Silent tears roll down Materena’s cheeks. Materena also understands, but it doesn’t mean she knows whom Tapeta should move. Part of Materena thinks the baby should be moved so that he can be with both his parents, and part of Materena thinks the mother should be moved so she can be with all her family. But then Tapeta won’t be able to visit her mother every Saturday as she’s been doing for years. Ah, it’s a shame Auntie Reri wasn’t more specific in the dream. What about Uncle Julien?
“Have you asked your father for advice?” Materena asks.
“He’s a man,” Tapeta snorts. “You don’t talk about babies to men. You talk about the gas bottle and the lawn, not babies.”
Materena sighs a long, sad sigh. She would probably have laughed at Tapeta’s comment if her man hadn’t abandoned her with one son born and one daughter on the way. She would have said, “Ah, you’re right, Cousin, men are hopeless with babies. All they know is how to make them, eh?” Materena and Tapeta would have had a good chuckle. But right now, Materena is crying.
“Cousin?” Tapeta looks at Materena closely. “Ah well, it’s a sad story, I’m sorry I told you about it. But don’t worry, I’m going to see Mama at the cemetery today and ask her to give me a few more details next time.” Tapeta explains that her mother has always been vague anyway. When Tapeta would ask her mother where the soap was, she’d say, “There.” If Tapeta had the bad luck to ask, “There? Where?” she’d earn herself a hand on the back. “She’s never been able to tell me things as they are,” Tapeta says. “It’s about time she learns.”
And with this Tapeta apologizes to her cousin for having kept her for too long.
P
ito has been gone for eighteen days now. It’s time to get up and move on.
To give herself strength Materena thinks about Auntie Antoinette, the mother of Rita, Materena’s favorite cousin. Antoinette fell on the ground and cried her eyes out when her husband went to get the newspaper and didn’t come back for days. But when Antoinette’s sister, Mama George, saw him at the market with another woman (they were holding hands and kissing like crazy people) and told the whole population, Antoinette stopped crying.
After she stopped crying, Antoinette shoved all of her ex-husband’s things (shirts, shaving brush, ties, thongs, shorts, etc.) into a box and left it by the side of the road with a note saying Free, Please Take. The box was gone within seconds. She then painted the doors in her house blue, took down the white curtains her ex-husband had insisted on, and replaced them with colorful curtains as her sister Teresia had told her to do years ago. She bought a vase and made a bouquet of flowers for the first time in her life. Before, when Antoinette had seen a bouquet of flowers in a vase, she’d say, “Eh well, poor flowers, I wouldn’t like to be you.” For Antoinette, at the time, anyway, flowers were for the earth and not for the vase. But now she displayed her bouquet of flowers in the living room for everyone to see, facing the front door so that the first thing she’d see when she opened it would be her beautiful bouquet. Antoinette got up after her fall and moved on with her life.
Materena intends to do this, but she’s not having Father Unknown written on her daughter’s birth certificate. That’s the only reason Materena has to see Pito. She doesn’t care if there’s another woman on Pito’s horizon. It isn’t going to change the situation.
Materena admits to her daughter in the womb that she’s a bit worried about being a single mother. When she smells Pito’s pillow her heart aches, it is a crucifix for her. But women are real strong creatures, she assures the baby, they can survive anything—flood, fatigue, separation, single parenthood. They’re tough.
So her man has abandoned her and their baby son, Tamatoa, and, yes, she’s heartbroken. But it doesn’t mean she’s going to lie on the ground for days and days. It’s time to get up and march on! For some reason, Materena suddenly feels very strong. It’s like someone is whispering into her ears, “Eh, don’t worry, everything is going to be all right.”
The previous week Materena had been prepared to go and see Pito at his work to say sorry and ask him to come home, kiss him and hold him tight. She got all dressed up. But a voice inside her head shouted, “Materena, don’t you dare do that! If Pito loves you he’ll come back. Let him show you what he really feels for you.” To resist the temptation Materena raked the leaves, she needed to do that, there were yellow breadfruit leaves all over the place, and no dignified Tahitian would have leaves rotting away in the garden. Leaves must be raked and then burned, which is exactly what Materena did. The smoke did her good, it was like she was burning the past, moving on. After that, she planted a tamarind tree, she marked the day, the day when she got up and walked.
