Spoils of Eden (2 page)

Nearing the road she paused, lifting a hand to shield her view. Yes, he was there. Ling Li, the Chinese driver of a horse-drawn hackney, was parked beneath some palms, waiting. Ling was a well-known driver who catered to the Kalihi staff. Eden always tipped him well, knowing there were ten youngsters in his family hut at Kea Lani, the Derrington family sugar plantation. Today, however, she was going to Hawaiiana Plantation to meet with Rafe Easton about Kip, the baby boy he was planning to adopt.

As she approached Ling’s hackney, a voice called out. “Eden, wait!”

Recognizing the voice of Lana Stanhope, the chief nurse in the leprosy research department—and also her aunt—she tensed, suspecting the worst. The two influential doctors must have changed the Board’s decision. Distressed, she clutched her bag and turned.

Aunt Lana had arrived from San Francisco some months ago, after resigning her head teaching post on tropical diseases at the nursing school where Eden had graduated. When Lana, after much prayer and heart searching, accepted the position of working with Dr. Bolton in his quest to control the spread of leprosy in the islands, Eden had greeted the decision with joyous satisfaction. For, while her aunt would be working with Dr. Bolton, Eden, hired as her assistant, would be furthering her own knowledge as well.

Matters were coming together so well, Eden had thought at the time, until the man she loved, Rafe Easton, threw down the gauntlet in frustration. Was she to become his beloved wife and mother of their children, or risk her life as a nurse in the infamous Molokai leper colony?

Eden was dismayed. She had quietly planned during her nursing studies to work at her father’s side when he returned from his world travels researching a cure for leprosy. Her beloved father, Dr. Jerome Derrington, was on extended leave from his staff position at Kalihi. The Hawaiian king, Kalakaua, had generously sponsored her father’s travels, but after Kalakaua’s death, the sponsorship revenue had dried up. Now the king’s sister, Liliuokalani, was on the throne, though it was doubtful news of this had reached Dr. Jerome.

Rafe was right about one thing—she could not fulfill the roles of two women. Rafe was not a doctor, and he would not be living on Molokai.
His
ambitions lay elsewhere. She knew she should either follow his lead in marriage or remain single, and so she and Rafe had mutually agreed to end their engagement. A smile graced her lips as she remembered that warm, romantic evening when they’d walked the sands of Waikiki and he’d placed the diamond ring on her finger. The fact that it no longer sparkled there pained her. Confused at times, Eden struggled with her heart, and with her faith. A day did not go by without her asking God for guidance. There were times when she could not sleep at night for fear of losing the one man she had loved and wanted since she was a young girl. And there the
conflict stood, unyielding; and while they knew of their love for one another, the emotional tension between them remained.

Eden’s emotions churned as Aunt Lana hurried down the hospital steps. She should be the one to meet with Rafe over the Board’s decision. If she could not show her concern now, he might become convinced that her professed feelings for him were shallow. She must not allow him to believe that!

Lana Stanhope, now in her thirties, had remained unmarried after a bitter disappointment with Dr. Bolton many years earlier. Eden believed, or at least hoped, that the old love between them had not truly perished amid the struggles of life and might still emerge like a seed during springtime thaw. Perhaps she was a sentimentalist. Perhaps she wanted to believe this of Lana and Dr. Bolton because they alerted her to what might be awaiting her and Rafe. She longed for happy endings, but knew enough Scripture to know there can be no happy endings apart from yielding to God’s greater purposes. One could not sow seeds of willfulness and expect a harvest of purpose and peace. She also knew that a decision to obey God did not always bring a bountiful harvest in this short life, but sometimes awaited that hour when believers were rewarded at the
bema
seat of Christ.

Lana hurried toward her, carrying a small parcel. She was a tall, willowy woman, with thick honey-colored hair rolled up at the back of her neck. As she approached, Eden sympathetically noticed lines of fatigue at the corners of her hazel eyes.

