This week is so heavily scheduled I thought I’d never get to the park, but I saw my chance late this morning and set out into a warm May day. The spring bulbs are over, and the summer flowers are not yet here. The park is in a state of suspense. In the deep shade, solomon’s seal is showing rows of thin white tubes, while farther out in the sun, bleeding hearts hang pink and bulbous, also in neat rows. Except for a few varieties of dogwood, and, of course, the chestnut, the trees too are done.

Today’s heat may have kept Arlen and Meta away, leaving the fountain to me. Things got swinging right from the start. A couple of little girls did the hula, and a few others dropped change as they walked by, giving me the thumbs-up, since Facebook the universal sign of approval. One of the little girls’ father pulled out a twenty and asked if I had change, which I did not. “Don’t worry about it,” I told him. Something about the glorious day, this glorious space and the distance I’d traveled from the cares of my non-park life put sparkle and joy into my voice, extended my range and filled my available universe with the aloha spirit.

Wait a minute? Huh, what’s that? I finished the first chorus of “Tiptoe through the Tulips” and answered my phone. Chaos calling, time to go home. I took off my lei and started to pack up when a young man approached and asked me what songs I knew.

“Mostly stuff from the 20’s and 30’s. Why, what do you have in mind?”

“Do you know Teen Angel?”

“No.”

“Can you sing a nice love song to my girlfriend for me?” He opened his wallet and pulled out a twenty.

The young woman was shy, probably had little English, but she giggled as her boyfriend translated softly. “I saw stars, I heard the birdies sing so sweet, so sweet, the moment I fell for you.”

Though truncated, my outing today still yielded a season best $23.18, and proved, once again, that aloha conquers all.