Telesa - The Covenant Keeper (22 page)

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say. This is all so much to process at once. I can’t understand why my dad did what he did. And part of me wishes he hadn’t. All my life I wanted a mother. A family. That was more like me. I never quite fit in with the Folgers, but then” a half smile “my dad never quite fit in with them either, so I guess that made two of us. When he died, I had never felt so alone in my life. I came here looking for answers, I guess to be honest, I came here looking for a family. Aunty Matile and Tuala, they’ve been good to me, even though they didn’t want me here. Now I find out I have a mother. And you’re a mother that my aunt and uncle happen to hate. Aunty Matile seems to even be afraid of you.” I turned curious eyes on Nafanua, “Why does Matile hate you so much?”

Nafanua shrugged. “Family issues. Such ancient history I can’t even remember how it all began. Leila, I know this is a shock to you and I understand if you need time to process it.” She stood again and walked out onto the veranda, pausing to pat a luxuriant bird’s nest fern. With her back to me, she spoke. “I would like to have a chance to get to know you. You are a grown woman and I’m sure you don’t need a mother forced upon you but I would like to invite you to come and stay here with me for a while. For as long as you like. So we may know each other – not necessarily as mother and daughter, but as friends. As family.” She turned, a cautious smile on her face.

Whatever I had expected, it wasn’t this. But as I sat there, I faced the hidden reality that I had secretly hoped this would happen. But then, maybe, every child with a long-dead mother dreams of a day that the impossible will happen and her mother will come back to life and want her? I know that my every waking dream was that my dad would somehow be alive somewhere. That the past eight months had all been some cruel nightmare and I was going to wake up.

I looked at this strange woman who smiled at me with my eyes and half shrugged. “Sure. I guess. I can come stay for a while. I don’t think Aunty Matile will like it, but I’ll explain to her that you – that we just need a chance, to catch up.”

Her smile lit the room and the air seemed to crackle with electricity. “Yes! That’s great Leila, I’m sure you won’t regret it. Now, shall I take you back to get your things. No, do you drive?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. It’s probably better if I don’t go with you to your aunt’s house, let’s avoid confrontation there. You can take the jeep and get your things. Do you think you can remember the way back? Or text me and I can meet you at the intersection by the Mormon temple, I’ll tell Netta to get your room ready.” Nafanua was walking up and down the living room waving her arms excitedly, counting off a list on her fingers, “Oh, and we must have a dinner tonight to welcome you and, oh, there are a million and one things to do!”

She stopped mid stride and laughed. Long, low, and musical. “Oh Leila, I am happy that you came home.”

I hoped desperately that she wasn’t going to hug me. I hated physical contact with strangers and it was far too soon to even consider faking affection for this woman. Thankfully, she did nothing of the kind, merely walking out a back door, throwing a summons over her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll take you to the garage. I don’t want you driving back in the dark so you better get going.”

I followed her to the door of a huge four car garage. The estate made you think there would be a carriage or horse and cart in the garage – not the three gleaming vehicles that stood there. My mouth was agape. Clearly, this woman liked her trucks.

There was a land cruiser, a Hummer. And a Wrangler Jeep. All midnight black and silver. “Can you drive a stick-shift car?”

I nodded dumbly.

“Good.” She threw me a set of keys. “Take the Wrangler. It’s yours.”

I was too numb to catch the glinting bunch of silver. They landed at my feet. “I can’t. I can’t accept a car from you. I’ll drive it to pick up my stuff but it’s not mine.”

Nafanua raised a questioning eyebrow. “Why not?”

“I don’t even know you. It’s just ridiculous.”

She put one hand on her hip and pouted. I could see it working magic on a man. “Leila, now
you’re
being ridiculous. You’re my daughter.” She threw her arm expansively to the estate behind us. “You see all that? It’s yours. All of it. Well, it will be yours one day. All your life I have given you nothing. Your father made sure of that. Now you are eighteen, surely I can give you this one thing? You would deny me this one thing? Who’s being ridiculous?’

Without even waiting for a reply, she turned to walk back in the house but then came back with a business card. “My cell. Text me when you get to the intersection and I’ll come get you. Don’t want you to get lost on your way back. Not when I just found you.”