“What a morning,” Lana moaned, pushing strands of hair back into place. “My mind’s in a whirl. This humidity is wilting me.” She thrust the small parcel, tied with string, into Eden’s hand.

“Since you’re going to Hawaiiana, bring this to Great-aunt Nora, will you? It’s her prescription from Dr. Bolton. She’ll be at Rafe’s, visiting with his mother.”

Eden stared at the parcel, then cast a glance toward the hospital. “Great-aunt Nora’s prescription? That’s all?”

“Yes. That’s all—for the moment. After you left, there was some
discussion as to whether it was appropriate for you to represent them. Dr. Bolton won them over, however reluctantly. Eden, I don’t like the situation you’re facing. It might be wiser if I go as the Board’s representative. Rafe Easton will be angry about what’s happened and it’s best if you’re not associated with it.”

“Lana, please don’t. We’ve already been over this. I’ve explained to both you and Dr. Bolton how I must be the one to see Rafe about Kip. If I don’t go to explain, he’ll believe I don’t care. I need to handle this.” Though Eden kept her voice professionally calm, there was no way to fool Lana about her feelings for Rafe. The matter at hand was tearing her in two, and Lana knew only too well the signs of an injured heart—since she herself had carried one for years.

“I won’t let them down,” Eden assured her. She tightened one hand into a fist behind her back. They believed she lacked the professional fortitude to send a baby to the leper colony. Were they right?
Could I really send Kip back to the leper colony?

“Of course you won’t let us down,” Lana said. “Dr. Bolton made it clear to them that you can be trusted. After all, if you’re willing to work with your father when he returns from India, you surely have the courage to follow through on this.”

Eden felt a prick. Her aunt’s boast might not be as correct as they both hoped.

When
her father returned, Lana had said. More like
if
her father returned!

Her heart thumped with emotion. Yes, he would return to Honolulu, just as she had always believed he would. How she had longed for and cherished those few letters he had sent from faraway places. Upon his return, she wanted Dr. Jerome Derrington to become in actuality what he was to her genetically. A father.
Her
father!

“You know, don’t you, that Rafe will insist on knowing who informed the Board that Kip came from the Molokai leper colony?” Eden said.

Lana shook her head with frustration. “I know. But you saw the message that arrived for Dr. Bolton. We both did.”

Yes, and shed written the words down. Even so, Rafe would not let the matter end there. Of that Eden was certain.

When Rafe’s merchant ship, the
Minoa
, had anchored in Honolulu last year after a two-year voyage to French Guiana, few knew there was something even more valuable than prized pineapple slips on board.
A baby boy
. Rafe had kept Kip alive by instructing the cook to prepare a canteen with the thumb from a leather glove tied at the opening, with a hole poked through it, so the baby could drink milk supplied by the ship’s goat. Once safe in Honolulu Rafe had allowed a story to circulate that baby Kip was his nephew.

At the time, Eden had been distraught over the new child and could not accept Rafe’s explanation. Later, asking for her avowed silence, Rafe secretly informed her Kip came from Molokai. Rafe had put in there to rendezvous with her father. Her father did not arrive for the meeting, however; a baby did. It was left abandoned on the beach.

Unable to walk away and leave the baby to the incoming tide, Rafe checked him all over for leprosy, saw no visible signs, and brought him aboard his vessel. Now Kip was like a son, and Rafe planned to adopt him. Yet, Kip posed a risk, and she must be the one to deliver the Board’s decision that Kip must be returned to … a fate so heartbreaking she could not bear the thought.

“All right then, Eden,” Lana was saying. “The matter about Rafe and Kip is in your hands. And remember,” she added, tapping the parcel, “make certain your great-aunt takes her prescription this time. The directions are inside. It’s just the regular dosages at morning and bedtime.”

One of the nurses came out from the hospital and called for Lana, saying that Dr. Bolton needed to see her. As her aunt hurried back to her duties, Eden walked to the hackney that would bring her to Hawaiiana … and her meeting with Rafe Easton.

