“Like a dream, yeah,” Auntie Leia said, and smiled. “She’s much happier to be out of her room, even eating better.”

He thought that Auntie Leia also looked happier.

“That’s good to hear,” Daniel said. It was what he hoped for. “I’ll come by again tomorrow.” He was feeling too restless to sit and wait, another reminder of his father and something he hadn’t realized he inherited. “I need to stop by the hospital with some paperwork for Mama’s file.”

“Shame, yeah, you having to make another trip,” Auntie Leia said.

“I’ll come by earlier tomorrow,” he said. “There are some exercises I’d like Mama to start doing.”

Auntie Leia nodded. “We’ll be here,” she said.

Daniel walked back to the truck, sunlight streaming through the parted clouds.

* * *

From the Natuas, Daniel dropped off some paperwork at the hospital before driving back to the market. The day felt unfinished. The crowds thickened the closer he came to the wharf and Hilo Bay. From the way the locals were going about their business as usual, it was hard to believe that Pele was still erupting in the mountains above them. He observed a flock of day workers hovering like birds on the sidewalk and imagined his father among them. He slowed down to study their passing faces, watching for his familiar lean body, the high, straight nose; envisioning his time-weathered good looks, the deeper lines and grayer hair. Daniel shook away his foolishness. He knew there was little chance that Franklin Abe could ever have returned to the tightly knit Hilo community for long without someone knowing. They always watched out for and protected their own.

Daniel wasn’t ready to go home. He glanced at his watch and stepped on the gas, making a quick turn at the next corner, driving away from the wharf. If he drove directly up to Puli Plantation he could talk to Uncle Koji and still return Uncle Samuel’s truck before dark.

26. Collecting

26

Collecting

Mama woke with a start. She heard voices outside, followed by a truck rattling down the road. Moments later, Leia peered into her room to see that she was awake. “You’re up, yeah, you just missed Daniel.”

Who was Daniel? The name settled on her tongue but she didn’t say it aloud. Instead she raised her arms and reached toward her daughter like a child. In one quick swoop she was lifted into Leia’s arms and gently placed into the chair with wheels. It was her favorite time of each day, being pushed out to the porch, or if it wasn’t too hot or too wet or too windy, outside to the front yard.

“Good of Wilson to build the ramp, yeah,” Leia said as she rolled her slowly down the wooden ramp and onto a shady, bald spot of dirt and grass in the front yard.

Mama smiled when she looked up at the cloud-spotted sky.