turtles. I sat down on the wooden chair and propped my foot up on a stool.

With a little plastic bottle, she squeezed the brown henna out like she was painting, and it tickled my ankle. The henna turtle looked like brown mud when she finished. It will dry, but leave it on, yeah? She handed me a little baggie with a cotton ball inside. It’s soaked in lemon juice. Squeeze this on several times and the henna will last longer.

I handed her three wrinkled fives and went to find AJ.

There was a huge line outside the Cheesecake Factory, but I made my way through the crowd and inside the noisy restaurant where AJ was already at a table. We shared a slice of turtle cheesecake. AJ had just gotten a refill of decaf when her phone rang.

She glanced at her phone. Barney.

Even I knew Barney was the guy who gave her the most consulting work. AJ always took his calls. Hey, Barn.

I leaned down and touched my tattoo. The henna was stiff and felt like it was drying out my skin.

Back above the table, AJ’s eyes narrowed as she listened for a while. Seriously? She listened a little more and rolled her eyes. No. No, that’s fine. I’ll come tomorrow. She hung up and put a hand on mine. I am so sorry, Robie. I’ve got to go to LA tomorrow.

That sucks. I wasn’t looking forward to cutting short my trip and going back to Midway. But I saw her face and added, It’s only a week short, I was going back next week anyway. I took a sip of my Coke.

The waitress brought the bill and AJ got out her reading glasses. You don’t have to go back. She leaned forward like she was going to tell me a secret. Bobbi can stay with you.

Stifling a groan, I faked a smile.

Bobbi was a friend of AJ’s who lived on the other side of Oahu. We’d been up to see her a couple times at her beach house, which was always messy and full of smelly cats. Bobbi was old, like fifty, and had thick, waist-length dreadlocks and really tan, leathery-looking skin. She didn’t believe in bras. Or deodorant.

No, that’s okay. I can go back to Midway. I paused. Or … I could just stay at your place by myself.

She started to shake her head and protest, but I cut her off. AJ, I’m almost sixteen.

AJ huffed out her nose. Robie. You are not almost sixteen. You’ve only been fifteen for two months.

I shrugged. Still, you have security up the ying-yang at your place, I know my way around…

She looked at me over the top of her black cat-eye reading glasses. Your parents would kill me.

We won’t tell them?

AJ tapped the pen on the bill for a moment, and then pointed it at me. Only if Bobbi stops in every day after work.

Ew. Every other day.

Her voice was firm. Every day.

Fine. I held out my hand and we shook.

The next morning, after about an hour of instructions, admonitions, and warnings, AJ left for the airport. I was just getting ready for the pool when the phone rang. Bobbi said, Hi, Robie. Jillian fly out yet?

Technically not, since she was probably still sitting at the airport. No.

I can’t talk, but can you give her a message for me?

Sure.

Bobbi’s words were rushed. I’m not gonna be able to stop in like she asked me to. My car died and I have to carpool with a guy from up here.

That’s okay. I smiled as I noticed AJ had left me a small fortune’s worth of bills on the

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