“Oh my gosh, I didn’t recognize you.”
Of course that was the point, and she felt stupid for saying it.
“I wanted to pretend I’m a normal person for a few hours and cheer you on. This is courageous of you. Everything you’ve done these past few weeks has been so brave and inspiring. Can I be you when I grow up?”
Angela was wearing a long-sleeved white bohemian shirt, and it was impossible to tell she was missing part of her arm. And with the large camera around her neck, she easily passed for a journalist there for a story.
Minnow grinned. “I’m glad you came. It must be nice to be out and about and in the fresh air. You’re looking stronger.”
“I still hurt everywhere, but less so. I also wanted to tell you some top-secret news. Can I trust you not to tell a soul?”
Minnow nodded.
“We’re meeting a Realtor tomorrow to look at a few houses in Kohola. I feel a strong connection to this place now, like I lost my arm but gained perspective. Hard to explain, but I’d love to have you come visit when it all pans out and when I’m healed up. What do you say?”
It was just a feeling, since she hardly knew this woman, but she liked her a lot.
“I would love to.”
Angela’s face broke into a thousand-watt smile. “Go. I know you have a swim to do. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll do it with you,” she said with a wink.
They all lined up together, men and women starting at the same time. When the horn went off, they all rushed into the water like newly hatched turtles.
The beginning was chaos. All bubbles and arms and legs, kicking and scratching to get ahead. A few people almost ran Minnow over and she had to kick them away. She was in no big hurry, though, so she kept a steady pace and took an outside line like Hina had suggested. Soon the pack thinned and there were a few swimmers up ahead, barely visible, and two behind her. Nalu and Cliff. She knew because it was habit to check behind her regularly. The depth varied between thirty and fifty feet, and she swam over coral fields and big ravines full of boulders and schools of fish.
In water this warm, she could swim forever if she had to. Luke had given her a few tips yesterday, suggesting more of a body rotation and a lighter flutter kick. She was moving along, absorbed by the colors below and soaking up the winter sun on her back. This would be her last long swim in the Hawaiian ocean and she wanted to savor every sun-dappled moment. Every now and then she would dive down and listen to the whale song or get a closer look at an eel or octopus—or as Woody would say,puhiorhe‘e.
With every stroke she could feel the presence of her father with her. A guide and guardian angel. And the water became as nurturing as her mother’s womb. Minnow had this strange new awareness that humans really did live forever. She might be her own soul, but both of her parents wereinher. Not just their cells but their hearts and their voices and their stories. Their loves and their fears. The way they saw things and felt things. She was them and they were her and there was no end to their love.
A while on, she poked her head up and finally spotted the turnaround buoy way in the distance. A giant red triangle floaty. At that same moment two swimmers shot past her on the inside. It took a moment to register that it was Luke followed by Hina in her strappy red one-piece suit. Minnow turned and watched their bubbles fade, letting Nalu and Cliff close in. Cliff came up for air and got his bearings.
“Next time, I’m escorting,” he said, then put his head down and kicked away.
It wasn’t until they rounded the buoy that Minnow realized their little pack of three had grown to four. There was another swimmer outside of them. She didn’t pay too much attention as they began the long swim back. As the sun climbed higher, the ocean grew clearer and everything beneath the surface shone in Technicolor. Stroke after stroke, she swam. A moving meditation. Scattered light. Shadows on the ocean floor.
You did it.
The voice was not her own. She glanced around.
Did what?
You smashed your darkest fear and found the truth.
A turtle rested on the ocean bottom.
And now what?
Stay.
My life is waiting for me back home. Everything I’ve worked for, everything I know.
It’s all one ocean.
The water had been scraping her bare of all that no longer served her. Every barnacle and crab and seaweed falling away, returning to the source. Lungs almost empty, she came up and gulped in oxygen for a few moments. Nalu and Cliff kept going. Then she felt a presence moving up behind her. She turned and saw someone right on her tail. He stopped when he got to her.
It was Luke.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
