Breadfruit

by Célestine Vaite

  Materena didn’t pay attention to her mother’s threat. She was too hooked on Pito to care about slaps and other punishments. As far as Materena was concerned, she was going to keep on meeting Pito at the frangipani tree until… well, until he decided to get serious.

  Three weeks after their secret meetings began, Pito announced to Materena that he was leaving Tahiti for France to do military service and that he’d be gone for two years.

  Materena was devastated with the news. “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow,” Pito replied.

  “Tomorrow!” Materena was even more devastated.

  She held on to Pito and promised she would be at the airport to bid him farewell. But Pito told Materena not to worry about going because there were too many of his relatives going to the airport already.

  Materena didn’t insist. It was clear to her that Pito didn’t want her at the airport meeting all his relatives and, above all, his mama. It was much too soon for a formal introduction to his mama.

  “At what time is your plane leaving?” Materena asked.

  Pito’s plane was leaving at two in the morning.

  “And are you going to write to me?” Materena was hoping that Pito would say, “Of course I’m going to write to you!”

  “We’ll see,” Pito said.

  Materena started to cry.

  “I’ve got to go home and pack.” Pito rolled the quilt.

  He kissed Materena and Materena kissed him back with all her heart and soul.

  “Take care,” Pito said.

  “I’m going to wait for you.” Materena couldn’t stop the tears.

  When she got home, Loana was still watching the TV. Materena wanted to ask her about going to the airport to bid Pito farewell, but she sneaked into her bedroom instead and snuggled up to the pillows. She couldn’t ask her mother for advice about Pito, since Loana didn’t even know there was a Pito.

  By midnight Materena’s mind was made up. She took a shell necklace off the nail in the living room and ran to the airport.

  There was a crowd: sleeping babies in their mothers’ arms, children running around playing ticktack, and, most of all, crying mamas holding on to smiling young men with too many shell necklaces hanging around their neck.

  And there was Pito.

  A big mama was crying her heart out as she held on to him, and every now and then a relative would try to drape a shell necklace on Pito, but the big mama wouldn’t let go of him.

  Pito looked so handsome, dressed in navy blue pants and a white shirt. Materena wanted so much to go over to him, but she just stayed half-hidden behind a pillar and watched him. It was enough that Pito had to deal with his crying mother.

  Materena stayed at the airport until Pito’s plane took off, and as she ran back to her house still clutching her shell necklace, she thought about how two years were like an eternity.

  Two years passed, two long years thinking about Pito nonstop, and Materena finished school and started her career as a professional cleaner. She was waiting for a truck home from the market one day when Pito walked straight past her. He was thinner and paler.

  “Pito!” Materena was ecstatic. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

  Pito stopped walking and turned around. Materena was about to go and jump on him, but a voice in her head told her that she best not make a fool of herself in front of all those people waiting for a truck, because it looked like Pito wasn’t going to open his arms to her. He expressed no emotion at all when he saw her. Materena thought perhaps he didn’t recognize her.

  “It’s me, Materena.” Materena was all smiles.

  “I know it’s you,” Pito said. “And are you fine?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Materena replied. “And you? Are you fine?”

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “So, you’re back from France?” Materena asked, all the while telling herself that she was so stupid, asking this question. She could see Pito with her own two eyes. Of course he was back from France.

  “I came back two days ago,” Pito said, then excused himself. He had to rush off somewhere.

  “Okay,” Materena said, as if she didn’t care that Pito couldn’t spare five minutes to talk to her. “I’m in a hurry too.”

  Materena jumped into the first available truck and thought about the two years she’d wasted longing for Pito, that fa’aoru, that snob! Two years of waiting for a letter from him, a package, a telegram, and not looking once at another man! She had been faithful to Pito.

  Materena’s mind was made up about Pito. He belonged to the past and she was going to start looking for someone for the future.