A half smile and she went back into the house. The conversation was over. I felt like I’d been bamboozled without even realizing it. I don’t know what I had been expecting when I drove up here with this woman, but here I was an hour later – her long-lost daughter, driving her Wrangler, and coming back to stay in her house with her. So we could get to know each other better. With my brain still in numb shock, I slowly drove the unfamiliar car down the sloping driveway. I hadn’t driven a car since I arrived and it felt incredibly freeing. I drove with the windows down, the wind in my hair, on my face. I could have driven like that all around the island but too soon I had to pull up in front of the square house with the frangipani tree in the front yard. It was time to tell Aunty Matile and Tuala of my decision.

They didn’t like it of course. Aunty Matile cried some more. Silent tears, shaking her head. Uncle Tuala only sighed, long and low, “Are you sure Leila? Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“Yes. Uncle, please understand, I’m not trying to be ungrateful for all that you and Aunty have done for me. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to get to know this woman better. I have no father. No family really. Please just allow me this chance to know this mother a little.”

He smiled sadly. “Leila, you are a grown woman, not a child. You are our guest, not our prisoner. It is not for us to decide where you stay, where you go. And while we may think you are making a mistake, this is your decision to make.”

He helped me take my bag to the jeep. I was slowly getting into the driver’s seat when Aunty Matile came out of the house. “Leila, you be careful, you hear me? You be careful. And when your visit with that woman is finished, you come back here and stay with us again. We are your family, you hear me? And be a good girl.” She waved at me. “Be a good girl, Leila. And come back soon.”

They stood and watched me drive away in the fast-approaching evening. I was sad. But tense with excitement. I was Leila Pele Folger. I had a mother called Nafanua. And I was going to stay at her house.

* * * *

The rest of the evening was one of discoveries. Nafanua met me at the main road intersection and drove the rest of the way back up to the stately house in the forest. She showed me to my room on the second floor, a huge retreat with a king-size four-poster bed and French doors that opened out onto a balcony overlooking the back of the property. There was an ensuite bathroom, masses of flowers in clay jugs, abundant ferns trailing their green sweetness all throughout the house. My one bag of clothes looked rather dismal in the vast wardrobe. I didn’t have much time to dwell on it though before Nafanua was calling me downstairs. I met Netta, the housekeeper, an unsmiling woman with grey hair pulled tightly back in a bun whose scowl deepened as she stared pointedly at the dirt on my shoes as I stood on the polished beauty of the wood flooring.
Oops
. Quickly, I excused myself to take my shoes and leave them at the door. I was rewarded with a curt nod. The rest of the house flowed seamlessly into a library, another two bedrooms and Nafanua’s master suite. Every room beckoned to the outdoors though, with the opening French doors and wrap-around veranda, so coolness and light flowed endlessly. At the back of the house was a square block building almost overgrown with bougainvillea. There was excited anticipation in Nafanua’s voice as she threw open the door.

“My lab. Here’s where I do all my work.”

I followed behind her. And stood still in awe. Again. There were plants everywhere, hanging from pots suspended from the ceiling, in baskets lining the wall. The center of the room was lined with two long benches crowded with gleaming steel equipment. A computer or two. Machines that beeped and hummed. Glass boxes that held orchids and drooping branches under artificial lighting. There were two benches crowded with beakers and test tubes, plastic tubing, and pipes.

“Wow.” I couldn’t manage anything else. But Nafanua didn’t seem to notice.

“Here’s where I spend most of my time. Nights especially are my favorite time to work.”

“What are you working on?”

“Medicines, plant grafting, seed propagation, stuff. As you know, plants are where we get most of our modern medicine from. My sisters and I, we’re traditional healers so we have the benefit of many hundreds of years of knowledge handed down to us by our mothers. Too often, modern science and Western medicine rip off traditional healers. They take our plants, they take our knowledge, ‘invent’ a cure for something and then get filthy rich off it. And maybe they throw a few cents over their shoulder for the villagers who were foolish enough to give them the information in the first place. Well, thanks to our work here in the lab, we don’t need them. In the last many years, we’ve successfully patented several plant-based medicines and ensured that the profits come back where they should. Here. And we in turn put them back into village-based projects.”

