Page 47 of Big Island Neighbors
“Maybe he’ll like those chicken tenders we made.”
He brightened. “Oh yeah!”
She helped with setup while Kai ran back to the playground. He came back a minute later to ask, “Is there ketchup?”
“What?”
“For the chicken tenders. Prince wants to know if there’s ketchup.”
“Yes, there’s ketchup.”
“Great!” He ran off, then doubled back. “Can Prince come to our house?”
“Sure. Not right this minute, but some other day. I just need to talk to his mom.”
“He doesn’t have a mom.”
“Oh.” Emma looked across the lawn at the lanky boy who won all the races.
“He has a grandma, but she’s not here either. His neighbor brings him for soup.”
“How about this… I’ll write down my phone number, and Prince can give it to his grandma.”
“That’s a great idea!” He sprinted back to the playground, splashing through puddles on his way.
Emma reintroduced herself to the ladies who worked at the New Horizons soup kitchen and did her best to learn their names this time.
When the food was ready, she took her place in line and ladled out a hearty meatball soup as people passed by. She wanted to get their names too, but knew better than to grill them as they passed through. Showing up here was probably hard enough for most people without strangers asking them questions.
The chicken tenders that she and Kai had made earlier that day proved popular with the kids. Kai even convinced most of them to try the kale chips, which the other kids were astonished to discover werenotdisgusting.
“These are even better than potato chips!” Prince shouted.
“We planted seeds in the garden,” Kai said proudly, “and after the pigs came we planted themagain. Then we picked the leaves and washed them and cooked them until they were crispy. I don’t usually like to eat leaves, but they’re good when they’re crunchy.”
Once everyone had been served, Emma ladled out a small bowl of meatball soup for herself and joined Kai at one of the picnic tables. They sat across from Prince and his neighbor, an older woman who introduced herself as Patty. She explained that Prince’s grandmother used to bring him every week, but she was too sick to drive these days.
Emma glanced at Prince, but this wasn’t news to him. He was listening politely while Kai talked on and on about how they had found their dog living at the edge of the jungle and their cat buried in a pile of trash.
When they were finished eating, Emma wrote down her phone number and handed it to Patty.
“Would you please give this to Prince’s grandmother? We moved here not too long ago, and Kai doesn’t go to school, so we haven’t made many friends yet. We would love to have Prince over anytime.”
“Can I come over today?” Prince asked.
“Please?” Kai added, looking at her with wide eyes.
“You’ll have to ask your grandmother first. Have her call me. If it’s okay with her, you can come home with us next week. Or I can pick you up sometime before that.”
“Okay,” Prince said, visibly disappointed.
Kai looked at him and then back to his mother. “Now can we bring out the cookies?”
“Yes,” she agreed, “now seems like a perfect time for cookies.”
Kai nearly did a backflip in his hurry to get off of the bench. He raced to the kitchen and found the big plastic container that they had filled with cinnamon sugar cookies earlier that day.
He carried them first to Prince and then walked around from table to table, proudly offering the treats to everyone.
