The 'Ohana Tree

by Rebecca Addison

  "That's true," Garrett said in his rough, raspy voice as he walked out from the storeroom, scratching his cheek through his patchy gray whiskers. "But it's okay for you to teach Dipper about surfboards. She's a good listener and she'll promise to pay attention."

  Akamu's shoulders relaxed and he smiled. His was a smile that started slow and crept up on him until his whole face beamed.

  Now that I knew Akamu was happy, I moved my attention to the girl, holding out my hand. "I'm Kai."

  She quickly shook it and then pulled her hand away as she opened her mouth. I thought she was about to introduce herself, but like most people, she wasn't fast enough for Akamu.

  "Dipper is new here because she started today and we went to get our 9.30 juice and guess what, Kai? Mango and Pineapple is her favorite."

  "Are you kidding, bro?" I said, "Mango and Pineapple is your favorite!"

  "I know!" he grinned. "She likes it with ice too!"

  "I'm Tess," she said to both of us. "But in Hawaii people call me Dipper."

  "In Hawaii?"

  "It's a long story."

  Akamu nudged the box on the floor with his foot. "We can't leave the box here. It's a tripping hazard. It's very dangerous to leave things on the floor in a shop because people might not see it and fall down." He frowned and put his hand on his head.

  "Of course," she said, "I'll sort these out right away." I listened carefully to her voice to see if there was any hint of sarcasm or cruelty there, but there wasn't any. When I glanced back, she was sitting down again, back to sorting bikinis. Akamu lifted his watch to his face and then hurried away toward the counter.

  "So you're brothers," she said, keeping her eyes on the floor. "Who's older?"

  "I am. Aka is five years younger than me."

  "He's a tough boss." She held up a hot pink string bikini top and let it dangle from her finger. "He said he's going to quiz me on those surfboards over there tomorrow, and I'm kind of worried about what will happen when I get all of the answers wrong."

  "Don't worry about it," I said, "I can tell he likes you."

  "That's nice, but he's tried so hard to teach me, I don't want to let him down."

  I took a seat on the edge of the window sill and watched her rifle around in the box for a while. The way her hands were quickly tucking in straps and flicking over swing tags reminded me of the way her fingers danced on the neck of her violin before. I wanted to ask her about her music but I didn’t know how to bring it up. It felt as though I had intruded on a private moment when I’d seen her play. So instead, I just sat there like an idiot for a few minutes and then when the silence became awkward I said, "Where are you from?"

  She straightened up a pile of bikini bottoms carefully and then looked up, her eyes meeting mine. If my eyes were the earth, then hers were the sea. Not the deep ocean where the water is dark, but the way it looks right near the shore, where it's aqua and bright and so pale that you can see the sand between your toes.

  "I'm from nowhere and everywhere," she said, pulling her eyes away from mine so that she could resume her sorting. I didn't know what to say to that. But I liked the idea of being from everywhere. Nowhere, not so much.

  "Dipper, is that young man annoying you?" Garrett's voice called out from the back of the shop.

  She rolled her eyes. "No!"

  "Are you sure? Because I can have him thrown out of here if he's distracting you from your work."

  Tess glanced at me quickly and I stood to my feet. I was pretty sure I knew what was coming next.

  "Excuse me," Akamu said from behind the counter. "I am the Manager at Makai Surf and this is where we work, Kai. We have to work when we're here."

  "I understand, Aka."

  "This is very serious, Kai," he scolded, walking up to me, and placing a hand on my shoulder. He dipped his head so that he peered intently into my face. "We have important work to do."

  I smiled patiently. "I'm just leaving. I'll come back at twelve to take you surfing."

  His face froze. "Garrett takes me surfing, Kai. That's Garrett's job."

  "Right," I said. "I forgot. Can I take you out for dinner at least?" I quickly ran through Akamu's schedule in my head and of course, it was Thursday. "Thursday is burgers at Grilled." He was pleased that I remembered. "Well, I'll call you tonight then after you get home."

