“Are you coming, Auntie?” Zoe looked at Akemi like she needed backup.
Akemi frowned and looked at Anne. “Aren’t hot baths and jacuzzis on thenolist for pregnant women?”
“Warm baths are fine, and the main pool’s not too hot. Just don’t go into that boiling-hot one back in the trees.”
“Okay,” Akemi agreed. “A warm soak sounds nice.”
“Great! I’ll pack something for the kids while you finish eating, and then we’ll head down.”
The sun had crested the horizon by the time she managed to get Claire and Pete out of bed, but it was still low in the sky as they drove south into Puna.
Years had passed since the lava covered Kapoho, but it was still surreal to drive along the smooth new road that cut through the drastically altered landscape.
The vast lava fields that they were passing through had been vibrant neighborhoods for most of Anne’s life. Here and there, she could still see the remains of metal roofs and catchment tanks sticking up from the new rock.
Enough time had passed that patches of green were beginning to overtake the undulating expanse of black lava rock. Native ferns, young ohia trees, and other pioneer plants were bringing life back to the area, bit by bit.
“Isn’t that where your friend Pili grew up?” she asked, pointing out a lonely house out in the lava field. It was on a slight rise, a green strip of land that had been spared from the lava that overtook the rest of the neighborhood. But it was abandoned now, cut off from everything.
“I think so,” Akemi said. “What a trip.”
Black gave way to green in a sudden burst of color as they drove past the edge of the lava fields, and suddenly their surroundings were more familiar.
The huge warm pool where the Aloha sisters had spent countless hours of their girlhood was gone now, filled in by the eruption that had destroyed seven hundred homes, but new hot ponds had been left in their place.
“What the heck, dude?!” Claire’s voice rose suddenly, right behind Anne’s head. “How did you sneak that thing into the car?”
“Hisname is Rikki,” Pete said grumpily, “And he was napping in my pocket.”
“In yourpocket?”
“In the front pocket of my hoodie. See? It’s like a little den.”
“You are so weird.”
“Children, children,” Zoe said in a deep voice. “Kind words and indoor voices, please.”
Claire stuck her tongue out at her big sister.
“I think he’s cute,” Akemi said, twisting around in the front seat.
“Pete or the weasel?” Zoe quipped.
“He’snota weasel,” Pete grumbled. “He’s a mongoose.”
“Same difference.”
“They arenotthe same!” He perked up a bit, warming to the subject that he’d been reading about for weeks. “Did you know that mongooses are more closely related to hyenas than they are to weasels?”
“You’re really not helping your case,” Claire said.
“How can you be so mean to someone so cute?” His voice took on a tragic note. “He’s just a sweet little pup! He never hurt anybody or did anything wrong! Why does everyone hate him?”
“I don’t hate him,” Akemi said.
Pete smiled at his aunt. “Thanks.”
“What are you going to do with him when you swim?” Zoe asked.
