The Birthmark Read online

  ‘We’ll go back and get some of our things, Mother,’ Tepu said. It upset him to see her so withdrawn and dejected.

  ‘You must be careful. They will eat you up if they catch you. They’ll eat the whole island soon enough and dance on our withered souls.’

  Tepu reassured her and he and Tarema set out the next morning at dawn. Once on the outskirts of Anbwido they crept back to the house. Tepu was shocked by what he saw—half the building was missing, the timber had been stripped away and only a small section of the frame remained. The roof had sagged to the ground. All their possessions were gone: no mats, no clothes, no kitchenware. Everything taken.

  Tarema shook in an effort to suppress his tears, but Tepu stood tall and proud and would not cry even though the injustice made his throat prickle. He walked to the corner where his belongings had been. Only the smooth black stone lay in the sand, overlooked by the marines. Tepu knelt to pick it up and turned it over in his hands. He felt a surge of warmth, as if the stone had come alive all of a sudden.

  He remembered the night his grandfather had given him the stone. The old man smelled strongly of coconut oil and sweat. His silver hair contrasted sharply against the red-brown skin of his face. ‘This is the black stone of our ancestors, the black terns of the sea,’ he said. ‘A shaman has the stone to make himself strong and to use the ancestors’ magic.’

  Tepu was awestruck at the thought. He knew shamans were powerful and spoke to the spirit world. Each knew the laws and myths of their islands and the power of the gods.

  ‘To be a shaman, when you reach manhood you must pass tests of strength and endurance,’ he said. ‘I am too old to come with you and guide you, Tepu. Keep this stone safe. It shall be a channel for my knowledge.’

  But for many years the stone had lain neglected by Tepu in favour of fishing and exploring. Right now, however, amidst this devastation, its hidden magic called to him. If only he knew how to harness the power of his ancestors. I will discover it, he vowed to himself. I will learn this stone’s magic and wield it against our enemies.

  Deboa Hotel Casino

  Anbwido

  Friday 25 June 2004

  Lorelei Fasitisat in the gaming room of the casino, her eyes reflecting the coloured lights of the screen in front of her. She chose her cards, a pair of kings, and pressed ‘DEAL’. The digital cards flashed before her. No luck. The kings blinked back at her and she pressed ‘DEAL’ again.

  ‘You winning anything yet?’

  She didn’t look up from the screen. She knew it was Daphne. ‘No, nothing, bad luck day.’

  ‘I got 200 dollars on this machine last week. Got a royal flush.’

  Lorelei turned to look at her. Daphne was the child of a mixed marriage and Lorelei envied her almond eyes, as well as her ability to make light of everything. She’d always been like that, even when they were friends at school. Those easy days had gone, but their friendship had remained steady. ‘Only 200? You should have bet more money.’

  ‘I know, I’m gutless,’ Daphne said, laughing.

  ‘Finished all your money?’ Lorelei asked her friend.

  ‘Yeah, I’ve had enough. Besides, Olaf will kill me if I stay here all day. We’re going out tonight.’

  Lorelei smirked. Lucky bitch, she thought. Daphne’s marriage still had some energy to it. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Amos went out together peacefully. They couldn’t play that game anymore. The sharp remarks they threw at one another had severed any affection they once had. The faithful husband—whatever happened to that concept? Daphne must have noticed the wistful look on Lorelei’s face.

  ‘You ought to check out if there’s anyone in the bar,’ Daphne said, lighting a cigarette. ‘Never know, might find yourself a good one.’

  ‘Suh!’ she scoffed, eyeing Daphne with a straight face. Her upper lip curled. ‘I’m not that kind of girl.’

  Daphne slapped her on the back and the two of them burst into a fit of laughter.

  ‘Eh, don’t look now, girl. Here comes a good one. I’ve always liked a man in uniform, myself.’

  Lorelei turned to follow Daphne’s glance. Two police officers were approaching. Lorelei recognised them at once. The shorter man was her husband’s old friend, Martin; his taller partner was the island’s champion dart thrower.