“Men . . . they’re such
cons,
” Materena goes on to her daughter. But all the same there’s no need to turn into a man hater like Auntie Antoinette.
Even all these years after losing her man, every day Auntie Antoinette has a reason to exclaim, “Ah, men! They’re such
cons!
” If she sees a man walking in front with a woman following a few steps behind, she’ll say, “Watch that
con,
he has to walk in front, he has to show to the whole population that he’s the king, that it’s him who decides.” She never thinks that maybe the man is walking in front because his woman told him off last night. That she screamed at him that he was an idiot and that she should have listened to her mother. Maybe the man and the woman don’t even know each other.
A man and a woman have eight children, Auntie Antoinette declares how the man is an animal, how he forced his woman and all she wanted to do was sleep. What a
con!
A man falls asleep during Mass, what a
con,
continue to live in obscurity.
Never complain to Auntie Antoinette about your man. She’ll only say to you, “Well, it’s you who’s the idiot. What are you doing with him? What have you got in your head? Rocks?”
Materena is determined not to turn into a man hater. She knows that not all men are
cons.
Materena certainly hopes that she and Pito will remain good friends. It’s important for the children.
That is what she told Pito’s best friend, Ati, when he came to visit yesterday after having been away for a month in the islands. He’s the only person who knows that Pito has left (and for a question of pay). Ati was so cranky with Pito. When he visited her he said, “Materena, Pito is blind, he doesn’t know what he’s got.” Then Ati took Materena in his arms and held her tight. A bit too tight, Materena thought, and who knows what would have happened if Tamatoa hadn’t started to cry.
Before Ati left, he told Materena that he was going to visit her again later on in the evening, but Materena told him it was better that he didn’t. She didn’t want people to start talking. She had to tell the family about Pito and everything first.
Aue,
Materena says to her baby. She can’t keep lying to the family that Pito is looking after his sick mama. Sooner or later the relatives are going to put two and two together, smell the rat, start talking, investigate, hold meetings outside the Chinese store and whisper to one another. As soon as Materena walks past they’ll talk louder about a curry recipe, wave to her and call out, “Eh, Cousin! You’re fine? Pito’s mama is still sick?” Later on, with Materena far away enough, the investigation will continue. “Like I was saying to you,” they’ll whisper.
Materena is well aware of this. She’s not Tahitian for nothing.
Oh, it’s not as if her relatives are after a juicy story because they’re so bored. But they want to know where they stand. They’re getting a bit sick of calling out to Materena to see if Pito’s mama is fine, not counting the fact that they’re by now very concerned for Mama Roti.
There will be many shocked relatives when Materena confesses the truth, how Pito left for a question of pay. How he left because he didn’t want his mates at work to make fun of him. So many relatives have said to Pito, “Ah, Pito . . . the day Materena packs your bags and sends you back to your mama, I’m not going to be surprised.”
But here, he packed his bags himself and took off. He disappeared.
As for Mama Roti, she’s in very good health.
It’s time to inform the population, starting with her mother, although Materena suspects her mother already knows the situation. Loana has been around a few times lately, bringing boxes of food along. She’s also slept over twice. She said, “Ah, it’s so nice for me to have a bit of company, it’s so much better than to listen to that guy with the nice voice talk on the radio.” Loana went on about how some mothers can’t live with their children once they’ve moved out, but she could, and easily too. Materena feels the same way about this, but she’d still rather live with the father of her children than her mother.
Well anyway, it’s time to tell the truth.
But first Materena is going to put Pito’s Akim comics in the trash along with his toothbrush and his old things. Then she’s going to move the sofa to where the wardrobe is and move the wardrobe to where the sofa is. No need to change the curtains, they’re already colorful. Materena would never have white curtains, they get dirty too easily. As for a bouquet of flowers . . . well, there’s a plant. It’s been there from day one in this house, and Materena likes to see it the moment she opens the front door, and so she intends to leave it as it is because it’s not good to move plants around. If they’re happy where they are, leave them alone. She might replace the linoleum with carpet. But first, she must see Pito.
