Breadfruit (2 page)

Pito grabs Materena by the waist and he says to the man she’s supposed to marry, “Listen, that woman, she’s for me—you go
look for another woman, okay?” Pito has a fierce look on his face.

Pito and Materena ride out of the church, they ride far away, far away, to the desert.

When Materena wakes up, she’s laughing.

B
y eleven o’clock that night, Materena, scrubbing her oven, is still laughing about her dream—the part when Pito barges into
the church on a horse, wearing a Stetson! Can you imagine?

Well, Materena might as well laugh now, because once Pito is home from the bar, she won’t be laughing at all. He’ll be drunk,
talk a lot of nothing, as usual, and get on her nerves. Last time he was drunk, he went on about how he had to push women
away—they were all over him and all he wanted to do was drink his beer at the bar and talk with his colleagues about fishing.

Here he comes now, Materena can hear him fumbling with the door.

“
Materena!
” Pito bursts out as he lurches through the doorway. “Ahhh, Materena,” he slurs, red-eyed, swaying on his feet. “Marry me,
Materena.”

Materena just smiles at him, all the while scrubbing her oven.

“Are you going to marry me or what?” Pito looks like he’s going to fall on her.

“All right, okay.” Materena drops the scrubbing brush as he pins her in his arms. She’s got to get Pito into bed before he
wakes up the kids.

Five minutes later, Pito is in bed, unconscious and snoring. And Materena is glad. She isn’t going to take his marriage proposal
seriously. Ah no. A ring on her finger, it’s not an obsession. In her opinion, they’re like a married couple, anyway—they
share a bed and they share the kitchen table. He’s her man, she’s his woman, and it’s no different from being husband and
wife. She doesn’t need a ring on her finger and a framed marriage certificate displayed on the wall. Materena goes back to
her oven. She scrubs, and thinks back to the day she met Pito.

When she was sixteen years old, Materena worked at the local snack during the school holidays. Pito came to the snack one
afternoon with a friend, Ati.

Aue,
when Materena first laid her eyes on Pito, she liked the look of him instantly. It’s not that he was the most handsome man
her eyes had ever seen, but there was something about him.

Pito wanted a ham sandwich, so Materena made him a ham sandwich. Pito took it and gave Materena his money. He looked at her,
but it was like she didn’t exist. The other fellow gave her the interested look, but she wasn’t interested in him. She served
him and went on serving the other customers, but every now and then her interested eyes would drift to the sexy man wearing
the ripped T-shirt.

When Pito left, Materena wanted to follow him. His friend winked at her, but she gave him a dirty look. She didn’t want him
to think that she was interested in him, because then he would tell Pito.

The next day, Materena agonized in front of the mirror, trying to do a complicated style with her hair instead of the usual
chignon. But it was hopeless. She’d never bothered with a complicated hairstyle before, it had always been the same chignon,
since the age of eight years old. She got so frustrated she felt like ripping her hair out. In the end, she decorated her
chignon with tiare Tahiti flowers, and Loana, Materena’s mother, got mad because the flowers were reserved for the Virgin
Mary, Understanding Woman. Materena had to take every single flower out of her chignon and put it back in the bowl next to
the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Pito didn’t come to the snack that day. In fact, a whole week passed before he made another appearance. When he did, Materena
was very nervous.

“Ham sandwich?” she asked, wanting to show Pito that she remembered him.

He gave her a smile.

It was impossible for Materena to do her job after that. The afternoon was a total disaster, and the boss yelled at her quite
a few times.

But Pito came to the snack the following day.

And the next.

A little laughter, a little giggle, eyes meeting eyes, and all kinds of ideas coming into their heads. The boss was forced
to remind Materena that her job wasn’t to giggle but to make sandwiches. The boss gave Pito a dirty look, but she couldn’t
tell him to stop coming to her snack just because he was making Materena soft in the head. He also ate a lot of sandwiches.
He was a very good customer.

Pito finally arranged a rendezvous with Materena for nine o’clock at the frangipani tree behind the bank. As soon as Materena
got home from work, she went into the bathroom to scrub her hands to get rid of the onion smell.

At eight thirty, she was in bed.

By quarter to nine, she was sneaking out the window and over the side fence.

And there was Pito, waiting for her under the frangipani tree—with a rolled quilt in his arms.

They talked for about two seconds.

Then his mouth touched her mouth… and that was the end of Materena the good Catholic girl.

She had discovered sexy loving.

Loana had warned Materena that if she ever found out about a boyfriend from the coconut radio and not from Materena herself,
there would be syrup—meaning that Materena would get a couple of slaps across the face.

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 least 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.”