  He clapped a couple of times and then turned his attention to Tessa. "Take Dipper to dinner."

  "Ah, well, I-," she said, her face flushing red.

  "Kai," Akamu said mischievously, picking up my hand and holding it out toward Tess, "you should take her to dinner because we don't know her so you can get to know her at dinner and you can tell me everything about her in secret."

  To her credit, she managed to keep the mortification from her face as she put her hand in mine and said, "Thank you, Akamu, that's a nice idea." Her eyes flicked over to where Garrett was standing in the doorway of the storeroom before coming back to rest on my face.

  "What time do you finish?" I said, still holding her hand. I knew I should probably let it go, but I didn't want to.

  "You can go now," Garrett yelled at her from the back.

  Tess scowled. "Are you kidding me? I just got here."

  He caught my eye. "Get outta here, Dipper."

  She pulled her hand out of mine and looked at me helplessly. "I guess I'm leaving then." Akamu took the box from her and then she followed me outside, sliding her feet into a pair of red flip flops she'd left next to the door.

  "I'm sorry," I said. "Akamu can get a little excited about things. I hope you didn't feel uncomfortable."

  "Of course not. I like your brother a lot."

  "He likes you, too. Hey, if you don't want to go to dinner, that's okay. We can tell him we went and he won't know the difference."

  She didn't answer. I didn't know if that meant she was offended or relieved.

  "How about we just go for a drive?" I managed. "I can show you some of the places that the tourists don't know about."

  She peeked over her shoulder to where Akamu was grinning at us from the window and laughed, the sound of it husky and sweet. "Let's go, then."

  Chapter Five

  "My place is down there," I said, pointing up the street. "We can grab some food and then I'll take you on a tour. Have you been to Hawaii before?"

  She shook her head and fell into step beside me. "I've been to Honolulu, but this is the first time I've visited any of the other islands."

  "Are you liking it so far?"

  "What's not to like," she said. Through the gap between two shops, a slice of ocean sparkled like topaz. "Beach, sun, nice people, no traffic.. if anything, it's too perfect."

  "How can anything be too perfect?"

  "I don't know, I just think you need a bit of darkness sometimes, so you can appreciate the light. It keeps things interesting.”

  I nodded but didn't say anything. We reached the end of the road and then turned right, down a small street to a line of cottages facing the ocean.

  "Hawaii has a hard side, too, you know," I said as I opened my front gate for her. "It's not all coconut trees and hula dancing."

  She walked through and stepped to the side so that I could shut the gate. "Sorry, Kai, I didn't mean to imply that -"

  "Sometimes," I said, "it gets so cold here that we have to wear shoes. I'm not kidding. And once, last year, Kenneth's truck broke down in the middle of the road and it backed traffic up for over an hour. My grandmother gave him the finger."

  She smiled suddenly and looked at me like maybe I was somebody she wanted to know. And I felt it, and passed it back, hoping she would feel it too.

  When we reached the porch, I kicked off my flip flops and pushed open the door.

  "This place is cool," she said, as she followed me into the living and dining room. The room was relaxed and beachy with an old sofa in the middle and a couple of surfboards leaning up against the wall. "Do you live here alone?"

  I led her into the small gall
ey kitchen and started rifling through cupboards. "Yeah. But it doesn't feel that way. My family have an open door policy, whether we all agree to it or not." She gave me a long, quizzical look then moved her eyes away. I pulled out a loaf of bread and a packet of cookies and opened the refrigerator.

  "I've never lived alone before," she said to my back. "Not really. I've been by myself while I've been traveling, but I've never had a house to myself. What's it like?"

  I turned back to her with my arms full. She took a jar of mustard and a container full of chicken out of my hands and I offloaded the rest of it onto the countertop.

  "It's.. freedom," I said, watching her carefully.

  "Living with no one watching."

  "Exactly."

