Chapter 2: The Day Begins

Fiso slowly opened his eyes to greet the overly-enthusiastic beams of light making their way through the broad leaves of a nearby breadfruit tree. A mild ticking sound met his waking ears. Some small weight pressing down on his chest seemed to be the source of the curious noise. Not ticking. But clucking! Fiso sluggishly swatted the chicken off his chest and managed a “Gerr offa me!”

“Dumb chicken! Do nothin’ but crap all over the place. Only good for eating. We’re gonna whip your stupid baseball team later today!” he continued. The chicken had flown away several paces, and was now staring at Fiso apparently very taken aback.

Fiso looked around. His mother was making an intricate arrangement of particularly
green basaltic rocks in the umu fire pit under the nearby breadfruit tree. Tolo was next to her cutting wood with his machete, and handing individual pieces to Eva as she wove them into her latticework in the umu. Fiso stood up and picked off the floor the basket of ripe coconuts he had harvested the previous day. He lofted the basket outside to the fire pit and stood across from his mother next to a pointed iron bar protruding from a pile of rocks. Fiso grabbed a coconut
by its brown husk and thrust it onto the pike. Twisting the coconut in his hand, he wrenched the fibrous husk from the hard inner shell. Tossing the husk to the side, he returned the naked coconut back to the basket and fetched out another. After silently husking this way for several minutes, he looked up and asked his mother, “Can I light the umu?”

“Um, sure honey, go ahead and light it when you’re done with those coconuts. Just be
careful,” she replied as she placed the last rock in the pit. Fiso finished his work quickly and brought the last husk over to the fire pit. Tolo eyed Fiso warily as Fiso grabbed the box of matches set on the ground next to the pit. Fiso set the husk in the fire pit and struck a match. As Fiso reached toward the husk with his lit match, a black lizard sunbathing in a patch of sunlight on a
discarded coconut husk caught his eye. His hand danced across the green grass creeping toward the oblivious reptile.

“Fiso don’t hurt it. Please? I’ll tell Mom if you do,” threatened Tolo.
“Sheesh I’m just gonna tease it. Watch,” replied Fiso.

The lizard, facing away from the boys, cocked its tiny head and made a tiny chirping noise. Fiso lit the husk underneath the poor lizard, and pulled his hand back to watch the motions of this act. At the onset of smoke, the small quadruped abruptly leapt to the ground and dove underneath a nearby banana leaf and turned to watch the two boys with offended eyes. Fiso, laughing, picked up the smoking husk and threw it into the umu. It was not long before the flames ascended and began to consume the wood. Eva had moved inside and was pouring a bag of rice into a small pot. She filled the pot with water at the spigot next to the shower house behind the main house. Then she brought the pot out front and hung it on a hook situated just over the fire pit. Tolo, seeing his mother had returned from the house, grabbed a coconut out of the basket and gave it several sharp taps with his machete, then pried it open. A little juice came out. He handed both halves
to his mother. Eva took the halves and sat down straddling a wooden bench. The bench had a long piece of metal affixed to the end with a serrated circle on the end. She placed a coconut half on the end of the metal bar, the meat-bearing inside touching the jagged tip. She began rubbing the coconut half back and forth, and the meat from the inside began falling in grated strands
into the bowl placed underneath. She quickly liberated all the meat from that shell and then began with the other. Tolo continued splitting open coconuts and handing them to his mother. Fiso went inside and hefted another large basket full of large green breadfruit.

The tree closest to the Leiloa home was a kind of fifth family member. It is a breadfruit tree of the maopo variety, which is one of the tastiest of breadfruit. The branches made for great climbing when Tolo and Fiso were at play, and the large leaves made great shade. On a hot day, the family members enjoyed sitting in the breeze under the tree telling jokes or stories, preparing food. Ray constructed a baseball bat from its branches that has since become something of a legend. With that bat, Ray achieved the unprecedented, unholy batting average of .641 during his rookie season with Falesea’s major league team, also named the Sea Cucumbers. All of the boys’ little league teammates idolized him that year. Ray led the ‘Cukes’ all the way to the National Championship Series where they were narrowly defeated by the team from the national capital, the Malagasi’i
Scorpionfish, three games to two. Next season, Ray was a one-man wrecking crew. Most analyzers said that the Sea Cucumbers would easily take the championship thanks to the revolutionary third baseman, Ray Leiloa. Mid-season, Ray disappeared. Fans were severely hurt, to say nothing of Ray’s tiny, loving family. Some thoughtless fans even took out their disappointment on the
remaining Leiloas, calling him a deserter or a traitor to his devastated wife. Currently, Fiso took the basket of breadfruit and deposited it next to his mother. He took a piece of a steel can, and set to scraping away the green scales of a breadfruit with a sharp edge on the can. He looked up at his mother who was beginning to sweat as the morning was beginning to heat up. Tolo took his machete and approached a banana tree closer to the beach. He took one great swipe with the sword and easily felled a bunch of bananas that had been hanging pendulously from the main stalk of the tree. He brought it back to the fire pit and set his machete down. He then picked up a small knife and began peeling the bananas with it.

