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"I had Avarice when I was very young," Nancy regretted. "The sound of the name sang right on my tongue, but when I saw that one of the definitions was cupidity, I thought, well then there you have it. Cupidity is like little cupid shooting arrows of love.
I was horribly wrong. Cupidity is a greed for money and possessions.""How am I supposed to kill her?" I asked. "She seems to know where to find me, but I have no idea where to begin?"
"Write it out clearly, and then repeat it to yourself again and again until it's burned into your mind," she whispered. "Bring yourself to that moment when you time slipped to my estate when Avarice was still possessed by that curse from Pele."
"And kill her then?" The thought that Nancy would let me kill her daughter right in front of her was horrible.
"No," she countered. "Turn around and walk away, don't even venture a step or two forward. Leave."
"But she'll die from that curse," I stopped myself and continued no further because therein lay the plan. Without my advice on how Avarice should be relieved of her curse, it would run its course and eventually take her life.
~
The address Nancy gave me took me to an abandoned mansion in the back of Nu'uanu. How it's survived these many years and managed to stay in pristine condition is beyond me. Waiting in a brand new Toyota was a man in his mid-forties. Obviously well to do in his pressed shorts and polo shirt, with sandals on his feet. "I'm David," he reached out, and we shook hands. "I was told to expect you. I'll just open the gate, and when you've found what you needed to find, I'll be here to let you out. The gate has to stay closed otherwise."
"Who told you to expect me?" I asked.
"I don't have an answer for that," he looked uncomfortable, and I didn't want to cause him any more stress. However, it appeared that whatever was going on was beyond his comfort level.
"Alright," I gave up at this point. "I'll try not to take too long," I assured him. "Can I have your number just in case?"
"Sure," he reached into his pocket and produced a small silver case from which he removed his business card and handed it to me. I followed the instructions given to me by Nancy. Finding the pool house was easy because it stuck out. The whole estate looked like the wao kele was peeled back just to make room for the estate. I don't know how else to explain it. Here's the unfortunate thing, or not. One hundred feet behind the pool house was now the Pali highway. If the time slip was still there, it was buried under tons of tarmac. But, that would explain all the stories of people driving along that stretch of the Pali and all of a sudden feeling out of sorts or losing time. There was one thing that occurred to me, however, sidereal time. If I could mark that hour when psychic energy is at its peak, I could make sure that I was driving along the Pali at that exact hour and right down to the second so I could get through the time slip. Hopefully, it works.
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