The Nakamura Letters, page 1
part #7 of Professor Molly Mysteries Series
The Nakamura Letters
Frankie Bow
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
About the Author
The Nakamura Letters
Copyright © 2017 by Frankie Bow
Published by Hawaiian Heritage Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the authors except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of State Parks, without whom the inspiration for this story would not exist.
Chapter One
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Molly,
So I just got here and haven’t even unpacked yet, but I’m writing you first thing just like I promised.
So here I am in my exotic sabbatical location a 2 hour drive from Mahina. We’ll see how long it takes this email to get to you. I’m writing it at 2:54pm on Monday. The only internet access I have here is through my cell phone. The signal is junk, but least there’s a landline. At least I think there is, I’ll have to try the phone later to make sure it works.
The fridge is old and has rust on it but the temp is fine and there’s enough room for my samples.
The water’s catchment, they got one big old concrete tank out back. There’s no UV filter, so I gotta boil all my water just to be safe.
No idea why someone decided to build a house way up here a hundred years ago or whenever, or how the park ended up owning it, but it works out perfect for my research.
So you getting used to being a mom yet? Say howzit to Donnie for me. (Just kidding I can’t imagine you saying howzit. Say Good Morrow, Dear Husband or whatever it is you call him.)
Hope you appreciate your fast internet and clean county water. And your warm temperatures too, did I mention I’m freezing my okole off up here? I’ll call you tomorrow and you can try get my landline number from your caller ID. I can’t find the phone number anywhere. If it was ever on the phone it wore off years ago. Did I mention this place is old?
PS did Kayla start yet? You’ll like her, Molly. Once you get some regular help with the baby you’ll start to feel human again.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
Some of the most fun people I know are scientists.
Mae C. Jemison (b. 1956)
Chapter Two
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Eh Molly,
No worries about being cranky. I guess I’d be cranky too if I had a bunch of guys revving up their chainsaws outside my window all day while I was “housebound, leaking from every orifice, hooked up to wheezing pumps like a dairy cow, and at the round-the-clock beck and call of an insatiable eight-pound nipple-crushing lamprey.” I actually wrote down what you said for the next time Yoshi brings up having kids.
Good thing you guys are finally cutting back that hedge though. I can’t believe how fast that thing grew, it was taller than your house last time I was over there. That’s the thing about gardening in Hawaii. You bring over some well-behaved plant from the mainland and it gets here and suddenly it’s out of control and climbing all over everything. Kind of like our exchange students.
You’ll be glad you got the hedge cut down. It was making your house kind of dark, and plus there’ll be less places for coqui frogs to hide.
That’s one good thing about staying way up here, there’s a lot less coquis. I heard one or two last night, but it wasn’t even close to being as bad as it is down at sea level.
I don’t think you need to worry about Kayla telling everyone on campus about your private life. First of all, your private life isn’t that interesting. Especially not for the first six weeks, if you know what I mean. Second, Kayla’s doing an official practicum through the school for her early childhood ed program, so if she does anything unprofessional like blab all your secrets (if you had any) she’d get kicked out. Third, and most importantly, you live in Mahina, Molly, what secrets do you think you have left?
I still don’t understand how come you don’t get some kind of leave or something for the baby. That’s so messed up. At least they’re letting you teach your classes online so no danger of you showing up to class and accidentally spraying the front row with breast milk.
There was a freak lightning storm today so I was stuck inside. It gave me a chance to look around the house some more. Molly, I don’t think anyone’s been here for like decades. I found some Yardley of London (?) lipstick in one of the bathrooms. It looked super retro and smelled like old crayons. This whole place is creepy. You’d love it.
I can’t believe how long it took for my last email to get to you. I guess my emails cue up and don’t get sent out till an angel flies overhead at just the right altitude or something. Well at least you’re getting them.
How was Kayla’s first day? She’s good, yeah?
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.
Adam Smith (1723-90)
Chapter Three
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Honestly Molly I don’t think you’re doing this mother’s helper thing right. If you feel like you have to stay and watch Kayla whenever she’s watching the baby, why have her there at all? And no I don’t believe she’s after Donnie, that’s your hormones talking. Come on Molly, she was one of my best students, I wouldn’t have told you to hire some sleaze.
Seriously, leave the baby with her and Donnie for a couple days and come up to visit me here.
Oh and when you come up, bring pizza, cause no one delivers all the way up here. I already checked.
OK, guess you’ll get this when it QUEUES up, not cues up, is that better? (I still think CUES up is right. Like, it’s your turn, that’s your cue. But yeah, I’ll give you the less vs. fewer thing. Fewer coqui frogs, not less coqui frogs. Happy?)
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Chapter Four
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
So I forgot to tell you, Yoshi actually got that residential fellowship he was applying for. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. He’s gonna be on the mainland for three months, freezing his okole off in the woods working on his Vision or whatever. I told him he could come up here and stay with me if he wanted, it’s plenty isolated, but then I found out they’re paying him so I was like, bon voyage honey, see you when you get back.
It’s weird, usually people bug me (not you so much, only sometimes) but it’s so isolated up here, I feel like I’m about to go nuts. At least there’s a park ranger. She came by today to say hi (probably check on me and make sure I’m legit). She seems okay. She told me her name but I forgot it right away. For some reason she thought it was important to tell me that the owner killed themselves here in the house, before it became part of the park. And then she goes, yeah, people are upset by that but why be upset at one suicide, what about all the other people who died in this house over the years, probably in the exact bed you’re sleeping in.
