by Albert Wendt
receiving his people’s miraculous cargo and you know what happened
when Maifea’s? relatives and their cargo arrived …
No he doesn’t and neither do you! Vela interrupted callously
Vela had no right enjoying the priest’s suffering I decided
I was in the action with my own feelings reactions observations
and the right to make decisions and influence outcomes
Enough of my utterly egotistical self-centred adopted father taking
me for granted as his obedient arselicking chronicler!
So what really happened? I confronted him and he blinked realising
his ego had betrayed him Yes Mr Patel what did happen?
High noon the sun stood directly above us and even the dogs
were slinking into the panting shade as Vela struggled to invent
his way out of my conundrum and Father Macdonald hoped for release
from his self-destructive addiction to a Goddess of incredible sensuality
knowledge and utter disregard for pitiful whining lovers like him
Like when my wife had betrayed me and I’d known the depths of dying
According to Vela Vela-as-Patel began his escape some of Nafanua’s
own congregation who’d seen the Papalagi and their work
in other districts invited the Catholics into Falealupo
Who were the traitors? I pursued him Yes who? Father Macdonald echoed
He didn’t say Vela evaded and that’s not important to what happened!
It’s important to me! the priest insisted his eyes alight with righteousness
Yes they betrayed Her! I encouraged his desire to avenge Her
(and Vela’s entrapment) In one of my discussions with the Cardinal
he hinted at Her taulaaitu betraying Her Father Macdonald added
(How was Vela going to get out of that one? I wondered gladly)
Vela mentioned nothing about that Vela tried manoeuvring
And where did our surveillance-expert chronicler feature in that? I asked
Vela’s anger with me was a tactile palpable heat that threatened
to cinderise me but I was determined to expose his posturing
As Her most trusted chronicler Vela must have been with Her when
the Albinos invaded Her queendom! Father Macdonald demanded
Yes what was Vela’s reaction to that? I chorused and for a moment
I glimpsed panic and distress in Vela’s eyes and enjoyed it
Vela did not say anything about that but he must’ve stood with Her
against the invasion Vela-as-Patel insisted but I knew he was lying
—the disguise in his voice and demeanour was utterly transparent
(Catching your father lying for the first time brings shock dismay
sadness and the desperate wish you hadn’t caught him at it!
Besides I owed Vela all his tales and training this priest was a stranger)
Mr Patel is correct the Vela I’ve researched wouldn’t have betrayed
his atua I told Father Macdonald finally What would he have gained
converting to Christianity and having no power in the Albino kingdom?
Judas betrayed our Jesus for forty pieces of silver! Father Macdonald countered
Unlike Judas though our Vela did not suicide and when I met him
in Bombay he was well over two hundred and thriving! said Vela-as-Patel
Yes would a guilt-ridden sinner have survived that long? I added
and once again my adopted father and I were aiga but I now
had more power independence and the courage to oppose him
Have you continued your healing with the Cardinal? I asked
the remorseful Father Macdonald who nodded and murmured
the Cardinal has cured me of my ma’i aitu and in accepting
Nafanua as just one of my atua I’m finding inner balance he replied
The Cardinal has also asked that I transfer to our Apia parish
well away from Nafanua and Her dangerous allurement
His smile was a lantern that lit up his whole presence
and once again I could see him as Lawrence of Arabia on
the white stallion thundering across the desert wilderness
Sometimes we have to distance ourselves from the very people
we love most deeply or be consumed by their fire Vela-as-Patel
encouraged him Vela too had to finally leave Falealupo to do that
I must find out about this Vela Father Macdonald said
For a long time now my aide and I have been researching
and recording Vela’s life in a book of chronicles Vela told him
(Vela’s revelation punched away my breath for a moment)
We’re publishing it soon and will send you a copy Vela offered
(He had no right revealing claiming and offering my lifelong work
to a stranger without my permission! He didn’t own me!)
I got up thanked Father Macdonald hurriedly and fled down the veranda
steps and across the noonday sand to our landrover
(1) Mauga-o-Fetu
He wrenched open the vehicle door jumped in slammed
the door shut and staring straight ahead hissed through
clenched mouth So you still haven’t forgiven me for not
being there when your marriage fell to pieces eh?
