What happened next was sudden and completely unexpected: Nori felt a flush of heat, followed by a sudden pressure behind her eyes before her tears came. She turned away, crying, as if she were that child again, only there was no Mama and no Mariko to take away her fear and loneliness. That girl wasn’t her anymore, she thought, embarrassed. And still Nori couldn’t stop the tears. It was as if some great welling inside of me erupted like Loa, she thought. She felt Koji slip her his handkerchief, then wrap his arms around her and hold her tight as she cried and cried. When he finally did let go, he looked around, cleared his throat, and said, “Folks going to start talking about us, yeah. Don’t want Samuel coming after me.”

He made her smile. Inhaling, Nori hiccuped and began to laugh, wiping her nose, her eyes, catching her breath.

“Better, yeah?” Koji asked.

Nori nodded, self-conscious. “Don’t know what came over me,” she said, hiccuping. She felt better letting out the anxiety of the past weeks, the fear she’d been holding in.

“I’ll be fine, yeah,” he said. “And Mama will wake up,” he added.

“You think?” she asked.

Koji smiled. “Like Pele, when she’s ready.”

Nori didn’t question how he would know. She wanted to believe it was true. And then she remembered. “I have news to tell, yeah.”

“What’s that?”

Nori glanced at the pickle jar filled with nickels. “Never guess who won the pot.”

“Who?”

“Samuel,” she said.

This time it was Koji who laughed.

* * *

Nori left not long after to visit Mama, and for the first time she didn’t pause in front of her old childhood house but kept walking. As she approached the Natua house, she heard Leia’s voice, happy and animated, coming from the porch. Nori paused before she opened the screen door, assuming they had visitors. She remembered the scared young girl, heart racing, running away from her house, thinking if she just reached Mama everything would be all right. How many times had she flung open the screen door and found Mama stringing leis in the porch, or cooking in the kitchen; rushing into her arms. “Okay, yeah. You’ll be okay. Mama’s here,” she’d tell her. “I’m here.”

Nori hesitated now as she rapped lightly before she opened the screen door, something she’d never done before. She saw Leia first; then her eyes fell on Mama, who was awake and sitting up in her wheelchair.

Nori’s heart was drumming. “Mama?” she asked, surprised.

“She woke early this morning,” Leia said elatedly. “Waiting for Daniel to drop by in a little while.”

Nori squatted beside her wheelchair. “Mama,” she said, “I’m here.”

Mama looked at her, and for just a moment Nori saw the sweet kernel of recognition in her eyes.

Ghost Voices

Ghost Voices

MARIKO, 1933