Page 91 of Big Island Sunrise
Her sisters had held back a portion of Adam’s ashes on the day of the paddle out, when most of them were scattered at sea. They were hers to keep, to lay to rest, whatever she chose. It had felt right to bring some small piece of him to Hawai’i.
She had thought to scatter the last of Adam’s ashes here, in this bit of the Pacific where his father moved among the currents. But sitting here now, scattering the last of his ashes at sea didn’t feel like the thing to do. So she just sat there, two hands on her husband’s tiny urn, watching the sunrise.
There was a bare smattering of clouds out over the water, and a golden glow washed over them as Hawai’i turned towards the sun. The sky grew lighter, brightening almost to white before settling back into a bright blue.
It was less spectacular than she had imagined, nothing like a Kona sunset. But just as beautiful, in its way. A quiet awakening.
When the sun grew warmer and her thoughts turned to children and goats, Emma retraced her steps and reclaimed her car. On her way back up the main road, a sign caught her attention. It advertised fruit trees for sale:ABIU, GUAVA, JABOTICABA.
She pulled over.
Five minutes and thirty dollars later, she got back in her car with a healthy young jaboticaba tree.
It was Adam’s favorite fruit, and one of the few that John hadn’t planted in his orchard. The Brazilian grapetree took years to produce, and John had focused his efforts on the many tropical plants that produced a bounty almost overnight.
It would take a few years, but jaboticabas produced an abundance of delicious fruit. Best eaten fresh, they were like giant concord grapes that grew directly out of the trunk of the tree.
Back home, she put the tree in a sheltered spot and went inside to check on Kai. He was in the kitchen with Rory and Lani, who was frying fresh eggs in bacon grease. The sizzling aroma and warmth of the kitchen greeted her like an embrace as she closed the back door against the morning chill.
“Auntie!” Rory crashed into her legs. “Where’d you go?”
“Mom, look!” Kai grinned at her. “I taught Diogee a new trick!”
“Let’s see,” she encouraged him.
“Dio, down,” he told the dog.
Quick as a trained collie, the pup dropped to the tile floor.
“Up!” Kai said, and Dio sprung to his feet.
“Down,” Kai said a moment later, and he was on the ground again.
“Good boy!” Kai mimicked him, dropping on his belly and going nose to nose with the dog. “You’re such a good boy!”
“Such a good boy,” Rory repeated, giving him a full strip of bacon.
Lani laughed. “With rewards like that, it’s no wonder he’s so trainable.”
“He’s the smartest boy,” Kai crooned, rubbing his face against Dio’s.
“He’s a lucky dog,” Emma said.
“We’re the lucky ones,” Kai insisted. She couldn’t argue with him.
“I’m going to go see to the goats,” she told them.
Outside, she brought the goats a few treats from their favorite trees, but she didn’t get right to milking. With their overgrown babies still in there with them, there was no real hurry. It was past time to find new homes for the young goats, but that was a task for another day.
Farm chores stretched out ahead of her from now til eternity, and she found surprising comfort in that. There was always purposeful work to be done, always a reason to keep going.
For now, she had a tree to get in the ground.
She chose a choice spot in the front yard and cleared one of the huge, bushy, sunflower-like plants that the goats loved to eat. In the new open space, she dug a hole deep enough for the jaboticaba.
At the bottom of the hole, she placed the small box that held the last of Adam’s ashes.
The Pacific had most of him, out flowing free with his mother and father. She would keep just a bit of him to herself. Here, on the island where he was born, on the land that had been left to their son. What better marker than his favorite fruit tree?
