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On board the plane, Alicia, Cassie, Antonio, and Norah sat huddled together at the table. “Look at us,” Norah giggled, holding out at arm’s length a glass of wine with her right hand and a cup of coffee with her left. “One hand for excitement.” She drank a sip of coffee. “And the other hand for getting mellow.” She took a sip of wine. All four of them laughed, feeling a sense of relief and accomplishment.
Said Antonio, “We’re on our way. Seeds are planted. Think tank is thinking. Kahuna in charge. Dudley is reworking his island to return it to its pristine condition. We can make small, incremental changes while we work on the big ones that will be harder to implement. But we need some radical actions pretty quick. We have to stick together to push the planet-saving agenda. Cassie, will you stay with us, with Norah, as part of the team? We want you.”
“I’m flattered,” said Cassie. “I’m meeting with Norah tomorrow to talk about this. I need some time. I have so much to digest. So much has happened.”
Norah longed for Cassie’s wholehearted pledge to be part of the team. She sensed that Cassie was waffling less. Not wanting to push her, Norah decided to hold back from trying to convince her until they met the next day. Knowing Cassie, it was better to wait until she calmed down before trying to clinch a deal.
Antonio mused, “We’re pretty well on the same page. We must change the global mindset—big time. Greed and extreme individualism can’t be life’s drivers. Interdependency is the key concept! Technology and digitality must become friends to aim humanity in the right direction. Online communities and internet platforms can work for good. Digital ecosystems can help us preserve our natural ecosystems.”
“Antonio,” Norah said, “I remember walking on the beach with Cassie the day before that momentous day when we met in our workshop. The sight of a splendid blackback gull, lying dead in the midst of sludge-like stuff, is burned into my memory. I saw it as a forewarning and a mandate that I must make a difference. Can we also save our fragile P-town bay? Just as our ancestors from Massachusetts brought ‘religion’ to the Hawaiians, can we try to bring the religion of aloha to the East Coast? We can come full circle.”
“Of course we can. Of course we will. It’s where we met and everything came together. Provincetown Bay is a magical place. Its dream-like beauty calls to me. Every time Alicia and I can get there, we’ll go.”
Antonio gazed at Alicia, his eyes full of passion. Alicia walked over to his chair, put her arms around him, and whispered in his ear, “There are no coincidences, my love, are there?”
“Yes, we’ll make P-town a priority. But I guess one of my first projects is to decrease my own carbon footprint. I must find a way to cut down on jetting around the world,” Antonio said sheepishly. Alicia nodded vigorously.
As they landed at the airport, Alicia breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s time to go home, cogitate, and take some time and space to figure out our personal and crusader lives. Let’s give ourselves three days before we reunite to pool our blueprints for the future. Cassie, I hope you stick with us. We’d hate to lose you.”
Cassie just smiled and waved as she and Norah walked to the car Antonio had waiting for them.
Norah
As Norah dropped her bags in the hall, she felt ambivalent. She was relieved to be home, yet she missed Hawaii. She was ecstatic over the new work arrangement. She could only hope that her meeting with Cassie would give her more reason to celebrate.
A hot shower, a comfortable nightgown, and a glass of Russian River cabernet sauvignon put Norah in a good place. She sat in her overstuffed easy chair and sorted through her pile of unopened mail. Unearthing an envelope from Hawaii, she eagerly tore it open and found papers stapled together with handwritten scribbles from Kapono. “Here is what you asked for.” Norah could not believe her eyes.
The dark but clear photocopy showed death notices for Kealaula and also for Maleko on January 17, 1893. The newspaper verified that both Maleko and Kealaula died on the day of the overthrow. Norah’s heart quickened when she read the handwritten diary entry signed by Queen Lili’u.
I am in great grief. Our monarchy has been snatched away from us. And now I have lost Kealaula and Maleko, both brutally murdered by enemies of our kingdom. When I saw their mutilated bodies, I fainted. My heart broke into pieces. Why did they snuff out the light of these precious lives? Is this the fruit of selfish greed? The only comfort I can find, the only thing that allows me to cope with this tragic loss, is to permit myself to believe that we will meet again to finish our work together. Someday...someday...
Norah turned the page. Kapono also had written that groups of loyal Hawaiians had protected and preserved the Queen’s letters and possessions since the overthrow. At a meeting of the ancients, Kapono asked them to consider sharing some of the information with the haoles who were researching the Hawaiian Kingdom. After long and thoughtful discussion, they had voted yes. They sensed her kuleana was connected with that of Kealaula and Maleko. “While this journal entry from the Queen is not absolute proof that your story represents an authentic past,” Kapono cautioned, “it suggests you are on the right trail.”
