Authors: Everett Peacock
With
that she dove into the clearness, took several long strokes
underwater, as if she might mimic the turtles themselves, and finally
surfaced twenty yards away.
“
Dammit,
Star!” Wally exclaimed. “That's insane! Come back to
the boat right now!” He knew his voice would simply skip off
the surface like a flat rock thrown just as hard as those words.
Her
brightly lit smile was hard to argue with.
“
I
love you Wally!” She splashed the water with her arms like a
little kid would playing. “I must defend the magic, my home!”
With that, she turned and started swimming into the beach, just
behind the large group of turtles leading the way.
“
Go,
Star! Go!” Janet managed to yell before collapsing in a burst
of pain.
“
Dad?
Should I go pick her up? At least give her a ride to the beach?”
Wally
looked at Star, swimming strongly and confidently behind dozens of
sea turtles toward a white sandy beach line with stunning coconut
palms, a brilliant blue sky behind them all. The plume from the
cinder cone just beyond spoke to her mission like a soldier's charge
at the enemy. She was the bravest woman he had ever met, and maybe
the craziest.
“
No,
son,” Wally answered. “Joey's got a tent on his boat.
Can you go get that, some water and food and drop them off for her?”
His
son nodded and throttled up slowly to meet with the other boats in
the deeper waters.
“
I
am going to take Jimmie here to Hilo,” Wally told him. He
looked to Janet, now back on the seat cushion couch, fighting her own
battles.
He
pushed his boat slightly beyond idle into a slow forward slide.
Looking back one last time, he could still see Star swimming, closer
now to the beach. It was her home, he knew, it was her only home.
It was a home almost completely surrounded now by a six to ten foot
wall of slowly creeping a'a lava. Another week and it would all be
gone, he figured. Turning back to sea, he moved his boat out farther
and farther.
“
Your
friend,” he said to a sleeping Janet, “is brave, crazy
and...” he paused. He fought a supreme sadness at leaving his
love behind with an ever increasing hope he was learning from her.
“
...and
I'll never bet against her.”
19
Two
days had passed since the reports of tsunami waves sweeping the
Kapoho area had been broadcast on television and the internet.
People all over the world were fascinated with the Hawaiian volcano,
the destructive lava and now the impressive power of tsunami.
The
Hilo airport air traffic control folks had to set up a temporary
tower of sorts just outside the evacuation zone to work all the
helicopter and over flight traffic. Everyone who had ever heard of
Hawaii, with all it's natural blessings of sun, sand and surf now
wanted to see the destruction. The rest of the world was having a
quiet news week, so this was the top story everywhere.
When
word got out that a woman was hold up on a tiny sliver of her land,
trapped between the sea and the lava, it put a human face on the
nature story. Every airborne flying machine that could adjusted
their flight path to include a low pass near Star's beach.
At
first she waved to them all, but on the second day it was easier to
ignore most of them. She was busy building her little ahu structures
everywhere she could, especially near the edge of the slowly
approaching wall of semi-cooled lava. Ahu, or cairns, had taken on
many meanings in Hawaii, from trail markers to sacred beacons.
Using
small rocks, pieces of coral, abandoned coconuts and driftwood, Star
created her own version of the ahu, stacking them in short piles.
When they were done, she sat back at the beach, cross-legged in the
sand, facing the sea, hands upturned on her knees and her head
slightly back. It made a fantastic shot for the news, but in her
heart she only focused on the lava, focused on asking the great
mother to spare her home by the sea.
Civil
defense boats were keeping out dozens of boats that wanted to land
fans there and join Star. The authorities reasoned that Star owned
the land she was on and could stay, but due to the obvious danger, no
one else could approach. Wally was supplying her once a day,
pleading with her to leave each time, but slowly understanding her
resolve. He brought her food, water, hugs and kisses and then
returned to the deep waters offshore.
~~~
Janet
had been met by an ambulance at Wally's request as soon as they made
the small dock at Suisan's Fish market in Hilo harbor. Her injuries
were for the most part severe bruising and lacerations that would all
heal. In the two days she had been at the Hilo Medical Center she
had begun to walk again.
The
police had been there briefly to interview her and file a report.
The doctors were all fascinated with her survival story and a few
news reporters had been trying to reach her, unsuccessfully. But, it
was a small island, a smaller town and a much smaller community.
Everyone in the hospital knew her story, of how she survived a
tsunami by climbing a coconut tree. Quickly the connection between
her and the now famous Star were made, cementing Janet's fame as
well.
As
Janet sat in the cafeteria, trying to force down the strawberry jello
a young man approached her, took her picture quickly and left.
