Page 62 of Big Island Sunrise
“Oh wow.” She thought back to the 2018 eruption that had devastated Puna when Kai was a baby, just months after the only trip they had made to the island as a family of three.
The lava flow hadn’t touched Pualena, but hundreds and hundreds of homes just a few miles south of town were destroyed. She tried to picture the area in her mind, those pre-baby days exploring the island with Adam.
“There was already a warm pond there, wasn’t there? Back in the trees.”
“Yeah, but now there are like five. There’s a huge warm pool by the old boat ramp - which is nowhere near the ocean anymore - and then some hotter ones off to either side. ‘Olena takes her girls there all the time, they love it.”
Emma nodded. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
“Sweet. I’ll just put that hibiscus tea I made into bottles. Would you pack some snacks for the kids?”
“Definitely.”
There was a comforting rhythm in getting ready to go with someone else, sharing the mental load of making sure that they had everything they needed for an outing with the kids. Kai seemed to feel it too; he was always more willing to get in the car when they went as a group as opposed to Emma halfheartedly trying to coax or command him to leave the house.
Lani drove them south in John’s old truck, and Emma marveled at the broad expanses of black lava rock where there used to be green jungle, farms, and houses. The fresh rock curved and sloped, a picture of frozen motion. Some old structures could still be seen peeking up out of the black. Others stood untouched just a few feet from the fresh rock created by the molton flood that had taken their neighbors’ homes.
She felt for them, both the destroyed homes and the narrow escapes. They both resonated with her deeply. She and her family had evacuated their homes just a few months ago when a wildfire blazed past their town. Nearly all of the houses had survived. Adam hadn’t.
How insane, she thought in retrospect,trying to contain a wildfire.To place oneself in front of a towering wall of fire and try to command it.
No one stood in place and tried to stop lava or a tidal wave. What hubris for humans to think that they could stop any natural disaster, creatures standing against an act of God.
She hated herself for letting him go, even in the same moment that logical side told her she couldn’t have stopped him. Surely she could have done something.
That way lies madness.
She took a deep breath and turned up the kids’ music.
Five years had passed since this particular disaster, Kilauea’s grand effort to extend the island’s coastline. The road that stretched out ahead of them was freshly paved and there were bits of green everywhere, thousands of ferns colonizing new land.
The kids spilled out of the car the moment Lani parked, and the moms hurried to catch up. The main pond was just steps from the parking area. Water lapped up against the old boat ramp as kids splashed and played.
It was an overcast, misty sort of winter day, and the warm water was a welcome contrast to the cool breeze that blew off the ocean.
Rory flung herself into the warm pool with abandon and swam submerged like a fish before popping up again with a grin. Kai approached more cautiously, taking small steps down the ramp like an old man.
“Mom!” he shouted as soon as his feet were in. “Mom, it’s warm!”
“That’s why it’s called a warm pond,” Rory told him. She managed to roll her eyes while treading water, which Emma thought was pretty impressive for four. Kai was two years older and while he could kind of sort of tread water, he tended to look like he was drowning while doing it.
She walked along the edge of the pond, looking out across the fresh coastline. It was bizarre to see acres of black rock where there had once been a protected bay full of clear blue water. She couldn’t even see the ocean from where she stood. And the spot where she stood hadbeenocean just a few years before.
“Okay if I go have a look at the new beach?” she asked Lani.
“Of course. Rory’s a fish. I’m fine with two.”
“Thanks.”
“Go take a soak while you’re at it. There’s one over that way to the left, but I like the one back in the trees the best. It’s even hotter than it used to be, like jacuzzi hot. Too hot for the kids.”
“Do you want to go first?”
“No, you go ahead. I’ll walk over when you get back. We have plenty of time.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Emma hiked over the uneven ground of the island’s new coastline until she reached the beach. It was enormous. Where there had once been clear, shallow water with plentiful coral and tropical fish, there was now a broad expanse of jet-black sand.
