Page 84 of Big Island Sunrise
It wasn’t just Tenn. It was the cumulation of everything, all of these months and years of stress. And it was so deeply unfair that even after leaving her husband, she wasn’t free of him. She was still too frightened, too damaged to open up to this beautiful man.
He deserved better.
“You’re right.” She made herself open her eyes and look out the window. A duck ran by, trailing fuzzy yellow babies that scrambled to keep up.
That was the only thing she had energy for right now.
That was the only thing that she could be. A mama to her baby.
Keeping her head above water through this oncoming storm was going to be hard enough without inviting extra stress and complication into her life.
The wind picked up to a roar, and trees bent below it.
She went around the house, closing the windows and bracing herself for the storm.
26
Emma
The storm damage was worse this time, yet it didn’t hit her as hard. The yard was littered with branches and pieces of rubbish, but the roof had held.
There were no known casualties, so that was something. Of course, there was still time. They had yet to find Freddy and her string of golden ducklings.
She was coming to understand that storm damage was an unavoidable fact of life here. Hurricanes came every year, some worse than others. She had been sure they’d weathered one last night, with the lashing rains and howling winds, but apparently not.
Just a bit of weather.
It was the price they paid for the nightly rain that made this side of the island so lush and green, for the rainbows and sun showers that blessed their days.
She stood at the kitchen window, preparing food for the crowd that was soon to come. Mahina’s family had as much land as they did here at the Kealoha place, but they had escaped the storms unscathed, more prepared for them. The day was bright and blue, but the high winds had brought down limbs too close to the house and felled a tree just beyond the neglected ‘ohanaunit.
Zuko stirred in his sling and clawed his way out, climbing up the thick cotton fabric to perch on Emma’s shoulder, more parrot than kitten. He yowled in her ear, and she set him down by his bowls of food and water. They were up on the counter to keep them away from Dio.
It would take the small cat about a minute to fill his belly and demand to be picked up again. Emma stretched and looked out the window.
The tree had taken down a section of fencing, and Dio was gone. She hadn’t thought much of it at first, because he had gotten out so many times before. Generally he explored for a few minutes before looping back around and waiting patiently at the gate for someone to let him in. But he had taken off at dawn before she realized that the fence was down, and three hours later he was still nowhere to be seen.
Kai burst into the kitchen, all frantic worry.
“Mommy, Dio’s gone. So’s Freddy and her babies, they aren’t anywhere.”
One problem at a time,she pleaded silently. “Freddy will turn up, sweetheart. But I would have expected Dio to come home by now. He still isn’t back? He’s not out by the front gate?”
“He isn’t anywhere. We have to go find him.”
“We will. I just want to be home when Uncle Mano gets here so that we can talk about the work that needs to be done. If Dio hasn’t come home by then, we’ll go find him.”
“We have to find him now,” Kai insisted.
She covered the bowl of pasta salad that she had made to feed the family and washed her hands at the kitchen sink. The front gate creaked open and Mano’s track rumbled through.
“Here they are now. Give me a few minutes to talk to them, and then we’ll go find your dog.”
Kai ran to the front gate and stood at the edge of the road, calling for Dio. Worry gnawed at Emma’s stomach, a fear that she had been pushing down all morning.
He was right to worry. It wasn’t like Dio to stay gone so long. It was horrible to think of him hit and wounded, lying by the side of the road somewhere. She forced the image out of her mind and went to greet Adam’s uncle.
“Lani says you have a tree down.”
