“Dad, I got a scholarship. It means we don’t have to pay for anything.”
Bobby stopped drinking his Primo for a second. “So, that mean you’re smart or something?” He took a long swallow from the half-empty can. Wiping his mouth noisily, he burped. “Well, I don’t care about scholarships. You still can’t go.”
Danny couldn’t believe his ears. “Why, Pop?”
His father looked at him sideways. “You’re a dreamer, like your ma. Always dreaming of living in Kāhala with the rich folk. Always reaching for something you can’t have. And you know why? Because you were born in Kalihi, you grew up in Pālolo, and that’s where you going to stay for the rest of your life. No sense going nuts like your zombie ma, always wanting impossible stuff.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” Danny replied.
“Don’t argue with me, boy. I’m older and got experience. You don’t know nothing. Your nose is always in books. Boy, life kicks you in the balls until you’re down on the ground saying uncle. I’m saving you from getting that kick in the balls. Might as well accept this is all you’re ever going to be.”
“You’re wrong. I’m going to be somebody someday.”
“You sure are. Mitch Sanchez down the road says he can get you a job at Hawaiian Telephone. Seeing as you’re so smart, maybe you can start as a lineman.”
“I don’t want to be a lineman.”
“That’s how stupid you are,” Bob roared. “You know how much linemen makes? Plus you get benefits and retirement.”
“I don’t care. I want to be a lawyer.”
“A lawyer? Well, ain’t that something. What makes you think you’re smart enough to be a crooked lawyer?”
Danny ignored the criticism. “I just know. And they’re not all crooked.”
“Politicians, lawyers, and cops. They’re all crooks. So you might as well put that stupid college idea out of your head.” His dad slapped him on the side of his head. “Monday, you go see Sanchez for a job.”
“No.”
“Listen here, boy. You go see Sanchez or no come home. I ain’t supporting you and your fool pupule dreams anymore.”
Danny was silent. He’d go see Joe all right. He needed the best paying summer job he could get because he was going to Wisconsin in the fall—no matter what.
Jo came to see him the day before he left for Wisconsin. He tucked her chin in his hand and leaned over to kiss her and his nephew.
“He’s beautiful, Jo.”
“I think he looks like you.” Jo looked tired and older than her seventeen years—like she had been robbed of her joy.
“Hey sis, looks like you’re not getting enough sleep.”
“Babies tend to do that to you.” She lifted her baby’s face to hers and rubbed her cheek against his. “But they’re worth it. Wait until you get one of your own. You’ll see what I mean.”
“That’ll be a long time from now, if ever.”
Jo widened her eyes. “You don’t want kids?”
“I didn’t mean it. I was just saying…”
“You’ll change your mind when you fall in love and get married.” She nodded.
Danny put his hands on her shoulders. “You have to take care of yourself. You look so tired. What will Tutu and your son do if something happens to you?”
“I know.” She looked into his eyes. “Do I look that bad?”
“Well you don’t look your best.” Danny dropped his hands. “Is Billy helping?”
She looked away. “He’s always busy working. Marriage isn’t what I thought it would be.”
“Nothing ever is.” He sighed.
She looked up, and her eyes flashed like the old Jo for a minute. “Tommy and me, we’re not perfect like you. We make mistakes. Maybe because we’re not smart like you.”
“You’re both smart. The only difference between you, me, and Tommy is I liked school, and I was motivated to go to college…” He paused. “I’m far from perfect.”
“What do you mean? Did something happen?” Jo pulled back in surprise.
He sighed. “I fell in love with a nun last year.”
“What?” Jo stared. “Goody, goody, holy Danny fell in love with a nun?”
“I’m human, too.”
Jo put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Danny. I shouldn’t talk. I was just surprised about the nun part. Was she pretty? Did she love you?”
“She was beautiful, like you.” Danny smiled. “And yes, she loved me. But God and the church came first.”