“So that’s what you do then? You’re a science researcher?”

She shrugged. “Among other things. I do a bit of consultancy work for different environmental organizations as needed. My sisters and I are lobbyists in the region as well as locally. But enough about me. You like plants, yes?”

I nodded, glad to find common ground. “Yes, they make more sense than people for me. I had a little collection of my own at home that my dad would help me gather samples for. Nothing as extensive as yours though. Wow.” I walked around the lab, foraging thoughtfully through the specimens and labelled containers, “This is pretty amazing stuff.”

“You’re welcome to come in here whenever you like, look around, help yourself to everything. Later on when you’re settled, I’d always appreciate an extra hand with my work. If you want to.”

She made the offer openly without reservation but I wasn’t ready to embrace it. A non-committal shrug, “Sure.”

As if sensing the hesitation she moved on. “Come, you must be tired. Would you like to go in and shower, get ready for dinner? I decided against having you meet my sisters on your first night, thought it would be a bit much for you, so it’s just us and Netta. But she is making something extra special for your welcome dinner, so I hope you’re hungry.”

I smiled and nodded. Food I was ready to embrace. A cold shower and a change of clothes later and I was sitting at Nafanua’s table while Netta served a delicious array of food. Sweet baked fish in honey ginger sauce. Crayfish. Octopus in coconut cream. Watercress and lettuce salad with pele leaves and mint. Nafanua explained. “We don’t eat a lot of red meat. I guess you could say we’re semi-vegetarian. Everything on this table comes from our own land. The other side of the property fronts onto the ocean so we get fresh fish daily. Netta caught this octopus just this morning, didn’t you Netta?”

Dessert was the grand exclamation mark after an already full paragraph. Faausi – papaya dumplings in a caramel sticky sweet sauce. And mango pie. Coconut milk custard. I groaned. “I will definitely need to go for a run tomorrow morning Netta, this has been so delicious and I’ve eaten way too much food. Thank you very much. I can’t believe you made all this just for us.”

The grim-faced woman softened to a smile. Which widened appreciatively as I jumped to clear the table and helped with the washing up. As I was drying the last dish, Nafanua called from the living room. “When you’re done, Leila, can you come walk with me for a little bit?”

The night shadows were heavy with the scent of jasmine as we walked slowly through the garden in the silver moonlight. Nafanua paused beside a cluster of gardenia bushes and reached into her pocket, bringing out a soft
siapo
cloth bag. She held it out to me.

“I want you to have this. I made it for you during those months when I was carrying you. It was to have been a gift when you turned twelve. The age that we, that my family considers the age that a girl becomes a woman. I never thought I would be able to give it to you. It would bring me great joy if you accepted this gift now, even if it is late. Because I hope it isn’t too late Leila, for you and I. To be family.”

I didn’t know what to say. Instead I reached out for the bag, and opened it. Out tumbled a bone carving that gleamed whitely in the darkness. Intricate patterns and swirls marked its smooth surface. I exclaimed with the beauty of it. “It’s lovely, Nafanua. You made this? What is it made from?”

“Whale bone. Our ocean cove is where the Pacific whale comes to die. It is a place of peace and rest. When their time is near, they know they can find refuge here. And in death they know they can find reverence. We perform the sacred death rites and in exchange we take a piece of bone. It is saved for when we have a daughter and we engrave it with some of our legends. Our history. And our hopes for her future.” She carefully showed me a similar carving that hung from a gold chain around her own neck. “This was made for me by my mother and I wear it always. She’s long gone now but this is my link to her, to our past, and to my family.”

My breath was an indrawn hush in the white moonlit night. Without knowing why, tears threatened me and I turned away in the darkness to contain them, my emotions a swirling mess. It was too much. All my life not only had I been reconciled to having no mother but I’d battled to fit the mold of requisites for being a bona fide Folger, failing miserably more often than not. And now, to have a mother, to have a legacy, links to a past, and a family – it was more than I had ever dreamed possible. I had been living in thick choking darkness ever since my dad died and this light just seemed too bright to be real.