Page 55 of The Sailor in Polynesia
Talk soon.
* * *
My flights were uneventful: seven hours to Los Angeles, and three to Seattle. When my plane landed in LA, I had a message waiting for me from Jonas, hoping I had had a good flight and wishing me a good night. I sighed, knowing that our time apart would be challenging with different time zones.
I shielded my eyes from the bright sunrise when I stepped out of the Sea-Tac, looking for James, who had volunteered to pick me up. Finally I spotted him in the crowd.
“Hey, Miamati!”
James and I embraced.
“Sir James.” I nodded at him regally and we both grinned. His smile dropped quickly, though.
“You don’t look so good.”
“Gee, thanks, little brother.”
He cocked a look at me. “You know what I mean. You’ve lost weight and look a little haggard. Mom’s gonna kill you.”Leave it to my brother to be blunt.
“Well, usually it’s a food fest when I come home anyway. I doubt this time will be any different.”
James flung one of my bags over his shoulder and we walked out to the car while he asked all the pleasantries. Yes, my flight was good; no, I wasn’t hungry; yes, I wanted to drive straight to my parents’ house.
James still lived here in Seattle too, but he had his own place out in Ballard. I would stay with him instead of with my parents, since my out-of-town siblings and their families were flying in too. Between the three siblings in Seattle and my parents’ place, no one was staying in a hotel, though the families were being split up. My niblings were given choices: they could stay wherever their parents were, or they could go “camping” in the basement of my parents’ house.
That explained the ruckus that greeted us when we walked into Mom and Dad’s place. With six grandchildren sleeping in the basement, my parents were in seventh heaven. When my mom opened the door to greet us, though, she was harried.
“Mia’s here to help me chase down every single one of you!” she bellowed to the stampede behind her. She hugged me quickly. “Come on in. Your father is over at Ike’s house, helping to inspect the fence. He’ll be back after dinner.”
The youngest kids squealed and turned tail, running back into the depths of the house. One of my older nephews, Tyrell, passed by with headphones in and nodded. “S’up.”
Welcome to the pandemonium.
* * *
Much, much later, when the kids were tucked into their sleeping bags and watching movies downstairs with James supervising, I finally got a calm and proper greeting from my mom. She hugged me tightly and guided me to the kitchen table.
“How are things back onWelina?” She brushed my hair back from my face. “You don’t look so good.”
“James already gave me a heckling. I’m fine. A few problems came up on the sail over to Tahiti, but I’ll tackle them when I get back.”
“Well, I am so glad you were near an airport and able to fly back home to see us. The service will be so lovely and your grandmother would be so proud to have all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren here.” Mom squeezed my hand. “Thank you for coming back.”
“I’m glad to be here. I haven’t seen Dawn or Hunter in ages. Our visits have never seemed to overlap.”
We picked at the remaining pizza in the boxes; we had been too busy earlier to eat anything while my horde of niblings ate. Mom filled me in on each of my siblings. I was closest to James and Dawn, but also to Doug’s wife, Miranda, who was always keeping me in the loop via email.
Mom and I cleaned up, and it was dark out when my dad’s car pulled into the driveway. He barreled into the house, slamming the garage door behind him. “Mia!”
“Hush, Larry. The kids are downstairs watching a movie and I bet some of them are asleep.”
“Shh, shh, shh,” Dad teased, while tiptoeing over to give me a hug. “Patty, that son of yours is handier than pockets on a shirt. He got that fence installed and it looks fantastic.” He kissed Mom’s cheek and grabbed a slice of pizza. I smiled, thinking of Jonas’s gentle kisses. “And how’s our Miamati doing?”
“Everything’s fine, Dad.”
Dad ruffled my hair. “Are things on the boat better now that Liam’s out?”
“Yes. They are definitely better.”
