Welcome to Ewa Beach?

Even though Alex and I stayed up whispering late into the night, I still woke up early the next morning. I didn't have much time to think, because I soon realized that Alex was already up and getting breakfast for the kids. I put in my contacts, brushed my teeth, and went downstairs to meet Ohlin and Ash.

Ohlin and Ash were cute little boys. Ohlin had darker hair like his half Chinese dad, and Ash had a round face like his mom and blonde hair. They both had buzz cuts and neither could speak coherently. Neither of the boys were toilet trained and neither of them knew how to use silverware. When I met them, they were both wearing diapers, and both of them had sticky skin. Even though Ash always called Alex "Lori" (their last nanny's name), they grew on me. I immediately knew that I was going to be making their lives a whole lot better.

After getting myself acquainted with the boys, Alex and I decided to take them for a walk to the beach. I hadn't been to the beach yet since landing in Hawaii the night before, and I was dying to be near the warm Pacific water. After about five minutes of walking, we finally reached the ocean! I was so excited for the sun and the water that I had a hard time containing my happiness. While Ohlin and Ash played on the jungle gym, Alex and I sat on the bench, digging our toes in the sand, basking in the warm morning rays, and discussing our predicament. I was hopeful that Diana wasn't as nuts as she had seemed the night before, but Alex didn't have many examples of Diana acting otherwise. This was slightly discouraging, but I knew that if Diana had enough positive interactions, she would probably come around. We stood in the water and encouraged the boys to get their feet wet too. At first, Ash was scared of the water, but once he saw that Ohlin liked it, he started to warm up to it. By the time we were ready to leave, Ash was crying that he wanted to stay.

When Alex and I returned to the house, it was almost eleven, so we prepared lunch for the boys and fed them, excited to walk back to the beach once it was nap time. While the little ones ate, Diana and Christian (who had the day off from work) came down from their bedroom and said that they wanted to go to the beach. I figured we would just go to the beach that we could walk to, but Alex said we were going to ride in the car to the beach. I was stoked to swim, but I was a bit disappointed that Alex and I weren't going to get a break since the boys weren't going to be sleeping. I also wondered where we would all sit, since Diana and Christian only had a BMW with five seats, and there were six of us to fit into the vehicle. I put on my swimming suit anyway, grabbed my towel, and went downstairs to help get the boys ready.

When the time came to pack up the car, Diana pulled out the car seats. I assumed this meant that we would be taking two vehicles (they owned another BMW that was parked), but Diana stuck the car seats in the trunk instead of the other car and told Alex to pack the rest of the things into the trunk. I helped Alex, and when we were finished, Ohlin and Ash were sitting in the car, ready to go. Diana and Christian came out of the house, and we were set to go. But then Diana got in the driver's seat, and Christian got in the front passenger seat, which had me left wondering where Ohlin, Ash, Alex, and I were going to sit.

Diana said, "Ohlin, you sit in the middle, and Bryn, stick Ash on the hump in the middle of the floor. He can sit there."

The alarm in my head was so loud I could hardly think. Every instinct in my body told me to protect the kids. All of my training as a preschool teacher and childcare provider had taught me that my number one priority is a child's safety, even when it is against the wish of his or her parents. I felt my face get hot, and my mouth felt like it was full of sand. I hate confrontations so much, but I couldn't control what I said next.

"I can't put Ash on the floor."

"Why not?" demanded Diana.

"Because if we get in a car accident, he will fly through the windshield and die." I held my breath and waited, feeling proud of myself for standing up for Ash but extremely guilty for causing contention in the car. I really wasn't trying to make trouble, but I would have rather stayed at home by myself than make Ash ride on the floor.

Diana didn't say anything for a few minutes. She and Christian exchanged glances but remained silent.

"Ash can sit on my lap," I finally offered, buckling us in as I spoke.

