Chapter 3: Bad News
George
waited in the dark until the
crickets resumed their Morse code chirps. He couldn’t leave until he found out
what had happened. Why the police had arrested Jonathan and Alice.
One by one,
the lights went off in the house until only the faint glow of the kitchen lamp
was visible.
George
slunk around to the backyard and peeked in the window.
It was open a crack, and he could hear Jonathan's Auntie Mary weeping. She sat at the kitchen table with her head propped in her hands. Her shoulders rocked back and forth with her sobs.
It was open a crack, and he could hear Jonathan's Auntie Mary weeping. She sat at the kitchen table with her head propped in her hands. Her shoulders rocked back and forth with her sobs.
An
official-looking paper lay on the table by her hand. George recognized the
Hawaiian government stamp on top, but it was too far away to read.
Instinctively, he knew the document was responsible for Jonathan and Alice’s
arrest.
Mary sat
up, wiped her tears. She snatched the paper, wadded it into a ball, and threw
it against the window.
Startled,
George jumped back and stumbled. He smacked a large potted plant, and it
knocked against the house. His elbow smarted from where it’d struck the ground.
“Who's
there?” Mary's voice wavered. “Show yourself. I'm not afraid of you. I have a
baseball bat, and I’ll use it.”
George
scrambled to his feet, holding his elbow. “Don't be
afraid, Miss Mary. It's me, George.”
“George?”
She marched to the back door and stood on the porch with her hands on her hips.
“What are you doing out there at this time of night? You should be home in
bed.”
“Why did
the police take Jonathan and Alice away?”
Her face
froze and she looked frightened. She stepped back into the kitchen and started
to close the door.
George
pushed against it. “What’s happened?”
“You
shouldn't be here,” Mary said. “They might come back. You go on home now.”
“Wait. You
have to tell me. Jonathan’s my best friend.”
Mary
sighed, opened the door, and motioned him in. She waited until she’d bolted the
lock before she spoke again. “No one can help him or Alice. It's too late.”
She
hurried to the window, looked out, and drew the curtains closed.
“What do
you mean?” George asked. “What’s happened?”
She
started to bawl. George felt really uncomfortable. He’d never seen an adult so
upset before, and Mary was the last person he’d expect to break down and cry.
He helped
her to a chair and got her a glass of water.
“Drink
this,” he said and set the glass on the table.
He pulled
out a chair for himself, and that’s when he saw Jonathan’s lucky coin on the
floor. That wasn’t good. Jonathan never went anywhere without it. George picked
it up and rubbed his thumb on the raised Chinese writing. Maybe the coin would
work for him. He closed his eyes and wished. Let the arrest be one big mistake.
Mary
stopped bawling, but her face was ghost white and her eyes like black holes.
She started to rock with her hands fisted over her mouth.
George
spotted the paper wad she'd thrown at the window. Without thinking, he slipped
Jonathan’s lucky coin into his pocket and picked up the paper. He sat across
from Mary and smoothed it flat on the table. The dread in his stomach grew as
he read.
CIVIL ARREST WARRANT
Date: February 24, 1846
Subjects: Jonathan Napua, age 13
Alice Napua, age 14
Address: 745 Wainee Street
Lahaina, Maui
Hawaii
Section
302 of the civil code authorizes the Board of Health the power to arrest and
detain any leprous person deemed capable of spreading the disease of leprosy.
It is the duty of every police, or district Justice, to deliver all said
persons to the Board of Health for isolation.
The above
mentioned are to be taken into custody, transported to Kalaupapa and to be
quarantined until such time as they are deemed cured.
You are
ordered to provide a list of all persons who have come into regular contact
with above mentioned lepers. Failure to provide this information is considered
a punishable crime.
Signed and authorized by,
Harold Baldwin Masuda
Minister of the Interior
President of the Board of Health
“This is
crazy,” George said after he struggled through the legal language of the arrest
warrant. “Jonathan isn't sick. Neither is Alice. They're not . . .”
