Back on Earth

<3^rd POV>

A lady in white business suit holds an umbrella to ward off the rain, stands in front of a pair of graves covered with flower. She stares at the grave stones as if they would answer her unanswered prayers.

Two detectives are watching her from a distance as to not disturb her. After a few minutes the first officer, a female detective in her buttoned up black drench coat, takes the initiative to walk up to the lady in white as the storm slowly gets heavier. Her partner one step behind, barely sees the lady in white coming into view. Passing through the rain, the lady’s features become more distinct allowing the two detectives to see the similarities of the victim they’re investigating, except that her skin tone is slightly paler due to countless nights of restless sleep. And that she’s wearing sunglasses to avoid people from seeing her bloodshot eyes.

“Excuse me Miss Kuala,” The woman detective in training, Paloma says, “Sorry to bother you during this time, but we have some questions that need to be-”

“Stop…. ,” Kaula removes her sunglasses to face the detective, “Ok, go on.”

The male detective in a brown trench coat, Ben, blanks out upon seeing the lady’s face. From his view, other than the lady’s blood shot eyes from crying, she seemed unfazed by their being there. Usually whenever detectives start asking questions or accuse someone of them committing a crime, the accused would become frightened and show shifty behavior. Their hands would fidget, eyes looking around constantly, or their feet start tapping preparing to run off any second. The detectives didn’t see indication of that in the lady’s body stance. In fact all they could see were that Kaula’s eyes were vacant, as if she wasn’t paying any heed to what was happening around her.

Paloma refocuses on the matter at hand, continues from where she stopped.

“answered….. We have reason to suspect that you may have neglected to relay some recent information about your relationship of the missing victim.” Paloma says.

Kaula stays silent going back to staring at the graves as if the detectives hadn’t said anything.

Ben stepping in for his younger colleague, takes out his notebook, and goes on to say the victims name, age and recent activity up to his disappearance. He goes on to say, “Ma’am, …. From the reports gathered from the victims’ friends, teachers, and neighbors, it appears that in the past six months you’ve been neglecting to show up at any of the victims school functions (, such as parent teacher conferences).” Looking up from his notebook the detective sees the lady has changed her position, leaning over the grave and placing her hand on the wet stone. She seemed to be praying. Not knowing how to react, the male detective continues to read from his notebook.

“In fact, from what information we’ve collected you haven’t stayed around the victim more than a few days at a time within the past few months. You’ve only been sending money to pay for bills, food, school and clothes. It seems the victims friends believed you kept the kid around for money given by children services….. Care to tell us why that may be?”

Kaula didn’t stand back up to face the detectives, but instead kneeled dirtying her white business suit. “…. Do you know of our cultures traditions for the deceased detectives?”  

Both detectives stare at each other as neither expected to be asked such a question. Paloma, knowing neither on them had the answer, looks back at Kaula says, “No ma’am.”

Kaula weak kneed stands up shakily to face the detectives once more“…. We don’t bury our dead, but throw them into the sea…. When I first found out about my sister’s death I rushed over from my hotel business in ***** and returned to retrieve my sister and brother in law’s body…” Kuala sighs, “Obtaining my sister was easy; her husband was a different story though. His family, who casted him away after marrying my sister, suddenly decided to visit after decades of silence and steals his corpse from right under my nose.”

Silent for a bit she reaches into her coat pocket, both detectives take out their guns and stop her. Paloma moves Kaula’s hand, fishes the pocket. Kaula continues her story, uncaring of what the lady detective did. “Before leaving to fight for my brother- in –laws body in England, I had to make a harsh decision. I couldn’t bring my nephew with me interrupting his life and concentrate in court, so I left him on the island in the care of his neighbors and friends….”

Silence fills the air. Ben attempts to loosen the tension by offering a smoke of which Kaula gladly accepts. “That doesn’t answer about the accusations of keeping him for money.” Paloma states.

A minute of silence passes, then Kaula continues as she breaths out puffs of smoke from her nostrils, “ʻO wau kahi ʻoihana ʻoihana hōkele. ʻAʻole pono wau i kahi loli chump.” She takes the cigarette from her mouth and crushes it in her hand, disregarding the burn mark scaring her palm.  “I never touched a dime of what child services paid me. Instead I shifted it all to a separate bank account for when he graduated…. he didn’t know that though….”  Kaula sighs, “It was my mistake to leave him alone ….  For the first few months I had no idea he thought I only took care of him for money. And by the time I thought to bring up what I was doing he shut me out completely…”

After an awkward excoriating amount of time, Paloma fished out a wallet Kaula’s pocket. On the front of it is a picture of Kaula in a bathing suit holding hands of woman who could be her practical twin wearing shorts and a flower tanktop. Sitting on the ground wearing a grass skirt was a very skinny English man holding up the peace sign behind a very young Tokito wearing red short.   

Staring at the picture, Paloma continues questioning, “We weren’t able to get much information due to patient confidentiality, but from what we’ve gathered from the hospital…. in a year or two you were going to withdraw nutritional support from the victim… Can you explain why a woman of your station of wealth would do that?” she hands the wallet back to Kaula.