1934-1940
Danny felt rejuvenated in Milwaukee. No longer was he the boy from Pālolo with a drunk for a father and a nut for a mother. He was a college student, like the rest of them. He could pretend his life in Hawai‘i was as American as apple pie. Whatever that meant.
Since the scholarship didn’t provide for all his needs, he got a job in a brewery working the graveyard shift. Several nights a week, he watched hundreds of bottles go by on the conveyer belt. His job was to pull out the irregulars. There were times when he thought if he never saw a beer bottle again, it would be too soon.
The guys he worked with urged him to drink after work with them. “Hey Danny, why don’t you ever join us after work? Might as well drink the beer instead of throwing it away just because the bottles are screwed up.”
“Unlike most of you guys, I go to school every weekday. I don’t know about you but I’m too tired to do anything but sleep. And I gotta do good in school because I’m on scholarship, and the only way for me to get to law school is for me to get another scholarship,” Danny replied.
“Give us free legal advice when you become a big time lawyer.” One of the workers laughed.
Danny saluted them. “Will do.”
Working at the beer factory was like working at the pineapple cannery. Both he and Tommy had hated working there every summer. He was lucky he was the younger brother because Tommy told him he shouldn’t even try to get a job in the pineapple or sugar cane fields.
“I no can stand working summers at the cannery and in the fields,” Tommy said. “But money is money, and in this family, we need money. Just don’t go in the fields. It’s worse than the cannery. When they burn the fields, it’s like being in hell.”
Danny wondered how people could endure working in those places all their lives. For him, it was a temporary situation towards his goal. For many, it was a life sentence.
Jo had a baby girl just before he graduated from college. She sent him pictures of her children along with a letter.
“My son looks like you,” Jolene wrote. “Well, kind of like both you and me. I’m happy. I promise to God, I’m not going to raise my kids the way we were raised. I’m never divorcing Billy, no matter what. Even though we got married by a judge, we decided to have a Catholic wedding and make a commitment to raise our kids Catholic. Father Thomas was kind enough to marry us, probably as a favor to you. So I’m sticking to the vows I made. Both my kids got baptized. I take them to church every Sunday and hope to send them to Catholic schools if I have the money. My son seems real smart, like you. Maybe he can get a scholarship to St. Louis like you did.
“Dad got Billy a job at the Telephone Company, so he’s making good money now. I miss Tutu, but I admit, its easier living on our own. I hope I don’t live so long I become a burden to my kids.”
1941
Danny got his BA in three years by going to summer school. Three years later, he graduated Editor of the Law Review and number one in his class. He received job offers all over the United States and decided to clerk for Frank Murphy, the only Roman Catholic in the Supreme Court. Father Thomas recommended him. It was an exceptional honor and would be an impressive addition to his resume. He couldn’t turn it down even though his heart was still in Hawai‘i. He promised himself he would eventually move back there and reconnect with his ‘ohana
again. For now, he couldn’t turn down anything this important.
December 7, 1941
Danny was having a late lunch with one of his fellow clerks in a coffee shop when a police officer dashed inside.
White-faced, the policeman yelled, “The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor.”
The clerk turned to Danny. “Isn’t Pearl Harbor in Hawai‘i where you’re from?”
Danny nodded, momentarily speechless.
As soon as the war began, Tommy signed up again as a sergeant. The Army sent him to Italy. Danny was exempted from the draft because he was born with a hole in his heart. He felt guilty about not being able to do his duty to his country. Danny vowed, when he became a lawyer, he would take care of his family.
1943
Tommy returned from Italy after only a year. The war was over for him. Although the local newspapers called Tommy a war hero. The shot to his knee won him a medal and left him with a limp for the rest of his life. He showed his family the Silver Star he got for crawling on his belly under heavy gunfire to save two of his men. Although the state of Hawai‘i celebrated him as a war hero, he told Danny he didn’t consider himself one when he called from the VA hospital just before he was discharged.
