Page 64 of Big Island Neighbors
She was sipping her coffee and scrolling idly on her phone when a text came in from Tenn.
Up for a beach day?
Not today,she texted back.I’ve got all the kids here, and I’m going to work on cleaning out the Ohana unit.
Three dots came and went a few times before he texted back,Olivia doesn’t want to go to the beach with just me. She’s begging to come play with the girls. That okay?
Sure,she texted back.What’s one more?
Lani set her phone out of reach of little hands and washed her coffee mug. She was eager to get to work, but intimidated by the prospect of tackling the guest house all on her own.
She very much wanted a home of her own, even if it was just shouting distance from Emma‘s house.
Especially then.
The safety and security of having family on the same property along with the novelty of having a home just for her and Rory sounded idyllic.
The thing was, she didn’t know where to start. Her uncle had taken a look at theohanaunit and pronounced it structurally sound, but there was a lot that needed to happen before she could move in. She had been waiting for Uncle Mano and Kekoato help her start the renovations, but they were so busy with work that they hadn’t been able to make time.
She was ready to take things into her own hands.
So she traded her pajamas out for a sturdy pair of jeans and a ratty T-shirt, then put on an old pair of work boots.
Once she’d slipped on a pair of gardening gloves, she was ready to tackle the cottage.
As she cut across the backyard, she spotted Kai in the distance. He was hauling rocks from one spot to another, making room for the pond that would house his beloved ducks.
The Kealoha ducklings were half grown and healthy enough, thanks to the kiddy pool that Kai filled with fresh water each day, but they would be ecstatic when the pond was finally ready.
Luana had climbed to the highest branches of the old star fruit tree that marked the start of the orchard. Rory watched, awestruck, from a lower branch. Dio whined at the foot of the tree, looking anxiously up at the girls.
“You okay up there?” Lani called as she passed.
“I’m okay!”
“I’m okay too, Mama,” Rory sang out. “I’m eating star fruit!”
“I’ll be in the ohana if you need me,” she told them.
“In our house?” Rory exclaimed.
“Yeah, baby. In our house.”
As she walked away, she heard Rory tell her cousin, “Mama and me are going to have our own house, but we can’t live there yet because of the rats.”
She started by opening all the doors and windows. It was a gorgeous home, basically a miniature version of the three-story Kealoha house.
There were plenty of windows to allow a cross breeze, but they had closed them all before the last big storm and hadn’t been good about opening the place back up during the day to air out. The whole interior smelled musty and dank.
Luckily there was no carpet, and the walls were made of thick cedar with no insulation. The musty smell was coming from the furniture and other things that had been left behind.
She bent to examine a hole that had been chewed at the base of the smelly old sofa. She suspected that feral cats had lived there at some point, because the smell was rank. And by the look of it, rats had claimed the inside.
“This has all got to go,” Lani muttered.
She walked out to the front yard and climbed into the old truck that she had inherited from her Uncle John. The keys were still in the ignition.
They had installed a dog door to let Dio out at night; he provided sufficient deterrent for thieves and wild pigs both.