  But how could Materena forget Pito when she kept bumping into him? It was as if God was putting Pito in her path. She’d be at the market waiting for a truck and Pito would walk straight past her or she’d see him standing on the other side of the street. She’d be in a shop and Pito would walk into the same shop. She’d be eating at a snack and two seconds later Pito would appear. Pito would always raise his eyebrows to her—meaning, hello. And Materena would smile at Pito. But there was no conversation.

  One night, Materena asked God if it was his plan to always put Pito in her path. And if it was, could God give her a little sign? And the very next day Materena literally bumped into Pito as she stepped off the truck. This was a good enough sign for her. Their faces just inches away from each other, she asked, “Are you doing anything tonight?”

  That’s how Materena and Pito began to meet again at the frangipani tree behind the bank in the middle of the night.

  These secret rendezvous went on for weeks. Materena told Pito all about her family: her hardworking mother, her brother, who was working on a pearl farm in Manihi, the French father she’d never met. And Pito told Materena about his three brothers, his father, who had died, and his mother, who liked to pick up leaves with a leaf pick. Pito and Materena talked about all sorts of other things too, from the weather to fishing.

  After a while it seemed to Materena that Pito was getting serious about her. One night she mentioned to Pito the possibility of him meeting her mother, as Materena was a bit fiu of having to sneak out of her bedroom and only meeting her boyfriend in the dark. Materena felt it was time for her mother to know about Pito, since Materena was past eighteen years old now and very serious about him.

  “I’m not ready,” Pito said.

  “Mamie isn’t going to eat you, she’s really nice.”

  “It’s not that, Materena. I’m just not ready.”

  “Ready for what? All you have to do is say iaorana to my mother.”

  “Eh.” Pito was in a bad mood now. “I don’t want to meet your mother, okay? When you meet the mother, that’s it, you have to get serious.”

  “Okay then,” Materena said. “Don’t meet my mother. I’m not going to force you.”

  “Well, you can’t force me anyway. I don’t like to be bossed around.”

  “Yes, that’s what I said. I’m not going to force you.” Materena got up to go home. She was cranky, but not for too long. She understood that Pito just needed time to get used to the idea of meeting her mother.

  Several weeks later, Materena was suspecting a pregnancy. She bought a pregnancy kit and locked herself in the bathroom. She sat on the toilet and read the instructions, which took her almost an hour, since she had never used a pregnancy kit before. Then Materena got a sample of her urine into the jar and put the tester in it. She counted up to sixty, retrieved the tester, and carefully laid it on the floor.

  Then she started to pray. But she wasn’t quite sure what prayer she was supposed to pray. She wanted to be pregnant, as she loved Pito, and at the same time she didn’t want to be pregnant.

  The pregnancy test was positive, and Materena cried her eyes out because she was happy but at the same time she wasn’t happy.

  Loana didn’t react well to the news of her daughter being pregnant. She had said to Materena, and many times too, “Don’t make me a grandmother before I’m at l
east past fifty years old.” And here she was, about to become a grandmother before the age of forty, when she thought Materena was still a virgin.

  Loana made Materena tell her who had got her pregnant, and two hours later, Materena, Loana, and Pito’s mother, Mama Roti, were in a meeting.

  “Pito didn’t tell me about a girl he got pregnant.” Mama Roti looked at Materena in the eye and Materena felt like crawling under the couch.

  Loana looked at Mama Roti in the eye to show her that she wasn’t intimidated at all. “He doesn’t know about the baby yet.”

  “What are you expecting from my son?” Mama Roti asked.

  “We’re not expecting anything. We’re just here to talk,” Loana replied calmly.

  So the two mothers talked, getting more and more annoyed with each other, until Mama Roti said, “Well, maybe you should tie your girl to a tree at night.”

  That was the end of the meeting. Loana got to her feet and commanded Materena to do the same.

  At that precise moment, Pito appeared. He looked at Materena, he looked at Loana, and then he looked at his mother. She explained the situation, and Pito didn’t shout with joy, like they do in the movies.

