Snow Falling on Cedars Chapter 25

Hatsue is called to the witness stand. She looks beautiful and calm, but inside she is in turmoil. She remembers that when Kabuo came home from the war he had nightmares and there was a darkness to him which she gradually came to accept. He told her he meant to buy back his parents' land as soon as he could. He was furious at Etta Heine and at the way their lives had been upset by the internment. For years he tried desperately to make enough money to buy back the land, but he was not a very successful fisherman. Hatsue hoped that he would be softened by the births of his children. She did not want to always be waiting for something better--she wanted to be comfortable with what she had. Nels Gudmundsson questions Hatsue about what her husband seemed to think about his conversation with Carl the day before he died. She says that he seemed hopeful--that he felt Carl would do what was right and sell the land back to the Miyamotos. The morning of Carl's death, Kabuo had come home saying that he had gone onto Carl's boat and given Carl a battery (Carl's was dead) and that they had agreed on a price for the land. Kabuo, testifies Hatsue, was thrilled that the land was going to be Miyamoto property again. "But later that day...a clerk at Petersen's told Hatsue about the terrible accident that had befallen Carl Heine." Chapter 25, pg. 368