Paradise, Passion, Murder

by Terry Ambrose

  “Shut up. Just shut up.” Danny pounded the wheel of his new car with the palm of his hand.

  To his surprise, his father shut up.

  Jo was in ICU when they arrived. Tommy was already there, pacing the floor. He ran up to them and hugged Danny then his dad when he spotted them.

  “I was just coming back from a job when Hawaiian Tel paged me. They told me Billy’s dead. It seems he was drunk.” Tommy shook his head. “I told him to slow down on the drinking. Damn stupid Portugee.”

  “Where’s Jo?” Danny asked.

  Tommy blinked back his tears. “Inside ICU. The surgery’s pau, but she’s still passed out. The nurse told me the doctor’s going talk to us soon as you two get here.”

  Danny sat in a chair and put his head in his hands. The three men remained in silence when the doctor came out.

  “I’m sorry, we did everything we could, but I don’t think she’s going to make it.” The doctor looked stern. “It would be a miracle if she did.”

  “What? She’s just one kid. And she got two little ones at home. She no can makei. Who going to take care of the kids?” Bob jumped out of his chair.

  The doctor shook his head, “Before she went into surgery, she asked for a priest to conduct final rites just in case. A priest from The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace was here seeing patients, and he was able to see her before she went into the operating room. He’s with her now. He stayed in the hospital and asked to be called when she came out of surgery. You may want to go in and say goodbye. There’s a possibility she might not even wake up.”

  Bob flopped into the chair behind him. He dropped his head into his hands and sobbed.

  Tommy sat next to his dad and put his arm around his dad’s bowed shoulders.

  Tommy looked up at Danny. “Go in by yourself first. I’ll stay here with Pop. Better for us to go in one by one anyway.” Tommy wiped tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. “I’m glad Mom’s not here.”

  Danny walked into ICU alone. His sister lay in bed hooked up to machines and bags. A nurse injected something into the tube that ran into her veins. The priest sat in the chair next to her bed, holding her hand. The nurse turned when she heard Danny approach and nodded.

  Jo’s eyes were closed, her head bandaged. She had cuts and bruises all over her face. Her nose was broken, and one of her eyes was swollen shut.

  The priest got up and motioned to the chair.

  Danny sat down and took his sister’s hand in his. He cried until he felt her hand move. He looked up and saw her eyes focused on him.

  “Danny,” she whispered.

  Danny brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. “I’m here, sis. I love you.”

  “Billy’s dead. He tried to kill me.”

  He nodded, and she began to cry. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed her cheeks gently.

  “This is Father Paul.” She nodded her head to indicate the priest. “This is my brother Danny. Isn’t he handsome? He’s a lawyer.” Her voice conveyed her pride before she started coughing.

  “Shh, Jo. Save your strength.” He continued to hold her hand in both of his.

  The priest got up. “I’ll leave the two of you alone. If you need me, I’ll be right outside in the hallway.”

  After he left, Jo turned to him with a wan smile. “I’m dying.”

  “Don’t say that. You must fight to stay alive. You need to take care of your kids.”

  “Take care of them for me,” she whispered.

  Danny nodded. He was crying too much to talk.

  “Promise?” Her hand tightened in his.

  “I promise.” He nodded again.

  She sighed and managed to smile. “I love Tommy, but I want them to be like you. Make believe you’re their real daddy. Tell them Billy and I were just watching them for you and their real mom.”

  “What?” Her request was insane. He was shocked. Maybe she’s confused and delusional coming out of the anesthesia.

  She tried to raise herself.

  Danny shook his head. “Don’t try to get up.”

  “Swear to God and the Virgin Mary that you’ll raise them and make them believe they’re your kids.”

  “They won’t believe me. Maybe Kathy’s too young, but Gerry’s old enough to know it’s a lie.”

  Jo fell back on her bed. She struggled to speak. Her voice was hoarse, and the words rolled out with effort. “Kids understand secrets. You’re a lawyer. Convince them.”

  Danny slumped in his seat and shook his head. “They won’t believe me.”

  Jo clutched her blanket. “I can’t have the kids growing up burdened by the sins of their father. Swear, so I can die in peace.”

  No matter how crazy her idea, he couldn’t deny his sister her last request. Danny raised his hand and said, “I swear to God and the Virgin Mary I’ll raise them as my children and try to make them believe I’m really their father.”

  He turned back to Jo. Her lips looked bluish.

  “Thank you.” She closed her eyes. In a few minutes, she flat-lined.

  Jo’s funeral had an unexpected visitor. Tommy and Danny stood at the graveside listening to Father Thomas with their nephew between them. Billy’s father showed up with Billy’s stepmother. His mother was absent. She ran off with another man when Billy was only six and was never heard from again. Bob Myers stood behind his sons, grandchildren, and his mother, who flew in from the Big Island to attend her granddaughter’s funeral.

  As Father Thomas quoted from the Bible, Danny saw a woman walk toward the graveyard from afar. She wore a black dress with a gathered skirt down to the middle of her calf. A pillbox hat perched at an angle atop her long hair that fell in a pageboy down to her shoulders. Dark netting covered her face.

