The Adventures of Vela

by Albert Wendt

  For the next few hours they storied the period of their separation from each

  other while I listened and realised much of it I’d recorded already from Vela

  whose stories about his recent life included me my wife children and Reina

  Auva’a wasn’t a skilled storyteller: he often wandered off on boring tangents

  or got mired in too much detail and uninteresting unnecessary information

  Vela as usual rocked ’n’ rolled with verve power and hypnotic language

  When I woke the Cave was alive with morning and Auva’a was gone

  Wrapped securely in his white sleeping sheet Vela was snoring in his net

  From my moa a healing boundless contentment radiated to all

  my limits and through my pores filled the whole configuration

  of the Cave that was now on the verge of giving birth to the fulfilment

  of Nafanua’s final prophecy and Vela’s release and my future legacy

  (2) Nafanua Returns

  For every storyteller since Tagaloa invented the first Word the constant

  challenge is how to tell your tale so your audience reader viewer

  will believe it utterly so to now persuade you of the truth of the final

  instalment in what I’ve titled ‘The Adventures of Vela’ I have to be

  specially careful because what actually happened ‘is truer than fiction’

  to use a hackneyed expression Vela has condemned as mental laziness

  That balmy day as we waited we took down the nets cleaned the Cave

  covered the throne with soft tapa hung the lanterns from the ceiling

  and Vela avoided telling me about his conversation with Auva’a

  and I didn’t reveal Auva’a’s question when they’d thought I was sleeping:

  Is he ready for the roles She prescribed? And Vela’s hesitant

  answer Maybe but only She will be able to assess that

  Bring it on! I’d boasted to myself in my sleep Yeah bring on

  my ferocious atua assessor and I’ll show Her I’m a holy rock ’n’ roller

  from the land of the acid dead a fearless composer of beats and lyrics

  that were beyond Vela’s comprehension a true original and apt chronicler

  for the new phase in Her becoming in the stories I’d shape Her into

  Yeah I was ready for the final revelation

  The sunset was still blood red as we waited in front of the Cave

  for the moon’s first sighting in the long silence which laced all things

  with the intelligence of becoming And when the moon’s thick hair

  first appeared out of the horizon we went back into the Cave

  Auva’a now sat crosslegged facing the throne dressed in the white tapa

  of royalty his head bound with red ti leaves his tatau-ed body

  glistening with oil his wide eyes oceans for Nafanua to island

  and populate with Her creations When I looked at Vela who now

  sat beside Auva’a my brash courage was infected

  by his contagious fear that ravaged my imagination with freaky scenarios

  of what that night the full moon might give birth to and how our

  capricious unpredictable Nafanua reacted to it

  I rushed out and in the black moonlight and the flyingfoxes’ scrutiny

  I pisssed and pissed and pissed into the moon’s reflection on the lava

  as it dragged its round load of birth up and towards the Cave entrance

  No escape now I was a protagonist in the action in the fulfilment

  and its consequences and besides as a true writer I simply

  had to know the final unfolding of the drama

  Auva’a patted the space between them and I fitted myself into that

  with our knees touching exactly like another piece of one of Reina’s

  jigsaw puzzles my fear’s electricity transmitting to my companions

  who grasped my shoulders to strengthen our linked presences

  and Auva’a said Don’t be afraid you weren’t part of it!

  Puzzled I wanted clarification of that but it was too late

  for through the narrow entrance the moon was now following

  the path it was tracing across the Cave’s black dome and

  the three pe’a leaders which hitched onto the mosquito net strings

  and hung there their luminous eyes snaring us

  I wished and wished and wished for time to pass faster but

  the moon was too heavy and deliberate in its tortured climbing

  Soon our fear sweat and odour were mingling freely

  First it was just a mere ripple a stirring in the pe’a’s eyes

  as they gazed at the front entrance and in our startled fear

  we turned and faced that direction catching the ripple as

  it increased speed and form and slithered towards us

  I stifled my fear and tried to rise but my companions pushed

  down on my knees and stopped our link from breaking

  The slither hesitated just before us and then as if it didn’t

  care about us swivelled violently through all the spaces

  that linked us leaving me yelping and gagging at the diseased feel

  of wet matted shrouds and the stink of decaying flesh and marrow

  So whad’s-up ma pets! the taunting hag’s voice grabbed

  the backs of our necks and turned us to face her Whad’s-up!

  The dirty stinking tapa-wrapped bundle on the throne with its leprosy-

  ridden face and bones half-exposed was straight out of Reina’s favourite

  horror flick The Mummy Returns and certainly didn’t need

  more special effects to scare the shit out of this protagonist

  Don’ be scared ma handsim’ stranger She caressed under my chin

  with her fleshless fingers and gazed into my swirling panic

  Dere ain’t no diff’rence between livin’and dyin’ and da stink of

  men who’ve betrayed ya She whispered and Her breath stank worse

  than the pe’a’s love odour And you’ve not done dat yit lover! Not yet

  Vela and Auva’a sat with heads bowed hands clasped in supplication

  dripping sweat into the mats and intensifying the stench of fear in the Cave

  Ya don’ have ta shit yed ma pets She chortled We need ta waid for

  da prodigious Moon ta shove da future out of her promiscuous passage!

