The 'Ohana Tree

by Rebecca Addison

  As far as I was concerned, the dress should stay wet forever.

  "Are you sure that you know what you're doing there, partner?" I leaned over the bench. "You know the butter to cheese ratio is critical."

  "Umm, yes, thank you," she said primly, nudging me away with her hip. "I have no money. Therefore, I am an expert at making a meal out of two slices of bread."

  I watched her hands as she pushed the butter right out to the edges of the bread with the knife then flipped it over and buttered the other side.

  "Double butter?" I said, and she smiled sweetly in response.

  "Would you like to make it?"

  I shook my head. "No way. I'm having a good time watching you make it."

  "Then shush. And pass me the cheese."

  Grilled cheese sandwiches made and cut into four neat triangles each, and we were sitting on my sofa under a blanket, trying to pretend like nothing was going to happen.

  "Tell me more about the recording contract," she said, biting into one of her triangles and stretching out the cheese in front of her.

  I loved the way she sat there with wet hair tied up, her face clean and a ribbon of cheese hanging out of her mouth. She was entirely unembarrassed and totally unaware of how beautiful she was.

  "You know Cuban Country?" I said, and she rolled her eyes. "Okay, well, they recorded their last album at my studio, and-"

  "They recorded December here?"

  "After we'd finished the album," I continued, "they asked me to go on tour with them."

  "What?" She dropped her sandwich onto her plate, turning to me with big round eyes.

  "But obviously, I couldn't go."

  She picked at her bread again. "Oh."

  "The band sent some stuff I made while they were here to their record company and they called yesterday. That's it."

  "Are you sure there isn't any way you could make this work?" she said. "This might not come around again."

  "I talked to them about recording it here, maybe flying their producer out, but they weren't into it. It's LA or nothing."

  "What if someone else looked after things while you're away? There has to be someone in your family who could make sure that Akamu is okay and take care of whatever needs to be done up at Onakea."

  "Tess," I said, putting my plate on the floor, "if there was any way to make it work, don't you think I would do it?"

  Her eyes were sad. She put her uneaten triangles on the floor next to mine and tucked her knees up, facing me. "I'm sorry. I just want this for you."

  There wasn't anything to say to that, because I wanted it, too. More than I'd ever wanted anything. Was I mad about it? Sure. The first few minutes after I hung up that call were torture. I'm human. It was a huge opportunity. The money from that deal would have paid off most of what I owed. If the album sold well, there'd be a tour, and that meant I wouldn't have to shovel dirt all day with my uncles anymore. But I knew it was hopeless. And it wasn't the first time I'd said no to a record deal, or the chance to tour with a big band. I just wished it got easier with practice.

  There was a sudden ring from the back of the house and Tessa got up, throwing the blanket aside. "That's the dryer."

  "Uh huh."

  She looked down at where I sat on the sofa and our eyes met. "I should get changed."

  That time, it was much harder to say yes.

  "It's late," I said instead, and a muscle twitched at the corner of her mouth. "Do you just want to sleep here?"

  "Where?"

  The moon was shining through the windows behind her, creating a perfect silhouette of her naked body beneath the white cotton of my t-shirt. I saw the curve of her waist, the arch of her hip, the small soft swell of her breast.

  I didn’t think, my hands reached for her, pulling her down toward me before I had a chance to realize what I was doing. She met my eyes and sat down on my lap, moving her legs to either side of my hips. My hands went under her shirt, up her back and when I pulled her closer she gasped, the amusement suddenly gone from her face. I moved my hands to her cheeks and my fingers were in her hair, but I didn't move my mouth to hers. I just stared at her. Because you only get the first kiss once.

  "Can I kiss you now?"

  She pretended to think.

  I kissed her anyway.

  And it was soft at first and warm like it should be. But then I moved my hand to the back of her head and pressed myself against her harder, and her hands moved to my back. I made a sound against her mouth and she made a little humming noise back. I kissed her deeper, slipping my tongue into her mouth then biting her bottom lip. And then she pulled back for a second, resting her hands on either side of my face.