Little did Janet know, but within minutes he had posted her picture
and the story, as he had heard it on his Facebook profile.
Within
hours several fan pages had been created featuring both Star and
Janet as the Heroes of Kapoho. Youtube videos of Star's brave stand
against the lava were interspersed with the story of how she and
Janet had been swept by the sea to within inches of the hot lava
approaching from the other direction, then swept back through a grove
of coconut trees in the retreating wave.
Every
television in the hospital had the news on with the continuing
coverage of the volcano. Janet was on her third jello when another
segment about Star came on, this time via CNN. They showed an aerial
view of the cinder cone and how it had now covered some 500 acres of
land and, including to the south of Star, over 10 new acres out into
the sea.
It
was shocking to see how little land was left for Star. The slowly
moving a'a was piling up in the last remaining low area behind the
beach there. It had already consumed Champagne pool on one side and
the entire southern coastline was suffering its final gasp before
succumbing to the lava.
Video
of Star praying toward the sea was overlaid with the fountaining
cinder cone. Her stacks of rocks and sticks, ahu, were shown while
the commentator talked of this brave woman who was holding her own
against the powerful volcano.
A
close up of the coconut grove led into the story of how Star and a
companion, now in the Hilo Hospital had climbed them to escape
several tsunami waves.
That
was the moment Janet saw her picture flash onto the television, along
with Star's.
“
Both
women,” the commentator reported, “have various fan
pages on social networks and blogs where you can keep updated as to
their progress.”
The
story then focused on her. The entire screen filled with her image,
the one taken by the young man.
“
This
young woman was taken to Hilo Hospital where she remains recuperating
from her horror with the destructive tsunami wave. Reports tell us
that she was swept to within inches of the approaching lava and then
back against trees, rocks and almost into the ocean. We haven't any
news on her, but we are wishing Jimmie a speedy recovery.”
Janet
immediately stood up to leave, as several in the cafeteria were
clapping for her. Horrified she almost ran back to her room, except
that it hurt to move too fast.
Here
she was eating jello in the comfort of a warm place, one of healing
and her friend was camped on a beach in a tent, being attacked by a
volcano. She had to get back to Star, to stand as one with her,
against the lava. There was something about Star, something quite
incredible, even miraculous, that made Janet feel Star would win.
As
she entered her room it was dark, her roommate there snoring behind
her curtain. Janet turned on their shared television, but kept the
volume off, as she tried to follow what else might be said about
Star, and what, God forbid, might be said about herself.
She
sat in the dark silence following the glow of the broadcast, now
showing archival footage of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.
Comparisons were being made to the ones that had struck her and Star,
and the entire coastline southeast of Hilo.
“
It
could have been much worse,” Janet said softly in her mind.
“It could be worse...next time.” The thought of going
anywhere near the ocean seemed...impossible.
Yet,
there she was, on the television yet again, in her yoga pose, with
the expression on the silent reporter's face telling the world what
they were all really thinking: that this old lady on the beach was
insane.
“
She's
trying so hard,” Janet said to herself, unaware she was talking
out loud. It seemed easier to think that way now that the static had
returned.
“
Who's
that, honey?” The curtain talked right before a boney hand
pulled it back around and out of the way.
“
Oh,”
Janet said. “Sorry. To wake you, I mean, I was trying...”
“
No
problem, honey. No problem. I'm need to pee, anyhow.” She
swung her half covered legs down perfectly into some furry slippers
and stood up slowly, letting her bones find their balance.
Janet
watched the old lady walk in front of her, coughing hoarsely a couple
of times and cursing under her breath at something unseen. She
thought she had the look of a career alcoholic, perhaps one of who
had risen to president of her local drinking club.
For
a moment, Janet saw herself, decades into the future, just like this
dying woman. Liver shot to hell, struggling to walk and in a dark
hospital room peeing in someone else's toilet.
Just
the thought of such a fate made her strangely thirsty. If a single
drink was offered, she would feel safe taking it, right now. If only
one.
“
Poor
old broad,” Janet heard from the darkened bathroom doorway.
“
What?”
Janet said into the corner. “Who?”
The
old lady moved awkwardly from the blue shadows of the television and
back in front of Janet's bed. She waited to answer until she had
completed the almost overwhelming task of getting herself planted
again in her own bed.
“
That
poor lady on T.V.” she pointed at the screen. “That's
who.” She turned up the volume with her own remote.
Janet
watched a shot of Wally resupplying Star.
This time it was Fox
News and the commentator brought up a question as to what kind of
boyfriend would leave his girlfriend on the beach in such a
situation.