You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Author:Siobhan Fallon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781611730197
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Published: 2010-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

When Manny first left for Iraq, Kailani’s family had asked her to move back to Hawaii for the twelve-month deployment, but she knew that while there was not one thing that could compare to her love for her husband, all of the details of the island of Oahu would conspire against him. The avocado trees in her mother’s backyard, the scent of plumeria after a mid-afternoon rain, the black-and-yellow myna birds heckling traffic as they strutted across the street, the sun setting over the sand while sea turtles rested in the shallows. All of the islands would be begging her to stay, and she did not know if she was capable of leaving them again.

So Kailani had held out these eleven landlocked months in central Texas, living in an apartment building on base with her potted hibiscus, the leaves yellowing, the buds small and crinkled, moving it around each afternoon to the three small windows in the living room trying to catch the sun. Her children in a playpen rather than growing up with sand between their toes or sea salt drying in their hair. Her baby, Javier, had never seen the ocean, and Ana wouldn’t go into the pools on post without her Little Mermaid floaties bulging around her arms, afraid of the sting of chlorine in her eyes. When Kailani was Ana’s age, her mother had already taken her surfing at Nanakuli Beach. Little Kailani would be perched at the front of the board, her long hair touching the water while her mother paddled out and found the perfect wave to ride in, then stood with loose knees while Kailani squealed at the sudden speed.

When she missed Oahu the most, Kailani forced herself to imagine Manny back safe, his arms lifting up his baby boy, his low voice singing Spanish songs to Ana while she sucked her thumb and her lids grew heavy with sleep, his mouth on Kailani’s throat in the dark bedroom. He was her island, her ocean, her trade wind breeze. Until michelle.c.rand@ us.army.mil.

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