Baby Tamatoa is with Loana, who said, “Don’t rush coming home, girl . . . If you want to go to the cinema, go to the cinema, here’s a bit of money. If you want to go visit your mother-in-law, go visit your mother-in-law, no worries.”
There, Materena is ready to confront Pito. She checks herself in front of the mirror one more time. Yes, she tells herself, she looks fine, not too much rouge on the cheeks, hair neat in a bun, and . . . Materena looks closer into the mirror. She can’t believe how pretty she is today . . . But! She’s really blossoming!
Okay, off she goes.
She swirls out of the house, closes the door, and marches ahead, and . . . is that Mama Roti under the mango tree next to the petrol station? In a coat? But
oui!
And she’s talking to Mama George and Auntie Stella and a few of Materena’s other aunties. No doubt they’re asking her if she’s feeling better. And no doubt Mama Roti is telling them that she doesn’t know what they’re going on about.
Oh, la-la,
Materena is just about to turn around and run back inside the house when Mama George spots her.
“Materena!”
Now Mama Roti also starts calling out to Materena.
In fact, they’re all calling out to Materena, so Materena keeps on walking to face the music.
“
Iaorana,
Aunties,” Materena sings, kissing each of them, starting with the eldest auntie.
Now the ex-mother-in-law. “
Iaorana,
Mama Roti. You’re fine?”
Mama Roti does her
air de pitié
and moans that
oui,
she’s fine, but yesterday she thought she was going to die. She had a 104-degree temperature, and she was so cold, and the day before yesterday she had a 102-degree temperature, and she was so cold. She is still cold, that’s why she’s wearing a coat. It belongs to one of her cousins, who was married to a Frenchman, though they’re divorced now. On and on Mama Roti goes about her fever, 102 degrees, 107 degrees. Luckily her son Pito was looking after his poor dying mama. He cooked her soups, he buttered her bread, checked her temperature in the middle of the night.
“
Ah oui?
” Materena says, thinking that Pito is so nice.
“
Oui,
” Mama Roti confirms, looking for a moment like she’s about to cry. Then, doing her cranky look, she continues. “My other sons? Them! They’re a bunch of no-hearts.” She gives more information about how Pito looked after her so tenderly . . . Ah . . . bless the day he was born . . . bless the day he was conceived, etc., etc. . . . “Okay,
au revoir,
” Mama Roti says suddenly to Materena’s aunties in the middle of her praises for her son, dismissing them with the back of her hand. Then, grabbing Materena by the shoulder: “I need to ask you to do something for me, girl, let’s go inside the house.”
Materena and Mama Roti go inside the house and sit on the sofa.
“How’s Pito?” Materena asks.
“Oh, he’s fine, I told him to stop worrying about me and to go back to you and his son, but he said, ‘Mama, you gave birth to me, I’m staying here until you feel better.’”
“Ah . . . and . . .” But Materena is not going to ask Mama Roti if Pito has told her about their fight. “Why do you need to talk to me, Mama Roti?” Materena asks.
“
Aue . . . ,
” Mama Roti moans. “Men sometimes . . . nothing in the coconut.”
Here’s the reason why Mama Roti needs Materena.
There’s a confrontation planned this afternoon at the Pic Rouge between the Tehanas and the Piris, and Pito is getting ready to defend the honor of the family.
Aue,
Mama Roti laments, she has done all she could to stop her son from going to the confrontation. She cried, she begged, she yelled, and Pito yelled back. So Mama Roti got out of her sickbed, borrowed her cousin’s coat, and hopped in the truck to come and talk to Materena. There was no point in Mama Roti asking the relatives for their help. All the women in the neighborhood were busy dealing with a son or a husband going off to war. Well anyway, Mama Roti is here because she counts on Materena to stop Pito from going to the confrontation.
“Eh, girl?” she says. “Come with me to the house and do your tricks on my son.”
Mama Roti cries silent tears, shaking her head and mumbling how men have nothing in the coconut sometimes. It’s not enough for Pito that his father broke his back at a confrontation, that he couldn’t play soccer anymore. When Mama Roti met Frank Tehana he was a soccer star. Months later she was pregnant and her man was in the hospital for an operation on his back. From that day on till the day he died Frank complained about his back every day, driving Mama Roti crazy . . .
Aue
eh . . .