I unleashed the handbrake slammed down on the accelerator
and the landrover surged forward wheels screeching angrily
Sulk then See where that gets you! he shouted over
the landrover’s roar as I increased speed and the wheels coughed
up sand that streamed out behind us and started coating every thing
Even the people in the fale looked frightened as we sped by
You’re going to kill us! Vela finally admitted as I rounded
a sharp bend and nearly ploughed into some stone graves
Once out of the village I pushed into a thick stretch of palmtrees
along the shoreline the landrover rocking over the uneven
stony road like a boat in rough seas heading for the end
of the world the Fafā without having to be directed by Vela
for I now had all his maps in my memory and in my manuscript
Please! he pleaded and I slowed down and stopped at Mauga-o-Fetu
He was drenched with sweat and I handed him a hand towel
got out and wandered over to the creeper-smothered stone paepae
on the other side in the shade of sprawling talie fau and palms
I stood before the paepae and let the swishing sound of the surf
and Vela’s stories and maps of the Fafā heal my anger
I was home even the air and smells were familiar and embracing
I knelt down and started clearing the creepers and weeds
Lizards gnats dragonflies and other creatures scuttled away
as I worked to reveal the black-stone paepae to the sun again
Mauga-o-Fetu three-tiered mound with a circle of twelve flat stones
on the top seats for the taulaaitu as they nightly deciphered
our fate in the mountains of stars above the end of the world
When I turned Vela was sitting on the trunk of a fallen palm
I used to come here and sit with Auva’a and Tupa’i and … Vela began
I know you’ve told me many times I cut him off and getting
our packed lunch from the landrover handed him his
I then walked with bowed head to the paepae and sat down
on the central seat while Vela shuffled over and sat opposite me
We ate in silence and when an anguished Father Macdonald cut
into my thoughts I wished him into the seat to my left for
he too would feel at home in that healing circle of priests
And Maifea? and Father Hatherly and the Cardin
al would too
and we would share our food and read the stars as they in turn
observed and read us into existence and out of it into the Pouliuli
And I no longer needed Vela to reveal to me why we’d come
and what Nafanua’s final prophecy and his release were
To use trite expressions: Those are already written in the stars!
and Every thing comes to him who waits! I started laughing
So you’re not angry with me anymore? Vela asked softly
I shook my head and said I forgive even your bloody selfishness
Thank you Alapati he murmured and it was wondrous
and freeing hearing him say my name for the first time
Later as we strolled down through the undergrowth
to the beach and the pools where the agaga cleansed before
taking the lava tunnel down into the sea and Pulotu he wound
his arm round my waist and I put mine round his shoulders
That evening at the hotel we had dinner on his veranda and watched
the moon almost at its full pregnancy struggle up from the black
edge of the world and labour breathlessly into the heavens
It will be full in two days Vela remarked trying to sound casual
but I sensed fully his boundless expectation (and was dread
exhilaration and unconditional resignation mixed in with that?)
20
Nafanua Returns
(1) The Oracle Again
The next morning he didn’t need to tell me where he wanted to go
and as we drove there through a light drizzle and a village of fale
with their blinds still lowered he hummed a song he’d taught me years
before about a beautiful pilgrim who’d consulted Nafanua (through
Auva’a Her oracle) about curing her husband’s philandering
and was told she should castrate and leave the ugly bastard
I found myself singing the melody while Vela sang the bass
as we pushed our way through the drizzle to the village’s edge
and another thickly forested hill inexplicably located in the middle
of clearings and neat plantations It’s still here Vela whispered
as he followed me out of the landrover They’re too scared to touch it!
I stripped the hill of forest and recalling Vela’s maps of that location
restored the Temple the pond in front of it for the pilgrims’ gifts
of live bonito and the lava tube Cave which housed the oracle’s throne
Unafraid Vela and I followed the track like an aorta into the forest
Pigeons cooed from the gigantic tamanu trees and canopy
Our eager reflections fell onto the pool which
to my surprise was clear of any floating vegetation or rubbish
We stopped Vela knelt down and leaning forward dipped his hands
into the water that rippled away in circles hit the banks and returned
Look look! he said pointing at the ripples that were zigzagging
across the surface and I recognized the dark shapes of bonito
So some of them still consult Her! he declared putting his hands
under the belly of a bonito and tickling it while I gazed into
my reflection that was alive with joy and thankfulness
Across the pond gripped by liana and the twisted roots of the trees
that now grew on it the Cave gleamed black and wet and waiting
At its narrow entrance we sat down crosslegged bowed our heads
and Vela chanted: Your Lordship the Voice and Anchor of our Lady
we come in all humility to seek your advice help and judgement!
