Read Online Banana Split by Josi S. Kilpack - Free Book Online

“Somewhere over the Rainbow” before coming to Hawai’i, but had become familiar with his other work since her arrival. Sharing the love of his music with Noelani made Sadie feel connected to the woman in some small way. Noelani didn’t list any books, but had liked several movies Sadie had never seen, including Fight Club and Shutter Island.
     
    Sadie clicked on the photo section and got her first look at the real Noelani, rather than the bloated version from her nightmares. Most of the pictures showed the hollow face of an addict, often looking stoned or drunk as she attempted to smile at the camera during a party. There were a few pictures from the strip club where she’d worked; they were equally unfortunate, and Sadie didn’t spend much time on them. But then Sadie found a picture of Noelani with a younger version of Charlie—he was missing his two front teeth—at a beach. She looked healthy and happy with a bright smile on her face as she hugged her boy to her chest and looked into the camera. The tattoo Sadie had remembered was a dragonfly on her forearm.
     
    In the photo, Noelani looked like any other young mother bonded to her son. A very different woman from the one in the party photos that made up the majority of her images. Sadie couldn’t help but wonder which one of the pictures represented the true Noelani. Was she more addict than mother, or was it the other way around? Charlie wanted to believe that Noelani had left the emaciated shoulders and thinning hair behind her, and for his sake, Sadie wanted to believe it too. But was that reasonable?
     
    Sadie printed off the picture of Noelani and Charlie together and taped it to the wall above the desk. Her personal opinions about some of the ways Noelani had lived her life were secondary to the facts that, for whatever reason, God had made her Charlie’s mother and that Charlie loved her. Sadie would need to keep that perspective if she moved forward.
     
    If.
     
    She still wasn’t fully committed and found herself wishing for a way out almost as much as she wished for that golden nugget of information that would push her over the fence once and for all. She stood up from the computer and poured herself some cereal while she thought about her options. Neither option—pursuing it or leaving it alone—felt right.
     
    Pete called her just after seven o’clock in the morning Hawai’i time. “I’m between workshops but I wanted to give you an update. I have someone back in Garrison looking into the social worker overseeing Charlie’s case,” he said, “but I wanted to make sure you understood that once you talk to the caseworker, you can’t control what they do with the information. Do you feel up to this?”
     
    Pete didn’t know Sadie had spent the last two hours researching Noelani. He didn’t know that a picture of a healthy Noelani and a happy Charlie had been staring at her for almost half an hour. He didn’t know the battle taking place in Sadie’s mind. But he knew what it meant to do the right thing, and he knew what Sadie was capable of doing. That he’d done what he’d done so far, and then left it up to her, was a huge vote of confidence. But Sadie still had to make a decision. She sat down in front of her computer and looked at the picture again.
     
    “I would like to talk to the caseworker,” Sadie said, accepting that she couldn’t turn away from this now. “I . . . I can do this.”
     
    “Okay then,” he said. “I’ve thought this over and, while I can let it play out for the rest of the day, I’ll have to call the Kaua’i police tomorrow morning if you’re unable to make headway with the caseworker. I hope you can understand my position.”
     
    “I understand,” Sadie said even though it bothered her. But he had responsibilities she didn’t have, and she didn’t want him to put his job at risk. He’d done that several times in the past, and she dreaded that one day his helping her would get him into