Dainty Kua`ula Margin shells dangled from Jolie’s ears to brush her bare shoulders. The shells, a half-centimeter or so in length, reminded Eve of an infants fingernails. How many shells had the designer collected, pierced and strung to create each earring? Sixty, perhaps. Did she wear magnifying eyeglasses to poke threading holes in each tiny shell? Did she earn a living wage for her craft?

Meg has tucked a pair of similar earrings, not quite so long as Jolie’s, in a Koa wood box and given them to Eve as a gift,. Both the earrings and the box have a history important to aunt and niece; earrings signifying love, box with a history. Meg had received the box from the man she considered her one true love, the man whose last letter to her had gone missing. Meg believes the box will help lead Eve to that last letter, lost somewhere in the possessions Meg left behind when she moved from her Kailua home to independent living.