Diana still didn't say anything to me, but instead mumbled something about how it was going to be my fault if she was pulled over and ticketed for not having her children in their car seats. I didn't really care though. I knew that if something were to happen, at least Ash was buckled in instead of flying around in the car. Diana started the engine and turned on The Lonely Island (a band that I happen to like a LOT), and cranked the stereo as loud as it could go before starting out to the beach. The little boys were exhausted, and even with the music as loud as it was, they were both asleep within ten minutes of our trip. Ash was heavy in my arms, but I didn't mind.

When we got to the beach, I was amazed at how beautiful the area was. We were on the windward side of the island, where everything is luscious and green. The water sparkled beneath the parking lot like billions of winking sapphires. The colors were so vivid that I could hardly believe that they were real. It was hard to remember that we were supposed to be helping out, but Alex reminded me. Alex and I helped carry towels and children to the beach, and once Diana and Christian settled in the sand to play with the boys, Alex and I left to swim. The water was perfect: clear, salty, and warm. We played games and showed off silly tricks to each other. My euphoria was impossible to contain. I laughed and kicked and did tricks. I lied on my back and floated. I soaked up the sunshine like I had never felt it before. I joked and smiled and felt genuinely happy for my first time in Hawaii. I felt like a little kid again.

Eventually Alex's complaints about feeling too cold drove us back in to the beach. We grabbed our towels and took them over to a sunny spot to lie down. The sand felt amazing under my feet, and even though I was on the phone with Josh for a little while, I was relishing every second of my life.

It didn't feel like we'd been sunbathing for that long, but about a half hour later, Alex suggested that we return to see if Diana and Christian were ready to go. Christian had been walking towards us, but when he saw us headed in his direction he turned around and walked back to Diana and the boys. When we reached where they had been, Alex and I grabbed our few things we had left behind and picked up the toys that the boys had forgotten. Then we walked back to the car.

The entire ride home was silent. Diana didn't turn on any music, and everyone except Diana and me fell asleep. I was tired, but I didn't trust Diana's driving very much, so I struggled to keep my eyes open for the next forty-five minutes, texting Josh and holding a very heavy and very asleep Ash. Diana stopped at KFC for dinner, but she only asked Christian if there was anything he wanted. They ordered their dinner, and Diana continued ignoring the four of us in the back seat. By the time we got home, I was ready to take a shower and put on some real clothes. I checked with Alex to see if she needed me for anything, and then went and rinsed off.

When I got out of the shower, it was around six o'clock, and Alex was just hanging out in our bedroom.

"Do they need us downstairs?" I asked.

"No, Ohlin is in bed, and Christian and Diana are both downstairs. I think they can take care of their one kid by themselves."

That made enough sense to me, so I lied down on the bed and relaxed for a few minutes. After a little bit, even though the boys were so exhausted they could have gone straight to bed, Alex and I bathed them and made sure Ohlin had eaten something for dinner. Diana and Christian had left three pieces of chicken from the entire bucket for us to eat, so we fed one to Ohlin and each of us had some. Then around seven Alex went to put the little ones to bed. Diana stopped her and told her that their bedtime is at seven thirty, not seven o'clock, and that they needed to stay up until then. Alex returned downstairs, looking bothered.

"I think Diana is mad at us," she said. "She doesn't usually act like this."

We continued discussing the situation in hushed tones, remembering that Diana was home and could possibly hear us. Alex suggested that we just put the boys in bed anyway because they were so tired, so we did. Then we put on our shoes and left the house to go to the beach, remembering Alex's key.

Sitting on our beach chairs in the dark, the wind tossing our hair in all directions, Alex and I finally felt safe enough to discuss our situation.  Alex said that Diana usually tried to hang out with her a ton more, even on Christian's days off, and she said that Diana's behavior in the car had been weird. I figured it probably had to do with our earlier confrontation, but I didn't really know how to bring it up to Diana without telling her that I couldn't stand her and wanted to move out already. If I hadn't been waiting another week for Josh's first paycheck, we already would have been out of there.

I didn't know what to do, but I knew that this situation was not going to work.