  ‘How’s the winnings, Lorelei? Have you won enough to buy us a drink?’ Martin joked. The two of them sat alongside her. Lorelei and Daphne exchanged bemused glances.

  ‘I’ll get some drinks,’ Daphne said, and she waddled off to the bar.

  ‘Cola, please, we’re on duty!’

  Lorelei continued with her game, trying her best to appear sober. Her eyesight swam a little each time the cards flashed on the screen. Pissed already and it was only early afternoon. God, what am I doing, she thought, just topping up after last night’s binge? And what do these guys want, embarrassing me by sitting here?

  ‘Saw your girl Lily today,’ Martin said quietly.

  ‘Yeah, so what?’

  ‘She’s been hanging round Government Settlement— in with bad company.’

  Lorelei narrowed her eyes but continued to look at the screen. ‘Who?’

  ‘Hector Anisi.’

  ‘That skinny kid with the busted face?’

  Martin laughed. ‘Yeah, that’s him. They didn’t pay for their meal at Lotus Restaurant either.’

  ‘So what? Heaps of people rip off the Chinese if they can.’

  Martin looked apologetic. He was not keen on enforcing the law. ‘Well, I think she needs a warning.’

  ‘OK. What about Hector?’

  ‘We’ll catch him one day,’ Martin said with forced assurance.

  Lorelei knew what that meant. They’d never bother to catch him, nor tell his family to issue a warning. Still it was understandable. There was only the grandfather with him: a strange old man who seldom spoke to anyone and spent days at a time wandering through the forest mumbling and shouting. No wonder the child was a delinquent. No one to keep him under control.

  Daphne returned with the drinks and the conversation reverted to trivial things. After ten minutes of jokes and chatting, the policemen excused themselves.

  ‘What was that all about?’ Daphne said.

  ‘Lil,’ Lorelei sighed and turned to her friend. ‘Give me a cigarette.’

  ‘Sure, is she OK?’

  Lorelei nodded, took a cigarette and leant towards the flame Daphne offered. She pulled on the cigarette heavily until it lit, then turned her attention back to the gaming machine. ‘She’s becoming a trut lately,’ Lorelei mumbled.

  ‘What’s she done?’

  Lorelei repeated Martin’s story.

  Daphne shook her head. ‘That Hector kid is bad news; so is the grandfather, Riki. I heard he didn’t even talk to his wife when she was alive. Crazy old bastard. But he can talk though. He’ll tell you to bugger off if you get in his way.’

  ‘The stupid trut, why doesn’t she stay at home?’ Lorelei spat. She stared blankly at her friend, but her breath came in small snorts of anger.

  ‘What are you going to do? You look like you’re going to kill her,’ Daphne said.

  ‘I’m just worried about her, that’s all. She’s getting so rebellious. She’s been skipping school a lot too. Now it’s the holidays, I can’t keep her at home. I thought maybe she’d be easier to deal with than her brothers.’

  ‘Well she is sixteen, isn’t she?’

  ‘Nearly.’

  ‘I thought she hung around with your niece, Decima.’ ‘She normally does, but now Eide’s diabetes is so bad, Decima’s spending a lot of time nursing her. They’re at the hospital a lot.’

  ‘It’s no good your sister’s so sick,’ Daphne mumbled. ‘What’s the latest news?’

  ‘They’ve sent her home again, but she goes back for dialysis every few days. I cook some meals for the kids, but the older ones can take care of themselves. We’re doing what we can,’ Lorelei said, trying to hide her concern.
/>   ‘I suppose Lily feels left out,’ Daphne said.

  ‘No, it started before Eide’s sickness got worse.’

  ‘Don’t worry. All teenagers are crazy. Just look at my kids.’

  Lorelei smirked. Daphne’s kids didn’t seem bad. In fact they were just the opposite. She hardly ever saw Daphne’s five kids roaming the streets at night. But then they lived at Praru, over the other side of the island. And their Samoan grandmother probably kept them at home with the threat of a big stick.

  Still, she reasoned, what she saw in Anbwido every night was true of most of the island: groups of teenagers and kids as young as eight, gathered outside Chinese restaurants, nightclubs and the pool halls—little gangs with foul mouths, riding on bicycles, searching for mischief and something to steal.

