A Place to Call Home | 7

After getting married, Gaby and Alvin spend a few weeks settling more permanently into Sulani. Of course, this mostly means finding a place of their own. As much as Kaimana insists she doesn't mind their constant company, they don't want to take up space in her guest bedroom forever. After an exhaustive search, they discover that the most affordable home on the islands is situated directly at the base of Mua Pel'am's namesake volcano. As it turns out, lava-side real estate goes for pennies around here since no one wants to be trapped in range of another disastrous eruption. It feels somehow serendipitous to Alvin: maybe he's meant to conquer the volcano, to survive what his parents couldn't, that is, if he can prove himself strong enough to face it in the first place.

The house is ingeniously constructed out of re-purposed shipping crates that would otherwise be left to rust in a trash heap. It strikes the perfect balance between quaint and spacious, with plenty of room for both of them - and more, should they eventually choose to expand their family. Gaby is nervous about living so close to the volcano, but Alvin reassures her: there hasn't been any abnormal activity detected for years and the island is much better equipped to handle disaster in the unlikely event it does occur. As long as they're prepared, they'll be fine. She loves the house - and Alvin - so much that she gives in.

Kaimana is less easily convinced they've made the right decision. "You've barely been in Sulani for five minutes!" she exclaims, what's supposed to be celebratory housewarming kava sloshing messily over the rim of her cup. "I love you, but you're an idiot if you think you can outsmart nature. Mom and Dad couldn't, and they lived here their entire lives. What makes you so special?"

"Kai, what happened to Mom and Dad is a tragedy... but at least you got to know them, even if only for a short time. You have a connection with them that I never will. I feel like this is the only way I can get close to them, to even begin to understand what they experienced."

"By putting yourself at risk of death?" she cries, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes.

He pries the cup of kava from her hand before it shatters in her tight grip and pulls her into a close embrace. "I'm not going to die," he insists, "I promise. But I know you believe in fate, so you have to understand that it's brought me here for a reason - and I don't think that reason is to end my life."

Sensing a heated argument brewing between the siblings, Gaby slipped outside to stoke the bonfire and give them some much-needed space. Alvin finds her warming herself next to the flames. "Is everything okay?" she asks tentatively.

He slips an arm around her waist. "It will be, don't worry. She'll come around. It's going to be great for us here, trust me."

"First things first," he says, whipping a pair of batons out of thin air and setting them alight, "I'm going to get this fire-dancing thing down to a science, no matter how long it takes."

"Oh my god, where did you even get those things?" Gaby asks, cracking up at the sight of his ungainly flailing. "Put them away, please, or you'll be the one who kills us both, not the volcano!"

As soon as they're comfortable in their new home, Gaby tracks down Makoa to ask about how she can assist with the conservation efforts across Sulani. He's overjoyed that she wants to help out, and what she thought might be a part-time volunteer gig turns into a full-blown job offer. She's surprised, but she's quick to accept, knowing she and Alvin will have to start bringing in money of their own soon. After all, they spent almost all of her inheritance from her parents on the house.

She soon learns that Makoa isn't one for sugar-coating things. He shows her the steaming, sulfurous deposits that mar the otherwise pristine sands surrounding the volcano. "We don't know exactly what's making the volcano sick, but while we try to figure it out, it's also our job to reduce the environmental degradation that's happening as a result. Most people assume that because this stuff is created by nature, it's safe, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. These deposits are bad news for dozens of plant and animal species native to this area. The only thing we can do is monitor them and keep them as contained as possible. You're going to have to be okay with doing the dirty work if you want to make a real difference."

Later, he takes her to the conservation corps headquarters, a tiny, run-down building cluttered with boxes full of data, statistics, and reports that go back decades. Up until recently, the handful of environmentalists and scientists operating in Sulani hadn't been very organized or efficient in their approach. They're slowly trying to sift through the backlog, but more pressing issues have taken priority. Makoa points to an ancient, dust-covered computer in the corner. "There's your office, but I doubt you'll be spending much time in it."

He's right, of course. Soon, the majority of Gaby's days are spent patrolling the beach with other new recruits. They're supposed to be handing out citations for littering, but more often than not, they find only piles of trash, the tourists who carelessly left them behind nowhere in sight.

The beaches aren't the only part of the landscape at risk. There's also the issue of fishing nets and plastic rings drifting into the ocean, which can lead to certain death for any aquatic life caught up in them.

Hungry to prove herself, Gaby quickly develops an eagle eye for spotting debris and eagerly swims into even the deepest parts of the ocean to retrieve it.

She's also learning to take a firm tone with the litterers she does manage to catch in the act. It doesn't take long for her to figure out that they respond poorly to both anger and timidness. The optimal approach is somewhere in between, and, even then, there's no guarantee they'll take her words to heart. More often than not, they crumple up the citation or throw a handful of bills in her direction and storm off, clearly unconvinced to change their ways.

While Gaby's busy with her new job, Alvin decides to put his days spent trawling the dark web for conspiracy theories to good use by offering up his programming and web design services to interested clients.

Of course, the sporadic nature of freelancing leaves him plenty of free time to invest in other hobbies, so he decides to strengthen his connection to Sulani even further by cultivating its native plants.

Most of his time, though, is spent on the beach, collecting a wide variety of colorful shells he leaves on every surface in the house for Gaby to discover later. She heads off so early in the morning most days that the movement of these shells from room to room is sometimes their sole form of communication until after dark.

He's also rented his own outrigger canoe. Even for an amateur, Sulani's waters are so calm that they're always a breeze to navigate.

He finds the ocean so relaxing, in fact, that he often dozes off in the midst of rowing.

Finally, they manage to steal a night out together. With no other obligations hanging over them, they're free to enjoy a friendly foosball competition. Alvin assumes Gaby will be easy to beat, since she's only played a couple times before.

However, somehow, the bottomless pint of beer she's drinking sharpens rather than dulls her senses, and she wins handily.

Meanwhile, Alvin's drinking just makes him a poor loser. "I demand a rematch!" he shouts loudly enough for the entire bar to hear. "I don't know how you did it, but you definitely cheated!"

Gaby rolls her eyes. "Poor thing. You've never been creamed by a girl before, have you?" She flashes him an amused smirk. "Don't worry. You'll get used to it soon enough."

Once she gets him to stop sulking, they migrate across the street to join the other Sulani residents in one of their frequent town get-togethers. The fire-dancing is already in full swing when they arrive, and Alvin turns to Gaby with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "You know what this means, right?" Before she can reply, he's already halfway to the fire.

Gaby indulges his bruised ego and cheers him on from the sidelines. To her surprise, he manages to keep the batons aloft. "Babe, you're doing great!" she shouts out in support.

Of course, no sooner are the words out of her mouth than Alvin drops both batons like hot potatoes, narrowly avoiding setting his entire body on fire. One day, she's certain, he'll master the art... but today is definitely not that day.

"Let's just stick to dancing without fire for now, okay?"

"Fine by me," Alvin replies with false enthusiasm. She knows he'll never bring up his devastating losses tonight again - and expects, by unspoken agreement, that she never will either. That's a man for you, Gaby thinks. This one's lucky I'm so crazy about him.