Building the Nursery Read online

  “You’ve always given us more love and support than the US Treasury has printed dollar bills. This is nothing compared to that.” She laughs a little and lifts my head to gently kiss my forehead. “I love you, angel.”

  “I love you too, Mom.”

  Everyone gets back on the bus and Madison tells our driver where we want to go. My wives did a lot of research on restaurants and things to do and made reservations for a lot of what we’ll be doing while we’re here. Our group is so big that we wouldn’t feel right just showing up at a restaurant and expecting them to quickly scramble to try to fit us in. A lot of restaurants can’t even seat all of us, even if we were the only ones there.

  In addition to making reservations for certain meals and a big luau, we chartered two different boat tours – one to see the amazing lava fields that pour into the ocean from the Kilauea volcano, and one to see some of the most beautiful waterfalls on the big island. The waterfall boat tour has a bonus dolphin watching location and snorkeling in a coral reef. We’re also going to do a guided hike to the Kilauea volcano and be able to walk over the still warm recently hardened veins of flowing lava. There’s a huge open glowing crater we’ll get close to on the hike. It should be pretty awesome.

  We didn’t want to plan the entire trip and not have any time to just relax or be spontaneous, so we left every other day unplanned. Unfortunately, a big portion of my in-between days are planned for me now with the USO event and the concert and music video. The USO event will only take a few hours, but it still gets in the way of being able to just do whatever I want to with my wives and family.

  I turn to look at Sara, and ask, “When do you want to do the USO event tomorrow?”

  “Do you have anything planned for tomorrow?”

  “We were just going to relax, enjoy the beach, and maybe explore the island. Maybe do some shopping.”

  “Are you guys ok with trying to do it as early as possible? I know by the time we get to sleep tonight that we’ll have been up for over twenty-four hours, but I’d rather get it over with early so we can have most of the day to do whatever we want.”

  “I’m fine with that. I have an idea for our entrance.” Sara grins and runs her hand through her hair. “I know. You’ve already demanded a helicopter from the islands leading Air Force general. What else do you want?”

  Everyone laughs a little and I smile really big. I jump up on my knees to face her better and explain my idea to her and the rest of the squad. They smile the whole time and throw out some of their own ideas. By the time we reach the restaurant, we have a pretty awesome plan in place. As long as the military cooperates with our ideas, it will end up being a pretty good show. I really do hope they record it, or at least have it on the local news so my wives and family can see it and so we can have a chance to watch it afterwards.

  Breakfast is really good – both the food and the company. The families are becoming more relaxed with each other, so the conversations seem to flow pretty easily. Even Shannon’s mom is relaxed and pleasant during breakfast. After we’ve filled our bellies, we have our driver take us to go shopping.

  We walk through a cool street market with tent covered “shops” of various wares for sale. There’s the typical tourist souvenirs, like tee shirts, key chains, and mini-tiki items. But there’s also more elaborate handmade pieces of art and hand embroidered or dyed fabrics for wrapping around the waist like a skirt. There’s nice pottery, baskets, and very detailed hand carved tiki men.

  The next booth catches my eye, so I drift off from my wives. I’m greeted with a kind smile by a Polynesian woman who looks to be about my mother’s age.

  “Aloha.” I smile and nod once. “Aloha. These are beautiful. Did you make these?”

  “I did. I use a hot knife to cut the wood shapes and then use hot needles to burn the designs. The metal is one-hundred percent sterling silver.”

  The booth is full of really pretty dangle earrings in all different shapes, hair barrettes, and necklace charms on either leather cords or silver chains. There’s so much that I love for my wives and even some for Jaime, Symone, my mom, and Sequoia. I keep picking up so much and setting it in front of me on the table that the woman grabs a cardboard flat to put it all in so it doesn’t get mixed up with the other items on display.

  “Ok, I think I better leave some for the rest of the island.”