  "I knew you'd never last two weeks."

  I wanted to give her a smart ass reply, but I couldn't think of anything other than the way her skin felt on my hands, the soft sighing sound she made and the way she tasted on my tongue. I moved my hands under, and was about to lift her up to take her to the bedroom when she pulled back from the kiss and looked behind her.

  "The dryer."

  It took me a second to work out what she was saying. I leaned in and kissed her again.

  "It's ringing. Kai, wait, should I turn it off?"

  And then suddenly I was back. "That's not the dryer," I groaned. "It's the phone."

  She slid off my lap and I got up, rubbing my hand over my head. "I'm sorry. It's a phone I have for Akamu to call me on. I have to take it."

  She slid over to the end of the sofa, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders. When I finally found the phone, I saw that there were 12 missed calls. And I knew in an instant that whatever was going to happen with Tess that night wasn’t going to happen now.

  Chapter Seventeen

  "Hey, bro,' I said into the phone. "Slow down. Yeah, well, I'm sure he didn't mean it, Aka."

  I sat down next to Tess and rested my hand on her knee.

  "Aka, it's late. You need to go to sleep. Is he in bed? That's good. Do you have your yellow pillow? Okay. I'll come and see you for breakfast. Yes, bacon and eggs."

  I mouthed 'sorry' to her and she smiled, moving closer to lean her head on my shoulder. "No, bud, I can't come up tonight. I'm sleeping at my house. I'll see you in the morning." I moved my hand around her back and pulled her closer.

  "Aka, I have to go to bed now. But if you promise to go to sleep, I'll bring Dipper to breakfast. Yes, Aka. Bye."

  I hung up, throwing the phone on the floor then leaned back on the sofa and groaned.

  "Sorry."

  "I have to say," she said, "I feel a little used."

  "It was the only way to get him off the phone. Sometimes it takes hours. Please tell me you're free for breakfast tomorrow?"

  She thread her fingers through mine. "For bacon and eggs? Of course I’m free. Is he okay?"

  "Yeah. He has trouble sleeping when I'm not there."

  "Kai," she said, slipping the blanket off and standing up. "It's late and -"

  I stood up too but stayed an arm's length away. "Stay over. You're coming for breakfast anyway."

  She picked up the blanket, wrapping it around her and looked at me with big eyes.

  I took a step toward her and kissed her gently on the forehead. "You have to promise to stay on your side of the bed if you want to get any sleep."

  She leaned in to kiss my chest. "Same goes for you."

  We arrived at five minutes to seven, just as Akamu opened the front door and ran out to meet us.

  "Kai!" he laughed, "and Dipper. Kai, you said you would bring Dipper to breakfast and you did bring her."

  "I brought her, bud," I said, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Is Dad making breakfast?"

  He picked up my wrist and slowly lifted my arm off his back, stepping out from under it and neatly placing it by my side. "He is cooking bacon, but he is not cooking eggs because bacon takes longer to cook than eggs."

  "I hope you like bacon and eggs," I said to Tess, taking her hand. "Because you're not going to be offere
d anything else."

  "My favorite," she said, loud enough for Akamu to hear.

  "That's my favorite breakfast, Dipper!" he said, spinning around. His mouth gaped open and smacked his palm against his forehead.

  She grinned at him and let go of my hand, stepping forward to take Akamu's instead. "That's two favorite things we have the same," she said, and I saw him stand up taller.

  That was the second moment. On the path outside Garrett's house, I realized how beautiful she was. But it was the way she made my brother feel the day I brought her to breakfast that showed me her heart. Four words floated into my head as I followed them up the driveway, the gravel crunching under our feet. I'm falling for her.

  "Akamu," I said when we reached the front door. "Does Dad know that we're coming for breakfast?"

  He turned to Tess and winked, only it wasn't really a wink. It was the quirk of his that I loved the most. When he winked, it was if his cheek had scrunched up and swallowed his whole eye. If Tess thought it was funny, she pretended it wasn't.

