Page 107

Kaumana Estates, Hawai‘i

Lono stood in his backyard and watched the sky. He was afraid to blink. He’d heard the jet and gone running outside. He saw right away how close to the ground the shape was flying.

It was an army jet.

A bomber.

Mac had gotten him interested in planes, just like he had gotten him interested in so many things. Mac had made him a reader, an honor student, and a better surfer.

Lono felt as if he were flying blind right now. He had no internet. No way for him to get into the HVO computer system and find out where the lava was after the second eruption he’d heard and then seen on this day from hell.

His mother, Aramea, had stubbornly refused to leave their home, refused to get in the line with her friends at the Port of Hilo, refused to board one of the boats that would take them to Maui, even though she had a sister there.

“The goddess has always provided for us,” she told Lono. “It is Pele’s will at work now. Not mine or yours. Not your friend Dr. MacGregor’s.”

“Are you saying it’s her will for us to stay and die in this house?” Lono asked.

“You must have faith,” she said. “You were raised in the ways of the natural world, and you were also raised in the ways of the spiritual world.”

But I’m growing up in the world of science,he wanted to tell her. In the real world.

But he didn’t say it. There was no point. She wasn’t leaving this house, the only one Lono had ever known. And Lono wasn’t leaving her. Even if that meant they would die together.

He looked behind him and saw her sweet face pressed against the kitchen window. He knew she was looking at the summit in the distance, the swollen clouds, the flames licking the sky, looking at Mauna Loa like it was some kind of deity.

Lono’s eyes returned to the jet. It made a long turn to the east, came back around, and headed right for him.

Lono watched, his head craned back, and found himself wondering if the goddess of volcanoes could protect him and his mother from the army’s bombs.

I don’t want to die like this. I don’t want my mom to die.

But that bomber was so close.