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woman, my mama’s confirmation wreath was taken down from the wall of the church.
     It was like a condemnation.”
    “But it wasn’t Grandmother who left her husband,” Materena says.
    “That didn’t matter.” Loana shakes her head. “My mama died with her wedding ring on her finger. Her wedding photograph was
     glued in her suitcase and I caught her looking at it so many times… so many times. She was obsessed.”
    “With her husband?”
    Loana looks at Materena in the eyes. “With being married.” She sighs a long sigh filled with sadness. “Marriage,” she says.
     “It’s . . .” But Loana doesn’t continue. She gets up.
    She’s going to the cemetery to talk to her mama. Materena proposes to go with her but Loana doesn’t want any other company
     except the company of her mama.
    “We’ll continue taping another night,” she says. “I’ll see you at the cemetery on Saturday morning.”
    “Sure, Mamie.” Materena hugs her mother one more time.
    In two days it will be Kika’s birthday. She would have been eighty-one years.
    Materena labels the tape Kika, My Grandmother. Then she puts the tape in her box of things that are very important—like her
     children’s birth certificates.

The Peg
    K ika is eighty-one years old today.
    “Eh, eh,” Materena whispers, making her grandmother a bouquet, “if only Grandmère was alive today. That would have been so
     nice for Mamie.” Materena steps back to take a good look at the bouquet, asking herself if she should move the red
opuhi
a bit more to the left and, perhaps, add a few more white
pitate
flowers. She squints.
    Something is missing in this bouquet. It’s a beautiful bouquet, made with love and affection, a bouquet consisting of flowers
     growing in Materena’s garden, but the bouquet is not yet finished. There’s a missing ingredient. So Materena continues to
     study the bouquet until she notices her eldest son waving a hand in front of her face.
    “You’re dreaming or what, Mamie?” he asks.
    “
Non,
I was —”
    Tamatoa interrupts his mother to deliver the strange news. “Leilani has a peg on her nose. She’s in her bedroom. I saw the
     peg on her nose with my eyes.” Tamatoa shows his mother his eyes to show her that he’s speaking the truth here.
    What is that girl doing with a peg on her nose? Materena is concerned. The idea that comes into her mind is that Leilani is
     playing a game that has to do with respiration.
    Materena goes to investigate the situation. The door is half-open and Materena barges into the bedroom. Leilani is lying on
     her bed—a pink peg on her nose. She sees her mother and automatically takes the peg off.
    “What is this peg-on-the-nose story?” Materena asks.
    “Nothing.” Leilani gives Tamatoa the
tiho-tiho parau
look.
    “Ah, so you just felt like pinching your nose with a peg today, eh?” Materena knows Leilani’s answer is going to be a yes
     because a yes will mean the end of this interrogation.
    Leilani’s answer is a murmur. “Yes.”
    Now, Materena accepts the fact that her kids don’t want to explain every single thing to their mamie, because some things
     are secret. But that peg on the nose, it is really intriguing her.
    “Just tell me about that peg, I’m not going to get cranky at you.”
    Silence. Leilani stares at the ceiling.
    Materena insists on knowing if the peg on the nose has something to do with respiration.
    “A game that has something to do with respiration?” Leilani is almost laughing.
    “So, is it or not?” Materena asks.
    “
Non!
”
    “Okay. What is the story, then?” Materena sits on the bed.
    Tamatoa, standing at the door, briefs his mamie on the situation. The peg has something to do with Leilani wanting her nose
     to be pointed.
    “Shut it!” Leilani looks like she’s going to stab her brother with her eyes.
    Materena commands Tamatoa to disappear and to close the door. She also warns him in advance that if she ever catches him listening
     in to a