  "It's a nice surprise," he whispered loudly, cupping his hands around his mouth and leaning down to speak into her ear.

  I groaned.

  "Pa! Look who is coming to breakfast!" he called through the doorway. He pressed the doorbell over and over. The tune it was meant to be playing kept cutting out and starting over again. I saw Tessa’s shoulders hunch and then her fingers went to the hem of her shirt, pulling it down. It was her tell. She got fidgety when she was nervous. I reached forward and gave her shoulder a squeeze. Inside, Dad was rattling pans and swearing and when the doorbell rang out for the fifth time, he dropped something with a clatter and stormed across the room.

  "Aka, will you just come in the house?" he cried as he opened the door. His eyes moved from Tessa to Akamu, to me, and back to Tessa again. "Good morning," he managed. "This is a nice surprise."

  But the way he said it made it obvious that he didn't like surprises. Especially not that one.

  "I told you it was a nice surprise!" Akamu said triumphantly, letting go of Tessa's hand and shouldering past Dad into the kitchen.

  "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't realize you weren't expecting me…. I wouldn’t have come, I can go - "

  I took a step right behind her and slid one arm around her waist. "You're always welcome," I said, keeping my eyes on my father. "Although it's been a long time since we had a woman over for a meal, so you might have to excuse our table manners."

  "Come in," Dad said stiffly, stepping inside. "Breakfast is almost ready."

  We followed him into the kitchen and Akamu and I fell into a well-rehearsed sibling routine - I laid the tablecloth, Akamu placed the cutlery down, making sure each knife and fork were perfectly straight. I found the juice and put it on the table just as Akamu finished fetching the glasses. Tess watched on, catching my eye a couple of times with a smile.

  We sat down and Dad brought over a plate of bacon and a plate of eggs, placing them in the middle of the table. Akamu carefully chose what he liked to eat first and then we all shared what was left.

  "Dipper, tell Pa about the time you went on a plane to Paris. Because Paris is in France and it's very far away, Pa. It takes a long time on the plane to get there."

  Tess looked up from the piece of bacon she was cutting and took a sip of her juice. As usual, Dad kept his face down and didn't invite conversation.

  "Well," she said, "what parts do you think I should tell him?"

  Akamu sat back in his chair. "My favorite story is the one at night, Dipper. Because the lights were all twinkly and that man-" he broke off, laughing with his mouth open.

  "Shut your mouth, Aka," I said, poking him in the arm. "No one wants to see your chewed up breakfast."

  "The man with the paintings?" Tess said and Akamu grinned at Dad.

  "This is a great story, Pa. Because there was a man and he wanted to do a real painting of Dipper. And she said no, Pa, but the man picked up all his painting things and he chased her down the street!"

  Dad put down his cutlery and glanced over at Tess. "Is that right?"

  "Tell the story Dipper because it's a really good story about Paris and Paris is the capital of France."

  She took another sip of her juice and looked over the rim of her glass at Akamu, before setting it down. "Well, it was November, and winter in Paris is cold and miserable. The rain was coming down sideways and the wind, Akamu, you wouldn't believe the wind. I was walking to a restaurant in Montmartre when a man called out to me.."

  She told the whole story again while Akamu looked on in rapture and my father scowled into his coffee cup. She could have made an excuse or gotten it over and done with. But Tessa loved to make Akamu happy. She made her story into a melodrama, answering his many questions and adding a surprisingly convincing French accent at the end.

  "I have been to Paris!" Akamu cried when she was done. I shook my head but it was too late. "I had bread with cheese and ham in Paris and a big, big peach."

  Dad lifted his head and glared at him, then turned to Tess. "That's enough stories for one day."

  "Uh oh," Akamu said, shaking his head from side to side. "Uh oh. Uh oh. UhohUhohUhoh."

  I found Tessa’s hand under the table.

  "You see?" Dad said, standing up and throwing his napkin on his plate. "We don't need you telling your stories of what goes on out there. Akamu, let's go. You can listen to some music in your room."

