14. ‘Ōlena

Within ten minutes of getting the alert on her phone, ‘ōlena had a pot of hot chocolate ready to go and a bag full of warm clothes packed and in the car. As she filled her thermos with steaming hot chocolate, she called her cousin.

“What’s up?” Lani answered.

“Kilauea’s erupting again.”

“What? Now? Is there an evacuation order?”

“No, no. It’s the summit. We’ve got to go see it before the crowds hit.”

“And driving up to an active volcano with our kids doesn’t sound at all unhinged to you?”

“Girl, you were off island for too long. When’s the last time you visited Kilauea?”

Lani was silent for a moment. “When I was a kid, I guess.”

“And you don’t remember how far from the lava you are standing up on the rim of the crater?”

“Um. Not really?”

“It’s like looking at the beach in Waipio Valley from the viewing area.”

“Yeah?”

“Anyway, the eruptions the past couple years blow anything we saw when we were keiki out of the water. I’m talking fountains of lava, Leilani. Rivers of lava. Glowing lakes of it.”

“From a safe distance.”

“Duh.” ‘ōlena rolled her eyes. Like her mama bear self would bring those babies anywhere close to danger. But she didn’t take it personally; she knew Lani’s nervous system was all out of whack from the stress she’d been under lately. “I’ll be there in five minutes, and you’d better be ready. We’re going to show our girls some liquid rock.”

“For someone who’s calm like ninety-nine percent of the time, you get amped up about weird things.”

“And you’re apathetic about weird things! This is Pele! The goddess is awake. Now you have four minutes and forty-four seconds to get ready to go.”

Lani laughed. “Okay, okay!”

‘ōlena disconnected the call and screwed the top onto her thermos.

“Girls!” she called. “You ready?”

No answer.

‘ōlena looked out the window and saw the lights on in her van, her girls silhouetted in the windows. She laughed.

“Those are my girls,” she congratulated herself. “Let’s go.”

A few minutes later, they were at the Kealoha place. Lani had rallied. She and Rory were waiting just outside the gate. Dio whined frantically on the other side.

“Sorry, boy,” Rory said, petting him through the fence.

“Come on, baby,” Lani said to her. “Climb in.”

“Where are we going, anyway?” she muttered as she climbed in.

“To see Tutu Pele!” Kiki shouted.

“Who?”

“We’re going to see the lava,” Lani said as she strapped her into one of the spare car seats ‘ōlena kept for carpools. “Auntie’s driving us to Volcanoes National Park.”

“That’s cool, I guess,” she muttered.

“And there’s hot chocolate!” Kiki exclaimed.

“Mom always brings hot chocolate,” Luana said.

Rory perked up. “I want hot chocolate!”

“When we get there,” ‘ōlena told her.

There was a three-note chorus from the back seat, a disappointed “Awww.”

‘ōlena laughed. “No hot chocolate in the car. You two know that already.”

“Just this once?” Kiki asked, clasping her hands together under her chin.

“Nope.”

“Aw man.”

It was a bit of a drive up to the top of the volcano, and she put on a stories podcast to keep the kids from bickering. Beside her, Lani was quiet. ‘ōlena didn’t know what she could say to make her cousin feel better, but she hoped that the awe-inducing sight of an active volcano would help. It always worked to make her own problems feel small and inconsequential.

They entered the national park and drove along the rim of the crater to the viewing area. The parking lot was full of cars, but nothing like the number of people that would be there in a day or two when word got out.

“Okay, get your jackets on,” she said as soon as she’d parked.

“Won’t it be hot next to the lava?” Rory asked.

“We’re not getting that close,” Luana told her.

Rory groaned. “What did we even drive up here for, then?”

‘ōlena laughed. “Just get bundled up and you’ll see.”

Even from the parking lot, she could see the glow of the eruption lighting up the columns of steam that rose from the crater floor. She had a childlike urge to sprint to the railing, but she waited until her girls were ready.

Once they had their shoes and jackets and hats on, she took their hands and hurried across the parking lot. As soon as they reached the railing, Kiki and Luana let out an audible gasp. Surround sound. Their awe alone would have been worth it. But that wasn’t all.

The sight of the lava boiling up from the rock touched ‘ōlena deeply, with or without her desire to share it with her girls. She was grateful to share this with them, but she would have rushed up to the national park even if they had been at their dad’s place that night.

There was something almost holy about the glow of the lava, the sound of it audible even from all the way up on the rim of the crater.

It was holy, she decided as she stared down. She had made her way to every visible eruption, and her amazement never dimmed. Each time was just as awe inspiring as the last. There was a reason that this place had been considered a holy place by the ancient Hawaiians, the sacred home of the goddess Pele.

They were witnessing the phenomena that had built the mountain that they stood upon and birthed the entire island chain. It was an act of creation, all power and feminine rage. Strength.

She looked over at her cousin. Lani stood with Rory on her hip, their faces dimly lit by the column of lava that spilled up from the earth below.