“Mother, I love the Nafanua festival,” Tolo proposed as he worked.
“What do you like most about it, honey?” asked Eva.
“I like the stories the most. The old ones,” Tolo replied, “Can you tell us a story?”
“Sure thing darling, did you have any specific story you wanted to hear?” Eva inquired.
“You choose, I like them all,” decided Tolo.

“Okay, then,” began Eva, “Here’s one I don’t think you’ve heard before. There was a couple named Mu and Ve’a. This mother and father had four children, three sons and a daughter. The sons’ names were Apeuta, Apetai, and Apeafusia. The daughter’s name was To’ito’iāve’a. Mu and ve’a loved their children very, very much, and they especially loved their daughter. They grew older, and frailer. Eventually they both became sick and knew they would both die soon. Mu and Ve’a called their children together. It was their dying wish that their three sons take care of their daughter after they were to die. Make sure she will have plenty to eat, and that she will be safe. Soon enough, they both died. Mu died first, then a little while afterward, Ve’a. The four children mourned their beloved parents. Afterward, the three sons set out to provide for their sister, according to their parents’ final wishes. They built a tall tower with a soft bed on top for her to sit on day after day. They also took turns bringing her food. They took care of her every need. Then one day, a large flood swept through their village. The flood was so large a person could hear it before it arrived. When Apeuta heard the flood, he ran to save his life, but he was drowned in the flood. Likewise, Apetai heard the flood. He ran away to save his life but was drowned. The third son, Apeafusia, heard the flood and rushed to check on his sister. He climbed the tower and was
saved from the flood because he thought about her safety first. The End.”

“What a dreadful story,” Tolo responded.
“What?! Why did the parents love To’ito’iāve’a better than the sons? Was it just because she was a girl, ‘cuz that would be really dumb!” Fiso retorted.
“Oh … Fiso. Maybe you’ll understand someday when you’re a father,” sighed Eva.
Fiso quickly continued, “That story was just lame. It was short and nothing happened except everbody died. I like the stories where cool stuff happens. Stories with giants and demons and people that can turn into animals or rocks. Or ones where they have big battles or see ghosts or dwarves or sea montsers. Or the ones that have cannibalism in them. Or ones with gods and goddesses.”

“You know, all these stories have meaning behind them,” nudged Eva.
“Oh yeah?” tested Fiso, “Not that one where that guy tricks that witch with the octopus. That one was just nuts.”
“That was a silly story, but yes even that story had meaning,” Eva was smiling at the thought of the octopus story.
“Mother?” Tolo asked “What was the meaning in the story you just told us? I thought it was very sad.”
“Well,” Eva began, “Family is very important. The best thing a person can do is to look out for your family. If one of you was in danger, I wouldn’t hesitate to help you. A person who selflessly takes care of his family is watched over by deity.”
“I see,” Tolo thought about this.
“Oh,” Fiso quieted down.

At this, Eva stood up and combined her grated coconut with the portion she had grated last night. She took a fibrous cloth made from coconut husk and began straining the coconut meat with it, squeezing out the white milky coconut cream. After she had a large bowl full of coconut cream, she brought it back to the fire pit. She removed the pot from the fire and set it on the ground. Fiso grabbed a taro leaf from a pile and held it out in a cupping shape to his mother. She poured a volume of coconut cream into the cupped leaf. Fiso wrapped the leaf with several other taro leaves then a breadfruit leaf then a banana leaf to prevent burning. Tolo joined in and they used all the coconut cream with leaves. Eva then took the mid rib of a coconut leaf and bent it in half. Using the rib as tongs, she spread the now scorching rocks around inside the pit. They placed the leaf-bundled coconut cream, or palusami, in with the rocks. Then they placed the breadfruit, bananas, and taro from last night into the umu as well. Placing banana leaves where needed to prevent burning, Eva covered the food with rocks. A final layer of leaves was placed over the rocks to keep the heat inside the oven.

“Good job, boys, that didn’t take much time at all,” Eva breathed, “Your father would be very proud.”

The three stood for a moment surveying the product of their labor. Eva brought the small pot of rice inside. The boys followed her inside where they opened a can of mackerel and ate it
with the rice for their breakfast. The umu would be done cooking in time to
take to the evening’s big feast for the Nafanua festival.