Chapter 14

OAHU, Christina took Kayla to the shop, because summer vacation had begun.

Christina preferred having her daughter with her, rather than finding a nanny. 

She had asked Kayla if she wanted to go to a camp.

Kayla had declined. 

Christina would perhaps offer again later. Though she wasn’t sure anything would still be available.

Kayla was good at keeping busy. She sat behind the counter with Christina and read.. Or...she used her iPad. Often she talked to her dad, but sometimes she played games or wrote stories. She also made drawings.

Today she drew on actual paper with crayons instead of the iPad. She made pictures for her Grandpa Dennis. They had received a package from him yesterday. 

He had written a letter to Christina. For Kayla, he enclosed a newspaper clipping…comics.

Kayla had glanced at this quickly; then put it down. She wasn't very interested.

Christina felt bad, because she knew her father was trying to reach out and connect to Kayla—attempting to have a long distance relationship without the internet.

Was it possible?

People managed it in the past.

To a point.

Christina wondered what was going to happen to their relationship. They lived too far away from each other to visit on a regular basis. Both of them had to take care of their shops and couldn’t be away too much. Besides that, plane tickets were ridiculously expensive. 

Could they keep up a real relationship with snail mail?

Christina had her doubts, especially since her father's letter was not very forthcoming with information…and also a bit dry.

She struggled to read his handwriting. Basically what she knew now was that he had gotten rid of his TV; his store had a slight increase in customers; he was reading a book about blue whales, and he had installed a birdhouse in a tree by his kitchen window. His letter asked nothing about her life. He referred to her life only in the part where he wrote:

  I hope you and Kayla are doing well. 

She understood that his lack of questions was due more to his ineptness in conversation. She didn’t think he didn’t care. 

So she wrote about her life. Though that was hard, because she knew he didn't want her to mention one of the most prominent subjects of her life. She struggled to write about things that didn’t involve Kayla seeing dead people and the fact that she continued to have a relationship with her deceased husband, deceased mother, and deceased sisters.

Her father had a strong aversion to the whole subject of life after death.

For now, Kayla drew pictures. Christina wrote about mundane things in their life that were really not too important. "I worry Kayla is eating too much cheese and is going to have high cholesterol. I wish she liked more vegetables." That was the most exciting thing in her letter so far.

She asked him some questions about stuff he mentioned in his letters. Such as, What kind of birds are you seeing? What type of feed do you use?

Christina remembered that they saw one of those large Hawaiian centipedes the other day. Her father was always interested in wildlife, so she decided to mention that in her letter.

As soon as she finished with those three sentences, a woman came into the store. She bought some lavender flavored organic chocolate.

After she left, Christina wrote about it in the letter. It wasn’t very exciting. No. But it took up space. That's what she was going for now.

"I'm done." Kayla said.

 Christina looked down at daughter. She had three pictures ready for Grandpa. 

"Good job," Christina said.

 "Can I walk around the store?"

"Sure." Christina said.

"I won't touch anything or break anything."

"I know you won't."

 Christina stuck the letter and pictures in the envelope. She addressed it and then had an idea. She should take some pictures of Kayla and herself and send them to her dad.

When was the last time she had gotten a photo developed?

Christina couldn’t remember. She wasn’t even sure where to get that done. Could she order them  online?  Did drugstores still do that?

Maybe not.

Oh well. She'd figure it out.

Kayla skipped back over to the counter. "There are three ghosts in the store," she said.

"Three? Wow." Christina thought,  it's too bad they couldn't buy anything. In terms of the living, the store had been empty most of the day.

"One was nice," Kayla said. "She taught me a dance."

"What about the other two?" Christina had a slight twinge of worry.

"They were scary!" Kayla said with dramatic flare. "Blood dripping from their teeth, and they wanted to eat me." She couldn't keep up the act. She giggled.

"You're a funny girl." Christina said.

Kayla kept laughing.

 "But they were okay?"

 "Yes. Just busy."

"Okay."

"So do you want to see my dance, or not?" Kayla asked.

"Of course."

Kayla danced.

Christina took some photos of her doing that. "I love that dance."

Daddy does too,” Kayla said.

Continue to Chapter Fifteen

Go Back to Chapter Thirteen