  She sucked hard on her cigarette and the curtain of smoke stung her eyes. ‘I don’t know, Daph, it’s just that lately…I can’t seem to connect with her. She won’t do anything I tell her anymore. It shits me so much.’

  Daphne raised her eyebrows in agreement.

  Lorelei thought back to her youth, when she was too frightened to step out of line for fear of a beating. Something had been lost. The kids weren’t scared anymore, not the way she’d once been.

  Her friend laughed. ‘I know, my girls are the same. All you can do is lock them up and keep watching them, otherwise they’ll be pregnant before you know it.’

  ‘She’s been so good at home for so long. Now though, she seems to want to run off all the time. I do everything I can to look after her, you know…’

  ‘Well they’re like that, aren’t they?’

  ‘She’s got a room of her own and we’ve always been there for her and the boys, you know, a happy family.’ Lorelei stopped suddenly, realising the lie she’d just uttered. ‘If you could call it that,’ she added in a whisper. Who was she fooling? She was telling Daphne all this just to make herself look better in Daphne’s eyes. She hadn’t really been there for the family the last few years. She’d spent too much time at bingo or the casino, too much time so pissed she could hardly stand up. She knew it but she couldn’t say it, not to her friends and not even to herself. It was a failing that she kept denying. She hated herself for feeling so weak.

  Lorelei truly loved her kids, all three of them: Rongo, Lily and Cyrus. Even though Lil had been the toughest one of all to love. She had tried her best to accept Lily, and most of the time she could ignore the bad memories. When she remembered the good times with her daughter she smiled to herself.

  Lil had been an inquisitive little girl sitting on her lap, with huge brown eyes in a round face. So much had changed in just ten years.

  ‘Why do they hate us so much, Daph, after all we do for them?’

  Daphne stubbed out her cigarette. ‘I don’t know, I just don’t,’ she sighed and looked at her friend. ‘But you can’t hate them.’

  Lorelei’s top lip curled into a sneer. ‘I’ll have to go and teach her a lesson.’

  four

  Mawendo District

  20 October 1942

  By noon the Japanese had rounded up all able-bodied men and youths and told them, at gunpoint, that they had to work. An officer stood before them, sweating in his trim buttoned coat and gleaming black boots. He smiled with poorly disguised contempt at the assembled group of men. Through the aid of an interpreter who used halting broken English, he reassured them that in return for their labour they would be given weekly food rations. They would work for the glory of the Emperor, for Japan’s victory in the Pacific. Tepu knew then that the Japanese were planning to stay on Tevua for a long time.

  The invaders were small thin men but Tepu had learnt to fear them. It wasn’t just because of the guns and swords they carried, but the way they beat people. They were unpredictable.

  When the marines selected their work gangs, Tepu stiffened as he bowed, expecting a blow to the head, but none came. They pushed him forward and made him stand to one side with a group of stocky Tevuan men. Tepu looked on as the next youth in the line was considered. The boy’s bowed head of black curls glistened in the sun, a model of subservience; but still the inspecting soldier slapped him. Tepu thought perhaps it was the relaxed curve of the boy’s shoulder muscles that had invited the attack. He made a mental note always to appear frightened.

  Tepu was the youngest member of his group. There were twenty of them altogether, many of whom he knew as acquaintances. They were assigned to clear the forest to the south of the island, not far from what had until recently been his village. Eight other men in his gang also camped out at Yamek. In the late afternoons they were escorted most of the way home: through the remains of Anbwido, past the leper camp, along the broad expanse of Baringa Bay to the hill that overlooked the windswept coast of Yamek. This suited Tepu well because as they marched he could look out for Edouwe and her grandparents.

  In the evening of his first day of work he caught sight of her amongst the huts. Her jaw dropped in shock when she recognised him. He signalled to her discreetly, trying to convince her not to fear for him. But he saw the sorrow in her face as she shrank back into the shadows.

  ‘Stand proud, my Gilbertese boy!’ she called out from the safety of the huts.

  One of the marines turned and levelled his gun at the camp. He shouted something menacing in Japanese but, seeing no one, he turned back to the work gang and screamed at them to walk faster.

