Page 92 of Big Island Neighbors
The water was deep here, and some of the dolphins that swam below were toy sized in the distance. Others passed by just a couple of feet below them.
When a baby nearly as small as Rory approached them and then darted away again, she was so excited that she lost her snorkel. She came up coughing, but her eyes shone with joy.
“Mama, this is the best day ever.” She looked at Tenn and Olivia a few yards away and called, “Liv! This is the greatest day, right?”
Lani laughed and pulled her mask down to watch the dolphins that were leaping up out of the water just a few feet away. Then one jumped over their heads, and she squealed right along with Rory.
Tenn caught her eye across the water, and she towed Rory over to rest on the paddleboard for a minute. Lani pulled herself half onto the board too, resting from the long swim out. Tenn helped Olivia up onto the board beside Rory, and then he put his arms on top of Lani’s.
He pulled himself up and kissed her while the girls watched dolphins jump all around.
She had to agree with Rory.
This was the best day ever.
29
‘Olena
With her girls still out with their dad and their stuff more or less unpacked and settled into the new house, ‘Olena decided to walk over to the community center.
It was a short walk, just a few minutes down the grassy side of the road and across the wide lawn of the park. The playground swarmed with kids, and her heart lifted to think of her daughters growing up in this active heart of the community.
The building itself was run down, but ‘Olena had a plan for that. A few community work days and the place would be beautiful again, like it had been when she was little. People just needed someone to get the ball rolling.
And she’d always been good at that.
“Hey auntie,” ‘Olena greeted the woman at the front desk.
“‘Olena.” The woman looked worried, almost stricken to see her there. It was enough to give her chicken skin. But maybe the lady was just having a bad day; she didn’t want to pry.
“I’m here to ask about a move-in day for my homeschool co-op. Debbie had said probably next week…” She trailed off when the woman’s expression didn’t shift.
“I won’t beat around the bush,” the lady said. “We lost our funding.”
Her stomach dropped. “What does that mean?”
“It means that me, Debbie, we’ve all been laid off. No more government money. They’re closing the doors.” She sighed, and her irritation faded to sympathy. “I’m sorry. It’s been hanging over our heads for a while, but we didn’t think… Well, it’s happened.”
“Thanks for telling me.” ‘Olena was so shocked that she just turned and walked away, back out the front door.
What was she going to do now? Her co-op had grown too big to be fully itinerant anymore, at the zoo one day and the beach park the next. They needed a home base, somewhere to gather in between field trips.
She’d hoped to hire someone, to make things more manageable by leaving one age group behind at the community center while she took groups of kids out on adventure days.
What about rainy days? They didn’t even all fit under the shelter at the beach park anymore, and she couldn’t just cancel every time there was a storm. The other parents counted on her to look after their kids so that they could work.
Her new home was plenty big enough for her and the girls, but there was no way that it could accommodate the co-op.
And it wasn’t just them.
So many other people in their community needed this building to stay open.Kupunadepended upon this place, and the soup kitchen. After school programs and community gatherings.
Her mind spun as she stood there in the sunshine, listening to kids shout in the distance. Then, like a switch being flipped, her surprise solidified into determination.
No. They couldn’t close it just like that.
So the government wouldn’t help. What else was new? They’d do it themselves.
