Page 65 of Big Island Weddings
She followed him out of their room and squeezed his hand as he turned towards the back door and she continued to the front.
“Something for me,” she murmured as she went back to weeding around the hibiscus bushes.
What would that even look like?
24
Emma
Moss cushioned Emma’s footsteps as she followed Keith through the deep shade of the jungle. White wisps of fog swirled between them as they walked through the fern forest.
“Look here!” Keith exclaimed, excited. “Pepeiao!”
“What’s that?” Emma came level with him and looked where he was pointing. She was breathing heavily from their uphill climb, unaccustomed to walking so far.
“Wood Ear Mushrooms,” he said. “Same in English and Hawaiian. Pepeiao means ear.”
She bent at the waist, bracing her hands on her knees to take a closer look at the strange mushrooms that grew all along the fallen branch.
“Are they good to eat?” she asked.
“They’re great! Easy to dry, too, so I like to keep them on hand to add to soups. They’ve got a nice crunch to them, evencooked. Sometimes you can find Tremella growing on the same tree, but… I’m not seeing any today. Might be a bit early in the season.”
He produced a small knife and cut half of the mushrooms into a mesh bag.
“What does Tremella look like?” Emma asked, genuinely curious.
“Bright white and lacy. It’s my favorite local fungus. Except maybe for almond mushrooms, but I haven’t found many of those.”
Keith walked on, scanning the ground for more treasures.
“So,” he said after a while, “where did you grow up?”
“California. The Santa Cruz mountains.”
“Very cool. Any siblings?”
“Three.” It was an effort to get the word out, and not just because the uphill slope was robbing her of breath. After twenty years with one man, first-date smalltalk was completely foreign to her.
It was made weirder still by the fact that she had known Keith for months. They’d had long conversations about topics ranging from soil health to food preservation… but never alone. And they had never covered the basics.
She didn’t fault him for asking, but the conversation felt stilted and awkward.
At least he was trying. She wasn’t exactly giving him much to work with.
“Two sisters and a twin brother,” she added after a beat.
“Do you miss them?”
“I do. But we talk on the phone a lot, and a couple of them have been out to visit already. How about you?” she made herself ask. “Any siblings?”
“Nah, just me. Raised by a single mom in Puna. She was a teenager when she had me, so sometimes it felt like having a big sister. In good ways and not so good ways.”
“They say that eldest children and their parents grow up together, regardless of age.”
“There’s some truth to that, I think.” He stopped again and knelt near a patch of tender young ferns. Emma crouched down and helped him gather enough to fill a bag.
When they came to a patch of mossy sunlight, they sat down and ate the food that they had packed. Keith had simple fare from the farm, like fresh vegetables and mountain apple. Emma offered him one of Tara’s phenomenal ‘ulu muffins, and he ate it with gusto.