Mary
lowered her hands, her face now blotched. “You're not always sick when you
first get it.”
“Then why
lock them up?”
“Because
the lepela is contagious. It could infect everybody. There's no cure.”
“I don't
believe it,” George said. “It isn't true. Jonathan’s not a leper. And neither
is Alice.”
Mary
stood. “I'm afraid it is true. I saw the signs, but I didn't want to believe
it. I thought if Jonathan would just wear his shirt and keep it covered, no one
would notice. Like it didn't exist.”
“You mean
that patch of white skin on his arm? That's leprosy? That's no big deal. Just
white skin. Lots of folks on the mainland have white skin. They don't lock them
up.”
“The
patches turn into sores,” she said.
He dry
swallowed. Horrible things happened to people who got the disease. A chill ran
down his spine.
Leprosy.
George
didn’t want to think of his best friend’s fingers and toes falling off. Or
Alice’s perfect nose.
“The sores
get worse and worse and worse,” Mary said, and shuddered. “They’ll change
Jonathan and Alice’s looks until we won’t even recognize them.”
He scraped
the tiny cut on his thumb with his fingernail. It started to bleed. He wiped
the blood onto his pants, suddenly not feeling well at all. Did he have
Jonathan’s blood running though his veins? Would he get leprosy, too?
She
started to cry again. “You go home, now. Don't tell anyone you were here. And
if anyone asks, pretend you’ve never heard of us.”
Feeling
sick, George left. He raced back to the Hauala stone and stuck his hand
in the water. Nothing happened. Its healing power didn’t work this time. The
cut hadn’t healed.
George
looked at the sky. The moon had dropped low toward the horizon. The ring around
it was now huge. He had to get home before morning light broke or he’d be in
big trouble. Pressing his forefinger to his thumb, he raced against the fading
night.
Just as he
reached his house, a light came on in his grandparents’ bedroom window. He had
to hustle.
On the
back porch he kicked off his slippahs, opened the door a crack, and
peeked into the front room. The muffled voices of Kapuna and Tutu came from
their bedroom. Luckily his bedroom was close to the back door. He tiptoed
inside and scooted into his room.
He had
just pulled the covers over his head when his bedroom door opened.
“He's
still asleep,” Tutu whispered. “Should we wake him before we leave?”
“No,”
Kapuna answered. “Let the sun wake him, otherwise we'll have to listen to him
complain about missing out on a fishing trip.”
The door
closed and they left him.
In spite
of all that had happened, George fell into a deep sleep. He might have slept
all day if not for the loud thud that shook the house, followed by the sound of
breaking glass.
George sat
bolt upright in bed.
Outside,
the wind howled. Through his bedroom window, palm trees whipped back and forth.
Storm clouds burst and rain pounded the metal roof.
George
leaped out of bed and slipped on a pair of shorts. In the front room, broken
glass glittered on the floor like sharp confetti. Then he saw what had wakened
him. The top of the old palm tree from the front yard had smashed through the
window and crushed Kapuna's chair.
Rain
splattered though the broken window.
“Kapuna!
Tutu!” George shouted and checked all the rooms. They should have been home by
now. Had they been caught in the storm?
George
raced out the back door and ran toward the beach.
Heavy rain
pelted his skin and he was soaked in seconds. As he ran, he dodged the swirling
debris whipped up by the wind. Several trees had snapped and lay like dead fish
stranded in the aftermath of a tsunami.
When he
reached the beach, giant waves smashed the shoreline. He squinted against the
rain, searching for his grandfather’s canoe. It was nowhere in sight.
An angry
knot formed in George’s stomach. Maybe Mr. Kim had been right. Maybe George was
a curse, not only to the ground he walked on, but to everyone he loved. First
to Jonathan and now his grandparents.
No, he
wouldn’t think about it. Instead, he’d do something.
But what?
He frowned
and bit his lower lip when he realized what he had to do. There just wasn’t a
better choice.
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