  Akamu was crying. It was horrible when he cried. It was heartbreaking seeing a big man like my brother crumble and weep like a child. "I'm sorry Kai," he said. "I'm sorry."

  I dropped Tessa's hand and stood up. "Nothing to be sorry for, bud. You're not the one being rude."

  Dad and I stared at each other for a second and then he walked out of the room, slamming his office door behind him.

  "You want to listen to some music Aka?" I said, passing him a tissue. He rubbed his eyes with it and pushed back his chair to stand up. "Want me to come and keep you company?"

  He shook his head, tapping his fingers on his forehead as he made his way down the hall and shut his door.

  "I'm so sorry," Tess said as soon as he was gone. "I didn't know." She was still sitting at the table, her hands tucked under her legs. “What did I do?”

  "Hey. It wasn't your fault."

  I went around behind her and kissed the top of her head. "I have something I want to tell you. Do you want to go for a walk?"

  "We don't talk about it," I said when we'd made our way to the macadamia nut trees.

  We sat down, the grass still damp with dew underneath us and the early morning light shifting overhead.

  "Do you want to talk about it now?"

  "My grandmother thinks it's bad luck."

  "And what do you think?"

  "I think that she was my mother, as well as his wife."

  I moved to the trunk of the tree, leaning my back against it. She moved between my legs and pulled my arms around her waist.

  "It's a long story," I said, resting my chin on her head. “But this time, I’m ready to tell it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “To the left, and press a little bit harder,” my mother sighed, collapsing back against the pillows in pleasure and closing her eyes. I moved my thumb to the ball of her foot and leaned in from my shoulder, putting my weight behind it. Under her pale blue dress, her stomach rolled and heaved and she grunted, placing a hand over a lump that protruded like a bent knee.

  “Don’t worry,” she said through half-closed eyes. “She’s just having a stretch.”

  I curled my fingers around the top of her foot and held it as I watched the lump slowly melt until her belly was as round as a melon again. “Does it hurt?”

  “No. It’s just uncomfortable.”

  “When is she coming out?”

  “Soon. Does your Pa know you’re in here?”

  I took my hands away and instinctively looked at the door, even though the only sounds in the house were my mother and me
and the soft chatter in the other room where my six-year-old brother watched the television.

  “Kailano.”

  I reluctantly met her eyes. “Yes?”

  She patted the mattress next to her and I scooted up so that we lay side by side, staring at the ceiling fan that spun above our heads. “Are you meant to be down in the orchard with the men?”

  “I checked the mangoes this morning. And all the family is down there helping. He didn’t notice me leaving.”

  She kept her eyes on the ceiling. “You know you’re meant to stay down there with your uncles until your Pa says you can go.”

  In my mind I lined up my uncles and older cousins, popping them inside one another like Russian dolls. Starting with Uncle Carl. He was the fattest. “I know.”

  With some effort, she rolled onto her side, swinging her huge stomach toward me like a pendulum. She tucked a pillow between her knees. Her pale face was inches from mine, fuller than usual and lightly sprinkled with freckles from reading outside in the sun. “They don’t mean to hurt your feelings when they joke with you like that, Kai. It’s just their way. They want you to laugh with them.”

  Her hand went to the back of my head, under my hair, and I exhaled and relaxed at the touch. “I d-d-don’t like it, though.” Breathe. “Dad makes me tell stories and they tease me when I muck it up. Even h-h-him.”

  Her eyes flashed for a second and then it was gone, her face softening. “They won’t always. You’re going to be bigger than all of them someday, Kai. You’re from my side. Scandinavian warriors. Remember the book on Vikings I got for you from the library?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, that will be you one day. And you’ll own all this land, and everyone in the family will look to you. Just you wait.”

  “Did the Vikings have leaders?” I asked her.

  “Fierce ones.”

  “I bet they kn-knew how to s-s-s-speak without s-s-sounding like an idiot.”

  She rested her palm on my cheek and traced my eyebrow with her thumb. “Just breathe, baby. Breathe the words out.”

  In the next room, we heard the television turn off and on, off and on. She met my eyes and glanced at the door.