A Place to Call Home | 17

Lately, Gaby has been itching for a new project. Even though she loves doing conservation work, she's gotten a little bored with following the same routines every day. To combat this, she decides to shoot a nature documentary about Mua Pel'am. Shockingly, no one's ever thought to do it before, and now is the perfect time what with the island looking more pristine than it has in years. So she orders a bunch of equipment she barely knows how to use online and, as soon as it arrives, sets about capturing every inch of the island's beauty on film!

She doesn't have the funds to hire a big crew to help her out, but luckily, it doesn't much matter that she's an amateur cameraperson. As it turns out, the beauty of nature can largely speak for itself. She just has to press record and let the cameras roll.

Once she wraps her head around the technology, she even manages to get a drone recording device up and running. Now, she can freely traverse the island without weighing herself down with bulky equipment and make her viewers feel like they're running along the beaches and taking in the sights themselves.

At night, she spends hours uploading and editing the footage she's recorded. As a result, she isn't getting much sleep these days, but she feels more inspired than she has in ages, and it's that inspiration that gives her the energy to keep going.

Noelani soon misses spending time with her mom, so she drags her desk and chair into Gaby's makeshift studio and works on her own arts and crafts projects while Gaby sits hunched in silent concentration in front of the screens.

Sometimes, though, Gaby insists upon doing her work in absolute isolation, so then it's up to Alvin to keep Noelani entertained. Together, they've been reading the first volume of the Henry Puffer series, which follows the adventures of a young boy who discovers he has wizardry in his bloodline and begins attending a magical boarding school. It's taken the world by storm, its first three volumes selling millions of copies, and father and daughter are eager to catch up before the fourth is published. Even Meli seems eager to find out where the story will go next.

Noelani doesn't exactly love school, but she occasionally has to tear herself away from Henry Puffer to work on her math homework, which she tries to speed through as quickly as possible.

She's also been spending a lot of time with Malia and Nani, and they've all become unreasonably obsessed with playing Don't Wake the Llama, a game that has only just made its way to Sulani. Since the islands have only recently become modernized, their occupants are all a little behind on the mainland's pop cultural crazes.

Nani just can't seem to get the hang of the game, though, and she's also a sore loser, so the majority of the time they're playing, the other girls are just laughing hysterically while she curses at her poor luck.

Sometimes on the weekend, Nani and Malia stay over for a slumber party, which means they all get to stay up late enjoying s'mores and hot dogs over a beach campfire.

They've got parental supervision, of course, but as usually seems to be the case with these two, Gaby and Alvin aren't actually paying much attention to what the kids are up to. Gaby's been stuck in editing mode for so long that they're suddenly smitten with each other like they just started dating all over again.

Still, they're attentive parents when it really counts, like when it comes to teaching Noelani the names of all the constellations visible in Sulani's crystal clear night sky.

Sulani at night is still a sight that never gets old. Gaby sneaks in a few minutes of footage for her documentary while Alvin is busy reading Noelani to sleep.

The next day, Alvin helps Noelani with her solar system project for school while Gaby heads out to film more footage. She has so much already, but there are still many parts of the island she hasn't been able to document yet.

Luckily, her trusty drone is even reliable enough to follow her out into the ocean, though she has to be careful to make sure its battery never dies before she can get it safely back into the boat. Otherwise, it's sure to meet a watery death.

She has to make a quick return to land when she hears the volcano start to rumble in the distance. Funnily enough, she's less worried about a fireball being hurled directly into the house than she is about making sure she gets the eruption on video.

The drone follows her movements obediently, positioning itself over her shoulder to perfectly capture the blazing hot chunk of encrusted magma that has just landed in their backyard.

It remains her steadfast companion as she jogs up as close to the mouth of the volcano as she can stand. There's still so much heat and soot radiating from the rock that she comes away covered in dust, having narrowly escaped burning her eyebrows right off.

She closes the day out by feeding a couple of her aquatic pals, who have become almost as friendly with her as they are with their fellow children of the sea now that she's spent so much time sharing the water with them.

The next morning, she can't believe her luck when the drone is there to help her capture the first baby sea turtle hatching to take place on the island in years. Over time, the dwindling population had migrated to the other islands to lay their eggs, but now they've finally returned to birth their offspring on their original shores.

She enthuses with her fellow conservationists and the few lucky passersby who happened to chance upon the event in progress. Not everyone can say they've had the pleasure of watching newly-hatched baby turtles blindly squirm their way out of the sand and into the shallow water for their first swim.

When Noelani gets home from school, she and Alvin bolt across the island just in time to witness the last few baby turtles make their way across the shoreline. The weather clears up, too, providing a sunny blue backdrop that will look amazing on film.

Everyone there agrees that the turtles are just about the cutest thing they've laid eyes upon in their entire lives, and they stay until they can be sure that even the stragglers make it safely into their new ocean home.

Back at home, Meli witnesses her own miracle of nature when a few butterflies enter through an open window and flit gracefully throughout the house. She hangs back on the sofa to admire them, somehow aware deep down that they're too beautiful to touch.

Later, Kaimana stops by for a visit. "Hey, girl, are you all alone?" she asks, giving Meli's neck a generous rub. "Where are your owners?"

She finds Alvin out for a solo swim while Gaby and Noelani are helping clean up the beach after the turtle-hatching event. He emerges from the water to greet her. "Hey, sis, what's up?"

"It's been a while," she says. "I miss hanging out with Noelani! Since Gaby's busy working on that documentary, I figured maybe I could take her off your hands every now and again, you know, just to give you a break..."

"Listen," Alvin cuts in, suddenly exasperated. "I know you're eager to help Noelani out with the whole mermaid thing, but it's not your decision. Gaby has a say in this, too, and she's not sure it's a good idea to start this early. Noelani's just a kid! This isn't something she's old enough to understand, and it's a choice that'll last forever. What if she ends up regretting it?"

Kaimana's brow furrows in hurt and confusion. "I just don't understand why you're both treating this like it's a bad thing! Being a child of the ocean is a beautiful and sacred birthright. It's Noelani's destiny. Why shouldn't we encourage her to embrace it?"

"That might have worked out well for you, but we're doing things differently," Alvin responds stiffly. "Traditions change. This isn't the old Sulani anymore."

With that, he dives back into the water and swims away, leaving Kaimana on the beach alone, stunned into silence.