Chapter 22

At 10:30 the next morning the trio appeared at the golf pro shop. There they met a very youthful-looking Jim Conroy, his wife, Hank, and their daughter, Samantha. Kim and Brad were delighted to meet the Conroys — Hank Wellington had explained their relationship to the Carlsons and Carlson’s Rangers — and particularly pleased to see the way Lisa and Samantha took to one another. They were there to play golf, but it was apparent that Lisa was not planning on playing nor was Sam.

“Lise, you have your license, don’t you?” Kim asked.

The girl just nodded her head.

“How about if we get a car for you, and you and Sam go down to Lahaina? I seem to recall seeing some shops down there.”

It was arranged immediately. There was a car waiting for them by the time they got back to the hotel.

“Thank you so much!” Hank Conroy said fervently.

“For what?”

“Sam is fourteen years old,” Hank replied, “and we’re stuck out here in the far corner of nowhere. She’s in her freshman year in high school and has friends there, but because of our location, she almost never sees them outside of school. When you introduced her to Lisa, I could see her eyes light up. You see, Lisa is just a few years older than Sam. But she knows what the high-school kids are doing and talking about. So anyway, thank you!”

Suddenly Hank’s face fell and she murmured, “Oh, shit...”

“What’s that mean?” Kim asked.

“That means Sam has no money is what ‘oh, shit’ means. And how can she go shopping with no money?”

“Hank, that’s not a problem,” Kim replied. “You talked about how happy Sam was. Well, while you were watching your daughter, I was watching Lisa. That girl lit up like a Christmas tree! Furthermore, she has a background in Vietnam, too, that involves Ken Carlson and my darling. They’ll be fine.”

Before going out to play, Jim Conroy checked their golf equipment. Then he looked Brad and Kimberly over carefully. Taking a few clubs from the rack, he led them out to the nearby practice tee. As he had done with Kathy Carlson, the first thing he did was to correct their club grips. They both took a few shots, and Jim shook his head in amusement. It was the Carlsons all over again: Both were far too strong for the club shafts they were using.

Conroy made the substitution to clubs with titanium shafts and told them to really let out their swings. The couple continued to hit practice shots which carried farther and farther.

Finally, they were ready to play. The Conroys played against the Kramers, but with full handicaps. That proved to be disastrous for the Conroys. Both Kim and Brad had handicaps, but they had been established using their old clubs. The improvement in their games with the new ones was both immediate and dramatic.

Playing the Bay Course, the Conroys both shook their heads when they got to the over-water 6^th hole. In exactly the same way Kathy Carlson had done it, Kim hit a perfect tee shot with her 8-iron and watched as the ball hit the green just beyond the flag and then walked backward to drop for a hole-in-one. They were delighted seeing Kim’s girlish enthusiasm when her ball dropped. She looked like a gorgeous five-year-old.

Finishing their round, Kim invited the Conroys to join them for lunch, but Hank begged off. A neighbor was watching their youngest and she had to get back. So instead, the Kramers joined them for lunch at their place.

There they met 6-year-old Kenneth Carlson Conroy and 3-year-old Kathy Carlson Conroy. The two were gorgeous little dolls. Kenny had a working excavator that never left his hands, while Kathy had a lovely white stuffed animal in her arms. Hank explained that they had been Christmas presents from the Taylors. “Never in my life have I encountered two more perfect gifts,” Hank said. “The kids haven’t let go of them since the day they got them.”

Kim realized that the two youngest were six and three. Looking at Hank, she put her hand flat against her own abdomen and looked at Hank with a question in her eyes.

Hank tried to look disgusted as she just rolled her eyes. Then she just shrugged and nodded her head.

“When?” Kim asked.

“Probably next week,” Hank replied, obviously bored with the whole idea.

Then Kim did what she had wanted to do from the first instant she saw Hank: She took her into her arms and kissed her with all her power unleashed. Then she moved away far enough to be able to focus her eyes on Hank’s. She shook her head slowly and murmured, “Unbelievable!”

“What’s unbelievable?” Hank asked.

“You are so loaded with pure love and goodness, Hank Conroy, it ought to be illegal.” Then she shook her head again and added, “I’ve met three of your children, and they’re utterly perfect! And I know why, too. It’s because they’re raised in an environment of love spilling constantly all over everything. What a perfect mother!”

“Perfect? Not hardly!” Hank retorted. “I can’t cook to save my life.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Kim said. “It’s easy to see how undernourished your children are.”

But Kim prepared lunch and continued the cooking lessons that Kathy Carlson had begun the previous year.

By the time they had finished lunch, the two girls had returned from Lahaina. Samantha was bubbling over with excitement as she started to show her mother what she had bought.

“Before you get going on that, sweetie,” her mother interrupted, “we’re all going down to the nude beach.” Then she cocked her head while looking at her daughter and said, “Of course, I know how modest you are and how much you hate to expose your body...”

“But...” Lisa said, “I don’t understand. I saw Sam while she was trying on things, and she’s tanned all over.”

“Oh, that’s just the Hawaiian sun,” Hank retorted airily. “Sam always wears a long-sleeved shirt with the collar buttoned and pants that cover her ankles. But the sun out here is really strong, so it penetrates.”

“Sure ... it does!” Lisa replied while trying to stifle her giggles.

The Kramers and Lisa drove back to the hotel to return the car and to change. Changing consisted of stripping bare and putting on the white robes the hotel provided for its guests.

Grabbing towels — they were intrigued to find that the hotel even provided beach towels — they made their way to the nude beach. The Conroys were waiting for them. Instantly, the two girls were off for the water.

“What an incredible beauty!” Hank remarked as she admired Lisa’s figure as the girl ran for the water.

At that point Kim proceeded to tell Hank about Lisa’s background as a child prostitute in Saigon and how Ken and Brad had saved her.

“So she’s another one,” Jim Conroy mused. “Another wonderful life saved by some truly wonderful guys.” Looking at Brad he said simply, “Thank you.”