eriding

"Eriding" is the phonetic spelling of "everything" as pronounced in heavy Hawaiian Pidgin. It is used universally across the islands by locals of all ages and backgrounds, from construction sites to family gatherings. The pronunciation drops the "v" and softens the "th" into a "d" or "t" sound, a common linguistic shift in Hawaii Creole English influenced by the phonetic structures of immigrant languages like Ilocano, Portuguese, and Hawaiian. It is appropriate in almost any casual setting, though in formal or professional writing, standard English spelling is typically expected.

Ikaika stood at the edge of the 2018 flow in Leilani Estates, the jagged black a'a stretching out where his childhood street used to be. The morning mist off the Puna coast was thick, clinging to the ohia saplings that were already pushing their way through the cracks. Darlene and Kristi sat on the tailgate of the Tacoma behind him, sipping hot coffee from their Hydro Flasks in silence. They had driven out to this lava field road before sunrise, not really knowing what they were looking for, just needing to see the land before the rest of the island woke up.

"You look at dis, and you tink it's just destruction," Ikaika finally said, his voice barely carrying over the distant crash of the ocean. He kicked a loose piece of pahoehoe, watching it tumble into a deep fissure. "But den you see da green shoots coming up. Da rain hits da rock, da sun bakes um, and da forest starts over. Eriding we lost is underneath, but eriding we going be is right here on top."

Kristi nodded slowly, wrapping her hands tighter around her mug against the morning chill. She had spent months mourning the old house, the fruit trees, the memories buried under forty feet of rock. But hearing Ikaika say it out loud shifted something in her chest. The lava hadn't just taken eriding; it had reset the clock, leaving them with a blank slate of black glass and the quiet promise of tomorrow.