Taking the wallet back, Kaula gave the detectives a piercing gaze, said, “Don’t lie! I know you must’ve at least glanced at his medical reports, so you shouldn’t need to ask!” She yells, irritated. “I hired the best doctors available at that time and you know what they said ‘the chance of your nephew waking up is less than 22%,” She repeats, letting go of the burnt out cigarette letting it sizzle out in the dirty water pooling around her feet.

The detectives start to feel uncomfortable.

Kaula continues “... You saw the report, didn’t you? Both of his eyes were pierced up to his optical nerves, his frontal lobe was cut to ribbons, and his ear canal was severely damaged from the glass dropping in. And that’s only half of the report! I haven’t even started on what damage happened to the back of his head!”

The detectives step back preparing in case something leads from this outburst Paloma wanted to stop Kaula from continuing, but is cut short by Bens’ hand grabbing the neckline of her coat.

Kaula, crying, continues, “….Even if by some miracle my nephew did wake up… he’d be blind, partially deaf, and be a vegetable unable to function in normal society!” in her frustration she hits head on the grave as if to clear her head of all her mistakes. “Tell me if you were in such a condition…. would you want to keep living like that.”

Paloma, straight faced, answered, “No Mrs. Kalau. I probably wouldn’t want to live like that.” She then looks at the grave and confusion crosses her face. “Before we leave I have one last question. If your traditions dictate that you throw your dead at sea. Why are your sister and brother-in-law buried here?”

Ben butts in at the same ask, “Also, how come your nephew, during your few months of absence, kept visiting these graves if there were no bodies buried?”

“Really? …He kept visiting despite knowing his mom and dad weren’t buried here.” Kalau mumbles. She looks back at the graves, answers, “….During my stay in England I held off on giving my sister her hula; which must’ve caused my nephew to be anxious since it’s supposed to show respect of mourning our dead. I hoped he’d appreciate my explanation on why I waited when I retrieved his father,… but that conversation never happened. When I finally won my brother-in- laws corpse, I was going to bring him back to the island to begin our ceremonial customs for both of them. By tradition, my nephew and I were to wash and dress the body, and then invite my sisters and brother-in-laws closest friends for the family feast.  However, that same day I won in court was the same day of the accident with Tokito…. Seeing him in that bed, I couldn’t bring myself to do it…. to throw the only family I had left into the sea…” Kalau stops hitting her head on the grave leaving a large bloody mark.  Upset, she no longer cared about conversation, and immediately stands to walk around the detectives towards her black Volkswagen beetle outside the gravesite perimeter.

On the way Kaula mumbles to herself, “My family’s souls are probably disappointed in me… I couldn’t protect their son and then I broke tradition..” as stream of tears runs down, Kaula begins to chuckle. “If our grandma were here she’d hit me for allowing such crap to happen.” She finally makes it to her car through the rain that had turned into a typhoon. She says one last thing as she gets behind her wheel, “Now if that’s all detectives, I would like you to stop pestering me and find my nephew.” She slams her car door on the detectives who had been following her from the grave site of sister and brother-in-law.

The detectives annoyed at Kaula’s rude behavior turn to leave, but before they can turn Kulau powers up her car. The moment the engine revved up she speeds off leaving a burn mark on the ground and now very soaked detectives.

“…. Ben …..The next time I see that lady, remind me to arrest her for evading and throwing water an officer on duty!” The female detective yells as she wipes off her face.

Spitting out his wet cigarette Bensly says, “Paloma, you can’t arrest the woman for splashing some water on us…..besides she drove while it’s raining. The court won’t even glance at your case. ” Ben walks in the direction of their own vehicle a few steps away. “Good thing I always kept plastic on the seats.” He yells the last part as the rain kicks down even harder.

“Oh come on! You saw she purposely splashed us… huh? Why do you need plastic on the chairs?” Realizing what Ben said, Paloma looks at her coat and see it’s covered in dirt, “Aaaahh! I just got these clothes from dry cleaning too.” Paloma and Ben hop into their Chevy caprice as the storm suddenly lightens up to a clear day.

“….. Damn weather report predicting basta-” Paloma curses until they reach headquarters.

******

<Kaula POV>

Late afternoon….

I drove up to my grandfather’s old shack on the side of the beach. I‘ve been staying here since my sisters’ place was still cordon off by the police for investigation. While I was told to stay in town two months ago, I’ve been slowly fixing it up from its dilapidated.

 Before I lived here only my sister would visit to make sure that it wasn’t burgled or lived in by the occasional homeless person. Of course, while no one lived in it since our grandparents died, she didn’t think to keep fixing it up. By the time I came around to see it the house looked as if it was haunted. The façade was moldy, the windows were broken in, and the floor boards creaked at every step. I didn’t care though, the moment I saw it all I could feel was the spirit of my grandpa welcoming me. Since then I’ve replace all the old wood, cleaned off the mold, and changed the windows. It looked just like it did when I was a kid, when all of the family happily lived together.

