Page 2 of Big Island Horizons
When her cousin Adam brought his highschool girlfriend home to meet the family, she and Lani had clicked right away. Instead of brushing off the young teenage cousin who had missed Adam terribly after he moved to the mainland, they had let her tag along on their Island adventures. Every time they came to visit, they would all go hiking and snorkeling and surfing together.
Emma had given Lani a place to stay when they both found themselves back on the Big Island during huge transitions in their lives, and now they were closer than ever.
Lani loved living on the same piece of land as another single mother, and she would miss her terribly. The property was going to feel huge and overwhelming without Emma there doing most of the work.
Luckily, Lani still had Tara next door and Tenn a few blocks away. And of course her whole extended family would be there in a minute if she ever needed them.
Lord, but she was happy to be home.
“Mama! Look at me!” Rory flipped herself upside down, hanging from a stretch of rope by her knees. She swung there for a moment before grabbing the rope in her hands, doing a backflip, and dropping lightly to her feet.
Kai, who was older than Rory but not such a natural-born climber, watched her antics with a frown before climbing carefully down from the rope and running across the playground. He climbed onto a spinning disk set into the rubber matting that covered the rocky ground.
“Mom!” he shouted. “Watch this!”
He put one foot on the disk and kicked off with the other, sending himself flying around in circles.
Emma had tried to explain to him that they were going to the airport to fly home and see family in California, but Lani had a feeling it hadn’t really sunk in. There had been a few tears, and he’d hugged his dog goodbye, but he did that anytime they left the house for a beach day.
She was fairly certain that her little cousin would be crying himself to sleep that night once he realized that he wasn’t going to see his dog for weeks. But Emma had to go home to pack up the house that she had shared with Adam in California. And as sad as Kai would be to be separated from his beloved dog, staying on the island without his mother wasn’t even an option. They would have taken the dog if they were moving home, but luckily they had decided to stay.
A familiar warmth radiated through Lani‘s chest as she reflected on the community that she had here. In her cruise ship years, she had been surrounded by people all of the time, but it wasn’t the same as being immersed in thealohaspirit of the island. And then she had fallen pregnant with Rory and ended up in Alaska.
Her years in Alaska had been a living nightmare. Her ex-husband had systematically cut her off from any support system that she might have cobbled together there. He had even managed to alienate her from her family.
It had been just the three of them, year after year, in the confines of their little cabin in the woods. The winters had been the worst.
She took a deep breath and refocused. She was here now. The rolling green hills all around them were gorgeous, and there was a white cap of snow at the top of Mauna Kea. If Rory ever missed playing in the snow, they could make the trek up there.
In the months since Lani had fled her old life, her daughter had never once said that she missed anything about it.
There had been positive aspects to life in Alaska, and the last frontier was undeniably beautiful. But this new life of cousins and beach days and warm rain had so completely eclipsed their old existence that Rory hardly ever mentioned their life there.
Life in Hawai’i was a step up in every way imaginable.
When the kids started to shiver in the cold mountain wind, Emma lured them back to the car with promises of fruit snacks. That inducement kept them quiet for the time it took to get them buckled and steer the car back onto the road, and then they were at it again, whining and squabbling in the back seat like a pair of siblings.
To keep them happy on the long drive down the hill to Kona, Lani played theMoanasoundtrack for the umpteenth time. She winced as the kids belted “You’re Welcome” at full volume.
Even the Kona side was green this time of year, its grassy hills verdant after the winter rains. The expansive views soothed Lani’s nerves even as the noise from the kids grated on them. Things balanced themselves out.
She rolled down the windows, pushing the needle a fraction of the way more towards zen as they coasted down the mountain towards the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway.
Grassy hills gave way to long stretches of black lava rock when they reached the coastline, and finally she turned off the highway towards the airport.
Even down here near town, wild goats grazed along the side of the road. One was perched on the lava-rock wall that held the wordsKona International Airport. She adored the wild spirit of this island, how the ocean and jungle and wildlife pressed up against civilization on all sides.
It was so different from the plastic boxes of cruise ships that sometimes she wondered how she had tolerated working on them for so long. She supposed that seeing the ocean every day had kept her sane, even when she was stuck indoors most of the day and slept in a shared bedroom the size of a closet.
Her time away had inspired a gratitude for this life in Hawai’i that she might never have found if she had stayed. She had been so restless in her early twenties, lost without her parents and ready to travel the world.
All she really wanted now was roots. Family. Home.
And she was fully aware of how lucky she was to have them.
She pulled up in front of the broad sidewalk of the Kona Airport and parked the car. It was a loading zone, but she hopped out to give Emma one last hug.
“I’ll be back soon,” Emma promised.
