Moloka'i

The chapter opens at the Waimānalo Plantation, miles from Honolulu, where the health inspector Nakamura searches for possible cases of leprosy. As he approaches Kapono Kalama’s house, Pono’s wife, Margaret, tells the inspector that Pono (Henry’s brother) isn’t home. As the inspector surveys the house and the empty plate with food, he realizes that Mr. Kalama has gone into hiding. After setting some of the crops ablaze to smoke Pono out of hiding, the overseers help Nakamura find Pono, whose face bears a mark of leprosy.

Rachel remembers that Henry had come back to Honolulu before Christmas, and they heard in April 1892 that Nakamura had arrested Pono on suspicion of leprosy, and authorities were holding him at Kalihi Receiving Station. Rachel asks to visit, and both her parents refuse, before Dorothy makes her children swear not to mention Pono’s diagnosis.

After Henry leaves, Rachel and Sarah quarrel—Rachel makes a pretend soup using Sarah’s hat among other bits of inedible materials. Sarah avenges her hat by switching the clothes among the dolls in Rachel’s collection. As Sarah threatens to break one of Rachel’s dolls, they fight physically, and Dorothy checks Rachel’s wounds. Dorothy sees a small rash on Rachel’s left thigh, which bleeds but remains numb to any of Dorothy’s probing. Dorothy bandages it, worried that’s a sign of leprosy. After two weeks, Dorothy checks the wound again, finding the gash inside it healed. The rash remains with flaky skin, and Dorothy takes Rachel to a kahuna, a Hawaiian healer. Although Dorothy considers kahuna useless, a result of her staunch Christian faith, she realizes a haole (white or foreign) doctor will report Rachel to the authorities. She finds a Christian kahuna who prescribes a medicine and prayer, and, five days later, the mark disappeared.

Yet, the mark reappears two weeks later. Dorothy and Henry decide to pursue ho’oponopono, a ceremony to resolve resentment in a family, believing that these resentments manifest physically as Rachel’s mark. With Henry’s father Grandpa Maka presiding over the ceremony, Henry shares that he had a dream before Rachel’s birth, which gave him Rachel’s true name Aouli, or blue vault of heaven. Grandpa Maka questions why Henry ignored this dream and Henry explains that he didn’t want to upset his wife or her Christian faith. As they feast later, Grandpa Maka uses Rachel’s new name.

Rachel recounts how she must constantly wear to school a bandage on her left thigh to hide the discoloration there, and shoes to hide the painless mark on her left foot. Teased for wearing shoes, Rachel chafes at her mother’s orders, but obeys. Inspector Wyckoff, from the Health Department, visits and checks the hands of Rachel and the rest of the second-grade class. As he checks Rachel’s hand, she nervously taps her left foot, until he asks her not to, and then he remarks that her palms suggest she’ll have a long life. After checking Harry Woo, another student, Wyckoff takes Harry with him, and Harry doesn’t return to class.

When Henry returns from another voyage, he joins Dorothy at church, which he rarely does. The preacher, a middle-aged Hawaiian man, discusses leprosy in his sermon, criticizing the native people for their sins and linking leprosy to immorality after detailing the laws that require banishment to Kalaupapa and a liquidation of all the person’s property.

Following the sermon, Henry and Dorothy fight more frequently, as Dorothy blames Pono and his adultery for infecting their daughter, before discussing Henry’s own extramarital affairs. After their fight, Henry prays for his daughter’s recovery, unsure that God has heard him.

Rachel and Sarah fight two weeks later, pushing each other at recess. As their fight escalates, Sarah calls Rachel a leper. As Rachel runs away from school, she takes the trolley to King Street. After she returns home, she finds Wyckoff, the health inspector waiting for her. Taking her to the receiving station, they run tests on Rachel.

Remanded to the station, Rachel rooms with a girl named Francine and sees other children, all of whom exhibit signs of leprosy. Rachel also sees Pono, who remains at the receiving station, covered with sores and walking with a cane.

Dorothy and Henry find a notice of quarantine on their house after Wyckoff takes Rachel to the receiving station. Their neighbors avoid them, so Dorothy tries harder to engage with her neighbors. Dorothy stops going to church after the organizer of the Christmas bake sale refuses Dorothy’s cake. As Henry visits Rachel, Pono asks about his children, noting how long it has been since he’s seen them. He swears his wife Margaret will divorce him, as he confesses that he will be sent to the leper colony of Kalaupapa on Moloka’i Island.

After Pono leaves for Moloka’i, a contingent of American soldiers arrive, and Henry worries about their presence in Honolulu. The American-controlled Committee for Public Safety organizes against the queen, and, with the blessing of the American Ambassador and the American troops, the Provisional Government takes over. News of the queen’s deposition soon spreads.

A doctor examines Rachel again, reassessing her condition. Touching close to her genitals, the doctor hurts Rachel, who grabs his genitals as revenge. Soon after, Dorothy and Henry receive official notice that Rachel will go to Moloka’i. Although both Dorothy and Henry want to go with her to take care of her, neither can. Henry realizes he has to work, and Dorothy has to remain with her other children. Pono will have to care for Rachel.

US President Grover Cleveland denounces the ouster of Hawaii’s queen but fails to return her to power, and the Provisional Government proclaims the creation of the Republic of Hawaii.

As Rachel leaves abroad the steamer to Moloka’i, she sees her family, cries, and briefly touches her mother, as Dorothy stands on the dock.