Chapter two begins in 1892. Health Inspector Nakamura visits the home of Uncle Pono. Uncle Pono is not at home, but Nakamura sees an extra place set at the dinner table. Nakamura looks around in the area near the house, and then he climbs on top of a tractor to get a better view. Some workers have started a fire in the cane field, and as the fire spreads, Nakamura sees cane stalks move as someone runs in the field to escape the fire. Nakamura jumps from the tractor and runs to tackle a man staggering from the cane field. The man is Uncle Pono.
Henry Kalama, Rachel's father, arrives home in time for Christmas, but Rachel is still sad because her Uncle Pono is not present. Uncle Pono has been confined at the Kalihi Receiving Station. At night Rachel and Sarah can hear their father crying.
Rachel decides to pretend to make soup, and one of the "ingredients" she uses is Sarah's favorite felt hat. Sarah is furious, and the next day she takes Rachel's matryoshka doll. Rachel sees Sarah after school, and the two begin fighting. When Rachel gets home her mother sees how dirty she is, and while Dorothy cleans Rachel she sees blood on the back of Rachel's leg. Dorothy traces the blood up Rachel's leg to a cut near a blemish. While Dorothy cleans the cut she is surprised that Rachel does not flinch in pain.
After two weeks the blemish has still not healed, so Dorothy visits a kahuna, a practitioner of native remedies. The kahuna gives Dorothy some medicine, and Dorothy uses it for the next five days. The blemish disappears, and Dorothy is overjoyed.
Two weeks later the blemish reappears.
The entire family gathers for a ho'oponopono, an occasion which translates as "setting to right." They want to find out what they might have done to cause Rachel's sickness. During the meeting Henry says that before Rachel was born he had a dream that told him he should name his daughter Aouli, blue vault of heaven. Henry did not mention the dream because he knew Dorothy wanted all of the children to have Christian names. The family decides to begin calling Rachel by the name Aouli, and then they have a feast.
