She’s one hot wahine,” Sam Kanaka’ole said over his breakfast of Loco Moco. The dish was a strange conglomeration of white rice, a hamburger patty, and a fried egg all covered in brown gravy. Just the sight of the calorie-laden, heart-clogging meal made Jack’s stomach recoil. He had no idea how his friend ate so much and stayed in fighting shape. “I thought you wanted Spam and eggs?” “This is better,” Sam wiggled his eyebrows comically and shoved a forkful of the mess into his mouth. Jack took a swig of coffee, glad that his friend had accompanied him to The Volcano House after checking out the incident at the Jaggar Museum up the hill. Jack wasn’t sure he was up to meeting the new assistant the USGS had sent to help him out. Sam was his wingman in this endeavor. He didn’t need some supposed expert on Hawaiian culture to come in and screw up that balance. As far as Jack was concerned, a volcanologist didn’t need to understand the culture, just the big fire-belching monster he was sent to study.
