Pull quote: “I don’t know how to tell you this, but that was not me.”
We made a date to meet on a Sunday morning at eight o’clock at Tanouye’s, the landmark drive-in on the leeward side. He described himself and I described myself. He said he was a big Hawaiian guy. So, on a Sunday morning at eight o’clock, I drove up and saw a big Hawaiian guy by himself at the outdoor seating area at Tanouye’s.
“Hi, I’m Nanette Purnell. Are you Wayne Davis?”
He said he was, and I sat down and started talking story, just chatting, you know, about this and that.
And then we went driving around in my car for three hours, and we visited about twelve different graveyards, many I had never seen before--in the back valleys and really out-of-the-way places. He was terrific; he really knew where to find the old Hawaiian graveyards.
We did this for three hours, and I got back to Tanouye’s and dropped him off.
The next day I was writing a thank-you note and got a phone call. I picked up and this man’s voice said, “Nanette, this is Wayne Davis.”
“Oh, Wayne,” I said, “thank you again for taking me around. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot.”
And he said, “What are you talking about?” And then he said, “ Where were you yesterday?”
“Wayne,” I said, “are you trying to pull my leg?” I thought he was making a joke. All of a sudden it hit me, and I started getting chicken skin on my arms, and I said, “Wait a minute. I’m confused. Wayne, did you go with me yesterday?”
He said, “No, I went there and waited for more than an hour and nobody showed up.”
Then the hair on my neck stood up. I literally got chicken skin up and down my spine, and I got scared.
“Wayne, don’t joke with me, this isn’t funny. I went there at eight o’clock and met a man who said he was Wayne Davis, and he got in my car and he took me to all the graves for three hours.”
“Nanette, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that was not me.”
It wasn’t funny to me now. “Were you there or not?” I demanded.
“I wasn’t there,” he said. “I called because I just wanted to find out what happened to you.”
He said he arrived late for our appointment and waited, but I never showed up so he went home.
I still don’t know who took me around, and it really bothered me, so about a month later I talked to this kupuna and told her the story, and she told me to think of it this way, that maybe the ancestors were calling on me, sort of like an ‘aumakua.
“The old Hawaiians wanted you to know where they are,” she said. After that I felt good about it.
Several months later, at a function, a saw a man with a name tag that read “Hi, I’m Wayne Davis,” and I introduced myself. It was the real Wayne Davis all right, at least he said he was.