Paused waited and then Vela shuffled carefully through the entrance
and I followed into the Cave that Vela’s stories had woven
permanently into my eyes moa breath veins and sinews
No visible oracle on the lava throne or evidence of recent occupation
Vela sat down crosslegged again and using his hands lifted his body
and moved behind the throne where he found a hand salu and roll of mats
I salu-ed the floor carefully collecting all the rubbish and taking
it outside and then we covered the floor with two layers of mats
and decided we would later get pillows sleeping sheets food and
water from the hotel and sleep there that night Is Auva’a here? I asked
If he was you’d know it Vela replied And She isn’t here either
I stretched out on the mats put my hands behind my head and gazed up
The intensifying light from the entrance was now an arrow cutting
across the glistening Cave dome and I imagined it arrowing
into the heart of the Va-Atoa that held every thing together
And for the first time I was free of the self-pity remorse and guilt
associated with my marriage breakup Are you comfortable? Vela asked
I nodded closed my eyes and inhaling the scent of rain was soon asleep
Muffled sound of two men talking themselves into my focus:
one on the stone throne one crosslegged on the floor and I didn’t mind
them having no faces because I was in a dream at the edge
of the darkness watching convinced a fabulous revelation
to my benefit was at hand as the tataued figure on the throne clapped
once —SSLLAAT! — and the hairless wizened pilgrim on the floor
staggered up and extending his arms and hands like wings
started siva-ing to a tune in his head and one I craved to hear
so I could dance with him but SSLLATT! the throned man clapped
again and the dancer froze in the pose of the crucified Jesus
I’d seen earlier in the church blood streaming from
His right side and dousing my expectations
Is that all? It wasn’t even as spectacular as Yeats’s beast slouching
towards Jerusalem to be born or Cecil B. DeMille’s Moses parting
the Red Sea or Father Macdonald’s besotted infatuation with our Lady!
C’mon you guys! I taunted the two men and almost pissed my ie lavalava
when they swivelled their heads my way and I recognised their faces:
the clapper wore the terrible face of Dracula the dancer that of Auva’a
I screamed out of the dream into the Cave and Vela clutching
my shoulders and shushing shushing me out of my fright
Shortly after as we drove back to the hotel I described my dream
to Vela who said it was real proof I was getting closer to seeing
Auva’a (and perhaps Nafanua) As for the two men conversing in
my dream it was him and Auva’a talking while I’d slept
Why didn’t you wake me? I voiced my disappointment
All in good time all in Her time he chuckled and then cautioned
we should continue keeping our mission and activities a secret
The moon that evening was even heavier as it staggered up
out of the ocean and watched us gathering our provisions
and the mosquito nets and emergency lanterns from our hotel fale
Later it looked even more tormented in weight and gaze
as we drove back through its tide of ponderous golden light
now smothering the sleeping village to the Cave and its forest
cover that shimmered danced and squealed with flyingfoxes
They’re all assembling for the welcome Vela declared
And tomorrow night Nafanua’s gafa will be completed
Just before we re-entered the Cave a silver shower of stars burst
in the western corner of the heavens and then sprinkled down
until every fleck of it was swallowed by the pouliuli and I knew
that the total stretch of my life was at a crucial convergence
a new beginning that the Oracle would read for me and
if I had the courage be able to accept and fulfil with gladness
We placed the two lanterns around the throne put our provisions
and drinks behind it strung up our mosquito nets got into them
and talked and waited while more stars tumbled and the flyingfoxes wove
together the whole moon-drenched forest with their chorus
Listen! Vela stopped talking their crying ended abruptly
and every thing was a hushed expectant silence that turned my eyes
to the entrance and the vapourlike shadow slipping in swifter
than I could identify it and solidifying instantly on the throne
as a smiling Auva’a aged about forty (Tagaloaalagi’s favoured age)
Vela head bowed sat up and on his knees went to him
You’re looking so old man! Auva’a greeted him as they sogi-ed
Mate remember She cursed me with Tagatalua’s fate Vela said
Yeah immortality while aging in body! Auva’a chortled
Otherwise I am fit in mind spirit and language! Vela added
So different from the dispirited disillusioned ulcer-ridden Vela
who left us in what seems like only yesterday said Auva’a
By the way this is my adopted son Alapati Vela introduced me
Auva’a’s unconditional embrace was the indefatigable strength of all
the chronicles I’d inherited Welcome home he whispered as we sogi-ed
I bet you had no say whatsoever in your adoption eh? he laughed
None whatsoever! Vela interjected and I said I couldn’t say no
to such an ugly suitor! and our laughter surfed swiftly round the Cave
and swept out into the forest and the curious flyingfoxes and the moon
now at its zenith of pregnancy and indifferent to our gaiety and plotting