  Tepu’s heart danced with happiness. It was dangerous for Edouwe to communicate with him, not only because of the Japanese threat but also because of local customs. But now she’d declared openly that he was her boy. It brought a smile to his lips and unconsciously he did stand taller, elated by her words. He’d have to keep in contact with her somehow. He needed to work out a plan.

  Anbwido

  Friday 25 June 2004

  Inside her room, Lily took off her T-shirt. The singlet top she was wearing underneath smelled strongly of sweat, but she had nothing clean to wear. She hadn’t done the washing yet. Should have done it today, she thought, instead of running around in the bush after chickens.

  The sword was hidden under her mattress. A last resort if Eldon comes creeping in again, she resolved—but would she really use it? She didn’t want to think about that. She just wanted it there for safety. It made her feel strong.

  As soon as she’d taken it from Hector she felt a surge of power, a tingling rush of inner strength flowed up her arm. She knew the sword was special and she didn’t want anyone else to have it. When Christina showed interest in the sword Lily knew she had to defend it, keep it safe. Something deep within willed her to say the sword was hers. She knew she shouldn’t have spoken to Christina like that, but she couldn’t help it.

  She opened the wooden chest at the end of her room. Her whole world resided in that chest. There were T-shirts, shorts, a range of hair ties, her few cassette tapes, and her small blue box. She took out the box and opened it carefully. Inside was her collection: a piece of twisted coral, a plastic doll’s hand and some wedding ring advertisements cut from magazines. She liked hands, other people’s hands. When she thought of her own she was dispirited. Her left hand was so ugly and she couldn’t hide it because she was left-handed.

  She wished her skin were darker so no one could see the stain—the purple hue would not be so obvious then— but no, she was cursed with a lighter shade of brown. It made the birthmark vivid. Stupid boys said dumb things about her and blood and her periods. As if they’d know, the dumb shits. She had learnt to hurt them when she caught them, but she was getting heavier and she didn’t run as fast as the little kids anymore. Now she just scowled at them and remembered their faces. They could wait. When they weren’t expecting it she would hurt them. The little bastards. She’d teach them.

  Lily replaced the blue box and shut the chest. She held her hands up in front of her and wondered what Jonah thought of her birthmark. Framed against the window, with the sunset behind them, the purple stain seemed to glow. Someone so perf
ect looking, like him, probably thought it was ugly.

  Jonah was so hot, she often wondered why he ever bothered speaking to her at school. There were so many girls on the island who were gorgeous. She knew she didn’t compare with any of them. If only she could gauge his interest in her. If only she could see him over these holidays, then maybe they could meet somewhere and then she’d know. She’d know if dreaming about him was a waste of time or not.

  ‘Lil, where you been girl?’ Lorelei’s voice snapped.

  Through her purple fingers, Lily saw her mother filling the doorway. She was a mass of breast and stomach, heavy and sticky with sweat, blocking Lily’s only exit.

  Lorelei wiped at her face with a tea-towel, smearing the sweat on her top lip—that fat upper lip, curled into a permanent sneer.

  Lily looked down at the floor. ‘I was out.’

  ‘Out, always out!’

  The doorway shook as Lorelei forced herself into the room. Lily covered her face with her arms, waiting for the blow. But it didn’t come, not yet. Instead she felt her mother’s fat fingers hook through her hair and tug.

  ‘Where’d you go, why’d you run off?’

  ‘Get away from you, yeah,’ she whispered. But Lorelei didn’t seem to hear anything now. Her tirade had begun.

  ‘I heard you were in Government Settlement, running with that thief.’

  ‘So what!’

  ‘So I don’t like it.’

  ‘You don’t like anything I do. It’s alright for you to go off all day and all night.’ That’s when it came.

  Bwack! Across the side of her head. It sent Lily spinning to one side, but Lorelei still held her by the hair.

  She was as helpless as Hector’s chicken.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You go off all the time!’ Lily yelled, trying to wrench her mother’s fingers off. The stench of beer and cigarettes hit her in the face as Lorelei screamed.