North Star

49 | aroha nui

2020

It was a shit day for me to receive a package in the mail.

I had no idea someone who lived as minimalist as I tended to could struggle to close a suitcase, but that might have had more to do with the zipper being stuck, likely from a lack of usage, than my particular lifestyle. We weren't going to be gone for long, barely more than two weeks, but I didn't have much experience with packing or traveling, so I couldn't decide which items were a necessity and which were just me not being able to let go of something.

By the time I zipped everything up, I was happy to only have one suitcase and one personal item, the latter of which was mainly to carry my wallet, passport, and an excess of snacks for the plane because I had been warned about plane food. (We still love you, Hawaiian Airlines.) Anthony was gracious enough to loan me the backpack he had used when he went traveling last. It had been years so there were a few cobwebs I had to dust off, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Everything ready?"

Kanani rounded the corner and entered my room, hopping back and forth between both feet as she rocked baby Kaleo back to sleep after a long day of being a baby. (Exhausting times.) (He deserved his beauty rest.) The pale pink and orange onesie I picked up for him at Pearlridge the other week fit snugly around his cute round belly.

"Think so." Exerting enough strength to tire me out, which was embarrassing as it is, I lifted the suitcase into a standing position. A quick scan around the room confirmed I hadn't accidentally trashed it in my pursuit of packing. I would have been devastated seeing as it took me almost an entire week of cleaning after my overtime work shifts to get it prepped and ready for my trip. The last thing I wanted was to come back after a two-week-long vacation and see a pile of dirty laundry sitting around my hamper. "Is Kaipo here yet?"

She shifted Kaleo onto her other hip. "Just pulled up downstairs. Your flight leaves at three-thirty, right?"

"Yeah, we're gonna leave in twenty minutes so I can meet her there before we go through security."

After doing a final check to make sure I had everything I needed, I wiped my hand across my forehead. I turned to face my sister, carefully trying not to get the baby too excited. Ever since I babysat him for an entire weekend while Kanani and Keali'i tried to set up the new apartment he had moved into which was much closer to our house than his previous one, Kaleo liked to go into what we called bouncy mode every time he saw me. While I found it adorable, Kanani was usually the one who had to calm him down. (Aunt perks.) (All the fun without the hassle.)

I leaned over to kiss his warm forehead. He stirred a tiny amount but mostly remained tranquil in his mother's arms—his favorite place in the entire world, and for good reason.

"I'm gonna miss you," I whispered.

Kaleo yawned.

"Before you go downstairs, something came for you in the mail." Kanani gently kicked a small box, which I hadn't noticed, that had been placed right outside my door. "We're gonna leave you to it, okay?"

She ushered Keali'i into the room, directing him to take my bags downstairs, while I picked up the mysterious parcel and carried it over to the bed. The address looked unfamiliar and there weren't any visible markings to distinguish where it had come from, which left me scratching my head. While I had been making a few more online shopping orders as of late, they were mostly all clothes and toys for Kaleo, and I hadn't ordered anything recently so it couldn't have been from me. By the time I turned around to ask my sister if she knew anything about it, she was gone.