“Not like that,” she said, interrupting herself. She walked down the steps and took the brush from Pete’s hand to demonstrate. “Like this, so it doesn’t drip.”
“And the guy was Grandpa?” Pete prompted.
“He was so handsome,” Dawn said dreamily. “Golden skin, thick black hair, and the most mesmerizing clear brown eyes. He was headed to meet some friends at the hot ponds, but he saw me walking alone and stopped to ask if I was okay. I said I was fine, but he offered to give me a lift wherever I was going.”
“And you went with him?” Claire asked.
“Heck no!” Dawn laughed. “I’d lived enough by then to be cautious of strange men.”
“So what happened?”
“He drove alongside me for two miles, just crawling along. Told me he wouldn’t leave until I got safe where I was going. And we chatted through the window. He told me about his family, about Pualena, about working in construction.”
“And then what?” Claire pressed when Dawn trailed off.
“He won out in the end,” Dawn said with a grin. “The day just kept getting hotter, and my feet were killing me. And my gut said that this guy was okay, that he was safe. So I gave up and got in the car.”
“Did he drive you to your friend’s house?”
“He did. And after all that, there was no one home. It wasn’t a solid plan, really. I didn’t have a plan. I just headed to the closest place I could.
“Anyway, when there was no one home, he asked if I had a place to sleep that night. When I didn’t answer, he asked if he could take me here. To his mother’s house. It was much smaller then, but she had a spare room for foster kids, and there was nobody in it that week. He said his mother would be happy to let me stay with her until I got back on my feet.”
“And then what?” Pete asked.
“Then I came home,” she said, looking up at the house. “I met Tutu Kalama, and she gave me a place to stay. Kimo and I were married three months later.”
“He knew the moment he saw her,” Anne remembered. “He always said that the instant he laid eyes on her, way down the road, he felt this sudden certainty that he was going to marry her.”
Tears fell from Dawn’s eyes, but she was smiling.
It was a huge relief to Anne, seeing her mother come back to herself. She set down her paint roller and put both arms around her.
“I’m glad that you’re doing this,” Dawn said, returning the hug. “Your dad would have hated to see the place looking so grungy.”
“Do you want to help us?” Pete offered her a brush.
“Sure.” She smiled at her grandson. “Let’s fix this place up.”
14
Akemi
Life at home had fallen into an easy rhythm. Akemi rose in time to watch the sunrise over the ocean, and then she spent her morning hours working online.
She had a massive archive of photos and videos from her travels. Instead of scrambling to post things when she was on the move, she waited until she was based somewhere for a while and batch created all of her videos and guides. That took up most of her time, though she also gave a solid hour most days to emails: tourism boards, brand deals, other creators and longtime friends checking in about upcoming plans; there was always a lot to juggle.
Akemi loved the life that she had created, but work was still work. It was gratifying to spend such a long stretch of time with her family; they’d never really seen how many hours she put into her work each week.
Now they were starting to show more curiosity about it all. Her mom liked to watch over her shoulder as she pieced videos together and added captions, and she and her sisters talked late into the night about her adventures.
There was still plenty of time to get out and enjoy the island, too. And because there was so little separation between her life and her work, every adventure was an opportunity to create more content. Whenever she hiked to a waterfall with old friends or spent a few hours at the beach with family, she surreptitiously recorded bits and pieces of her day to make into Hawaii compilations down the road.
Akemi couldn’t imagine working a normal nine to five… but at the same time, she sometimes wondered if she’d lost some degree of authentic presence in her life to that constant compulsion to create content. She hardly ever left her devices behind to just enjoy the day.
Even when shedidleave her phone at home – and she sometimes did, when she was riding along with one of her sisters and wanted to be fully present with her family – her mind swarmed with a dozen different things.
She was rich in experiences and hopes and plans… and yet all of those things continuously pulled her out of the present moment.