“Congratulations, big brother. I hear you’re famous in Hawai‘i. You could run for office.”
“Not me. I’ll leave that stuff for you. Tell you the truth, I wasn’t trying to be a hero or get a medal. I just wanted to save my guys. It just happened.”
“Now you sound like a haole” Danny laughed.
“Don’t you know? I’m bilingual. I speak pidgin and American English.” Tommy chuckled. “I’ve been in the army too long. Those guys didn’t understand pidgin. I got tired of them saying, ‘What did you say?’ Speaking like a haole got to be a habit.”
“So tell me how you got the Silver Star.”
“By going against orders.” Tommy laughed again. “The captain in charge told us to withdraw. But two of my guys were down. I saw them move, and I knew they were still breathing. I argued with the captain. He told me it was too dangerous, I would get killed. But Danny, they were my guys. I know I was rough on them, but it was my job. One of the guys reminded me of you. He was a smart. I nevah understand what he was talking about half the time. Just like with you.”
“There you go, some pidgin slipped in.” Danny smiled to himself.
“That’s what my guys used to say, ‘You’re doing that funny talk again.’ Anyway, the guys and I went through hell together. I had to try to save him. I got him, but he died. His last words were, ‘Thank you.’ Made me cry. My boys thought I was crying because I was shot in three places, but I was crying because the college boy was dead.”
When Tommy returned home to a hero’s welcome, their dad got Tommy a job as an installer with Hawaiian Tel. He could have gotten the job himself, but Tommy, being Tommy, knew it made his dad feel good to do something for him.
It was Danny's first week back in Hawai‘i as a working lawyer. Things were pretty chaotic in Honolulu. The city was packed with servicemen passing through on their way to fight in the Pacific/Asian theatre.
Danny sat amidst file boxes stacked one atop the other in his new office. He looked around him with pride at the smooth, dark oak desk, matching built-in credenzas, forest green carpets, and peaceful mountain views. On the heavy door was a shiny brass plate with his name with the hard-earned title of Attorney-at-Law engraved below it. Outside, his secretary sat in her cubby in the long hallway lined with all the other secretarial stations and law offices, which made up the silk-stocking Honolulu law firm of Smith, Winston, Kingsley, & Bradford. He couldn’t help but feel awed and excited the first few times he walked through the doors. The road from Pālolo had been a long, rocky one. But he’d finally made it.
The phone rang. At first he stared at it awhile before pressing the speaker button. “Yes?”
“Mr. Myers?” Laura, his secretary said uncertainly. “Your father is here to see you.”
Danny stared at the speakerphone.
“Mr. Myers? Are you still there?”
“Yes.” Danny tried not to let his voice shake. Clearing his throat, he continued slowly. “You can send him in, Laura.”
“Okay.” She hung up.
Danny leaned back in his chair and felt a slow, sinking feeling in his stomach.
Why now?
Although he’d visited his sister and brother and even stayed with Tommy and his new wife from Italy while he looked for a job and apartment, he didn’t visit his dad in Pālolo. His mother was dead, and he had no interest in seeing his father ever again. While living on the mainland, he had half forgotten his father and his old life.
When his dad walked in hesitantly, he looked much smaller than Danny remembered. He had more lines around his face, and his hair had gone completely gray. Otherwise, he looked the same. The big difference lay in not only their perception of each other after so many years, but the changed circumstances surrounding their lives.
Bob Myers glanced around the office and shuffled his feet nervously.
Danny caught the disbelief he tried to hide from his son. Danny smiled. His father was dressed in his best clothes. It gave Danny some degree of satisfaction seeing his father uncomfortable, and even a little awed.
“Sit down, Dad.” Danny indicated a chair.
His father was still checking out the office, but when Danny invited him to sit, he turned his eyes on his son and stared at him as if he were a stranger, an intimidating one at that.