  Dere Ar’ve said id ma beloved Said whad Akua shouldn’ say aboud

  oder Akua and deir sacrid organs Her cackle was even scarier than

  the witches in Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood my favorite version of

  Bill Shakespeare’s Macbeth and a film I’d once shown Vela

  The pe’a above us started flapping their wings in applause

  She bowed to them and cackled T’ank yar t’ank yar ma Lovelies

  And they shook their bodies furiously releasing more love scent

  that She breathed in deeply Vundarful Vundarful! She sighed

  and fanned more scent into Her nostrils with Her skeletal hands

  Ar’ll always luv yar ma Lovelies ‘cause of ya unquesshianing alofa

  Not like fuckin’ humans who’ll sell ya for Judas’s silver

  Huge tears slid out from the empty bone sockets that were Her eyes

  She wiped them away with the ragged corner of Her stinking shroud

  Was this for real or was it a horror flick heavily influenced by

  Jeepers Creepers Blade and Coppola’s Dracula?

  If it was a horror movie then Nafanua was a skilled director

  But though my fear had lessened because She hadn’t referred to me

  as one of the betrayers I wasn’t reckless enough to ask Her

  And as I’ve said already real life is more incredible than fiction

  (And I was flattered being a protagonist in Nafa’s final e
pic)

  When I examined Vela and Auva’a they certainly didn’t appear

  to believe they were in a movie scripted and directed by a vengeful Nafa

  Above us the Moon continued labouring across the dome clear

  and as mesmerizing as the cinematography in Kill Bill

  Around us every thing felt as if it was turning into a thick warm liquid

  and the Cave wall started undulating slowly as if it was alive

  Yes my fickle Priesthood we are in the Moon’s amniotic tide cauled

  for birth and truth She murmured in the voice of a young woman

  We gazed up at Her on Her throne and in amazement witnessed Her slow

  tranformation from diseased hag into a woman more beautiful more mana-ful

  than the Nafanua I’d inherited from Vela’s stories and I experienced

  a fear more frightening than any I’d survived before and started realizing

  why even servants of the Christian Atua couldn’t resist Her

  We’re almost there She announced as the Moon reached Its final fullness

  The light cut out and in the whispering darkness the cauled tide churned

  heaved and heaved around us Push push push! Her voice encouraged

  and onto the Cave’s dome in the Moon’s golden passage was born

  a film which as it unfolded I titled The Final Revelations and during

  which Vela and Auva’a grew alarmingly quiet while Nafanua laughed

  wept and finally pronounced all humans ‘fucking bastards!’

  21

  The Final Revelations

  To try to describe an audio-visual experience like a film in language

  is like trying to contain water in unskilled grasping hands

  or like putting a fixed grid over a sea that is too fluid for it

  but here is my attempt to capture The Final Revelations

  and that night’s audience reactions to a film in

  which they were the stars villains and extras

  To this day the question has remained: Who scripted and directed

  and projected that film of the Moon giving birth to that period

  of Nafanua’s life with Her taulaaitu and the missionary Albinos?

  Nafanua is the obvious answer but my moa keeps rejecting that

  (and I’m too sceptical to ask Her because She’ll egotistically claim that role

  and boast that Walt Disney Pictures Her favourite filmmakers financed it)

  Dawn the camera sweeps slowly over the waking figures in

  Nafanua’s Temple and out over the village and swiftly above the sea

  towards the Bay entrance out of which is emerging the high white sails

  of a ship with a spindly windswept man on its bow

  He’s dressed in black robes and looks like a middle-aged Maifea?

  Back in front of the Temple a superbly fit Nafanua is now exercising

  to the rapid rhythm that an old and puny Vela is beating on a pate

  and an even older Auva’a rubs his potbelly and yawns repeatedly

  into a sky that is now opening People are sweeping and cleaning

  the Temple compound Others are lighting fires for the morning meal

  Back on the ship other men in black are now with their leader

  exhilarated fearful carefully surveying the coast ahead and around

  A Palagi ship a ship! someone in the Temple compound shouts

  They all crowd to the edge and gaze down at the ship with Nafanua’s

  prophecy of the arrival of Maifea’s? kind written on its magnificent sails

  Auva’a Tupa’i and others who’ve visited other parts have already seen

  these ships and the pork-white-skinned men who own them

  And most enticing are their miraculous cargo and religion

  They returned and told a joyous Nafanua that Maifea’s? people

  would soon be in their district (but were too frightened to tell Her

  that hundreds of people were converting to the new religion —

  you don’t tell atua what they don’t want to hear!)