  She laughs and nods once as she turns with my picks and starts putting them in jewelry boxes and totals everything up. I think I picked up at least thirty items and found something I like for nearly every woman in my life, including all of the ones with me and some friends. I seriously cleaned her out. Her booth is much emptier than before I came over.

  “Ok, honey, it’s going to be three hundred even.”

  I pull my wallet out, and count out four hundred dollars in cash and hand it to her. She counts the money and looks up with a smile.

  “You gave me too much.” I smile and shake my head. “No, I didn’t. You have an amazing talent. It’s more than worth it.” Her smile widens as she hands me my large bag of gifts. “Thank you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.”

  “Thank you.”

  I walk back over to my wives and they smile and Awenasa and Madison tickle my sides.

  “What were you buying over there, puppy?”

  “Gifts for all of the women, but lots of stuff for my wives.”

  “We bought you something too.”

  My smile widens and I look down at the bag in their hands, but I can’t tell what’s in it. Before I can ask, Joey comes over and pulls on my empty hand.

  “Can we go in that store over there?”

  We follow Joey to a store full of gorgeous handmade musical instruments. There’s ukuleles, animal hide and wood drums, rattles, steel drums, and all sorts of cool flutes and panpipes.

  I fall in love with a drum that I just have to have. It has a really beautiful honey red stain and is carved with wolves around its base in different poses. The hide is made of shark skin, which is pretty unique, and it has a beautiful sound. It costs three hundred dollars, but it’s worth it. The love and craftsmanship that went into making this drum can be seen and felt in everything about it. Plus, an animal’s life has gone into its creation and will give life to the music of the drum every time we beat upon its sacrifice. That alone justifies the price tag. I can’t wait to dance to the sound of this creature’s beautiful life song. Its sacrifice will be honored in my dance every time I hear its sound.

  “That’s it.”

  I look up from admiring my drum, or the drum that will be mine once I pay for it. Joey is staring up at a ukulele hanging on the wall. It has a nice reddish-brown finish with a shallow carving of dolphins and Hawaiian flowers in a tribal design on the left side of the body with a smaller tribal pattern on the right side of the body. I reach up and pull it off the wall so he can look at it closer. Joey holds it against his body and strums the strings with a huge smile.

  “Bella will love this.” He looks at the price tag and frowns. He turns it over in his hands and holds it back out to me looking defeated. “It’s too much. I’ll keep looking.” I take the ukulele and check the price tag. It’s a little over two-hundred dollars. “I’ll cover the difference for you.”

  “No, I wanted to earn it for her.”

  “In the work I do I get a lot of my money paid in advance, before I do the work. So, we’ll just call this an advance and you can work for the money.” He smiles really big and wraps his arms around me. “Thank you. I’ll work hard.” I smile and kiss his head. “I know. You should pick out a case as well.”

  “Yeah, good idea.”

  He releases me and looks around and rushes down an aisle, leaving me holding the ukulele and my drum. My wives walk over to me with loving smiles on their beautiful faces, and each of them gives me a soft kiss on my lips.

  “How are you going to have him work for that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I guess we can have him help with cooking an
d serving meals or something. This is really nice, isn’t it? He found the perfect gift for her. Bella loves dolphins and wants to learn how to play guitar, but her hands are still too small to fit around the neck. Oh, check out my drum.”

  Each of them takes the large drum in their hands and examine the details and thump on its skin a couple times, sending the sharks life song into the air, making my spirit hum in response. I think I’m going to need Awenasa or my dad to play it for me so I can dance on the beach.

  “Feast night!” My wives look up slightly startled and I spin around looking around the shop. “We need to buy flutes and rattles and another drum. We’re going to have a feast with dancing on the beach tonight. We need to go food shopping. Hey, Dad.” My dad turns around with a nice drum in his hands and smiles. “Feast night?” I release a small excited laugh. “Yeah. Can we do one of those buried fire pits in the sand?”

  “Are you allowed to build a fire on the beach?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Its private property, but I don’t know if the lease terms has anything against it. Babies, do you know?” They shake their heads and Madison pulls her phone out. “I’ll call the realtor and find out.”

