Chapter 5 #2
She was so distraught she couldn’t even feel the tiniest bit of triumph that if Johnny could see her now, he’d be proud that she understood what haole meant. At least she hoped she’d used it correctly.
“I need you out by Monday,” Randall said assertively, bumbling old man gone. In his place was the vicious business man he was proud of being. Randall had played Mia. And he didn’t care one bit about it.
Mia slammed her screen door shut and then watched as Randall walked back over to his home, not a care in the world.
But of course he didn’t have one. He’d left all of them with Mia.
She felt her tears start once more. This day.
She pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and she dialed the number she knew better than her own.
“Na-at,” Mia’s voice broke immediately.
“What happened?” Nat’s response was fierce and fiery, verifying her best-friend status.
“There was a fight at school,” Mia began.
“Were you in it?” Nat asked, startling Mia.
Her, in a fight? “No,” Mia responded, her tears subsiding for a moment thanks to Nat’s outrageous question. “Who would I fight?”
“Well, the way you described Aunty Gertrude I figured it was a fair question.
“Aunty Gertrude is like eighty, Nat,” Mia said, her tears suddenly dry. Of course, it took Nat less than a minute to make things feel the tiniest bit better.
“But if she deserved it?” Nat pushed.
Mia laughed. She actually laughed. After the day she’d had.
“I have not, nor will I ever, fight a woman who’s eighty. I mean I can’t imagine fighting a woman my age,” Mia continued.
“Fair. Can you really think of no reason to fight an eighty-year-old woman, though?” Nat asked and Mia knew she was now just being ridiculous.
“No, I can’t. And neither can you. But thank you,” Mia said, knowing everything Nat had said had been for her benefit.
“So the fight?” Nat asked, surely wanting every piece of juicy gossip now that Mia was no longer on the verge of tears.
“It was between two fifth-grade boys. Something about one of them calling the other a name and then they were throwing punches like it was the MMA spectacular,” Mia described.
Nat laughed. “One, I doubt the MMA has ever had an event called spectacular, and two, I told you that’s how things are over there.”
Nat’s cousins lived on Oahu so Nat had come to visit many times during her childhood. She’d tried to explain to Mia how different things were here compared to where they’d grown up.
“But fifth grade. They’re still just babies,” Mia said.
“Babies that can fight, evidently.”
Mia harrumphed.
“But I wish that was the worst part of my day,” Mia continued, feeling overly emotional once more.
She had never been like this before. She’d never been the one to cry at the drop of a hat.
But when her parents had passed, it was like the damn had broken, and once she’d started, Mia couldn’t stop.
Then she’d finally grown the courage to leave her husband, and her entire world had turned upside down.
Ever since then, emotions were Mia’s overly clingy companions.
Nat was quiet, letting Mia speak. “My landlord just told me I have to move out.”
“What?!” Nat exclaimed, outrage filling the word.
Mia explained what had happened and Natalie’s choice words were a lot stronger than Mia’s had been.
“You know you always have a home with me,” Nat said immediately.
Mia’s panicked heart felt a bit more at ease. She should have known Nat would always be her safe place to land.
“Thank you,” Mia said sincerely. “But I’m not ready to give up on this yet.”
“I know,” Nat said softly, understanding Mia in a way no one else did.
When Mia had told Nat she was moving to Maui, Nat hadn’t tried to talk her out of it.
Mia knew her best friend would miss her the most, yet she’d been the most supportive.
Getting away from Washington had felt imperative.
After her ex no longer had control over their marriage, he’d done everything in his power to make her life as miserable as possible.
She’d needed this ocean between them as well as the fresh start.
“So we’ll find you a new home,” Nat said optimistically.
“Do you know how long it took me to find this one?” Mia groaned. No part of the move had been easy but this had, by far, been the hardest.
“I do.” And she did. Because Nat had sat beside Mia as she scoured the internet and called dozens of landlords. “But you found one. That means it’s possible to find another.”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” Mia said as she sat on the couch cross-legged and opened her laptop to go to the Maui rental-listing sites she’d found months before. Sites she’d hoped she’d never need again.
“But you’re better off now than you were before,” Nat said.
Mia scanned the first listing, the price way out of her range.
“How?” Mia asked.
“Now you know people. You know the coconut wireless is better than any website,” Nat explained.
“Coconut wireless?” Mia asked, pausing her scanning.
“The way the locals communicate–. The way gossip is spread around the island. It’s the way locals know the news before any type of media could.
That governor scandal last year that made national news?
My mom heard about it from her sister two days before it hit any news outlet.
Because the coconut wireless is way more reliable. ”
“O-kay,” Mia said, still not convinced.
“Ask one of your new teacher friends,” Nat began.
Calling any of the teachers at her school a friend was a bit of a stretch. Maybe one day she could, Kristin had been especially nice, but she didn’t feel she was in a place to ask anyone for a favor.
“I don’t know…” Mia replied.
“I promise it isn’t a big deal. Tell them your landlord wants to double your rent. The locals have each other’s backs.”
“But I’m not local,” Mia presented the obvious.
“But you will be one day. They just don’t know it yet. But they’ll see soon that you aren’t going anywhere. That you care and want to help mold the next generation of keiki—children. When you show them who you are, Mia, you’ll be one of them.”
Mia wondered if that was possible. It felt out of the realm at the moment.
“Ask someone. Even Aunty Gertrude would help. I promise.”
Mia didn’t know how Nat could be so sure, but she trusted her best friend.
“Now go to sleep. I can hear how exhausted you are in your voice. And then tomorrow ask for help. I promise things will get better. But if, in the small chance they don’t, come back to Washington.
Move in with me. The worst-case scenario being that you get to live with me tells me just how bright your future is. ”
Mia chuckled. She loved this woman.
“Okay. Thanks, Nat.”
“You’re welcome, Mia. Goodnight,” Nat said before hanging up.
Mia looked around the room at the place she’d hoped would one day feel like her home. But now that wouldn’t happen.
She stood, walking toward the bathroom to get ready for bed, annoyance at Randall filling her.
But would this place never becoming her home be such a bad thing? The tiny space wasn’t perfect. The shower pressure was terrible, and she’d already found three different places where ants came in through the walls.
No, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing—at all.
She could do this. She could find a new place. She’d scour the internet and she’d talk to Kristin. She’d drive by neighborhoods on Sunday to look for open houses, she’d figure this out.
Because she could totally see herself no longer living in this ohana unit, but she couldn’t see herself leaving Maui. Though it had only been a few days since she’d arrived, even with the fifth-grade fight and her greedy landlord, the beautiful island had burrowed its way into her heart.
Things were hard, and she was still coming to understand the way things worked on the island, but she already loved her students and wanted to help them learn and grow.
She wanted to learn more about this fascinating place and it’s incredible culture.
She hoped to become true friends with Kristin.
She even hoped that one day she’d get Aunty Gertrude to like her.
And none of that could happen if she didn’t stay. So she’d figure out a way to stay even if it killed her.