  Now they are arriving and She wants to hurry down and greet them

  but Vela who She allows more leniency cautions against it

  They may be carrying those Palagi diseases that are devastating

  the country he advises Her so She instructs Tupa’i Her general

  to take warriors and the matai council and give Her Palagi relatives

  a welcome worthy of royalty With Auva’a and Vela She would hide

  observe and if She deems them worthy of Maifea’s? trust She’d come

  forward and embrace them (and the gifts they surely had for Her)

  The camera focuses on the three punts loaded with the captain

  and the white-collared men in black and two Samoan interpreters

  coming into the beach on which Tupa’i and the matai are standing

  behind them lines of warriors and then the women and children

  Up in a clump of breadfruit trees Nafanua Auva’a and Vela sit watching

  She is utterly convinced Maifea’s? people will love Her

  (I was so stupid! She curses as the captain and missionaries step

  onto the beach and Tupa’i’s tulafale shuffle forward

  I should’ve erased the bastards right then! She swallows an erupting

  sob For the rest of the film She’d say nothing but Her anger

  would clog the Cave then change to forgiveness but by the end

  of the Revelations would again threaten to burn us to ashes)

  On the crowded beach the captain through the interpreters

  greets Tupa’i who in turn greets the men in black and invites

  them to his faletele for the ava of welcome Nafanua’s wide-eyes reflect

  the three priests in loving detail as they walk with Tupa’i across the malae

  When the visitors are seated the tulafale taupou (Nafanua’s niece)

  and aumaga start the ceremony of sharing the ava the blood of brothers

  The film compresses the ceremony into shots of the taupou mixing the ava

  the orator in loud oratory sharing it out their guests drinking and concealing

  their dislike of the brown liquid then Tupa’i drinking the last cup

  His leading tulafale then welcomes their guests in formal ornate oratory

  and one of the missionaries’ interpreters replies and introduces

  their head priest who defies good manners by rising to his feet

  We bring you the Kingdom of God as promised by your ancestor Salamasina

  to Malietoa generations ago! He declares

  I’d forgotten! Nafanua cries and Vela remembers how after Nafanua

  had bequeathed Her empire to Her granddaughter Salamasina

  the leading Tama’aiga had sought a share of that from Her

  Believing Samoa was now free of war after years of Nafanua’s peace

  Salamasina shared out the different districts Malietoa arrived late and all

  Salamasina could do was prophesy that his Kingdom would come

  from the Gods — and here it is! And Nafanua wants to jump down

  from their hiding place and receive it from the priests

  They’re fulfilling your prophecy Auva’a agrees with Her but Vela reminds

  Her of the wars that had erupted between the Tama’aiga

  after the country had been divided The Albinos may want our land too he adds

  As usual you’re being bloody paranoid Vela Auva’a accuses

  I can’t wait! Nafanua threatens to break the branch She’s jumping

  up and down on Every thing comes to atua Who wait Vela clinches Her

  and She nearly chokes swallowing back Her greedy anticipation

  I need to welcome Maifea’s? aiga after all these years She declares

  Other sects who call themselves Christian have invaded your beautiful

  count
ry the priest continues They’re not true Believers We’re from Rome

  where the Pope the true Father of the only True Christian Faith resides

  and He has sent us to save you from those other evil missionaries

  who’re misleading you … Nafanua’s tight alertness is contagious as

  She considers the priest’s declaration and Vela waits for Her reaction

  We believe in One God one Church one Pope Who is infallible!

  Vela’s catches the alarmed flash in Nafanua’s eyes and wants

  to reassure Her but Auva’a shakes his head once and he doesn’t

  So my granddaughter’s prophecy is coming true but what does that mean

  for us? She murmurs and they dare not answer One God one Church

  and a Pope who is mortal? She asks

  Vela’s fear is like a stingray’s barbed tail jabbing into his moa:

  Salamasina’s very prophecy could mean the end of their queendom

  He glances at Auva’a and knows he too has reached that conclusion

  They watch as She swings down branch by branch lands on the ground

  and instead of joining the ceremony starts running towards Her Temple

  What are we going to do? Vela asks Auva’a who continues observing

  the priest who is now saying This is the heart of the Nafanua Religion

  which has dominated your country for centuries and we’re here

  to show you Nafanua is a false God a God of the Darkness

  Who has been used by Her taulaaitu to dominate exploit and rule you

  Yes my brethren we’re here to free you from your slavery to a false atua

  Such reckless courage such ignorance Vela declares his fear all-gripping

  How can he say his Kingdom is the one Salamasina promised and then

  condemns our atua and us as being false and evil? Auva’a asks but

  he and Vela know it’s all part of the politics the power games that keep