Though at this moment, seeing my grandparent’s house gives me no comfort. Entering the drive way, the atmosphere became tense, as if my grandma was staring me down with her usual strict look of disappointment at the fact I wasn’t following tradition.

Getting out of the car, a part of me didn’t want to enter that house, but another was too pissed off at those detectives to care.

 Entering the house, I ran to the bathroom to wash up ignoring the sensation of the staring growing stronger. Splashing water onto my face, my mind begins broiling at the fact that those detectives dared accuse me of  possibly neglecting my nephew.

How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they! How dare they!

“How dare they try to say I neglected Tokito!” I slam my fist in the glass mirror. “I swear, if I ever find out whoever put that stupid idea about how I kept him around for money they better have good protection. ‘cause I’m going to ruin their lives!”

 Taking back her now bleeding hand she falls to the floor and curls into a crying mess. In the process, missing the figures of an elderly couple forming in the shattered mirror watching her.

******

<3rd POV>

Back at Police headquarters

The head chief is finishing up giving a heavy sermon to Ben and Paloma on uniform etiquette.

 With their souls trying to escape from their bodies the chief finishes saying, “ next time before coming in drag your sorry asses home to change! Now I don’t want you to come back in here until the floor is wiped sparklingly clean, like this morning!” With those last few words he rushes Ben and Paloma out of his office.

“Why I ought to-” Before Paloma can begin her cursing rant at her boss Ben stops her by popping a lollipop into her mouth.

“Stop before you really end up getting suspended without pay,” Ben walks to the elevator with Paloma following in toe.

“…Hey, tell me again why’s we’re investigation the victims aunt? I mean, she doesn’t seem like a plausible suspect.” Paloma inquires. She list the gathered facts, “One she’s rich from her hotel chains so those rumors on taking child care services are wrong. Second, there’s no sign of deep hostility among her extended family, so that rules them out. And other than today she has been cooperative in the investigation.” Paloma says as they ride the elevator down. “So what have we missed that you needed to go back and ask her those questions?”

As the senior detective it was Ben’s job to school Paloma on the matters of evaluating the victims, motives of potential suspects, and circumstances of the crime scene… but even he was befuddled by this case.

Rubbing his temple Ben answers, “Frankly, I was hoping to shine light on the victim’s most recent behavior. However, what we find out was already confirmed, by the neighbors, teachers, and locals living by the cemetery…. Nothing about this case makes sense though. It’s like we’re missing some vital pieces of the puzzle that’s just out of reach.”

“Maybe we haven’t talked to everyone… Oh! What time is it?!” Paloma checks her watch. “Mierda! Sorry sir I have to pick up my brother from school! I’ll have to discuss this later.” She pushes a button for the first floor...

Soon the elevator stops at evidence lock up.

Exiting alone, Ben heads to take out a filing box on the most recent burglary case, of which Tokito’s parents were victim. Ben takes the contents to a table nearby and begins re-examining what happened at the crime scene from the police report.

Date----, Time ----, Location----- Bank

5 armed burglars :  three men, two women.

 Held twenty people hostage.

It was at first suspected they were there to rob the transit that was supposed to arrive half an hour before, but an incident happened. The money transport never arrived.

Four of the robbers in their paranoia started arguing, while the fifth took one of the hostages to the door of the building demanding for money.

The hostage at that time was Ululani Mahoe, the victims mother. By witnesses account, after the robber made the demand he attempted to take her to a backroom. Her husband, Ezekial Mahoe, seeing his wife brought to a back room by the male robber assumed the worst, fought back. The rest should  follow the usual routine, but something doesn’t add up….

“The already riled up four robbers shot at the husband. The wife at the sight of her husband being shot, bit her capturers hand, broke free and was swiftly shot thereafter. However, from the other witnesses it seems the fifth robber was greatly upset at this development. Before the other four shot the husband he seemed to be trying to calm them down, but failed to stop his colleges from shooting. It seems this robber had ulterior motives than just robbing the bank.”

Ben looks at the bags that were left behind at the scene where the police failed to capture the suspects. One of the bags held a syringe holding a drug that could cause an bear to sleep for a day. It was just enough to make two people sleep for a couple of hours.

I wonder what that fifth suspect was up to…..

*********

<Kaula POV>

Nightfall…

After what seems like hours I rise from the floor thoroughly disheveled. Not caring about how much blood I lost, I take off my no longer pristine clothes, and start taking a hot bath. My still undressed wounds bleed, filling the tub with red.

“Why…. Why did this happen?” I ask. My tears, that I thought dried up, comes back full throttle. The bathroom fogs from the heat. My vision is becoming hazy.

Sister… why did you have to leave before me… if only…

“I wish, I wish….”

In my hazed vision I can almost see in the dense fog, a figure slowly shaping. 

I wish…..

O wau kahi ʻoihana ʻoihana hōkele = I’m a hotel business owner

ʻAʻole pono wau i kahi loli chump = I don’t need such chump change

Mierda = crap