She was beginning to get a glimmer of what he was trying to say. He was right. She had no idea if her sin truly hurt God. Kaia bit her lip. “We are two different species.”
“Exactly. There is no way for her to fully understand you or your emotions. And no way for you to understand her. All you can hope for is a distant echo of meaning and intent to come through. Just as your mother doesn’t know how you felt when she left, so you can’t really understand the pressures that drove her to do what she did. You say you would never do what she did, but we are all human and share a common frailty, Kaia. We all have a weakness, an area where we are most prone to sin. Hers is no worse than yours or mine. As God forgives us, we are to forgive others. Free aloha. No strings attached.”
Kaia shut her eyes as her brother’s words penetrated her heart. Did her willful sin affect God the way her mother’s had hurt her? She’d never considered the fact that God could feel pain. It was so easy to forget Him, so easy to get caught up in life.
“Can you forgive, lei aloha?” her grandfather whispered. “Forgive as God would have us to do?”
“I want to.” Fresh tears leaked from Kaia’s face. She opened her eyes and looked at her mother. She vaguely remembered a somber time in the house when she’d been told her daddy was never coming home again. She’d found her mother looking through a photo album with black streaks of mascara running down her face. Kaia had crawled into her mother’s lap and demanded a story. Her mother had wiped her eyes with a tissue and gotten out a Dr. Seuss book. She’d swallowed back her tears, but Kaia knew now the pain had still been there.
In that moment, Kaia realized how utterly solitary every person is. Who knew what went on in her heart except for God? Like her brother said, all she could grasp were distant echoes of the reality experienced by those she loved.
Her mother’s eyes glistened with tears, and her soft, pink mouth trembled. “Forgive me, Kaia,” she whispered.
Kaia nodded. “I give you aloha, Makuahine. I release the anger I feel to God and ask Him to heal it.” Saying the words brought a rush of tears to her eyes. She was free. The heady knowledge sapped the strength from her knees as she rose.
Her mother stood at her approach. She started to raise her arms then faltered. Kaia opened her own arms, and her mother’s face lit with joy. She rushed to embrace Kaia.
The scent of her mother’s perfume wafted over her in a welcoming rush. She’d never been close enough to Faye to notice the perfume before, but its scent was familiar. Kaia felt the weight she’d carried for years melt away.
She released her mother and stepped back. Her grandfather beamed at her. The approval in his dark eyes lifted Kaia’s spirits even more. Her gaze sought Jesse’s.
“Do you have something to say to me?” he asked.
She nodded. “In private though.” She finally dared to glance into his eyes and look away. The love shining there deepened the blue of his eyes.
“I don’t know. I think I’d like to hear it too,” Bane said. “What about you, Mano?”
She stuck out her tongue at her brothers. “Want me to sing a love song?”
Bane backed away with his hands held out. “Anything but that!”
Oke grinned. “Perhaps my granddaughter should grovel in front of all of us for putting Jesse through so much worry.”
“Not a chance, brahs.” She held out her hand to Jesse. “Let’s go check on Nani.” Jesse grinned. He rose and took her hand. They walked to the lagoon hand in hand.
He stopped by the lagoon and took her in his arms. “I love you, my beautiful mermaid, even if you’re too young for me, even if you can’t carry a tune in a water bucket, even if I have to put boots on to walk through your house. I’d adore you even if you smiled at me with raspberry seeds stuck in your teeth.”
“Eww!” She smiled up at him. Happiness bubbled inside her like a hot lava spring. The unconditional love shining out of his eyes enveloped her in a warm glow. “I love you,” she said softly. “You were right. We couldn’t build a future with so much of the past holding us down. We’ve got time to build it with the right foundation now.”
“But not too much time,” he whispered. “I want to marry you. Soon.”
The endless blue of the sea matched the eternal aloha in Jesse’s eyes. As Nani rose on her tail and danced through the waves, Jesse took her in his arms, and her heart danced with her dolphin.