No Kalai, Forest Man to Eve who rescues him with the help of a dog, is a retired University of Hawai`i PH,D. professor and frequent visitor to Lyon Arboretum. His ordeal left him in shock, with a broken wrtst and sprained ankle, dehydration and multiple mosquito bits. He resides in the same independent living high rise where Eve’s Aunt Meg lives. Eve soon learns from a Hawaiian woman at the residence that Noa is piha kanaka, 100 % Hawaiian, possibly descended from the monarchy. The woman adds that Noa is in touch with the spirits and sensitive to old native ways.

Eve is not surprised. She saw spirits in his presence, including two disappearing into Noa’s feet as he regained consciousness. One of the spirits is surely that of her dad, and quite possibly also the spirit of the dog. She askes if Noa has family in the islands, and learns that Keoki, the handsome security guard she and Aunt Meg had met while walking the residence grounds, tends to Noa much as a son might.

The next time Eve sees Noa he is in a wheel chair outside the residence and, again, her dad seems to be present. The young man tending to Noa is the one who lifted her from the ravine floor in the arboretum when Noa was being rescued. Meg is ecstatic when she learns this news. Already, inside a few days, there are two young men who Eve might consider as lovers. Eve is not interested in the young men, only in Noa who embodies her dad.