by Cowley, Joy
Aesake said nothing.
Then the Redbeard put his hand on Aesake’s shoulder. ‘We’ll find him. If he’s as good a swimmer as you say, he’ll be safe. Probably making monkeys out of us.’ He waved at the men. ‘All right, start her up, and we’ll go around a couple of times. Dead slow in circles where he went down.’
Aesake stood staring at the sea.
Luisa was sitting in the cabin again. She, too, was still, making no sound, her eyes fixed on nothing, like the eyes of the blind.
Samu left her and came out on deck. ‘She won’t speak to me,’ he said to Aesake.
‘It’s shock. There’s nothing you can do.’
Samu was quiet for a while, then he said, ‘Do you think we’ll find him?’
Aesake shook his head. In the distance the green mountains propped up a sagging heap of cloud. Somewhere in front of these peaks was the village – and his father, Taruga Vueti, to whom he’d made a promise.
Now, more than at any other time in his life, Aesake needed his father’s assistance, but the chief was far away, too far even for remembered advice. The vast calm of the sea was unbroken for miles. There was nothing on it, not as much as a stray bobbing coconut.
‘No, we won’t find him,’ Aesake said.
Conclusion
Jonasi and the white turtle were never found. The sun came and went many times, but the sea did not return the Silent One to the shore. It was as though the reef had completely swallowed them.
The government man returned with generous supplies of food to the village, so that there was enough to keep hunger away until crops were ready. And it wasn’t long before the gentle balance of sun and rain restored the earth. The dalo shoots uncurled to broad green leaves, and clusters of tiny coconuts swelled, changing colour from orange to green to brown. Gradually the promise of fruit was fulfilled, while the sea gave a never-ending harvest. After two years, no one would have known there had been such a hurricane.
People chose to forget about Jonasi and the white turtle. But beyond the village, as far away as Sevu and the outer islands, stories of the white turtle multiplied like fire. There were men who said it was truly a demon, but others claimed it to be a spirit of light. Each person, it seemed, had a different story. And each believed his story to be the only truth.
In Sevu, the crew of a Norwegian cargo ship claimed there were two white turtles. They’d seen them, they said. In the deep ocean, days out from port, two turtles swimming together. They were both white, they said, and they gleamed like stars in all that dark blue water.