2. Laurie
Laurie
Golden light streamed through the front window of the bookshop, illuminating the front table and its volumes on Hawaiian history and local flora.
A pair of tourists had their heads together over a travel guide, and a local auntie was perusing the shelves farther back in the store.
It was an idyllic scene – but behind the counter, Laurie tapped her toes impatiently. She had already been late to pick Mia up twice that week – and it was just her first week back after summer break.
Being late for pickup wasn’t exactly the end of the world, considering that her aunties were there and she was just playing at the park with her cousins… but still. She didn’t want to set a precedent.
Laurie wanted her daughter to know that she was still her first priority, even if the bookshop took up most of her time lately.
The older woman wandered out without having found anything, and the tourists left without their guidebook.
Laurie didn’t care.
She put up her Back in 15 Minutes sign and strode out into the afternoon heat, hurrying around the corner and down the street for pickup.
After a full day inside, most of it spent staring at her computer screen, she relished the open air. A strong breeze carried the heady smell of good earth and growing things, with just a hint of salt from the sea.
It felt so good to be outside and moving that she broke into a jog, picking up speed as she passed the Thai place, the grocery store, and the shave ice shop.
Laurie was sprinting by the time she reached New Horizons Community Center, running for the sheer joy of it. She slowed down when she reached the lush green grass of the park.
Mia was on the playground with her friends, oblivious to the precise time or whether her mother was late or early. She saw Laurie and waved, but then dived straight back into the game that she was playing.
Laurie stretched her arms above her head, trying to work out the aches and stiffness caused by too many days inside. The bookshop was doing well, but she worked seven days a week keeping it afloat – and all that in addition to her freelance work online.
Even with low living expenses – the rents for both her shop and her little cottage were flexible, thanks to the kindness of the women who owned them – life as a single mom and small business owner could be exhausting.
At the end of the day, though, she was always a pleasant sort of tired. And she could curl up in the room that she shared with her daughter feeling completely at peace.
Working two jobs on top of solo parenting was a lot, but she would carry much heavier burdens than those if it meant not sharing a home with an angry man.
She valued her peace too much to ever relinquish it again.
“Laurie!” Anne walked up from the parking lot and gave her a hug.
How are you? Laurie asked her sister.
Good, she signed back. “I’m in a bit of a rush today. I have guests on their way from the airport, so I just need to grab Pete and go.”
I get it.
“I suppose you need to rush right back to the shop?”
Laurie nodded.
“Can you and Mia come down to the house for dinner?” she asked. “Oakley’s coming over. We’re going to make a big pot of curry.”
Sure. Thanks.
“Okay.” Anne kissed her cheek. “Love you. See you later.”
She went to pull a reluctant Pete away from the game of tag that the kids had going. They headed to the car, and Laurie waved to Mia.
Five minutes? Mia asked from the play structure. Please?
One minute, Laurie said. Then we need to go.
As she stood waiting, a strange man walked towards her. He was tall and lanky, and the way he stared directly at Laurie made her uneasy. His mouth was already moving as he approached, saying something that she didn’t catch.
Laurie reached up and turned her hearing aids on. They mostly made her feel overstimulated rather than decreasing her overwhelm, so she kept them off more often than not – but they did help to supplement her lip reading when she was speaking to a stranger.
“Sorry.” He was exaggerating his words now, which didn’t make things any easier, and he said the word with a smarmy smile that showed no real contrition. “I said, you’re Mia’s mom, right?”
She gave him a curt nod. He must be the father of one of the other kids, then – but not a very active one, since she couldn’t remember seeing his face before.
Or maybe he was new in town. She would try to be polite.
Running her own shop had smoothed some of the rough edges off of Laurie’s social skills; it was much easier to talk to one person about books than it was to navigate a crowd.
But still, when a strange man approached her – even in broad daylight in the middle of town – she felt a fear that ran deeper than any conscious thought.
When her ex-husband turned violent, it triggered a primal fear that had never really gone dormant again. She hated being afraid, and she was good at masking it… but it seemed that actually overcoming it would take more time.
“Gorgeous weather we’re having.” The man took a step closer.
Laurie stepped back and looked up at the sky. It was overcast with a thin layer of clouds that turned the whole firmament bright white. There was a faint rainbow visible in the distance. Typical Pualena weather.
