Hawaiian Honeymoon Homicide

May 2013

I couldn’t have been more excited as we boarded the twelve-passenger Mokulele Airlines prop plane from Honolulu to Molokai, Hawaii. I felt refreshed after spending the night in Honolulu following yesterday’s all-day flight.

I said to Steve, “Poke me so I know I’m not dreaming.”

He kissed me instead, which I loved, but that didn’t settle it for me. I still felt like it had all been one big dream.

Kara, my sister-in-law, hit me on the head from her seat behind me. “If you two don’t stop kissing across the aisle, you’re going to make us look bad.”

I laughed. “Well, with these single-seat rows, we don’t have too many options now, do we?”

My brother, Michael, piped up. “You’d better take advantage of your alone time now. Remember, you guys picked the short straw, and we got the cabin to ourselves.”

I groaned. “Okay, this isn’t the normal honeymoon, but it’s going to be amazing. Besides, you needed the second bedroom for Kelly anyway.” Bringing your five-month-old on your honeymoon also struck me as a bit unusual, but there were no rules anymore. They were late additions, and I couldn’t be happier that they came with us.

My sister, Sabine, kneeled, turned around on the seat in front of me, and smiled. “I can’t wait to arrive at our cabine. Thank you so much for invitant us.” She and Mark had gotten married at a small family ceremony a week after we did, and we delayed our honeymoon a week to accommodate their schedule. They had planned on waiting until their house construction was completed, but when the project completion date was postponed until early fall, they finally gave in and tied the knot. Much to my surprise, at forty-three, Sabine planned to start a family. Who knew?

So, three couples and a baby were headed to Hawaii’s smallest and most remote island for a week of rest and relaxation. Hawaii had been Steve’s idea, but the thought of vacationing with thousands of suntanned blonde bombshells didn’t appeal to me, so I started researching to find a suitable alternative to Maui and Waikiki.

When I found out that Molokai touted itself as the “Hawaii of fifty years ago,” I knew this had to be the place for me. But I wasn’t one to sit around, especially while on vacation, and I’d been on the website every day for weeks, searching for things to do. So far, I’d come up with snorkeling, scuba diving, taking a mule ride on the Kalaupapa Sea Cliff Trail, sailing to Lanai, playing golf on the island’s only course, boogie boarding—since I couldn’t imagine learning to surf in the short time we’d be here—visiting the ancient Hawaiian heiau temple, mountain biking, kayaking, and hiking in a rainforest.

That represented the cheap stuff. If we decided to splurge, airplane or helicopter tours were an option. Either way, it didn’t seem like we would run out of things to do. And if we did, we could always fly back to civilization and visit one or two of the more populated islands for a day.