Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
I feel better about everything, mostly, until I’m standing in the airport, all of my bags checked, ready to go through security. Kimo and his family have gone ahead of me to the Big Island so they can get the kids set up for school and so I could tie up all my loose ends here in Chicago, so I’ll be flying alone. But Helen, Nina, Thad, and Grady have come to see me off, each bearing a small gift. Nina gives me a pair of extra-thick socks. “Just in case you get too cold on the plane.”
Thad gives me a copy of Old Yeller , since I “like books about dogs so much.”
Grady gives me a keychain with the symbol for the women’s bathroom, along with a wink. “So you won’t get confused and go in the wrong one next time.”
Last but not least is Helen, who gives me a T-shirt with a Pizookie on it. “Every Tuesday night,” she reminds me with tears in her eyes. “It’s still a requirement, even if you’re in a different state.”
I hug each of them in turn, hearing Grady and Thad oof in surprise when I get to them—they’re not as used to my trademark Matilda tight-armed hug as the other two. With Helen and then Nina, I linger just a little bit longer. The men are tolerable, but these are the two I’ll really miss. My sisters.
“Am I making a huge mistake?” I ask Nina. I’m not really worried anymore, but I want to hear from at least one more person that I’m not completely crazy for moving out of the continental United States for a man I didn’t even know three months ago. And I also need someone to help me assuage this terrible guilt that I’m feeling. Helen will be fine on her own, especially now that she has Thad, but what about sweet little Nina? Who will protect her from all the ogling men of the world and her weird, overbearing uncle?
“No,” Nina tells me simply, “but if you are, you can always come back. And we’ll be here.”
For the first time in my life, I’ll be the one doing the leaving. I’ve never been on this end of things. It helps, a little, to know just how hard it is to leave behind the people you love. Almost as hard as it is to be the one left behind.
It also helps to know that Kimo’s promised I can come back to visit Chicago as much as I want, and Helen and Thad are already planning a trip to come out and see us. Maybe we can persuade Nina and Grady to come along, too.
And it helps even more to know that Kimo will be waiting for me on the other side.
“I guess this is it,” I say once I’ve released Nina from my death grip. I survey the group of them and am surprised to feel tears stinging my eyes. Again . What a baby I’ve turned into all of a sudden! “Try not to get murdered without me.”
Helen and Nina come in for one last hug. “We love you, Matilda,” Helen tells me.
I sniff. “Enough of the mushy stuff.” But after a beat, I can’t help but add, “I love you, too.”
Then without looking back again, I march myself into the security line. No more looking back. It’s time to look forward.
* * *
Once I’m settled on the plane, I take out the card that Kimo made me promise to wait to read until now. My inner cynic can’t help but worry that it’s a confession of murder or some other awful thing, now that I’ve already upended my life and can’t turn back.
Instead, I find it is something quite different.
Mattie,
I can’t believe I get to bring you home and keep you. Thank you for being willing to give up your life in Chicago for me. The hard part is over now. I’ll take care of the rest. I got you, baby. I can’t wait to start our forever.
Love,
Kimo
My heart is doing that thing again, where it feels too big for my body. I hug the card to my chest and can’t help but grin at the woman sitting next to me. “I’m going home,” I tell her.
For the first time, I’m going home.
* * *
I try to keep that sense of happy calm with me as I get off my flight at the Kona Airport, but I’m not a zen person by nature. Love hasn’t “fixed” me or made me any different from who I’ve always been. I’ll still have grouchy days, and I’ll always be just a little too blunt and get irritated by the often stupid things that people do.
I’m supposed to be making this great journey home to the man I love, but I have a hard time sleeping on the flight, and my seatmate accidentally spills a bit of her coffee on my lap. I still get knocked in the head when someone opens the overhead compartment too early and their bag falls out right on top of me. People disregard the clearly stated rules of the plane and try to push their way to be the first off, and their flagrant self-interest makes me grind my teeth in irritation. I lose Grady’s keychain somewhere between my seat and the bathroom, ironically enough, and the line is so long for the women’s bathroom in the terminal that I’m afraid Kimo will think I didn’t get off the plane. I would text him, but my phone died somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and the outlet in my seat wasn’t working, so I couldn’t charge it again.
In the bathroom, I splash my face and try to ease some of my building anxiety, but I’m in a new, unfamiliar place, all on my own, and I’m a little terrified. It doesn’t help when I leave the secured area and can’t see Kimo anywhere. What if he got the times mixed up? What if I misunderstood where we were supposed to meet?
There’s some gigantic family blocking my view, all of them excitedly searching for someone in the crowd as they hold up huge signs that prevent me from seeing if Kimo is standing somewhere further back. How inconsiderate. Who brings this many people to an airport, anyway?
Irritated, I start to push my way past them, when I hear someone shouting my name. “Matilda!”
Blinking in surprise, I turn to see Nalani and Makoa breaking away from the giant family group. They each take me by an arm, jostling me as they argue over who gets to lead me to the car. “She wants to sit by me!” Nalani insists, though Makoa seems to feel like it’s his turn.
Then I spot Aunty Kapono, standing off to the side. Now that I look more closely, I realize that many of these people seem to bear a strong resemblance to her. I also see that the signs they’re holding say my name.
“Kimo was trying to get hold of you,” Aunty Kapono explains to me as I get closer. “He thought he might get better reception by the parking lot. Oh, there he is—Kimo!”
My heart instantly warms at the sight of Kimo jogging toward me, grinning as big of a smile can get as his flip-flops smack along the floor. He picks me up and swings me around, oblivious to my slightly bruised forehead and coffee-stained pants. The moment I see him, I become oblivious to those minor irritations, too. I’m back with Kimo again. Everything is going to be all right.
“Mattie.” He sighs my name like he, too, has been twisted up into a big ball of anxiety until this moment. “I couldn’t find you. But you’re here.”
“I’m here,” I say easily, like I didn’t just have one of the most miserable flights of my life. It’s over now. No looking back, only forward. Leaning into him, I whisper, “Who are all these people, and why are they here?”
I feel him smiling against my ear. “Remember my big invasive Hawaiian family? Well, now they’re your big invasive Hawaiian family, too. I asked them to give you some space, but they couldn’t wait to meet you.”
My family? These people are here for me ? I look around in wonder, taking in the smiling, happy faces of the crowd, their eagerness to meet me, and their willingness to take in a total stranger and accept me as their own.
Maybe there will come a time when it begins to feel like it’s too much, when that kind of easy, open love becomes smothering.
But for now? For now, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.
I link my fingers through Kimo’s, grinning at him as I pull him toward the group—our family, our future, our home. “What are we waiting for...?”