Turn 130 of 233

Take Kimo to the site and frame walls with the crew. Sina is there as well. After work, drive to Sina's bungalow so the kids can meet Kimo.

The site is ten minutes from the clinic and the morning is warming and the crew is already on the pad when Lena pulls in. Walt looks up from the sawhorses and sees Kimo in the harness and sees Sina behind her in the tiny shorts and the sports bra and the bare bloody feet and his face does the thing it does — the half-second assessment, the nod. The nod covers them both. Sina stands on the concrete pad and her feet are raw and she is breathing hard from the thirty miles but her shoulders are square and she is here.

"That's Sina," Lena says to Walt.

"I know who she is," Walt says. "She ran thirty miles this morning."

The framing starts at seven-twenty. Lena takes the south wall with Marco and Ray and the nail gun barks and Kimo rides against her chest and the humming is steady and low and the boy is sleeping through the percussion. Sina works with Frank on the east wall and she doesn't know framing but her hands know tools and her body knows load and Frank shows her the stud placement once and she gets it. The arms are thick and the grip is strong and the Samoan frame handles the studs the way it handled the concrete — with the deep structural ease of a body that was built for work. The crew doesn't say anything. The crew watches for twenty minutes and then stops watching because she is fine.

Lena drops her hips on the header lift and the O-line leverage kicks in and the wall goes up clean and square and Kimo doesn't stir. The boy sleeps through walls. The boy sleeps through nail guns and saws and the steady profanity of Daryl cursing a misaligned jack stud and the boy sleeps and hums and his fist is curled against the harness strap and the world is his and the world is loud and he doesn't care. Sina laughs at Daryl's cursing and Frank laughs because Sina laughs and the morning is the morning and the framing is the work.

At four-thirty Lena loads the truck and Kimo is awake and Sina is in the passenger seat with her feet on the dash and the windows are down and the highway opens up. The drive to Gainesville is two hours and the boy sleeps for most of it and Sina talks. She talks about the kids — the girl is ten now and reading above grade level and the boy is eight and his glove is wearing out and the three-year-old has learned to open the refrigerator and steal the spam. She talks about Aleki and the way he snored and the way he hummed and the way his hands were so big he couldn't button the one shirt he owned. She talks and the highway unspools and the flat Florida landscape is green and flat and the sky is wide.

The bungalow is small and warm and the yard is dirt and the porch sags and the screen door bangs shut and the kids are on the couch. The girl is ten and she is reading a chapter book and she looks up and sees Lena first and then the baby in the harness and her eyes go wide. The boy is eight and he is wearing the glove — a battered first-baseman's mitt that is almost bigger than his hand — and he stands up and the glove stays on his left hand because the glove is always on his left hand. The three-year-old is on the floor with a plastic truck and she looks up and says nothing and goes back to the truck.

"This is Kimo," Sina says. "He's your cousin."

The girl puts down the book and comes close and looks at Kimo's face and Kimo looks back at her and the humming starts — low and steady and warm. The girl puts her finger against his fist and the fist closes around it and she laughs and the laugh is bright and surprised.

"He's so strong," she says. "He's squeezing really hard."

The boy with the glove steps up and looks at Kimo and his face is serious and he holds out the glove and Kimo's eyes track it and one hand reaches and the fingers open and close on the leather and the boy grins.

"He likes the glove," the boy says.

"He likes everything," Lena says.

Kimo hums against her chest and the bungalow is warm and the kids are around her and Sina is in the kitchen starting rice and the three-year-old has abandoned the plastic truck and is pulling at Lena's ankle tattoo with sticky fingers and the structure holds and the structure is a family.