Page 7 of Big Island Neighbors
A grin tugged at Tara’s face. “Thrice as fast, huh?”
“You know it!” Paige beamed at her and clasped her hands under her chin. “Please?”
“I’ll think about it.” The panicked feeling grew, and suddenly their spacious kitchen felt much too small. “Back in a minute.”
More lessons. It was such a small thing to ask.
The thing was, Tara wasn’t sure how she would continue to pay for the once-a-week lessons, never mind paying twice (or thrice) as much for Paige to go more often. And then there was the cost of gas, the hours away from the farm…
She took a deep, shuddering breath as she pushed through the back door and felt the cool morning breeze on her face.
Their doberman mix nosed her hand in greeting before racing back to Paige, who hefted a stick and chucked it acrossthe yard. Ducks fled as he raced past, leaving a trail of panicked quacks behind him.
As her mind ran through their monthly expenses, comparing them to her dwindling savings account, her feet took her across the yard to the aviary.
In the center of her backyard sat a huge enclosure for her two macaws. Now nearly thirty years old, they had traveled to Hawai’i with her and her mother when Tara was just a teenager. They had lived in the house with her and Mitch the first year of their marriage, and then she’d built them a house of their own around their favorite guava tree.
“Mama!” Lucy squawked when she walked inside.
Tara smiled at the greeting. Lucy still said it just like Cody had when he was three years old.
The macaws’ pet hens clustered around her feet as she walked through the enclosure. The blue and gold macaws loved dropping food for the chickens, and they ate the yolks of the eggs their hens laid.
Ricky hopped onto Tara’s arm, and she stroked his bright yellow chest.
“Mama!” Lucy flapped closer, vying for her attention.
“Hey there, sweet girl.” Tara reached up and scratched Lucy’s beak.
With so many animals on the farm, she didn’t spend as much time with her parrots as she used to. Luckily, her kids all came to visit them throughout the day. Piper had even taught them some new tricks.
“High five?”
Lucy held up her right foot, and Tara tapped it lightly with her hand.
She stayed in the aviary as long as she could without burning the frittata, and then she walked back up to the house.
Just past the kitchen counter, Paige had unfurled a roll of butcher paper across the floor and set up her paints. Tara smiled as she turned off the oven. She loved homeschooling her children, watching them pursue their passions and exercise their creativity.
“What are you working on?” she asked.
“I’m making aWelcome Homebanner for Daddy.”
With that, the bit of calm that she had gathered in the aviary evaporated. The look on her face must have tipped Paige off, because her own little face pulled into a worried frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s not flying home today,” Tara admitted.
“What?” Paige pushed herself up off of the floor. “When is he coming home?”
“I’m not sure.” Her heart cracked in two at the sight of the bewildered hurt on her daughter’s face. She busied herself with turning off the oven and pulled the frittata out to cool.
“Why don’t you know?”
“It’s a bit of a long story,” she stalled. Mitch had just told her the night before last that he wouldn’t be flying home. Instead, he planned to stay on the mainland indefinitely to explore the romance he’d started up with his highschool girlfriend.
“What is?” Piper asked. The screen door bounced shut behind her.