  “Ah, it’s you, Pito.” Loana looked at him up and down like she didn’t think much of him. “Well, now you know that you got my girl pregnant, and good day to you two people.”

  Materena didn’t go to the frangipani tree that night or the following night, or the next, but she waited for Pito to come and see her. And every single day, Loana said, “Girl, waiting for a man is like waiting for a chicken to have teeth.”

  When Pito came over a week later to ask Materena to move in with him, Loana informed him that her daughter was going nowhere. She was staying right where she was.

  “With respect,” Pito said, “I’m talking to Materena, not you.”

  “Do I look like a mother who doesn’t care about her daughter?” Loana snapped.

  Pito and Loana then both stared at Materena for a comment, and Materena felt like the tomato between the lettuce and the cucumber.

  “You two talk,” Loana said to Materena. “I’m going out the back. But if you decide to leave this house, don’t expect me to help you pack.”

  Pito sat next to Materena on the sofa. Materena longed for him to take her in his arms, but she could see that he was chamboulé by the situation. So they talked about their living arrangement, with Materena saying that she couldn’t leave her mother and Pito saying that he couldn’t leave his mother.

  After a while, Pito stood up to leave, saying, “I’ll just come to visit you.”

  Pito was there when Materena got her first contractions, at nine thirty in the morning. He ran to catch the truck home to get his mama and they both came back with a cousin, who drove Materena and Loana to the hospital.

  When they got to the hospital, a nurse led Materena to the delivery room for an examination. Pito, his mama, and Loana sat on the bench in the corridor. Hours later, after Loana had inquired several times about her daughter, a nurse finally came to inform them that the baby was definitely coming today.

  “You better go to Materena,” Loana said to Pito.

  “No, it’s okay, she’ll be fine,” he replied.

  Mama Roti decided to agree with her son. “In my day, men just stayed outside.”

  “Yes,” Loana snapped. “In your day… but we’re not in your day now.”

  Loana commanded Pito to go to Materena, because a man should see these things.

  “It’s fine,” Pito insisted.

  But a nurse came to get Pito because Materena wanted him to see the baby come out.

  So Pito saw his son being born, turning green every time the midwife yelled, “Push, girl. Push like you’re doing a big caca. Push!” And when Materena moaned, “Ah hia hia, it’s hurting,” he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

  Tamatoa was born at eighteen past two in the afternoon and when Pito held his son in his arms, he cried his eyes out and said to Materena, “You’re my woman.”

  One week later, Pito got a job at a timber yard, packed his bags, and moved in with Materena.

  All was well the first few days, but it soon became apparent to Materena that Pito and Loana would never get along, because both wanted to be the boss of the baby.

  Pito would rock Tamatoa to sleep his way and Loana would say to him, “You don’t rock a baby that way. Heavens, boy, I can see you’ve never rocked a baby before. Don’t you know that your rocking could cause damage to my grandson?”

  Loana would pick up Tamatoa every time he cried and Pito would say to her, “Let that baby cry a little, eh? That’s his only exercise. You’re going to turn my son into a fairy.”

  On and on and on.

  Every single day.

  For months.

  Pito kept telling Materena that her mother was a bossy colonel. And Loana kept telling Materena that Pito was just a typical man.

  Materena finishes scrubbing the oven. Pito and Materena have been together for nearly thirteen years. She is still a professional cleaner and she likes her job. Pito, he still works at the timber yard and he doesn’t like his job, though he’s happy to have a job. They have their own house now.

  Pito and Materena, they get along well, but there are days when Pito gives Materena ideas of murder. She can hear him snoring now.

  She tidies up, checks that the gas is off, and goes to kiss her children good night.

  She always does this before she goes to bed.

  She kisses her daughter, Leilani, on the forehead very lightly, as Leilani wakes up easily.

  “What’s the time, Mamie?” Leilani asks.