  She puts her phone to her ear and turns to walk away to find a quieter place to talk. I turn back to my dad to see him examining the drum in his hand like I was doing with mine. It’s a little smaller than the one I picked for myself, but it’s really nice. It’s a light, almost white, wood, with a darker hide. The sides of the wood have an intricate tribal pattern cutout around the base.

  “How’s the sound?” He smiles and thumps out a few good beats. “That’s nice. What kind of skin is it?”

  “Cowhide.”

  “Will you let me buy it for you?”

  “Ok, kiddo. Thank you.”

  We leave the shop with a ukulele and a case for Bella, two drums, a few rattles, an assortment of wind instruments, and care kits for the ukulele and drums. Talia found a pretty neat instrument that looks like a small ukulele, but instead of strings, it has a row of hard metal pegs in descending sizes that you press and pluck with your thumb. It has a really interesting sound. We end up buying a few of those as well – one each for Talia and Joey and one for myself.

  It’ll be an interesting feast with instruments we’ve never used before, while being played by people who typically don’t play the native instruments at the gatherings. I can’t wait to get to the beach and start making feast preparations. A family feast with good food, music, and dancing is one of my favorite things.

  Chapter Four

  “Kayla!”

  I bolt up off of my pillow and my wives scramble to get off of me. I blink a few times and rub my eyes, trying to wake up and get used to the bright sun pouring in the windows. I lay back down and pull Awenasa and Madison back onto my chest.

  “Morning, naked wives.” They kiss the sides of my neck and lay back down. “Morning, baby. I think someone called your name.”

  “I thought I heard that too. Let’s pretend we didn’t.” They laugh a little and both of their hands start tracing my abs. “Did you sleep good, babies?”

  All of my wives tell me they slept well and give me soft kisses on my lips. Sam climbs over Madison and lays down on top of me with an adorable smile. She kisses each of us and then lays her head on my stomach. Madison and Awenasa rub her hair and cheek for a moment before resting their hands on her upper back.

  “Kayla! Get up!” A rough urgent knock follows the command and I groan. “Sara, what do you want? We’re sleeping in here.”

  “The Army will be here to pick us up in thirty minutes.”

  “Oh, shit.” My wives sit up and I fly out of bed. I head for the door, but Sam calls out to me. “Kayla! Clothes!” I stop and look down at myself and laugh. “Thanks, baby.”

  We quickly get dressed, brush our teeth and hair, and I grab my phone and wallet off of the dresser. Sequoia and my mom are in the kitchen preparing a big breakfast when we come rushing down the stairs. I’m glad to see we’re not the only ones who slept in. Half of the family is still rushing around upstairs between their rooms and the three bathrooms, while the other half is dressed and sitting around waiting for us.

  Just as we’re finishing a plate of delicious breakfast hash, there’s a rapid knock on the front door. I leap up out of my chair, but Sara gets there first and greets two Army personnel and invites them into the house.

  “We need to get you a uniform like that.”

  Sam is grinning at me in a way that makes me want to take all of them back upstairs and have a repeat of the amazing night we had last night after the big feast on the beach. The uniform is just standard camo pants with short sleeve shirts, and a hat, but it does look cool.

  “I might get one today if they allow us to do what we want to.” Sam’s smile widens and she kisses my lips. “I’m so glad we get to be there to watch. Are you scared of jumping out of the helicopter?”

  “No, I’m excited. And I’m really happy all of you get to be there too. I love having all of you with me when I perform.”

  While the rest of us clean up from breakfast, Madison runs upstairs and gets a bookbag with a tablet and cameras. Sara rounds up the whole family and dance squad and we follow the Army guys outside. We pile into the bus and the Army acts as our escort in front and behind us, leading us to the Hickam Field Air Force base in Pearl Harbor.

  We step off of the bus in front of an open hanger with several different fighter jets from different time periods. Outside of the hanger, there are two Black Hawk helicopters. Joey gets really excited and I can tell he’s barely containing himself, waiting to run over to look at the planes.

