Page 89 of Big Island Summer
“No, you don’t. It’s just easier to remember them if they’re already on your feet. Here, put them in my backpack.”
“Thank you!”
Kai’s closed-toed sandals were as good as new. Aside from crossing the occasional frying-pan parking lot, he never wore them. After nearly a year in Hawaii, his feet were so tough that he could run across lava rock and gravel with no pain.
Fern was in the front seat, so Emma and Kai climbed in back to sit on either side of baby Theodore.
“Teddy doesn’t have any shoes!” Kai reported.
“Your cousin can’t walk yet,” Emma replied.
“Still?” he scoffed. Then he leaned over the car seat and said in a completely different, saccharine tone, “He’s just a little baby.”
“Yep. Now stop squishing his cheeks.”
“But he likes it!”
Teddy giggled as if on cue, so Emma let them be.
Up front, Fern guided Ethan across the highway and up a dirt road. They dropped a pin for Juniper, who was getting a ride to meet them after work, and Ethan changed the baby into a fresh diaper on the tailgate of his truck.
Emma stretched as they stood on the side of the quiet road. Kai kicked dirt clods around. Fern sat Teddy up on the tailgate and held his hands to stabilize him, talking to him and making him laugh.
Finally, Cody drove up the road in his old gray Honda and parked behind the truck.
“Sorry we’re late,” he said as he unfolded himself from the little car. He was a lanky seventeen year old. Ethan was tall, but Cody had at least a couple of inches on him. “There was an accident on the highway, so we got stuck for a while.”
“He got off at the first exit he could and took the back roads,” Juniper added. She greeted her dad with a one-armed hug and then bent to kiss her baby brother on the cheek.
“We weren’t waiting too long,” Fern told them. She helped Ethan load Teddy into his oversized hiking pack and then led them to a trail that was barely visible from the road.
“Everybody ready?” Juniper asked, grinning at Kai. She was wearing running shorts and a big t-shirt that had probably been Cody’s at one point. When she slipped her hand into his, Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
He looked like he was about to say something, but his whole body relaxed when Fern touched his arm, and he let it go.
“Ready?” she asked.
He nodded, eyes on hers.
“Let’s go!” She led the way into the jungle with Ethan right behind her. Cody and Juniper went next, and then Kai.
Emma took up the rear. She felt a bit like the fifth wheel, even though her son and nephew were along for the ride.
The feeling faded as she turned her attention outward, admiring the bright tropical flowers that flourished here and there against a backdrop of endless green. Her legs burned with the steady upward tilt of the trail, and soon the exertion of the climb overtook everything else.
They had been hiking for an hour already when they came to a rise with a view over the forest. The distant rooftops and massive monkeypod trees on the edge of town triggered something deep in Emma’s mind, and she was blindsided by a sudden flash of memory. It was so strong and clear that she could feel Adam’s arm around her waist and hear his laughter as clearly as if he really stood there beside her.
Everyone else had stopped to admire the view – and catch their breath – so they didn’t notice when she froze to stare out at the familiar vista.
“I’ve been here before,” she said.
“Have you?” Ethan was panting from the exertion of hiking with Teddy on his back.
“Years ago, with Adam.”
He nodded solemnly and looked out towards the ocean, just a thin line in the distance.
“My mom and I used to come with local friends when I was a kid,” Fern said. “It took me forever to find it again. I came back with a machete and cleared out parts of the trail that were completely overgrown.”