  Despite the distance of time and space, he recognized her. She was the air he breathed, the subject of his dreams and imagination. There would never be anyone else for him. She was the only woman who set his senses on fire—Evangelista.

  She waited until she was the last person to offer her condolences. His hand trembled when they touched.

  “Evangelista.” His voice caught in his throat.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and began to withdraw her hand from his.

  He trapped her hand in both hands of his. “Let’s talk.” He turned to his brother and whispered in his ear. “She’s the nun I told you about. Give me a moment.”

  Raising his eyebrows, Tommy looked at Danny, then at the petite, beautiful woman standing next to him. He shrugged and turned to the children.

  Holding on to Evangelista’s hand, Danny walked her to a quiet spot under the shade of a tree. He put one hand on her shoulder and lifted her chin with the other.

  “Have you left the order?”

  She nodded, and he embraced her. It was all he needed to know.

  Evangelista was dying.

  “I left the convent because I’m of no use to them anymore. I have a rare blood disease I inherited called thalassemia.” She choked on her tears and stumbled on the word. “It’s a form of anemia, which will eventually kill me.”

  Danny took her in his arms as she wept.

  After a few minutes, she pulled back and dabbed her cheeks with a handkerchief. “That’s one of the reasons I’m so small and have very little appetite.” She shuddered. “The doctor said it’s a miracle I’m still alive. Most people die as children.”

  “Marry me. I’ll take care of you.”

  Evangelista sobbed. “Oh, Danny, I didn’t come here for you to save me. I came to say goodbye.”

  Danny held her shoulders with his hands. “I don’t care if you’re sick. I’ll take care of you. I’m a lawyer and make good money. If we live simply, we can and will survive this illness.”

  She looked away. “I can’t. It’s not fair to you.”

&nb
sp; “Let me be the one who decides what’s fair. I’ve never stopped loving you, although God knows I’ve tried.”

  “Danny, I have a few years at most.”

  “I don’t care. Maybe science will come up with a cure. In the meantime, you’ll be a great help. I promised my sister I’d take care of her children. I need you. More than that, we’ll be together. I don’t care about anything else except being with you. Together we might be able to beat this disease.”

  They both wept when they said their vows before a judge. Tommy stood by his side and his wife on hers. The only other person was their father.

  His dad seemed different now. Since Jo’s death, he'd quit drinking, attended AA meetings, and went to church most Sundays. Becoming sober had changed him.

  “Wish he’d quit when we were kids,” Tommy whispered.

  “Wish he never started,” Danny replied.

  Tommy and his wife volunteered to watch Jo’s children so they could go on a honeymoon, but the bride needed a blood transfusion.

  The transfusion helped her feel better for almost a year. Jo’s children took to her just as Danny knew they would.

  Our children, he reminded himself. He had to stop thinking of himself as their uncle, but as their father instead. Unexpectedly, as if God ordained it so, he was able to grant Jo’s last request.

  The shock of the murder and suicide completely wiped out his son’s memory of his entire childhood up to that day. As for Kathy, he didn’t know what she remembered or believed until the night he heard her weeping in bed.

  Danny tapped on her door. When he heard her sniffling, he called out, “Kathy? Are you all right, sweetheart?” There was no response except for more sniffling. He opened the door. She lay on her side, sucking her thumb and clinging to her doll. He sat on the side of her bed and gently turned her onto her back. Her parents’ wedding picture was tucked between her chest and the doll.

  “Do you know who these people are?” He pointed to the picture.

  Kathy nodded. “Mommy and Daddy. They went to heaven.”

  “That’s right.” Danny stroked her hair.

  His daughter sat up, her eyes wide. “But Gerry said they’re not. I showed him the picture, and he said I was stupid because we live with our mommy and daddy.”

  Danny hugged her. “Well, he’s right, too, because I’m your daddy now and my wife is your mommy.”

  “Can I keep the picture?”

  “Of course you can keep it,” Danny replied. “But better not mention it to Gerry until he’s ready to talk about it.”

  “I know. He gets mad.” Kathy nodded, then brightened. “Can it be our secret?”

  “Sure it can.”

  She smiled and kissed him on his cheek before melting his heart by saying, “Good night Daddy. I love you.”

  She never brought up Jo and Billy again. Sometimes he wondered what became of the picture.

  Danny gradually grew optimistic because some of the bloom Eva had when he first met her returned to her cheeks. It was the happiest time of his life.

  “I never knew such happiness existed.” Eva snuggled in bed with him. “Do you think there’s any other married couple in the world who loves each other as much as we do?”

  “Impossible. No one could love as much as we do.” Danny laughed then traced her face with his finger. “You’re so beautiful—the most beautiful girl in the world. And I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

  “Not so lucky,” she said softly.

  He cupped her chin in his hand. “Not lucky. Blessed.” He kissed her gently on her nose.

  1948

  The day he dreaded finally came. The whites of her eyes yellowed and her energy level plummeted alarmingly. Eva, as he called her, picked at her food. He made an appointment to see the doctor.

