Sam’s eyes slid away from his, and Keanu turned to see Caroline standing there.
‘You want to go with Keanu and see the renovations down the road?’
‘We’re allowed in?’ She sounded so delighted Keanu could hardly say he didn’t want her with him.
‘As of today,’ Sam was assuring her.
At least she wouldn’t be wearing a wet shift, Keanu told himself, but somehow that wasn’t comforting at all. She’d been in the same mid-calf pants and uniform shirt when they’d kissed under the tree …
The foreman’s name was Bill and he was at the gate talking to the guard there when Keanu and Caroline arrived.
‘Sorry about the fence, but the boss wanted the place secure—or as secure as anything can be with so much beach frontage. It was mainly to keep out adventurous kids during the building process, and the fences and guard will remain because the laboratories will have some evil chemicals in them. Not that they won’t be locked as well, and I imagine there’d be more kids coming by boat than down from the hospital, but what he says goes.’
‘Who is he?’ Caroline asked, so excited to be ‘invited’ to the station that she was barely registering Keanu by her side.
Well, almost barely.
‘Some fellow from the Middle East apparently. I get my orders from his—what do they call him?—Australasian manager. He’s from the Middle East as well, but speaks English the same way the Queen does.’
Caroline smiled. Children from all over the world were educated in top English public schools so undoubtedly all of them spoke ‘like the Queen does’.
Keanu was talking to Bill, so Caroline dawdled behind them, trying to identify all the different scents. She saw the jasmine creeping up the fence—soon it would be smothered—and the broad leaves of the ginger plant, their drooping white bulb-like flowers giving out what was probably her favourite perfume. Or did she prefer the frangipani that was dominant now—?
‘You with us?’ Keanu asked, and she realised how far she’d fallen back. He and Bill were at the door of the newly renovated and freshly painted laboratory block.
She caught up as Bill unlocked the door, and she gasped at the difference. Admittedly, it had been thirteen years since she’d been in the lab—back when she’d had her last holiday here with Keanu and Helen.
After they left it had never been the same and she’d used the excuse of spending more time with Christopher to avoid island holidays.
‘It’s been completely redone,’ Keanu was saying. ‘No wonder Sam’s so excited about it. But do you know if there are people booking to come here to use it?’
Bill shook his head.
‘Not my department, but we have been hurrying to finish everything and be out of the way because the boss—the big boss—is planning some kind of exclusive, very clever scientists’ get-together some time soon.’
They went to check the longhouse next, and once again Caroline could only gape in amazement. Rebuilt in the style of the island meeting places, thatched roof—probably with something underneath the palm thatching to stop it leaking—and open on all sides, it was finished with the best of materials, with cedar benches polished to a glowing shine, weavings hanging from the rafters, mats and cushions strewn around the floor. It was an island longhouse for today and for the future.
‘It’s totally awesome,’ she said, shaking her head because it was hard to take it all in.
‘And we can use it for Alkiri’s funeral feast?’ Keanu asked, as if he already knew this had been agreed.
‘Sure thing,’ Bill said. ‘It will be a good test of the fire pits.’
‘It’s even got fire pits?’
She sounded so incredulous both men smiled, but she followed them beyond the building where, sure enough, a deep pit had been dug with a more shallow one beside it, big stones, firewood and white sand stored neatly in the bottom of open wooden cupboard-like structures beside it.
‘We’ve had some of the local community here, doing the mats and cushions, and they told us about the fire pits. A big one for the fire that heats the stones, then a shallower one for the stones to go into when they’re hot, baskets for the food and bags and sand to cover it all up. Have we got it right?’
He was obviously anxious, but Keanu clapped him on the back and said, ‘Fantastic, mate, it’s just fantastic.’
Caroline had opened one of the top cupboards and found the baskets for the food stacked inside it. The next one held the sacks that would be wet and placed across the food before the lot was covered with sand to keep the heat in and help the meal steam-cook.
The thought that she’d actually be here and celebrating with a hangi made her turn to Keanu in delight.
‘Won’t it be great? It’s so long since we’ve been to a hangi!’
‘Great if we don’t have to cook it,’ Keanu reminded her, but Bill assured them both that local staff had already been employed for the station and they were bringing in more people for the celebration of Alkiri’s life the following day.
‘Apparently people will come from all the islands, and as we’re leaving soon, it will be kind of a reward for our workers to be here for the party.’
Bill hesitated then added, ‘Although that sounds a bit rough, partying when someone’s dead.’
‘Not here,’ Keanu assured him. ‘Here we celebrate a life that enriched all who knew him—or her if it’s a woman’s funeral.’
Bill seemed content, but Caroline considered what he’d said.
Had she enriched anyone’s life?
She rather doubted it.
Christopher’s maybe.
He’d certainly enriched hers, getting through each day of pain and illness with a smile always ready on his face for her or their father. During the ‘Steve years’ as she was starting to think of them, she’d seen less of her brother and really regretted it. Love, or what she’d thought was love, had made her selfish.
They were walking back up to the hospital while these thoughts coursed through her head.
‘You okay?’ Keanu asked, and she realised she’d dropped behind again, drifting through the past.
Which, considering the confusion she was feeling in his presence, might have been a safer place.
‘Fine,’ she lied, and hurried to catch up with him.
IT WAS A day without end, or so it seemed to Caroline when they returned to the hospital.
‘Would you mind keeping an eye on things while Keanu, Hettie and I have some dinner?’ Sam greeted her. ‘Hettie’s cooking because Vailea’s already preparing for the funeral feast and there’s stuff the three of us have to go over, including juggling the roster for the funeral tomorrow.’
‘No worries,’ Caroline assured him, ‘though you’d better tell me what to do in an emergency. Do I go to the back door and yell?’
‘Oh, you don’t know the system? Of course not, you’ve barely arrived and we haven’t stopped working you. See the panel by the door? It was an ingenious idea worked out by your father. You hit the blue button for me—it rings in my room—the green for Hettie—and the red that will clang all through the villas for all hands on deck.’
‘No fire alarm?’