Page 22 of Big Island Horizons
“Sure, I could do that.”
“It’ll be a while. Dad’s gonna make me pressure wash it first.”
“Good.” She scuffed at the dirty rooftop with the toe of her shoe. “It needs it.”
Back on solid ground, she went inside to check how things were going in there. A friend of her dad’s had ripped out the water-damaged piece of ceiling and was slotting in a new piece of plywood to cover the gap, having already sealed up the area where water was getting through.
“Mahalo, Uncle,” she said. “There’s food outside when you get hungry.”
Back outside, the volunteers had grown into a proper crowd. Lani was leading a team of kids and parents in covering the outside of the dingy gray building with fresh murals.
She had sketched out a lava tunnel below an‘ohi?aforest, and a couple of other skilled painters were helping her fill in the details. Long roots reached down through the cave, lit by the flashlight of a yet-to-be-painted explorer.
Around the corner, Kiki and Luana and the rest of the kids were painting with their hands. Lani had painted the rough outlines of a tropical garden, great green leaves and brightly colored flowers, and the kids were filling in the empty spaces with their handprints, one on top of another until the wall exploded with color.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” Kekoa told their cousin.
“What?” Lani gave him a sideways glance and then looked back at the spelunkers she was painting in the lava tunnel.
“You need to paint a mural for Haumona! We’ve got that big blank wall on one side.”
“You knew she was an artist,” ‘Olena told her brother.
“I knew she could draw. I didn’t know she could dothis.”
“It’s not finished yet,” Lani said modestly, “and it’s not just me.”
“We both know that it would look even better if it was just yours. Come on, paint something for my shave ice place.”
“I’d be happy to.”
“Good.”
Mano called him from up on the roof, and he sighed dramatically.
“I have some painting to do myself.”
“I’ll come help in a minute,” ‘Olena told him. She was distracted by the sight of Nate’s truck pulling into the parking lot across the lawn.
The girls saw him a moment later and ran towards him with a chorus of, “Daddy!”
He laughed and scooped them up, heedless of the red and purple handprints that were now permanently stamped on his t-shirt.
“Nathan!” Lani put down her paintbrush and went to greet him, grinning.
“Leilani!” He set the girls down to pull her into a hug.
“I always forget how tall you are,” she laughed when he released her.
“Who, me?” Nate straightened to his full six-foot-five.
“You were always a mountain. How in the world did you ever sleep in those cruise ship bunks, anyway?”
“Not well,” he admitted. “A bit better once I got my own cabin.”
He’d helped Lani land her first job out of college, taking care of kids aboard a massive cruise ship.
That was before Luana, before he and ‘Olena had even gotten married. Back when she was so head over heels in love with him that she’d convinced herself that having him home four months a year was still better than having any other guy year round.
