Page 91 of Big Island Neighbors
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Lani
“Okay!” Tenn‘s smile was as bright as a kid’s. “Everybody ready?”
“Yeah!” Rory and Olivia shouted together.
They wore matching short-sleeve wetsuits to keep their core temperature up. It was a gorgeous sunny day, but the water was still cold enough to set their teeth chattering if they stayed in too long. And they planned to be out on the water for a long time today.
Tenn shouldered his heavy backpack, picked up the bag that held the inflatable paddleboard, and offered his free hand to Olivia.
“Let’s go!” He flashed Lani another dazzling smile before turning to pick his way down the lava rock path.
Rory grabbed Lani’s hand and looked up at her. “Do you really think we’ll see dolphins, Mama?”
“I sure hope so. And if they’re not here today, we can just come back another time.”
“I hope they’re here,” she said with quiet longing.
Lani kissed the top of her head and led her through the trees.
Tenn went first down the steep black hillside, turning back at each particularly tricky spot to help the little girls. Lani followed easily; Tenn hadn’t let her carry a thing.
When she made the final leap down onto the beach, her feet sank into the soft sand. She turned and held her hands out to Rory, who jumped from the cliff with no hesitation.
Tenn tossed the backpack up onto a dry rock and set to work pumping up his new inflatable paddleboard.
Lani settled down in the warm black sand and watched the girls play in the waves. They shrieked with joy as a particularly big one pushed them forward in a rush of water, and then they jumped to their feet before it could pull them back out again.
Far out towards the mouth of the little bay, she saw dolphins leap and spin through the air. They were tiny in the distance, and the girls hadn’t spotted them.
Lani didn’t stop their play to show them where the dolphins jumped. She would let them be surprised. In the meantime, she just leaned back and took in the beauty of it all.
The color at a black sand beach was unlike anyplace else in the world. She loved the rugged beauty of Alaska, and she could enjoy the occasional Kona beach day when it was pouring on the east side of the island, but those places had nothing on this.
The black sand absorbed the sunlight instead of reflecting it, so there was none of the blinding glare that obscured most beaches. Because of that, every color was more intense and saturated. The ocean was an incredible sapphire blue. Jewel-toned plants speckled the black cliffs with green and orange and red. The sky itself seemed more vibrant than it did anyplace else.
Just the colors of this place felt like a feast for her soul, and the sound of Rory‘s laughter against the constant rush of the waves made it ten times better.
As did the sight of Tenn stripping off his t-shirt as he worked to pump up the paddleboard.
Finally, when the wrinkled gray mess had taken the shape of an enormous surfboard, he declared that it was time to go. They all put their snorkeling masks around their necks, and he and Lani hooked their fins around their wrists.
With the girls clutching the handles of the paddleboard and screaming, they made it through the breaking waves and out to calm water.
Tenn let the girls take turns trying to propel the enormous flotation device forward with the long paddle.
Mostly they pushed themselves in circles, and soon they gave up on trying to move in a straight line. Instead they challenged each other to see how fast they could make the board spin.
Finally, when they had tired of that, Tenn tied the board to his chest and struck out for deeper waters.
Lani put her mask on and swam beside him, looking back every so often to check that Rory was still grinning.
When the girls spotted their first spinner dolphin, they were too awestruck to scream or squeal. They just clasped hands and pointed, staring wide eyed as it splashed down. Seconds later, another dolphin burst up out of the water and rotated several times as it flew through the air. Its smooth gray skin glinted in the sunshine.
Once they knew where to look, they saw dolphin after dolphin flying out of the water in acrobatic corkscrew curves.
When they got closer, the girls put on their masks and slipped into the water with their parents. Lani held Rory‘s hand and kicked gently as they watched dozens of dolphins playing below.
