Travelogue: Hawai’i
Part 1
Hawai’i
Kehei, Maui
August 12, 1981
Sarah Kaneohe Hart held the letter tightly in her hand as she read it. Her niece had written to her. That a child half a world away had sent her a letter in her time of need was proof enough that God existed. This previously unknown relative must be an angel in disguise. Sarah smiled at the thought of a twelve year old angel, but the smile faded as she looked out at her own.
Tessa would be thirteen in a few days. She sat on the beach, watching the waves as they gently rolled to shore. The tide was coming in, and Sarah knew that Tess would sit, unmoving, until she was waist deep in the water. She had been doing just that ever since the accident. It was as if she believed she could will the dead back if she tried long and hard enough. Sarah knew better. The sea might return the remains, but never the lives.
She looked at the pictures hanging on the wall above her desk. Jack, her husband. Keoni, her son, and Kamaile’, her mother. All of them gone in an instant. Now she and Tessa were alone in the world. Casting one more look at her daughter, so still and silent, Sarah looked again at the last part of the letter.
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Daddy says that he would like to meet you if you are ever in New York. So you have a standing invitation to your whole family to visit Crabapple Farm, or as Dad calls it, “The Family Homestead” anytime you want. I hope you take us up on the offer. I’d love to meet you.
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Your Niece,
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Trixie
Maybe that was the answer. Sarah knew she needed to do something to break her daughter--and herself--out of the fog that had fallen over them since the accident. Maybe a long trip to the mainland would do the trick. Jack’s parents had been anxious to see their son’s only remaining child, and it might be nice to travel the states and visit old friends and new relatives.
Money wouldn’t be a problem. Jack had been old money--a trust fund baby. There was plenty to spend, because they had always lived fairly simply. She and Tessa could fly to Seattle and visit Sarah’s old college friends. Tessa might like seeing the place where her parents had met, and where her older brother had been born. They could visit Vancouver and Victoria, BC before heading down the coast to San Diego, the place Tessa had been born. By train maybe. They could hire a compartment and travel the whole continent. Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, New York. Jack’s family had a place in New York City, and a winter home in Key West.
Sarah sighed, thinking about the chance to meet her siblings, to see the house where her father had lived, maybe to place a lei on his grave. Introducing her beautiful, smart daughter to her paternal grandparents -- people who had not seen her in person since she was barely a year old.
Yes. A trip to the mainland would be the perfect change the Hart women needed. Sarah looked once more at her daughter, then picked up the phone to call her travel agent.
