Page 19 of Big Island Sunrise
She closed the gate behind her and gave the goats the small amount of grain that they were allowed as a treat.
It was there that she found Kai, hunkered down in the goat shed of all places. He was cuddling the fifth and final goat, an old wether that was too fat and lazy to have followed the others out of the open door. Or maybe he was just enjoying the attention.
“You left the gate open,” she said, being careful to keep her tone neutral.
He just curled further into himself, pressing his cheek against the goat’s side.
“When we leave the gate open, the goats can get out. Two of them went into the yard of the lady next door and started eating her garden.”
“She has lots of goats in her yard,” Kai said.
“Not Tara,” she clarified. “The other neighbor. And they were nibbling on our fruit trees too. If they get out too often, they could eat everything up. The trees could die.”
When he didn’t reply, she crouched down nearby and tried to get a better look at his face. He refused to meet her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“They didn’t want to play with me.”
“The twins?”
“Any of them.”
“Oh, their friends?”
He nodded.
“It can be hard being the new kid on the block.”
“It’s not a block. It’s a stupid jungle.”
“Maybe if…” she started, but he stuck his fingers in his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
She tried pulling one hand down, but he let out a low scream of frustration that scared away the placid fat goat he had been cuddling with.
“I hate it here!” He swatted her hand away and ran out the gate, leaving it wide open.
With a resigned sigh, she intercepted one of the goats before it got out again. Squeezing quickly through the gate and shutting it behind her, she went after Kai.
She found him in the bedroom where they had both slept the night before; he had been too frightened to sleep alone in the strange house. He was sitting in the corner of the room with a blanket over his head.
“Hey kiddo.” She sat down close to him without touching his one-man fort.
“I didn’t know where you were.” He sounded close to tears.
“What?” When he didn’t answer right away, she sat down next to him and waited out his silence.
“I came home and you weren’t here. I couldn’t find you.”
“I was right here. I was just in the other room pulling cactus spines from my hand.”
“Cactuses live in the desert.”
“That’s true. These were from the giant grass. The lady next door called it cactus grass. I’ll show you what it looks like so you don’t touch it by accident.”
He was quiet for a while, sniffling beneath the blanket.
“Did you feel scared when you couldn’t find me?” she asked gently.