  Dr. Arakawa took off his glasses and laid them on his desk with a sigh as he faced Danny and Eva. “I’m afraid I have bad news. Your spleen is enlarged. We have to remove it.”

  “Can she live without a spleen?” Danny asked.

  “Yes,” the doctor nodded. “That’s the good news. The bad news is, without it, she’ll be prone to infections.”

  “What about another blood transfusion?” Danny did all the talking. Eva remained quiet. He felt somewhat irritated by her listless acceptance.

  “The blood transfusion is partially at fault for her spleen’s condition. You remember me telling you it might cause an iron build-up, which might damage her organs? At the time, it was the best and only option to keep her alive.”

  “There’s got to be something else. What if we go to the mainland? Maybe there are new discoveries that haven’t reached the islands yet.” Danny ran his fingers through his hair.

  Dr. Arakawa shook his head. “I keep up with the latest developments. I haven’t heard of anything.”

  “But it’s possible,” Danny insisted.

  “Anything is possible.” The doctor nodded. “However, at this point, we shouldn’t wait too long to perform the operation.”

  Danny turned to Eva. “You have to do the surgery.”

  “Whatever you say.” Eva nodded as she fiddled her fingers. Danny was perturbed by the resignation in her voice.

  “Will she be okay?” he asked. “She’s so frail.”

  Dr. Arakawa sighed. “For now, it’s the only thing we can do to try to prolong her life.”

  The removal of her spleen was a success, but as Doctor Arakawa warned, her immune system became compromised. When the flu season came around almost a year after her surgery, Eva got so sick she had to be hospitalized.

  Every evening, before Danny visited her, he went to the chapel in Queen’s Hospital to light a candle and pray. But Eva failed to get better.

  “I can’t live without her,” he sobbed to Father Thomas.

  “You went into this marriage with your eyes wide open. To her credit, she told you the truth. All you can do is make her last days happy.”

  “That’s not what I want to hear.”

  “What do you want to hear, my son?”

  “God can do miracles. He will do miracles. Or there is someone somewhere who does healing miracles.”

  Father Thomas put his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “God does do miracles sometimes. But it’s up to Him whether or not He does. We have to accept His decision.”

  Danny looked up, his anger barely contained. “She’s the best person I ever met. She deserves to live. She doesn’t deserve to die so young and in this way.”

  “Death comes to us all. How and when we die is in God’s hands. How can we presume to know better than the Almighty?”

  Danny stood up and glared down at the priest. “Maybe you can accept his will, but I can’t. I won’t. He has to heal her.”

  Father Thomas shook his head. “He doesn’t have to do anything.”

  “Then forget God. What good is He if he refuses to heal someone as deserving as Eva? I refuse to accept a God who would kill my wife. I’ll go to a Kahuna, to anybody, who might help.”

  “Danny,” Father Thomas put a hand on his arm.

  Danny shook him off. “Let me go.” He stalked out of the chapel.

  “I want to be with my children,” Eva begged from her hospital bed later the same evening. “Please take me home. I want to be with them for at least a little while.”

  “But you need full-time medical care.” Danny kissed her hands.

  Eva looked at him with her big, dark eyes. She was so thin now they were sunken into hollows in her small, heart-shaped face. They looked huge and out of proportion because of the dark circles. She reminded Danny of one of the waifs in a Margaret Keane painting.

  “Danny,” she whispered. “I’m going to die. You must accept it. I have.”

  “No. I won’t accept it. I’ll find someone who has a cure.”

  “Please Dan
ny,” she begged. “Let me be with my children before I die.”

  Danny cried, but eventually agreed to do as she wished.

  They had a week of barbeques, picnics, and watching the sunset. They celebrated her birthday with their family. Even Father Thomas and Mother Superior came. When Mother Superior hugged Eva’s frail body, she wept.

  “I’m sorry, Maria, I mean Evangelista. This should be a happy time, and here I am ruining it for you.”

  Eva smiled. “Do you know that’s the longest sentence you’ve ever spoken to me?” Eva put her hand out and patted the Mother’s gnarled, arthritic fingers. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve lived a lot longer than the doctors predicted. And I’ve been so happy. God blessed me with a family.”

  Mother Superior brushed the bangs from Eva’s forehead. “I never realized you were so beautiful, my dear.” She sniffled again. “Oh my, here I go again.”

  Everyone brought gifts. Eva acted as if each one was a treasure. After opening the presents, she blew out the candles on her cake. Everyone clapped.

  “I’m tired,” she whispered to Danny. “Can I go back to bed now?”

  Danny nodded and picked her up. She was shockingly light.

  The next day, Eva wanted to go to the beach.

  “Not a busy beach. A quiet, country beach like Waimānalo. I want to see Rabbit Island and go fishing.” Her eyes brightened. “Please, Danny.”

  “You want to go fishing?” he asked with surprise.

  “My father was a fisherman.” She smiled. “He used to take me with him because my mother was sick a lot and couldn’t take care of me. Maybe she had what I have.”

  “Shall we take the children?”

  “Another time. I just want to be alone with you this time.”