The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 30

AN: hana's picture is on the side.

The next day there was an expedition further along the coast to Oheo Gluch where, in a series of waterfalls and pools, a stream made its way from the thickly forested heights of the interior to the ocean. Near the beach where the fresh water merged with the surf, there was a large open headland with views along the rugged coast.

The whole area was part of the Haleakala National Park and permission had been obtained from the Park Rangers for Ocean Wanderer's chefs to cook lunch on portable barbecues which, apparently, were among joon's innovations.

Later, when lunch was over and the passengers had dispersed to explore the paths through the woods or to photograph the Seven Scared Pools, jenna found a place on the headland where, with a boulder for a backrest, she could sit on the warm turf, watching the Pacific.

She was surprised when joon joined her.

"All on your own, jenna?"

It was the kind of remark which would have prompted a sarcastic rejoinder from Professor kim.

She, although she didn't welcome joon's instrusion, smiled and said,

"I was thinking about the first settlers coming here from the South Pacific on outrigger canoes, not knowing if they would ever make landfall. All those unimaginable miles of ocean... And not always as calm as it is today."

"I guess there had to be something pretty bad going on where they came from to make them set out on a voyage into the unknown," he agreed.

"hana tells me you're not too happy about her and me. Is that right?"

His bluntness did more than startle her. It had never crossed her mind that hana would tell him how she felt, and she was taken aback by joon raising the subject with her.

He watched her, waiting for her to say something.

After some hesitation, she decided to match his directness.

"I suppose it's not really my business, except that I feel uncomfortable accepting your hospitality when you're not, as I thought, going to be my future brother-in-law. Also it worries me that hana is in a situation which can't bring her lasting happiness."

"you'd like to see her married and settled down, hm?"

"either that or earning her living in a satisfying job."
Joon contemplated the white-flecked dark blue surface of the deep ocean, outside the reef, for a few moments.

"jenna,you're making the mistake, which we all do when we're young, of judging everyone by yourself. I've known you long enough to tell you you're an intelligent girl, a potential career girl. Hana isn't. She doesn't have brains and, if she had, she's too lazy to use them. I don't mean that unkindly. Don't get angry with me for stating the facts. She has a great figure and a pretty face, but there's not as much between her ears, as they say, as there is between yours."

"there are plenty of interesting jobs which don't call for a college education."

"maybe so, but they usually require initiative and drive, and your sister doesn't have those qualities. As I said, she's lazy. She likes getting up late and taking an hour to do her face. The only energetic thing she enjoys is dancing. She would hate a nine-to-five job in an office or a department store, and I don't think she's suited to being a suburban housewife. It's not easy to keep a house nice and cook meals day after day and raise kids the right way. It's not as tough as it was when my mother was doing it, but it's still a lot of hard work and responsibility. Can you see hana not buying a dress she wanted because her kids needed new shose, or getting up early to fix their breakfasts and pack their lunch pails? Maybe you can. I can't."
Jenna's eyes held a sparkle of anger as she said, "she was very good to me when i was little. If a man really loved her, clothes might become less important to her."

"they might, but I doubt it. The way she looks is her greatest interest in life... As it is to alot of women."

"she won't always be young and pretty. What will become of her then, if she goes on like this?"

"that's a long time ahead. It's not my problem and it's not yours either, jenna. You can't change her and you shouldn't worry about her. We can only change our own lives. I learned that when my kids were growing up. It's no use trying to plan other people's lives for them, or getting upset when they go their own way."

His attitude made her feel entitled not to mince words.

"i wonder if you'd be as philosophical about it if you had a daughter who was living with a man old enough to be her father," she said bluntly.

"one of my daughters has a boyfriend who isn't as old as I am, but he's forty and has a wife and three kids. It's not a situation which makes me happy, but I have to accept that Julie is a grown woman and if that's what she wants, I have no right to interfere. I didn't make a great job of my own life. I married too young and for the wrong reasons; the chief one being that it wasn't easy to get a girl into bed in those days, not even for the good-looking guys."

When she remained silent, he went on, "as for the moral aspect, your sister isn't doing anything worse than the wife who stays with her husband, after she's stopped feeling any affection for him, because he's the chief breadwinner and it's easier to put up with him than to manage on her own. Before you condemn your sister, think about how many women stay married for convenience, and ask yourself where's the difference between them and hana."

"I don't condmn my sister," she exclaimed indignantly.

"I just hate her to be thought....." she left the sentence unfinished, unwilling to use any of the derogatory terms which she suspected others on board had applied to hana.

"do you hate it for her, or for yourself because you feel what people think about her affects how they think about you?" he asked shrewdly.