Ling Li and his ramshackle hackney sat waiting by a line of coconut palms. Of slight build, and wearing a straw-colored tunic and knee-pants, he climbed down from the driver’s seat as Eden approached and offered her a cheerful grin and several short bows. His sing-song greeting seemed as cheerful to Eden’s ears as the trill of the tropical birds. He knew many of the hospital staff from driving them around Honolulu.

For months she’d been planting seeds of Scripture in his mind, offering prayers that Ling would come to trust the only One who could save his precious soul. So far, her seed-sowing had not borne fruit.

“You have happy day, Miss Eden,” was his usual pleasant greeting.

“Thank you, Ling. Please bring me to the mission church. From there I’ll walk to Hawaiiana.”

Eden lifted the hem of her gray dress from around her high-button shoes and stepped up into the hackney. As she sank onto the sagging, horsehair-upholstered seat, the old sway-backed horse moved slowly down the street in the direction of Pearl River.

Above the clocking of horse hooves she began her conversation with a few scriptural truths. She had grown attached to the good-humored old man and was anxious about his soul. Ling would merely grin and taunt her with his light-hearted dismissals. “Woman preaching. Woman preaching no good.”

“Then when will you come to the mission church to hear Ambrose teach the men?” she asked. “They meet in his hut each Monday night at seven. He tells them many important things from God. Don’t you want to know what they are?”

Eden smiled at the old man when he rubbed his nose. “No food there,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “Noelani not cook like wife.”

Noelani, Ambrose’s wife, was a
hapa-haole
. Her father had been a Yankee whaler out of New Bedford, and her mother claimed a relationship with a royal cousin, though that could never be proven.

Eden knew that Ling Li was teasing her about Noelani’s
cooking, for she was known as a most excellent cook, and on Monday nights she served the most delicious coconut cake in the islands.

“You fib, Ling Li. You come on Monday. And how are all your children? Are they and your wife well?”

He wrinkled his brow, shaking his head. “Mother of Ling Li’s sons is well. Youngest son, he not well.”

Eden came alert. “What’s wrong with number seven son?”

“Number seven son have bad pain in head, and he hot with fever. Sick since he go to Rat Alley.”

Rat Alley, the area in Honolulu where the Chinese sugar cane workers lived, packed together in lean-to shacks, had rats in abundance. They came from the wharf’s shipping business and had the potential to spread sicknesses from all ports of the world.

Eden tensed at this news. “Where is he now? I will come see him. Bring me to him.”

Ling Li shook his head. “Can no do, Miss Eden. He go to Rat Alley to be with Great-uncle Woo. Woo good doctor. Great-uncle take care for number seven son. He have ancient medicine from Shanghai.” He added slyly, “Much older than
haole
medicine.”

“Nevertheless, I should look at him too. Maybe the haole medicine can help your son get well. You bring your son to Kea Lani this afternoon.”

He sucked through his teeth as he considered. “He with Great-uncle Woo. Have plenny work. I come tomorrow morning. Mebbe.”

She decided she would send a message to Lana to follow through, just in case Ling didn’t bring his son to Kea Lani.

“Number seven son not have
mai Pake
,” he said, meaning leprosy.

She understood why he would try to assure her of this. Native Hawaiians called leprosy by the Chinese name,
mai Pake
. Since the disease had at first been associated with the arrival of Chinese workers on the sugar plantations, the native Hawaiians called leprosy a “Chinese curse.” The Chinese sugar workers preferred to be left to the ancient wisdom of their medicine men, who sold treatments to
the afflicted, usually herbs or Black Rhino horn ground into a powder. The rhino horn cured nothing, but it did require the death of an African rhino for nothing more than his horn!

As for blaming the Chinese for bringing leprosy to the Hawaiian islands, Eden believed this was probably unfair, since the medical profession did not know for certain where the first cases had come from. All they knew was that the disease had been on the islands before the first missionaries arrived from America. Such diseases had a way of traveling from port to port around the world. She was well aware that there was ample sin for the blame to be shared by all, for the Scriptures clearly taught that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s righteousness.