Ocean: The Awakening Read Online Free PDF

and placed it on the old man’s lap. They knew that Tiny Pohaku would never go out to sea again, and he must know that himself, as well. Still, his optimism was contagious, causing Kimo to hold out a sliver of hope.
    ***

Chapter 5
    Alicia thought the eastern shore of Loa’kai island was the most lovely place she’d ever seen, a paradise like no other on Earth. Having grown up near San Luis Obispo on the California coast, she had seen stunning coastal vistas, but this island in the Hawaiian archipelago was beyond anything imaginable; it was breathtaking. She had heard that the ancient Hawaiian kings used to vacation here before the Wanaao region became a town, and it was not difficult to understand why. There were flowers everywhere. It was as if God had selected the very best colors from his paint palette and spread them here in the most artful manner possible, on the land and in the water.
    Even her grandfather’s ranch-resort complex, despite its touristic aspects, captivated her, with its lush green pastures and black lava stretching to the aquamarine sea. Now, as she walked through one of the pastures with her grandfather and older brother, she watched waves crash against the coastline, shooting sprays of water high in the air and creating white, frothing foam that churned offshore. The air smelled fresh and clean, and she felt very much alive .
    The three of them wore oversized hats to protect against the intensity of the tropical sun, and as she looked up at her tall, elegant grandfather she saw the stern, creased face, the square jaw, and the military sunglasses he favored. He had blotchy, mottled red skin on his forehead, stark evidence of the numerous times he had gone outside without sun cream or a hat, often to work alongside laborers on the ranch. Such lapses of skin care had ceased in the last couple of years, because doctors had removed cancerous patches of skin from his face, neck, and arms, and warned him about the danger of the sun.
    The thought of cancer in a vibrant paradise such as Wanaao Town and its surrounding countryside seemed out of place to Alicia, and yet, it was a reality. It wasn’t the only danger in this heavenly place, either. Anyone walking out in the open faced the risk of a wild boar attack, though the beasts seemed to prefer jungle thickets instead of venturing onto pasturelands. To counter the peril, her grandfather had taught her and Jeff to always carry a heavy walking stick on long walks, though she doubted if that would be enough to ward off a snorting, charging animal that had sharp tusks and weighed half a ton.
    Preston Ellsworth III paused on top of a grassy mound where Portuguese ovens had been long-abandoned, a site where earlier inhabitants used to cook the bounty of fishing harvests. Constructed of blocks of black lava, the old ovens were beautiful to Alicia; even in their disrepair, they had a weathered, charming look. It was that way all over the Wanaao area, where nature had a way of making the detritus of human civilization melt back into the landscape and not detract from it—even old fences, shacks, rusted tractors, and plows. Maybe it was the strength and power of the weather that helped soften such objects and give them an aged grace and patina, the effect of the unrelenting sunshine and hard rains.
    “This will all be yours someday,” the old man said, waving an arm expansively to indicate the ranchland that extended from the slopes of the dormant volcano to the sea. He removed his sunglasses, revealing intense blue eyes, with which he looked first at Alicia and then at Jeff. Presently he said, with a small smile, “You’ll get all of my other business operations, too. I can’t live forever, no matter how much I’d like to.”
    “Don’t talk that way, Grandfather,” Alicia said. “You need to think about living, not dying.”
    “That’s right,” Jeff said. “Think about life, Grandfather.”
    Alicia’s older brother was stocky, with short blond