Page 31 of Big Island Moonlight
“Do youwantto be ready?” Jun reached across the table and took her hand, warm from the cup of tea she had been clutching while they talked.
“Yeah.” Her voice was quiet, her eyes down. Even so, there was a steadiness to her answer. “I do.”
“Then just take it one day at a time.”
Emma grinned and met her eyes. Her smile was almost shy. “How did you get so wise?”
“It’s the trauma,” Jun quipped, and she laughed.
“Change of subject?” She picked her tea up in both hands and leaned back in her chair.
“Sure.” Juniper shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable – a nearly impossible task. Deep in her belly, her son turned and shifted as well, trying to stretch his legs in the narrow confines of his living space.
“Nell moves out today.”
“Already?” Juniper had heard about the proposal, but moving house one day to the next seemed extreme.
“She’s basically been living there for months already,” Emma reminded her. “We hardly see her anymore. I think she’s already moved her life over there one bag at a time, but she and Hugh are coming for one last load today.”
“Wow. Okay.” Juniper frowned at her aunt, who was looking at her expectantly. “What?”
“I’m wondering if you’d like to move into the ‘ohana.”
“Me?” She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. The ‘ohana unit was just across the yard, but it was a whole home of its own. Her own kitchen, her own living room… the thought was dizzying.
“Do you really want to keep climbing the stairs to the tower room?”
“I love the tower room,” Jun protested, and then she sighed. “But yeah, the stairs are getting more and more difficult.”
“I’ll be a stone’s throw away,” Emma reassured her. “Shouting distance. I’ll still be right here.”
“Yeah. Of course. It makes sense.”
“I can help you move your stuff over today, if you’d like. Maybe we could go shopping for some odds and ends to make it feel more like home? Add your own touch?”
Juniper shook her head, overwhelmed by the thought of trying to redecorate the place. She had never lived on her own before, not unless you counted the treehouse behind Aunt Toni’s yurt – and she didn’t. That had just been like having her own room. It was technically detached from the main structure, but she had still showered in the yurt and cooked with her aunt in the kitchen. This was… different, somehow.
“What’s up?” Emma asked quietly.
“Are you sure you don’t want to rent it out?”
“I don’t need to. I would rather have you there. It’s the ‘ohana unit, after all. It’s for family. You and the baby are going to need a bit of room.”
Juniper nodded slowly, and Emma reached for her hand.
“What’s really bothering you?”
“I’m not a kid anymore.” Juniper’s throat was tight; she suddenly found herself holding back tears. “I know that sounds stupid when my belly’s out to here and I already run my own business and everything, but–” Her voice broke, and she paused to collect herself.
“That doesn’t sound stupid.” Emma’s voice was soft. “You’re seventeen, Junebug. You’re very grown up, and you’re brilliant, but you’re still… well, I’d say that you’re a newborn adult.”
“I’m not sure I’m even that yet.” Jun dashed away a couple of tears that had escaped. “Have you ever readI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?”
“Of course.”
“The memoir, I mean.”
“Yes.”