  We made sandwiches and I carefully wrapped them, packing them into a cooler bag while Tess filled up our water bottles. When everything was ready, I grabbed my keys off the counter. "I'm just going to get changed. Do you want to stop at your place so you can grab a swimsuit?"

  I hadn't told her anything about where I was planning on taking her but I figured a swim and a picnic would please just about anybody.

  "That would be great," she said. "Thanks."

  I walked down the hallway, singing something to myself, and turned into my bedroom at the end, leaving the door open.

  "I think Aka likes you," I called out, pulling my shirt over my head and looking around the corner. "He's not like that with everyone. It usually takes him a while to warm up to new people."

  She was sitting on a wooden stool next to the counter. "I like him too. How long has he been working there?"

  "About three years, I think." I rounded the corner, pulling a fresh t-shirt over my head. "Garrett gave him his first job. He started part time and worked his way up. You ready?"

  My truck was an old Ford F-150 with faded red paint and a pile of equipment in the back. It broke down about once a month but it was never expensive enough to fix that I considered replacing it with a newer model. I opened her door and threw the bag inside, before stepping out of the way as she climbed in. After I had shut her door, I pointed to the window, telling her to wind it down.

  "Sorry, no air conditioning," I said when I climbed into my seat. "I should get it fixed, but I kind of like driving with the windows down. I hope you won't be too hot."

  "I'm fine. Do you need directions?"

  I shook my head and started the engine. "I know where it is."

  When we pulled up outside, I jumped out and went next door to talk to Mrs. Lee while Tess got changed. When she walked out a few minutes later, we were talking about something while I helped her pull up weeds in her front garden. Mrs. Lee must have been at least ninety and her head only came up to Tessa's shoulders. Next to her, I was a giant.

  "Tessa!" she cried when she approached the fence. "I was just telling Kailano what a lovely young woman you are."

  "Thank you, Mrs. Lee," she said. "I think you're lovely, too."

  Her eyes sparkled. "You two have a wonderful day. Thank you for your help, Kailano."

  "Call me when the lawns need to be mowed," I said. "I don't want you doing them yourself."

  "Take her to the North Side," she called back when we got to the truck. "Take her to The Hidden Place."

  I waved politely and then we climbed back in the truck and were on our way.

  "So where are we going?" she asked as soon as we pulled away from the curb.

  I smiled but kept my eyes on the road. "To the North Side. She totally ruined it."

  "Do we get to go to 'The Hidden Place' too?"

  "Of course."

  We continued along a road dotted with houses until I made a left, slowing down as soon as we made the turn. The road was small and winding, and it was empty apart from us.

  "How long have you been here?" I asked her. "I haven't seen you in town, or at any of the clubs along the beach."

  She wound her window down the rest of the way and leaned out. The trees were changing, getting darker as we climbed higher. "Three weeks. I haven't been out much. I've mostly been at the house, and down to the beach in the early mornings." She sat back in her seat and ran her eyes over my face. "You look like your brother. But the angles of your face are sharper, and he has darker skin."

  "I’m more like our mother than he is. How long are you here for?" I reached into the bag and passed her a bottle of water.

  "I don't know," she said. "Until it's time to go, I guess."

  "How do you know Garrett?"

  "Well," she said, "that's kind of complicated. I guess you could say he's a friend."

  "How old are you?"

  "Forty-three."

  I flicked on the radio, smiling to myself. "That's what I thought."

  We drove in silence for a few more miles and then I pulled into a small car parking area, stopping the truck under the shade of a tree. "How old are you really?"

  "Why?"

  "You look young," I said, searching her face, trying to figure it out. "But you act older."

  She picked up the bag and I jumped out of the truck, walking around to help her climb down.

  "Twenty-four," she said when she was on the ground and I took the bag from her. "And I feel older."

  I wanted to tell her that I felt that way too, but instead I pointed toward a small opening in the trees. "We're going in there. Are you okay to do a bit of a walk? It's not long, but it's steep up the top."

  "Lead the way."