Guess I’ll sleep well tonight…
P.S. and yes, it is unreasonable and paranoid of you to forbid Kayla from wearing shorts at your house. It’s freaking hot in Mahina, Molly.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea.
Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961)
Chapter Five
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
The weather cleared up today, so I was able to get some samples. I’m not going to go into a bunch of detail cause I know you wouldn’t understand the technical detai
Oh yeah, remember I got that billion-lumen whatever flashlight to bring up? Good thing I did. It’s my only light now, besides my phone, so I’m walking down the hall to the bathroom hoping not to get the attention of any ghosts like I’m in The Sixth Sense or something. By the way, not like you asked for my advice, but unless you’re going for sainthood (that’s a thing Catholics do, right?) I don’t think you should have to keep teaching your classes while you’re on maternity leave. If your department doesn’t have the money to run the classes your students need, that’s the administration’s problem, not yours. If you keep doing unpaid work for them, they’ll just keep expecting it.
Of course I’m one to talk, look where I am. For sure no one’s paying me extra to spend my sabbatical up here on the set of Friday the 13th:The Wilderness Years.
I was wondering whether I should tell you this or not so here goes: Last night when it was raining I thought I heard someone crying outside.
I’m sure it was a feral cat or something, but it kind of freaked me out. Just goes to show how your mind can go all weird on you when you’re isolated.
OK, time for me to go to bed in complete darkness, and try not to think about all the people who died in this house. I’ll write again as soon as I can cause I don’t want you to go crazy bored at home and end up sticking your head in the oven. I don’t need you haunting me on top of everything else I have to deal with.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
Chapter Six
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
You’ll never believe it, I had another visitor today. Wow, two whole people in the space of three days, it’s practically Grand Central Station up here. So I was out all morning. I came back kind of tired but I put away my samples, fixed some lunch, cracked a beer, and I just settled in to relax and catch up on my reading, and next thing I know there’s someone’s knocking on the door. So I thought maybe it was that park ranger again (I still can’t remember her name) reminding me to expect to see blood running out of my faucets or furniture flying around the room or whatever, but no, it was this little old haole lady in a big straw hat. At first I assumed she was a tourist who got lost. But no, she came to this house on purpose. The Hodges House, she called it. I didn’t know it actually had a name, but according to her it did. She was so excited I was staying here, she told me she was sure the house was lonely with no one staying there for such a long time. So that was creepy. (At least she didn’t say the house was hungry, I guess that would have been worse. Cause by this point I could totally imagine this place chewing me up and spitting out my bones.)
So I invited her in and asked her how she happened to be in the neighborhood and she told me she’d been visiting the graveyard (??). I was all, what graveyard? but I guess there’s one in back of that little church. I told you about that, right? Betty (that’s her name) said her great-great-grandfather or someone was the first minister at that church so she has a bunch of family buried there.
Seriously, Molly, you should come up here and see this place. Bring Pat too, he’d love to do a story on it for Island Confidential I bet.
And bring pizza. And beer! I thought I packed plenty beer but I’m already running low.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Chapter Seven
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Oh, you think Donnie would be “worried” about you and Pat making that long drive in your “delicate” condition, huh? Riiight. I gotta talk to that boy. He knows there’s no chance of you and Pat running off together, doesn’t he? Maybe he’s still holding a grudge about Pat giving you that copy of The Yellow Wallpaper for your wedding gift. Donnie shouldn’t take it personally though. Pat would’ve given you it no matter who you ended up marrying.
Hey, at least your husband likes having you around. Yoshi wasn’t even considering coming up here with me cause he says he needs a reliable internet connection. I think the real reason was he doesn’t like the idea of just him and me in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but hang out with each other. Well, he’s off in Indiana or someplace now, doing Art and getting a stipend and I guess atoning for his MBA years.
Tho to be fair to Yoshi (which I always am) he didn’t want me to come up here either. He said he didn’t think it was “wholesome” whatever that means. Probably he thought it was barbaric to stay somewhere with no cell phone service.
Wait a minute, did you actually ask Donnie if he minds if you come up for a visit? Or are you just assuming you know what he’d say? (You know what happens when you “assume,” right?) Ask him, Molly! Bet he says yes.
By the way there is a cat that hangs around here. Brown with stripes, cause I guess a black cat would be too on-the-nose. Anyway that’s probably what I heard that night that sounded like someone crying.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
Above all, don't fear difficult moments. The best comes from them.
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012)
Chapter Eight
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Oh, Donnie said it was fine with him for you to come? Told you he’d be OK with it. Yeah, I get the whole thing about you having to pump milk, in case you forgot I am a BIOLOGY PROFESSOR.
So pack your dairy equipment and get up here with my pizza and beer. Tell Pat to get his skinny tochas up here too. I miss you guys. There, I said it.
Emma Nakamura, PhD
Professor of Biology
Mahina State University
mahina.edu
-----------------
Life need not be easy, provided only that it is not empty.
Lise Meitner (1878-1968)
Chapter Nine
Emma Kano`opomaika`i Nakamura
to Molly
Eh Molly, you better get up here quick before I totally lose it. Stupid landline rang last night. One ring, and then nothing. And the technology’s so old I don’t think I can put any kind of caller ID on it. Something else, I managed to lose my reading glasses and they turned up later in the weird little bathroom I never use. Ever since then I’ve been imagining that things aren’t exactly where I left them, although why would a burglar break in just to move my things and not steal anything?