Norah was astounded. He had answered her important question. She could imagine Kapono’s smiling face. Her eyes filled with tears of joy and triumph.
Although submerged in the warmth and softness of the cushions, Norah’s muscles tensed. Would this be enough to finally convince Cassie? She wanted to scream out, “Listen, stop equivocating. You absolutely must remain. Otherwise you’re a cowardly deserter, afraid of your own shadow, superficial and stupid and uncommitted and scared of life! Your protective husband is dead. Get a grip, girl. You’re on your own. Rise to the occasion. Think of someone other than yourself. Get some big meaning in your life.”
As Norah fantasized about confronting Cassie, her rational self told her to mind her own business, to stop being bossy. She wondered if her relationship with Cassie was meant to teach her about herself. As a fan of psychoanalysis, she knew the importance of transference, relocating feelings from past relationships to present relationships. How we struggle through love and hate and getting along with people is rooted in early experience. Norah saw some commonalities between elements of her own problematic marriage and her knotty relationship with Cassie. She had to deal with Cassie’s moody ups and downs, the proverbial good times and bad times, the tension between leaving and staying in projects. The issues were eerily similar to those she had faced with Larry—divorce or stay? While Norah was convinced beyond a doubt that early developmental experiences shape human relationships, might it be possible to go farther and deeper? Could experiences from prior lives shape the evolution of current personality? What Freud and Jung saw as the unconscious might include memories of our previous lives. Was karma just another word for the opportunity to finish unfinished business? As she pondered these issues, Norah dropped off to sleep in her chair, with Kapono’s note in her hand.
Cassie
Cassie felt secure and snug sitting in her living room with fireplace flames crackling. Gazing at the empty armchair opposite her, she lamented Bill’s absence. She desperately needed him. What would he tell her to do if he were sitting right there in his chair? Would he say, “Bam, a rare opportunity is right in your face. A fabulously wealthy computer geek is asking to pay you to do some unusual research—and with your best buddy. What the hell are you waiting for?”
Utterly perplexed, Cassie struggled to make sense of her profound experience at the ahupua’a. Was it possible that her vivid memories emerged from a past life? Could her life predicaments today relate to a Hawaiian past in which she had to deal with a beloved husband who betrayed her? When Bill was alive, she had been the dependent doubter, and he had been the strong soother. Maybe her mission in life was to learn to trust, and his job was to learn not to enable. Was her fate connected to Norah’s, and maybe to Antonio’s and Alicia’s? Was she too inflexible and living in an empirically based world?
Cassie felt an inner pressure to make sense of her uncomfortable thoughts before she spoke with Norah. Bill would tell her to listen to her body. Pay attention to what it is doing. When she imagined herself remaining on the project, her muscles relaxed. When she pictured herself separating from it, she fretted and her muscles tensed up. She conceded that she could no longer dismiss Norah’s ideas as silly jabber. Was her husband sending a message? She so wished she could speak with him once more. She began a dialogue with the empty chair, bringing his presence back in her imagination. “Honey, is there a purpose and a plan in life? Do you think life experiences help a person evolve into a next life? Does the evolution of each life advance humanity toward a loftier state of being? If so, does this imply that purposive intelligence exists? But my big question, honey, is this: Is exploring these unscientific ideas about reincarnation as valid and worthy as making hard-core scientific discoveries?”
Cassie mused as she heard Bill’s voice in her head humorously offset her ruminative dialogue with, “Ha, no way is exploring the supernatural as valid and useful as the science that created the atomic bomb that annihilated the men, women and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. See how much more hard-core that science is? It’s a no-brainer. Stick with science.” Whenever he made these witty but disruptive retorts to her questions, she had felt a jolt, as if she had been pushed off a cliff. She conjured up Bill’s sparkling blue eyes and wept again, missing him to the core of her being. Her heart hurt. She wiped away her tears and was compelled to say out loud to herself, “If you were honest with yourself, Dr. Cassie, you would have to answer, ‘Undoubtedly, yes. Yes, reincarnation is a subject matter worthy of my life’s energy.’”
She would call Norah in the morning to decide on a time to discuss possibilities. Sensing a warm and comforting presence around her, she dropped into a dreamy sleep. She did not need to choose any path just yet. She would wait until tomorrow to make a final decision.