Page 89 of Hula

That she likes.

“Great advice, bro.”

“Uncle Mak, I’m making air fryer chicken.”

He crosses to the table and sits his ass down. The Manila envelope in his hands gets slid across. I grab it and leave it on the counter. The hard copy of our contract will be put in my safe deposit box. Mak thinks I am a dinosaur not to rely on the Cloud. But being a dinosaur has saved my ass a few times.

“Wait till you see this recipe this girl I’m seeing gave me,” he says to Alana.

Taking out a paper from his pocket, he unfolds it.

“Copied it for you. Peanut butter toast, with sliced bananas, then you put maple syrup on it and cinnamon if you want. Look it up, but it’s like a minute or two.”

“Yum!”

“It’s delicious. The syrup crystallizes in the air fryer.”

I never thought my brother and my daughter would be trading recipes, but I like that they are. Alana’s cell rings.

“Oh, it’s Tutu FaceTimeing.”

The iPad gets set up and she answers as Mak scoots his chair in frame.

“Hi, Tutu!”

“Hello, dear! Oh, hello, son.”

“Hey, Mom.”

“I have a guest too. Look who came to see me.”

I finish drying my hands and before I get to the table Leilani’s voice reaches me.

“Hi, you two! Oh, I miss seeing you, Alana! I picked out some fabric for you today. For next summer’s suit.”

“What about me?” I say, pulling up a seat.

That face. We talk every day. FaceTime at least every other. It is not enough.

“You want a bikini too?”

“I do if you’ll deliver.”

“Alana, how did your Winter Dance go?”

My mother’s question takes me by surprise. And I’m not alone.

“I didn’t go. How did you know about that?”

“The website! I can follow all the goings on at your new school. I like seeing all the fun you’re having.”

A snort escapes Alana’s lips.

“She is doing great scholastically. I’m proud of her.”

My comment gets discarded and Alana goes back to Mom’s last comment.

“When you go to an all-girls school you have to do the asking. I don’t know any boys here yet.”

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