Danny straightened up, acutely aware of what he wore. The white dress shirt over khaki trousers and tie were perfect. His dad’s eyes lingered on the navy sport coat hanging on the coat rack before clearing his throat. “Nice office. Fancy. You just moving in?”
He eyed the boxes.
“Yes. You must want something or you wouldn’t be here.” Danny narrowed his eyes. “Just get on with it. I’m busy. I don’t have time to waste talking about my office.”
“Yeah, I get it, Mr. Big Time Lawyer.” His father frowned and became his old, cocky self again. “You think you’re a hot shot now, but me, I don’t think so. Anybody who forgets his family and where he comes from, well, that person is a shit as far as I’m concerned.”
Danny was taken aback. His father still managed to intimidate him. The thought roused him to anger. “I don’t care what you think.”
“I’m your father. Maybe you forgot. You owe me.” Bob pounded his chest with a fist.
“I owe you nothing.” Danny trembled. “What did you ever give me but humiliation, abuse, and sorrow? All you ever wanted was for Tommy, me, and Jo to do exactly as you said. You wanted to run our lives. You never respected our dreams or ambitions. You never thought I was good enough or smart enough, despite my accomplishments. I earned everything I have with no thanks to you.”
“I did what I thought was best,” Bob spat out. “So you wanted to be a hot shot crook, big deal. Don’t go insulting us guys who sweat on the streets so guys like you can push paper. I tried to make sure you boys grew up decent. And what did I get for it?”
Suddenly aware the people outside his office might hear their angry exchange, even through the closed door, Danny lowered his voice. “Keep your voice down.”
“Why? You ashamed of me and where you came from?” His dad sneered. “I don’t argue with fancy lawyers. I only came to tell you about your sister.”
“What about Jolene?”
“Oh, so the big time lawyer remembers his sister’s name.”
Danny sat back in his leather chair and snorted. “Stop wasting my time and just tell me what you came here for.”
“She’s in the hospital.”
Danny’s eyes widened and he sat up straight. “She’s in the hospital? Is she sick?”
“Billy shot her.”
Danny stood up. “What?”
Danny was speechless.
“The cops said it was the third time this month they wen go to her house to break up a fight. The neighbors called when they heard the shots.”
“He shot her more than once?” Danny ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t wrap his head around what his father was telling him. Billy always seemed like a good-natured, if somewhat quiet, hard-to-get-to-know kind of guy.
“Yeah, then he shot himself in the head. Billy’s dead.”
Danny stepped back. “Dead? What about the kids?”
“The cops said they was screaming, so I got them and took them to my sister’s so I could go to the hospital.”
Danny felt like he was in the middle of a nightmare. “Is she at Queen’s?”
He nodded. “She’s having surgery. But before they wen wheel her in, she asked me to call you, hot shot. I nevah even know you was in town. Nobody told me. Anyway, she like see you.”
Danny pressed the Intercom button on his phone. “Laura, get Hawaiian Tel on the phone. Tell them to locate one of their linemen, Thomas Myers, immediately. Tell them it’s an emergency and he needs to get to Queen’s hospital to see his sister. And cancel all my appointments for today.”
He shot out of his chair and grabbed his sport coat.
He turned to his father. “That’s how you find Tommy. You don’t ask, you tell. Let’s go.”
Danny had to listen to his father complain about him all the way to the hospital.
“I’m cursed, I tell you, cursed. Because when I married your motha, her pupule sista cursed me.”
“My mother had a sister?”
The older man folded his arms and nodded. “She’s in Kaneohe Mental Institution. Been there since before you was born. Your motha nevah like tell you kids ’bout her crazy sista. The two of us hated each other the first time we met. Crazy people run in your motha’s side of the family. So don’t think you too good for us. You might go crazy one day like your motha and her sista. They was normal, and all of a sudden…cuckoo. Now your sista in the hospital. Maybe make. Who going take care of her kids?”
Paradise, Passion, Murder Page 32
