Page 37 of Big Island Neighbors
Drying her hands, Emma turned away from the sink to look at her son. “Hey Kai?”
No response.
He was at the table playing a learn-to-read game on her ipad. The entirety of his focus was on dragging words to their place in a sentence so that he could move on to the next page of the story.
Emma walked over and got down to his level to get his attention.
“Kai.”
He looked up and blinked, refocusing. “Yeah?”
“You can play for five more minutes, and then we need to get in the car.”
“What for?”
“I’m going to help Mrs. Rasmussen at the soup kitchen. It’s at the community center in town, so right next to the playground. You can play with the other kids while I help out.”
“I don’t want to play with the other kids,” he said, reflexively defiant. “I want to stay home.”
“Well, I need to bring the soup over, and I need you to come with me. Whether you play or not is up to you.”
“Why do you need to bring soup?” he groused.
“For people who don’t have any food at home,” she said, and that made him pause. “Or don’t have any homes at all.”
“Oh.” He frowned, processing that. “Okay.”
She kissed his temple and stood. “Thank you, sweetheart. Five minutes.”
She was determined to make it there today.
Ever since moving to Hawai’i - ever since Adam’s death, really - she’d had next to no sense of time. Every day of the week was the same, and they slipped by with no rhyme or rhythm to them.
She had gotten used to it. Mostly she liked the ease of it, how the monotony of farm chores lulled her into a sense of continuity and peace.
But the soup kitchen had passed her by several weeks running, and she wasn’t going to let that happen again. She’d made several containers of a hearty green soup, kale cooked in bone broth and blended smooth. All she had to do at the kitchen was warm it.
“What’s all this?” Lani pulled the cardboard box across the table and looked at the wide variety of thermoses and coffee cups that Emma had collected that week.
“To-go cups for the soup kitchen.”
“For that kale soup you made?”
“Yeah. I figure if they want to eat a heartier meal there, or if there’s no room for me to warm up the kale soup at the start of the meal, they can take it to go and have something warm and nourishing for their next meal. I went to a couple differenttransfer stations and found these for about a dollar each, so they could bring them back or I could just get more for next week.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“Thanks. Do you want to come?”
“Maybe next time. Tenn and I are taking the girls to Kona for a beach day. He’ll be here in a minute to pick us up.”
“Good.” Between her cousins’ two businesses – the shave ice place and the homeschool co-op – Lani hardly got a day off. Emma was glad to see her escape the gray drizzle of the east side and spend a day at the beach with her man. “Enjoy the sunshine.”
“Oh, we will. I forgot how cold this part of the island could get in the wintertime!” Lani was all bundled up, knit hat and cozy sweater included.
“This from the woman who spent five years in Alaska.”
“In Alaska, the houses are heated! And insulated.” She gave an exaggerated shiver. “Here, the cold just seeps through the walls and into your bones.”
