Caffrey Aloha

Chapter 3

Friday morning. December 24, 2004.

Having started the day off with two breakfasts – one on the plane and another at the hotel – they were eager to be active. The morning and afternoon were spent on a tour of the island followed by shopping shamelessly at tourist traps. They all bought colorful shirts and wore them to dinner that evening. Following a luau, they gathered in chairs and on beach towels around a fire pit on the beach. The temperature was in the seventies and the fire was a small one, for ambience rather than heat. A circle of torches around them provided light.

"Where are the marshmallows?" Henry asked.

"Always the sweet tooth," Edmund said, looking fondly at his oldest grandchild.

"Ooo, that would be a good nickname," Angela noted. She looked at Henry. "Is that it? Sweet Tooth?"

"Wrong," said Henry. "Marshmallows?"

"I told you he'd ask for them." Irene reached into a canvas bag, pulling out the treat and prongs for roasting them. "Fortunately the hotel was ready."

"Are we going to tell ghost stories?" asked Rosalind as the first marshmallows turned golden brown over the fire. "Hey!" She slapped her younger sister's hand. "Roast your own. This one's mine."

"As a matter of fact," Noelle said, "I have something like ghost stories in mind."

"Really?" asked Viola. "Is that a Caffrey Christmas tradition?"

"No, but if we like it we could make it a tradition," Noelle told her. "You see, I was born on Christmas Eve, right before midnight, and my twin sister was born in the first minutes of Christmas Day."

Joe's daughters traded a look.

"Yes, the mysterious missing sister," Noelle acknowledged. "She's one of the ghosts we'll raise tonight. Anyway, my parents did their best to let us have a birthday celebration separate from Christmas each year, but as I child I couldn't help resenting their very unfortunate timing."

Rosalind and Viola giggled, as did Angela and Elizabeth.

"And now on this vacation we have my birthday, Christmas, New Year's Eve and then a wedding. It's a lot of holidays and celebrating. I'm taking advantage of the way brides are traditionally indulged, and hope you'll follow my suggestion of a method to get us through it all. Tonight we'll focus on the past. One thing you learn as you get older is that the holidays aren't limited to joyfulness. There's a lot of sadness, as we remember those who can't be with us due to death or other circumstances, and we shouldn't try to ignore that sadness. On the other hand, we shouldn't wallow. It's good to take time to appreciate the happy memories we have of those who aren't here. That's what I'd like to do in place of a birthday celebration tonight. Then tomorrow, on Christmas, we'll focus on the present."

"And presents," Joe added.

"Of course. That takes us to New Year's, which is an excellent time to think about our hopes and plans for the future, and that's a lovely lead-in to a wedding."

"Indeed it is," agreed Betty. "Perhaps reflecting on the past, present and future will become a Burke family tradition."

Noelle reached out and squeezed her future mother-in-law's hand. "I'm looking forward to learning about the existing Burke family traditions, too." Then she looked around at the assembled family and said, "You may think it's odd that my former father and mother-in-law are here. But when I divorced Robert twelve years ago, I knew that Henry still deserved to have both sets of grandparents in his life, and Graham and Julia deserved to be around him." Looking at the Winslows she said, "I grew to love you both very soon after I got married, and I know you wanted to get away from your usual holiday routine this first Christmas after Robert's death. I have very fond memories of holidays at your home and on your boat."