Page 18 of Big Island Moonlight
“Mama,” Rory said after she’d licked her plate clean, “I need to pee.”
“Okay.” Lani stood and scanned the lava rock that stretched out in frozen waves alongside the road. “We’ll find you a spot. Olivia, do you want to come?”
“No thanks. I can wait.”
“Okay. We’ll be right back.”
“And then more waterslides?” Rory stood and danced in place.
“And then more waterslides,” Lani reassured her. “Come on.”
“I’ll get this cleaned up,” Tenn said.
“Thank you.” Lani bent to press a kiss to his temple, then took Rory’s hand and started out across the rocks.
“I’ll help!” Olivia chirped, jumping to her feet.
Lani stopped at the first likely spot, where a great outcropping of rock would hide Rory from the road. The newly-minted six year old emptied her bladder and then scrambled back up to stand next to her mom.
“Can you keep a secret?” she asked as they walked back hand in hand.
“You can tell me anything, baby.”
“And it can still be a secret?”
“Sure.” Lani looked down at her, confused, and Rory met her gaze with wide brown eyes.
“It’s my birthday wish.”
Lani grinned, and the tension that had been gathering in her body flowed away.
“I want to know Italian, like Babbo and Nonna.”
“That’s a good wish.”
“You think I can do it?”
“You’ve already started to learn.”
“But can I speak it now?”
“You can speak some,” Lani hedged, not understanding.
“But it was my birthday wish,” she pressed. “So can I know it all now? Can I understand my nonna?”
Understanding washed through Lani, and she knelt on the sun-baked lava rock to look her daughter in the face.
“Wishes don’t usually work that way,” she told her. “Usually, they take time and hard work. But this is a wish that you can make come true, if you keep trying.”
“Will you help me?”
“Sure.” Lani wasn’t sure where to begin, but there were countless resources out there. Surely she could find something for Rory, even if that was just watching familiar cartoons in Italian. Wasn’t that how kids all over the world learned common languages like English or Spanish? “I’ll help you.”
Rory leapt forward with a hug that nearly sent Lani toppling off of the lava rock. Lani grabbed onto a corner of the coarse rock to keep her balance, and then she returned her daughter’s hug.
“Mama?”
“Yeah, baby?”
