Seaglass House Builders

Waves splashed over my daughter, Kalena, as she tried to rescue her sandcastle from the incoming tide. She jumped and giggled as she held onto shells and seaglass that were bejeweled to her castle which was now slipping into the ocean. Light cascaded around the blue, green and clear pieces as they floated in the waves.

“Tutu help me!” she cried out to my mother, her grandmother, who was sitting beside me on a blanket.

“Oh, save the seaglass castle, I must!" My mom yelled as she whipped the blanket around her like a superhero. When she reached Kalena she scooped her up, causing her to break out in laughter. She carried her with her new sand treasures up to where we were sitting. She sat down to help her with another castle that would have a better chance of surviving away from water’s edge.

The afternoon was just I had hoped in the beginning. My teenage son, Noa, was practicing his impression voices and using my phone to record. Every few minutes he’d ask me to listen as he impersonated the weatherman, a local musician and one of me. I smiled, he was an odd kid, but talented.

“Pa listen; Tomorrow it will be sunny with a chance of showers. Don’t worry more sun in the afternoon.” Using his deepest voice, he looked up at me for validation.

“Where did Noa go? I asked I think it is Chuck the weather guy in front of me!” I watched as my son grinned.

We pretty much had our favorite beach to ourselves. The sun was not too hot, and I could feel the ocean as I did when I was a boy. I looked at my kids and my mother feeling pained yet calm about the decision my wife and I had made. My wife, Lila, was home with the baby and my sister packing as we were leaving the island. Leaving our home and our way of life. The cost had become too much to live here anymore. I knew this day would come when tourists and people from the mainland started moving here permanently rather than leaving when their two-week vacation ended. The price to rent had quadrupled in the last few years. I worked three jobs, but still all I could afford was to rent a two-bedroom apartment with my sister and mother. My sister, mother and my kids were in one room. My wife, the baby and me shared the other room. I was never home, working all the time. I was missing Noa’s voices and Kalena’s seaglass castles. I was missing it all and exhausted. We still did not have enough to get by.

My cousin moved to the mainland to a town in Nevada where many Hawaiians were now living. He was able to buy a house and he said the community was safe as family bought around him. So, Lila and I decided that we would take the kids and move. My mother and sister were going to stay on the island. My sister found a place with another family. Tutu could not leave, though I know she loved me and my family. Kauai had been her only home, she could not leave.

My thoughts were interrupted as this woman in a large beach hat and Momo dress set up her beach chair behind us. She was obviously a tourist from the mainland. An elderly woman followed her setting up things as the younger woman spoke with high pitched voice into her phone. The peaceful afternoon we had was gone.

“Steven listen to me! I don’t care whether you have to mow down the village of Hananlei. I want a 4000 square foot house with beach views. Oh, please make sure there is enough land!” Momo dress woman was a yeller.

I looked over as the elderly woman gave a slight smile which said, “I’m sorry.”

I then looked down at my own mother who had stopped her work on the seaglass castle and stared at the new arrivals to the beach with dismay. Hananlei was our village, another 4000 square foot house would make it harder for our neighbors and family to find a small home.

“Oh, you have a property? Okay! Ma take down this number!” Momo shouted to her mother as the elderly woman scrambled for a pen and paper. She then rattled off a number which her mother wrote down. “Okay Steven, I will call you in ten minutes. Two million is my final offer, let’s see if they go for it.”

I looked over at Noa who was drawing in the sand with his finger and unusually quiet. Tutu got up from the castle with a piece of seaglass still in her hand as Kalena looked on.

“How about some shaved ice?” Tutu’s eyes gleamed looking at each of her grandchildren and then at me. “You stay here son; I have my phone and Noa can show me how to use if we need. We will bring you back some, eh, coconut flavor?”

I nodded at my mother who could always turn things around. I watched my makuahine and kids walk off the beach to the shave ice stand down the street. I laid my head back down on my blanket and tried to return my earlier peace. The ocean waves, the breeze, and birds chirping in a distance. My eyes were heavy, and I was just about to nod off to sleep.

“Steven, what do you mean someone out bid us! 5 million! No, I’m not paying 5 million! What is the name of this bidder? Yes, I want you to tell me! Seaglass House Builders! I have never heard of them!” Momo woman was yelling at the top of her lungs as I looked up moving my sunglasses to see her mother look at me in embarrassment again. I looked down at where my son had been drawing in the sand and recognized the series of numbers.

“You know what Steven; I don’t think I even want to move here anyways. Tell them I’m withdrawing my offer!” Momo hung up the phone and after ordering her mother to pack up their things, they left the beach.

A few minutes later, a very happy Tutu and my kids came skipping down the beach with handfuls of shaved ice.

“Here you go, coconut my Leialoha!” Tutu grinned as she handed me a cone.

“Seaglass House Builders?” My eyebrow raised as I looked at Noa and Kalena who were giggling.

“Someone will buy that property, just not a good fit for her.” Tutu smiled as she added the piece of seaglass she was holding to Kalena's castle.