Page 49 of Big Island Summer
“I’m not laughing at you,” she said, turning to face him. “I’m just happy you want to help.”
He regarded her with narrow-eyed suspicion. “For real?”
“For real.” She turned back to the cabinets and scratched her head. “Hey kiddo, I can’t find that mixer anywhere. I’m not sure it ever came back from the ‘ohana unit after Nell borrowed it to make that cake. Do you want to run over and ask her for it?”
“No,” he sighed, slumping away from the table. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Do you want to try mixing the eggs with a fork?”
“You can do it.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Whipping up a dozen eggs was a lot easier than arguing with a hangry seven year old, so she went ahead and did it herself.
While she cooked the eggs over a low flame, she thought about the two kids under her roof. She had been doing her best to lean in and support Juniper since Laurel’s death, but her teenaged niece was sick of her. Meanwhile, Kai was feeling neglected.
She needed to shift her focus: give her niece some room to breathe and spend more quality time with her son.
“Eggs are ready!” she called when the scramble had firmed up.
No response.
She sighed and covered the eggs, then went in search of the kids. Halfway up the stairs, she could hear music blasting from the tower room.
“Oh well,” Emma muttered under her breath. “She’ll come down when she’s hungry.”
But where was Kai?
“Hi Mom!” He came to stand at the top of the stairs, his voice high and loud.
“Hey Kai.” She tilted her head to one side, wondering why his smile looked so guilty.
“Food ready?”
“Yeah, the eggs are ready.”
“Let’s go!” He tried to shoo her down the stairs, which only made her more suspicious.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing!”
She sighed and walked the rest of the way up the stairs, looking over his head into the bedroom. Toys and legos were scattered across the floor in disarray and his bed was unmade, all the usual level of chaos that she let slide in his space… and then she saw the wall.
Wide swaths of marker covered the textured beige surface – not even drawings, just frantic scribbles of one color after another.
“I don’t know how that got there!” Kai exclaimed. “Maybe it was Cassie. Or Rory, when she–”
He cut himself off mid-sentence when she gave him a disappointed look.
“Okay,” he murmured, turning his face down towards the floor. “I’m sorry I lied.”
“Why did you color all over the wall?”
He shrugged, still looking down at his toes. “I dunno.”
She waited.