The man took a step closer, saying something about blue skies.
Laurie looked at him and stood very still, her nervous system caught between flight and freeze.
“I’ve got a sailboat over in Kona,” he continued. “We could take the kids out sometime…”
“Mia!” Laurie cupped her hands and shouted to her daughter, who looked up with a start. “Time to go!”
Her ten year old spent a few minutes saying goodbye to each kid individually, but Laurie didn’t shout again. The man had taken the hint and moved away.
By the time Mia came over, Laurie’s heart was nearly back to its normal speed.
Can I have a treat? Mia asked as she jogged across the lawn.
“Hello to you too,” Laurie said.
“Hi. Hello. Can we get a cornetto?” Mia pointed across the street to Pualena Café.
Not today, she replied.
Mia pulled a face. “But Rory and Olivia go every single day after school!”
It’s their dad’s restaurant, Laurie told her.
She scrunched up her nose. “So?”
You get to go to the bookshop every day.
Lucky me, she signed, rolling her eyes.
“You are lucky,” Laurie said out loud, feeling amused and irritated at the same time.
“Yeah, okay, I know,” Mia muttered.
“Come on.” Laurie started down the street, and Mia fell into step beside her. Before they had even been walking a full minute, she was smiling again.
“We got to use the microscopes today,” she said and signed. “We got water from a pond that has turtles in it, and then we looked at drops of pond water with the microscopes, and we drew all the little tiny animals that we found! I used watercolors too.”
“That’s so cool,” Laurie said, squeezing Mia’s shoulder. “I’m excited to see them.”
She missed her daughter during the day, but she was glad that she had decided to let her attend the co-op. They went on amazing field trips, spent plenty of time outside, and were constantly doing engaging projects that sparked the kids’ creativity and encompassed multiple subjects at once.
“Mom, look! It’s ‘Io!” Mia veered off towards Haumona Shave Ice.
Her friend ‘Iolani stood at the window of the small wooden building. He was only a few months older than Mia, but already a full head taller, destined to be as big as his dad and granddad.
“It’s already been fifteen minutes,” Laurie complained. “I’m going to have to make a new sign for the shop that says Back in thirty.”
“Sounds good to me!” Mia said. She turned back to the window to talk to her friend.
The side door opened, and ‘Iolani’s father walked outside. Kekoa was a huge man, native Hawaiian like Laurie’s dad, and she wondered how he managed to work in that little wooden shack.
He greeted her with a wave and a grin that made her heart do a somersault.
Good to see you, he signed.
Ditto, she responded.
Most of Laurie’s acquaintances who expressed an interest in ASL – classmates all throughout her school days, coworkers in her twenties, even other moms she had met through Mia’s old school – were quick to lose interest after a few signs.
Kekoa had picked it up quickly. He had a knack for it, which wasn’t so surprising. The man was good with his hands.
The real surprise was that he still hadn’t dropped it. One year later, he still signed every time they saw each other.
He had a new word or phrase to show off every time. There was always a glint of mischief in his eyes when he signed something new – like he knew that she’d expected him to quit, and he enjoyed exceeding her expectations.
“We don’t usually see you here,” Laurie said.
Kekoa owned the shave ice shop, but he had employees who ran it for him; he had turned his focus to skilled carpentry work.
The man was built like a linebacker – taller, probably – and yet he devoted those big hands of his to delicate artisanal work, carving joints so precise that his wooden furniture came together in perfect puzzle pieces.
Laurie had to smile at the flower-patterned apron that he wore over his clothes. Steam wafted out through the open door, heavy with the smell of strawberries and sugar.
“Ikaika has his driver’s test today, so ‘Io’s running the stand.” He glanced at his son, who beamed with pride. Kekoa winked at him and then turned his attention back to Laurie. “I needed to make some more syrups anyway.”
He didn’t know enough ASL to sign most of that, but his speech was easy to follow.
Her hearing loss made it difficult to hear women and children, and even most men – but with Kekoa, she never missed a word.
He had one of the deepest voices that Laurie had ever heard.
It helped too that the natural cadence of his speech was slow and deliberate, and that he always looked straight at her when he spoke.
Mia waved to get her attention, and she turned to look at the kids.