The green schooner sails on the wind, and without contacting the ground far below, makes excellent time! Soon it is gliding smoothly into Waikiki Bay, bearing Lady Hawk and Cap'n Bill.
Upon arriving, they feel overwhelmed by their task. Neither is a policeman, after all, with no special training in detective work, and no proven record of enduring long days and nights of unremitting effort with no clear prize in sight. Best to just give up, and forget whatever it was they came for.
The fact that Vina IS indeed a detective with massive police training, or that sailing is almost entirely composed of nothing BUT days and nights of toil with no guarantee of success ... doesn't matter. It's almost as if they are hearing a script recited internally, but in their own voices.
Be it noted that Jimmy Olsen is with Vina and Cap'n Bill. And he's finding the mystery of Superboy's disappearance bafflingly difficult to think about ... but mysteries involving Superman are what Jimmy DOES, so he's able to notice the incongruity.
ReplyDelete"This is very strange," opines Vina. "-Something- in my mind tells me I don't know how to do this. But. I do. It's the skill I got with the Hawks' gear--but...I've always wanted to be a detective. I guess the first order of business is finding the sources of the 'negative waves,' as my dad would say. I mean, it's Hawaii--practically paradise."
ReplyDeleteShe looks around for something obvious. Does some aerial recognizance to see if there's a place where people look more "bummed out" or less so.
With her hawklike vision and keen detective sense, Vina perceives a slight bias toward despair in paradise on the north side of the island, in the direction of the uninhabitable sheer black lava flow cliffs which lead to the surging sea. But they're uninhabitable ... there's no one there. Not even parks, because the lava and volcanic gasses are dangerous. There is a scenic overlook with a couple of cars, but no permanent inhabitation.
ReplyDeleteAnd now a REALLY strong pulse of the hopelessness of it all, and while we're on the subject, the pointlessness of it all, washes over Vina. Seriously, Superboy is a superhero. They travel into space, to subatomic worlds, to parallel worlds and so forth all the time. Why should anyone be surprised that he's missing for a few days?
Maybe the positive affirmation exercises Mom and Dad (or Merlyn and Moonlight as they usually prefer to be called--though she doesn't) will be helpful here. Vina goes to some sparkling waterfall radiating rainbows and strikes a meditative pose. All the while the mechanical wings hold her aloft just beyond the spray.
DeleteWell! The sparkling rainbows do the job. They allow Vina to clear her mind, and therefore to isolate the one part of her mind which ISN'T clear, being instead a black cloud of coarse hair and yellow fangs, which urges her to forget her mission and run away.
ReplyDeleteShe stops ommming long enough to get on the radio: "Cap'n Bill and Jimmy, the despair is strongest on the north side of the island--near the lava flow. And...whatever it is...its...ka... has fangs and rough hair."
DeleteGathering golden and pink star-shaped plumeria flowers, which are extremely fragrant and symbolize positivity, she crafts necklaces and hair wreaths out of them, adorns herself, and then puts them on Cap'n Bill (carefully avoiding his pipe) and young Mr. Olson.
Plumeria looks like this: http://www.flowermeaning.com/flower-pics/Plumeria-Meaning.jpg