The crater was massive, the size of a valley. Far below, the floor of the crater glowed red hot with molten rock. Rivers of lava moved across the surface. From this distance they were flowing lines, a web of lava spreading across the face of the crater.

Two massive geysers of lava erupted up from the crater floor, seemingly small in the distance but probably at least a hundred feet high.

As they stood watching, a third fountain of lava broke up from the floor. First a growing column of steam caught her eye, and then a sudden glow as the solid rock gave way to the liquid magma below.

On either side of them, people erupted in a quiet chorus of awe. It felt like a deeply human experience, to be standing there in the thin crowd, watching the Earth work and vocalizing their wonder.

“We should see if the playschool families want to do a nighttime field trip up here.”

“Parents included, you mean?”

“Yeah. I’m up for a challenge, but even I’m not trying to keep track of a whole crowd of kids in the pitch black on the side of a volcano.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like fun.”

“It would be a fun thing for the kids to experience together, though, if their parents came along.”

“Okay, we saw it,” Luana cut in. “Can we have hot chocolate now?”

“Sure,” she said with a laugh.

Each of the girls got their own little mug of hot chocolate, and they were content to sit and sip a while longer, gazing down at the lava that moved and glowed down at the bottom of the crater. ‘ōlena and Lani passed the thermos back and forth, drinking the remaining hot chocolate.

When the hot drink was gone and the girls started to get cold, the distant lava couldn’t hold their attention anymore.

“Can we go home now?” Kiki whined, rubbing at her eyes. ‘ōlena lifted her up to her hip, and Kiki rested her head on her shoulder.

Lani looked at her and nodded. “It’s past our bedtime.”

“I’m not tired,” Luana said, and yawned.

“Okay, let’s call it,” ‘ōlena agreed.

They carried the little girls back through the pitch black parking lot to the car. Luana clung to her mom’s jacket, her shoes scuffing the backs of ‘ōlena’s heels.

All three kids were asleep before they were even out of the park.

“So,” ‘ōlena said as soon as they had space to talk, “what are you gonna do about Zeke?”

Lani glanced over her shoulder, double checking that the kids were sound asleep.

“Did you file a restraining order yet?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“What am I supposed to tell the judge? That he came to the shave ice place? That he talked to me? I don’t have proof of anything.”

“First off, a TRO gives you immediate protection until your court date, which will probably be six months out. No way he sticks around that long and shows up for that.”

“It doesn’t give me any protection. It’s a piece of paper. It doesn’t even take effect legally until he gets served, and how am I supposed to do that if I don’t know where he’s staying?”

‘ōlena went quiet. Lani was right, she knew she was. She shouldn’t have even said anything. But the thought that this guy could come here and threaten her cousin with impunity infuriated her.

“Do you want me to come stay with you?” she asked after a while.

“No.” Lani sighed. “Thank you. But he doesn’t know where we live. We’re safe at home.”

“But do you feel safe?”

“Sure,” she said, utterly unconvincing.

“What about at work?”

“Kekoa said he’d get my shifts covered for a while, until he stops coming around.” She sighed. “I was looking forward to starting that mural. I guess I can go work on that one in Hilo instead, if they want me to.”

‘ōlena was quiet for a while, thinking. Then she grinned. “We serve him at Haumona.”

“What?”

“The restraining order. We leave a copy of it at the shave ice place, and then if he comes sniffing around, whoever’s working can serve him with the TRO.”

“That’s… kind of brilliant.”

“Kekoa will love it,” she said with a vengeful laugh. “Let him try to go up against my brother. Guys like him never want to mess with somebody their own size.”

“Zeke’s a lot smaller than Kekoa.”

“Perfect.”

Another silence fell as they drove down the long, dark slope.

“You tell Tenn yet?” ‘ōlena asked eventually.

Lani just shook her head.

“Why not?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to make it his problem.”

“Girl, he wants you to make it his problem.”

“It’s bad enough I got your family mixed up in this.”

“We want to be mixed up in this. Don’t you get it? We don’t want you to be alone.”

“But I never should have gotten myself into this situation in the first place!”

“It happens.”

“Not to you.”

No, mine just left, ‘ōlena thought.

“You know what?” she said out loud. “Everything will be fine. You take some time off work, Kekoa gets to serve that haole with a restraining order, and soon things will be back to normal.”

“He gets to, huh?”

“He’ll be stoked. But you know he’d rather toss the guy off a cliff. He would have, too, if it was fifty years ago. Heck, I bet he still would if you asked him to.”

“No cliffs,” she said flatly.

“He’ll leave soon, Leilani. You’ll see. Everything will work out fine.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“It will.”

When she pulled up in front of Lani’s house, she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? We could all sleep in the big house.”

“I’m okay, really.”

“Okay.” ‘ōlena pulled her into a bear hug. “You need anything, day or night, you call me. Yeah?”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

“We’re here for you.”

Lani’s smile was small, but it was something. “I know.”