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“Let’s get back to work,” the new night manager says to the servers.
“Hey, Paul! Did you send your paperwork to my mother yet?”
“Yes. This morning.”
“Okay. Good.”
He walks off with a wave, and I move to where Noa sits having a ramen lunch.
“You’ve really made this place beautiful, Alek. I can hardly remember what it looked like before.”
“Thanks. I’m dying for Mom to see it in its entirety. She hasn’t seen the chairs or the mural yet.”
“She said you picked out some wall hangings. Where are they?”
I pull up a chair and motion for a server to bring me what my brother is eating.
“And an iced tea!” I call. “We don’t want to put them up until everything else is in place. Too much dust. They’re being held at Pono’s.”
“So she’s going to continue doing the accounting?”
“Yes. We have a night and a daytime manager and the staff is set. Oscar is in charge of the kitchen staff. And Mom will make appearances a few times a week. The diners love to say they met a famous hula dancer. They liked it when it was an Italian restaurant, so I think now it will make more sense.”
“Her photograph in the entry looks awesome. I’m surprised she approved.”
“It was Lani who talked her into it. He said it would be something she could do to preserve the real Hawaii. That was all she needed.”
“Smart.”
“Now that walking won’t be an issue, she’ll be able to greet the customers and move from table to table easily.”
“There’s a lot to handle. Are you sure she’s capable of the day to day?”
“Oh yeah. I am. Dad was never really good at the business end of things. Even though he thought he was.”
We chuckle knowing I read that right.
“He was more the face of the place.”
“Exactly. I’m trying to make it so Mom will be now. She did more all those years than she owns up to. Think she always wanted to give him the credit, when it was really her who oversaw things. We’ll see.”
“So the reopening will be on September first?”
“Yep.”
“When are you and Alana leaving for California?”
“The third. She starts school on the sixth.”
He looks at me with an unspoken question in his eyes.
“What?”
“Sure you’re doing the right thing?”
“About what?”
“About your life.”