  I disappeared through the gap and she followed behind. In seconds, we were enclosed in forest and shadows.

  "I haven't been up here for ages," I said over my shoulder. "I used to come swimming here all the time when I was a kid."

  We walked along a muddy track that climbed up and over the rocks, and every now and again I bent down to move a branch that had fallen on the path. There were no sounds around us, except for a few birds squawking in the trees above and the sound of our labored breaths as the climb got harder.

  "Almost there," I said at last, sitting down on a boulder and passing her a drink. She sat down next to me and tucked her knees up.

  Below us, a small waterfall tumbled into a large pool of deep, dark water. I snuck a look at her face. She was staring as if she didn’t want to blink in case she missed a second of it.

  "That's not it," I said.

  "It's not?" She peered down and frowned. "How can that not be it?"

  "Come on," I said, standing up again. "It's slippery going down. I'll give you a hand."

  We climbed between two enormous boulders and then I stepped in front of her and held out my free hand. She took it and my fingers wrapped around hers. We made our way down to the edge of the pool slowly, it really was slippery, and we both lost our footing more than once.

  "We have to swim across," I said, letting go of her hand once I'd made sure she was on level ground. I put down the bag and lifted my shirt up and over my head before tossing it onto a rock. I felt her eyes follow the tattoos that covered my right arm and half of my chest but when I glanced at her, she quickly looked away. It made me feel strange, like I was fifteen again, too scared to open my mouth in case something dumb came out of it. I told myself to get a grip. "You can leave your things here. No one will take them."

  She unbuttoned her shirt and undid the zipper on her denim skirt, stepping out of it, before folding it quickly and placing everything next to my t-shirt. I kicked off my shoes and Tess put her sandals next to my clothes, and then I waded into the water, the bag held high above my head with both hands.

  "Ah! I always forget how cold it is!"

  "This isn't what I pictured when I saw myself swimming in Hawaii," she said through chattering teeth as she made her way next to me. "Why the hell is it so cold?"

  "It's fresh spring water. And it's about to get deep. Be careful." I spun onto my back and swam to the other side holding the bag up out of the water with one hand. She hovered at the shelf of sand and stones, the depth of the water spreading out in front of her. And then she took
a big mouthful of air and dove under.

  "Swim faster, it will make you warmer," I shouted from the other side when she surfaced. I sat on a rock watching her, my legs bent at the knees and my skin dripping wet.

  "Thanks for the tip," she yelled when she'd reached the middle of the pool.

  "No problem."

  When she finally made it to the other side, I moved out of the patch of sunlight I was sitting in to make room for her. She wrung out her hair, wrapping her arms around her knees as she shivered.

  "I could give you some swimming lessons," I said, leaning back on the rock. "You need to be a stronger swimmer than that if you're living here. The ocean can be mean sometimes." She took the sandwich I offered her and turned her back toward the sun.

  "So where is this 'hidden place'?" she said when we'd finished.

  I stood up and pulled her up by the hand. "It's right behind you."

  She spun around and ran her eyes down the large rock covered with vines. I couldn't hide my grin.

  "What?" she said, narrowing her eyes. "There better be a 'hidden place,' Kai because I didn't just freeze my ass off for nothing."

  "I told you," I said, leaning past her. "It's right behind you."

  She watched as I pushed my hand through the vines. My arm disappeared and I pushed the branches away so that she could see inside. There was a small tunnel, only two or three feet long, and light poured through it from the other side.

  "After you," I said, stepping back.

  She pushed the vines aside and climbed through. She only had to duck a little bit, but I knew from experience that I'd have to crawl over the rough rock and would end up with bloodied knees.

  "It's nice, isn't it," I said behind her when I’d made it through.

  It wasn't nice. It was breathtaking. We were in a natural amphitheater made of rock and below us lay a crystal clear pool of water. There was another waterfall and a small beach. And there were pink flowers everywhere.

  "Come on," I said, leading the way down to the water. "Your first swimming lesson starts now."