Nori cleared her throat. “Good of Daniel to stop by and examine her. There’s a first for everything,” she said, slicing a loaf of sweetbread into thick pieces.

“Have you had a chance to sit down and talk to him?” Koji asked.

Nori paused before answering. “I saw him a few days ago and asked him to check on Mama. Not long, yeah. Other morning he went fishing with the boys, saw a kohola up close. I think it was special for him. For all of them.”

“A kohola, eh. Good for them. Daniel seem all right to you otherwise?” he asked. “Sounded kind of lost when I saw him at the station last week.”

Nori stopped slicing the bread and looked up. “There’s something, yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. “But he seemed happy with the boys and with Mama. Maybe he just needs a little time to settle in,” she said. “Mauna Loa has disrupted everyone, yeah, can’t imagine how he must feel returning to all of this.”

Koji smiled. “You make a good argument there,” he said.

“Tell that to Samuel,” Nori quipped. She poured more guava juice into his empty glass. “Speak of returning, Maile’s back.”

Koji sat a moment with the news, a surge of happiness spreading through his chest. “When?”

“A few days—” But before Nori could finish her sentence, a barrage of excited voices rushed in from the market. “What now?” Nori said, putting down the knife.

Koji followed her out of the kitchen to find the Yamamoto boy standing amid Samuel and a group of the locals who had gathered by the koa bar.

“There’s news?” Nori asked, raising her voice above the clamor of the crowd.

The crowd quieted and the long-limbed boy looked over at them.

“The Volcano Observatory Center just called down. There’s been another eruption. East of the current lava flow, yeah,” he said eagerly. “The new flow’s moving north toward Saddle Road right above Hilo. They say it’s ponding between an old flow and the cinder cone Pu’uhuluhulu.” The boy paused to take a breath. “They say if it begins to flow again, it’ll be heading directly toward town.”

There was a rumbling from the crowd, wanting to know more. The boy repeated himself. Koji felt Nori’s eyes on him, but neither of them said a word.

19. One Step Forward

19

One Step Forward