  “Go back to sleep, girl.” Leilani lives in fear of missing the truck to school. She checks her alarm clock every night before going to bed. She’s ten years old.

  And now Materena is in her boys’ room. The boys sleep on mattresses because they want to. Materena bends down and kisses the eldest child of the family, Tamatoa. He doesn’t even stir. He’ll be twelve in three months, and some days he thinks he’s the boss of the house.

  Materena’s youngest child, eight-year-old Moana, is on the floor. Materena picks him up and puts him back on his mattress. He’s very light—or perhaps she’s just got strong arms. She thought she was having a girl when she was pregnant with him.

  She did the needle test, like with all her children. You put a thread through a needle and hold the needle above the belly button. If the needle swings from left to right, the baby is a boy. If the needle swings around, the baby is a girl. And the needle swung around, so Materena named her unborn baby girl Loana, after her mother. But then a boy was born instead and Materena substituted an M for the L and the name became Moana—“ocean.”

  And now Materena is going to bed.

  The lights go out in the little plywood house—behind the petrol station, close to the airport, the church, the cemetery, and the Chinese shop.

  Pito is still snoring and Materena gives him a gentle shove. Pito stirs and mutters. Usually she pinches him on the nose or smacks him on the head. Not all the time, but usually. Materena cuddles up to Pito. She can’t believe that marriage proposal. In all the years they’ve been together, they’ve never discussed marriage. Tonight’s marriage proposal is certainly a big surprise, but Materena reminds herself that Pito was drunk, which means that the proposal was only a whole lot of wind. Which is fine with her. The children don’t hassle them to get married. Materena is Mamie and Pito is Papi, and that’s enough. Pito’s mother, Mama Roti, doesn’t mind her son not being Materena’s husband. And Materena’s mother, Loana, doesn’t put pressure on Materena to regularize her situation with Pito.

  Everybody is quite content with the situation.

  But Materena gets thinking about being married. Thinking it would be nice.

  She feels her naked hands and pictures a gold band on her finger. She sees that framed wedding certificate displayed on the wall in the living room. She hears herself tell people, “It’s me, Mada
me Tehana.”

  Being a madame, eh yes, Materena wouldn’t mind. She’s been called madame many times, but only by the popa’a, and it embarrasses her a little, since she’s not a madame. It’s like falsifying her identity. The Polynesian people, they call her mama or vahine. Her cousins call her Materena or Cousin.

  Materena starts thinking about a wedding ceremony. Pito could wear his navy wedding-and-funeral suit. Materena knows him—he’ll want to take it off as soon as they get back from the church for something more comfortable, like his ripped T-shirt.

  Materena isn’t fussy about her wedding dress, as long as it’s new.

  Materena is getting excited. . . .

  The Man Loana Was Supposed to Marry

  So excited she can’t sleep. She knows it’s a bit silly to get excited about Pito’s drunken marriage proposal, but she’s thinking that perhaps he really meant it, because some people need beer in them to dare talk about serious matters. What about that dream she had yesterday? Materena is now trying to analyze it. She was getting married to the man in the movie and Pito barged into the church on a horse and rescued her!

  Materena kisses Pito on the neck and presses her body against his. Usually when she does this and he’s asleep, he wakes up and jumps on her. But he’s drunk, so he just stays still like a statue.

  Materena thinks about what her mother would say if she announced that she was getting married.

  Loana might say, “About time that Pito decided to marry you, after all you’ve done for him.”

  Or, “Are you sure you want to marry Pito now? You don’t want to wait until you two are older?”

  Or, “Oish, what is a marriage worth?”

  Or even, “I’ve never told you that the day of your marriage would be the happiest day of your life!”

  Loana has told Materena often about a marriage proposal she received when she was seventeen years old. The young man’s name was Auguste.

  It was only a few months ago that Loana told Materena how she had seen Auguste for the very first time since she refused his marriage proposal. Loana instantly recognized him. He was tall and lean, but the hair was gray.