Just who is she?
1065 Words
‘Meet Yvonne, she’s been up at the c***k of dawn yelling gibberish since then, keeping everyone on their toes. She’s my son and a mala,’ my aunt sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes.
‘Well hello there, welcome to our humble abode, I am Yvonne here at your service, but you may call me Iva.’ This girl has a flair for the dramatics, very sassy, I noted in my head.
‘Hi Iva, my name is Sulu, you can call me whatever you like,’ I added in a playful tone, smiling widely, I already like this girl.
‘That’s great, I’ll call you Sas if you don’t mind, it sounds sassy;’ she laughed out loud before she helped me with my luggage inside the house.
‘Just letting you know, we have a few other relatives who came by, curious to see you, so you don’t get a panic attack,’ she winked before disappearing into the house.
‘Sulu, this is your room, you can leave your bags in there, and join us for dinner. I have put a few ie lavalava (sarong) for you to use in the closet.’ My aunt opened the door to a medium-sized room that will be mine for the duration of my stay.
‘Thank you, aunt, I don’t know how to thank you enough.’
‘That’s okay you silly girl, there is no need to think of any of that, we are your family and will help you whenever you need.’ With that, she turned around and left the room, closing the door gently behind her.
I looked around my room, there was a double size bed covered in baby-blue sheets, a desk with a chair beside the window overlooking the road and front yard, the walls were painted a soft shade of the same baby-blue colour. All in all, the room was cosy and warm, and that’s all I need.
Changing into a pair of shorts and wrapping an ‘ie around my waist I grabbed my phone and left the room.
Once I opened the door, I could smell delicious food so I followed my nose and ended up in the kitchen. Several hands were fanning the flies away from the delicious food neatly plated on the large table. Judging by the quantity of food on the table, it seems we are going to have a feast.
Starting from one end of the table, there was fried fish, crispy fried chicken, roasted whole chicken, chop suey, lamb curry, cooked taro, banana, rice, green salad, mashed potato and an opened can of corn-beef.
‘Oh wow, this is the most food I’ve seen at once!’ I declared to Iva and aunt Repa, still shocked and hungry.
‘Really? Well better get used to it, this is our usual menu for Sunday to’ona’i (Sunday lunch after church)’ aunt Repa answered while helping to wrap the food with cling wrap to prevent flies from contaminating the food.
‘Now, all of you go and sit down for the lotu (evening worship), Tautai is waiting. Iva, take Sulu with you and we’ll finish up here.’ Orepa instructed the young girls who were fanning the flies and to the boys hanging out back in the kitchen.
‘Ugh, when uncle does the loku he goes on and on, he doesn’t know when to stop and all the food will be cold by the time we eat,’ Iva grumbled while leading me to the fale.
The fale was laid with woven mats around the floor where everyone sat with legs folded. I followed Iva and we sat near the back part of the fale, just as the kids and few older women started singing. Lotu lasted for about half an hour with all the singing, uncle Tai’s speech and prayer, when everybody said, ‘Amen.'
I met some relatives from aunt Orepa’s side, some of them lived nearby while some travelled from the next village. I was introduced as Sulu, they were all very polite and shy if I am correct.
Dinner went on for some minutes, followed by dessert and chatter here and there, everybody enjoyed themselves and had a great laugh at some inside joke that I don’t understand.
‘Oh, I forgot to tell you, but we decided that whilst you will be staying with us, you can come to uni with me. You can do some courses here that will help you engage with the locals and make some friends other than me,’ Iva announced while we were eating.
‘You didn’t have to, but it does sound like a good idea, I don’t mind having that experience,’ I replied with a smile.
The thought of going to university peaked my interest the moment Iva mentioned it, I get to see what the current school system they have here, I might even meet some interesting people along the way.
‘She looks like her mother,’ someone blurted out while I was sipping on my Koko (Samoan cacao) and I immediately chocked on my drink at the mention of my mother.
‘Hush, don’t you know the rules? Never speak of that evil woman in our home, you know better than to speak her name, even more so with her daughter here,’ aunt Orepa scolded one of the younger women sitting on the side of the table.
There was a murmur of agreement and some heads even nodded in agreement with what she said.
All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew into the kitchen from the back door making me shiver and my skin crawl, despite how hot the evening was.
‘You know it’s taboo to speak of them, especially at night time. You don’t want to face the wrath of a teine so.’ Another elder lady added to the discussion.
I can sense the tension thick in the air, and I have to say, I felt somewhat offended at how indifferent they reacted at the mention of my mother.
But then again, I don’t know anything about this woman. For all I know, she must have done something terrible to warrant such a reaction.
Is she capable of terrible things? Of evil things? Was my father delusional to think that she is the sweetest, caring and beautiful woman he had ever known?
It seems like getting to know my mother might be such a bad, no terrible idea.
Just who is she and what is she capable of?
- Writer