  The same welcome party from yesterday, when we arrived at the airport, in addition to a few more, walk over to us. General Hunt makes introductions to a couple more Air Force members and the Army personnel, the they give us a tour of the hanger with the several awesome fighter jets, telling us the history of each of them. It’s pretty cool and everyone seems to be intrigued and enjoying themselves. Madison’s dad really loves the jets and looks like he’s in heaven walking around the hanger and asks a lot of questions. Because of their excitement, General Hunt actually allows him and Joey to sit in a couple of the jets.

  As soon as Joey jumps out of the jet, he snatches my phone to look at the pictures I took of him. He smiles really big and texts them to Bella’s mom, Karen, for Bella to see.

  After our tour of the jets and the helicopters, we’re brought to an office across the base and we explain the idea we have for the performance and dance tutorial they requested. They love the idea and General Hunt starts making commands to get everything arranged. We have to separate from the families and my wives, but we’re promised they’ll be well taken care of and brought to the event before our arrival. I give my wives hugs and kisses, and as I’m turning to follow the squad out, Joey grabs my hand and stops me.

  “Can I dance with you today?” I nervously bite my bottom lip and rub the back of my neck. I turn to look at the General for a moment and then at my parents, all of whom have approving smiles. “Do you want to rappel from the helicopter or do you really want to dance?”

  “Both. I know I’m not as good…” I hold up my hand and shake my head. “General Hunt, would it be possible for my brother to join the invasion team?”

  “Parents, are you ok with your son joining this very important United States military mission?” Our mom and dad smile in a proud way and nod once. Dad steps forward turning Joey to look at him. “Listen to everything they say. It’s too early for her to watch through video chat, but I’ll record it on my phone so you can send it to Bella later.” Joey smiles and puffs his chest out. “Thank you.”

  I look up and my eyes lock with Talia’s. She standing next to my wives and has a small smile on her face that only widens as my lips curl into a grin.

  “Any chance you’d be interested in dusting off your dancing feet and jumping out of a helicopter with us? Or are you just going to let your siblings
jump alone?”

  “You’ve survived worse, but if you’re too afraid to do it without me, I’ll come hold your hand.” I laugh hard and smile really big. “Good. Let’s go, brat.”

  General Hunt instructs someone to get waivers for our parents to sign for Talia and Joey, and then we’re led to a supply depot, where we receive really cool blue-gray Air Force camo uniforms, belts, and boots. After suiting up and locking our own clothes in a locker, we follow the real soldiers to a training room to practice the rappelling technique before we can try it from a helicopter.

  It feels so weird seeing all of us in military uniforms. Each of us has worn camo in some form in our clothing, but this is very different. It looks cool, but it also terrifies me a little bit. The idea of my loved ones being in the armed forces is a scary thought. Not because they couldn’t handle it, but because of the constant threat to their lives and the sacrifices they’d have to make, including possibly taking another human life.

  I look down at Joey and he’s smiling and has his chest puffed out. The uniform fits him too well. I don’t know what my baby brother will pursue when he graduates high school, but I hope the military is not in his list of possibilities. I would fully support him if that was his decision, because it is a noble and honorable choice, but I’d always be worried about him.

  “Kayla, you here?” I look up at Talia and nod once. “Yeah, just thinking about something.”

  Her eyebrows pinch for a moment, and she looks down at Joey, where my eyes had been trained before she snapped me into focus. She nods once in understanding and bumps my shoulder.

  “I doubt it.” I smile and bump her back. “I hope not.”

  The squad looks back at us with confusion, but Sara’s eyes scan over Joey and then looks at me and I can tell she understands. She shakes her head and gives me a small reassuring smile.

  The military has us do several test-runs inside and when they feel confident that we understand the rappelling technique and can execute it, we’re brought back to the helicopters. We’re split between two, with four of our group in one and five of us in another. In addition to our pilots, we have two additional airmen with us.