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Mac and Lono stood on the still gorgeous beach at Honoli‘i, their backs to the water and the four- and five-foot breakers. During the second eruption, the beach had split open to the north. At one point, the ocean had gone as smooth as glass for a long moment that no one on the island would ever forget.

Now, all over the Big Island, the rebuilding and recovery went on; the local government said that some of the restoration might take years. With the assistance of the army, officials were still searching for casualties at Nā‘ālehu and in the Waikōloa Beach area, where the lava that had been diverted to prevent a disaster—the scope of which the residents of the island would never know—had added to the death toll on its way into the Pacific Ocean.

“You were ready to drop those bombs of yours near my house, weren’t you?” Lono asked.

“What bombs?” Mac said.

The boy smiled. “It’s funny,” he said. “All my life, my mother told me that Pele would provide. And in the end, that’s exactly what she did.”

Mac had told Lono how the hardened lava at the base of Mauna Kea formed a wall that had saved the island. He didn’t tell the boy that it had also saved the world.

“Mothers are always right,” Mac said. He’d leave it at that.

They stared at the summit of Mauna Loa, as majestic as ever but once again still.

Until the next time.

“Your time at HVO is really up?” Lono asked. “You’re leaving us?”

“You know I was moving toward the door before this all happened.”

“And then what will you do?” Lono asked. “You know the next time we have an eruption, you’re gonna get all lōlō wanting to be here.”

“I’m thinking that maybe I might want to teach something other than surfing,” Mac said.

There was a brief silence.

“I miss Jenny,” Lono said.

“So do I, kid,” Mac said. “So do I.”

He and Rebecca were on the same afternoon flight, through Los Angeles to Houston. But he didn’t tell Lono that.

Instead, he walked over to where they’d left their boards and picked his up.

As he walked toward the water, he thought:

Just another day in paradise.