The Last Resort

"I won't be here next week. Maybe you could call him and I --"

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"He's at lunch," the assistant says, more firmly now.

"This is my only time," Beaver says. "We really need to know what the doctor thinks."

The woman sighs, nods and makes the call. The optometrist confirms that Kalani needs an appointment to get sports contact lenses. Beaver makes the appointment and, on their way out of the office, turns to Kalani. He is determined that his boy see all things better -- a baseball, the chances for big mainland colleges, the opportunities for the future. For that to happen, he needs his son to stay on track while he's gone.

"Listen, you'll have to do this appointment on your own because I won't be here to take you," he says. "You'll have to get to baseball on your own. Have to practice hard on your own, do everything. Did you hear me, son? You'll be doing it all because I won't be able to bug you about it. Are you listening, brah?" Beaver fakes another body punch.

Kalani laughs.

"Before I go, I need to get a picture of you wearing your glasses, so I can look at it when I'm gone."

The boy is quiet all the way home.

CLAYTON BEAVER WALKS INTO HIS MOTHER'S HOUSE LATE ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON TO SEE HIS WIFE, whom he married in July, holding their 8-month-old grandson, Jassiah. Jassiah is the child of Teresa's youngest son from a previous marriage, 24-year-old Ian, who is in the early stages of Army National Guard basic training at Fort Benning, Ga. Jassiah's mother -- an 18-year-old local woman going through Army Reserve training at Fort Jackson -- has joined with Ian in temporarily giving legal custody of the baby to Clayton and Teresa. The unmarried couple had no choice: The Army does not permit unmarried parents to go through training simultaneously without relinquishing custody.

"We're a big military family now," says Teresa, whose marriage to Clayton is her third. "Everybody's heading off somewhere to train; everybody is looking for something better than they've got."

Teresa's second husband, her father and one of her brothers all served in the Army. When her brother got out, he returned to Hawaii, where he fathered two children, was often jobless and ran into drug problems, which landed him in jail for a while, according to Teresa.

He hanged himself late last year.