When John Frum Came

by Bill Schroeder

  “He’s dead,” Reggie said in Pidgin. “Him spirit gone.”

  Percy reached out and touched the stiff animal. “He has turned to wood. He has no life. No meat. He feels like wood.”

  The others got up their nerve and also put their hands on the animal’s rigid, lifeless body. “Him spirit gone,” they agreed.

  A glass display cases exhibited hundreds of shells that were common to the Coral Sea area of the South Pacific. Some of them had great value to their various tribes. In some cases, they agreed on their value, but each had a different name for the mollusk in question.

  The boys were soon at ease, asking Reggie a hundred questions about what they saw. Whenever he could, he gave them an answer.

  When the group entered the room with the sign that read, “Anthropology of the South Pacific Islands,” they stopped as still and stiff as the kangaroo they saw when they entered the museum. In the center of the room was an oak-framed cabinet with plate glass windows on all sides. It was about 20 feet long, and 12 feet wide. It was crammed with mannequins of Pacific Islanders wearing all manner of tribal garments.

  Some wore loincloths, some nambas, others had full body costumes made from jungle vegetation. They carried spears, bows and arrows, warclubs, and shields. Strewn about the ground where they did not belong were sacred musical instruments made from gourds, bamboo, and logs. There were flutes, bull roarers, drums and notched rhythm sticks.

  Behind them were spirit figures carved out of single palm trees. There were full body masks. Every one of the black islanders had seen variations of virtually everything in the glass case back home. In most cases, the items shown were sacred to the men’s spirit house, brought out only during the initiation ceremonies or for other spiritual occasions.

  Reggie walked right into the hall, but quickly became aware that he was alone. The entire group stood in the doorway transfixed. They were as frozen as the figures in the display. Their silence was stone-like. They barely breathed.

  First, they were not sure if the mannequins were real — or perhaps stuffed like the animals they saw earlier. Second, they all knew that the artifacts shown were sacred — if not to their tribes, certainly to somebody’s. This was taboo. This room was overflowing with simka. A powerful bis had turned these Blackfellas into wood.

  “Him spirit gone,” Yani said to Percy, who nodded agreement. This was all new to him as well.

  They edged backward toward the hall from which they had come. None of them would turn his back on the display. They would all dream of this event for the rest of their lives.

  Once they reached the hall, they all broke into a run, with Reggie in hot pursuit, calling to them to stop. “Wait,” he called, “I can explain.”

  They did not come to a halt until they reached the front room where they had entered. A number of the guards had joined them as they passed, not knowing what the excitement was all about. The museum guards, who did not know Reggie, were almost as surprised as the islanders when the Papuan spoke in clear English.

  “Sorry about this, gentlemen,” he said. “They were frightened by an exhibit in the Anthropology hall. Can any of you help me to explain what it was about?”

  One somewhat leery guide said, “Those are all things that missionaries have brought back from the islands.”

  As he described the items, Reggie translated into Pidgin how churchfellas had brought the items back. The figures were not men turned to stone, but were very well carved figures of men.

  Yani listened carefully. He did not believe anything the Witman said about the display. He saw it all as a missing piece of the puzzle. Witman churchfellas captured all the spirits on the islands and took them here. They are holding them prisoner in the glass cage. All the sacred spirit instruments are on the ground for all to see, and are now worthless. With all the Blackfella spirits kept in the glass cage, Jesus and the Witman God have all the power on the islands where the churchfellas build churches. Now he was sure he understood much about the source of McDuff’s power.

  As Reggie and Percy led the way out, they were so busy talking to the guides neither of them noticed that Yani was not among them. He had slipped away from the group and found his way back to the display of sacred instruments. The guide for that room was still seeing the rest of the group into the lorry out in front of the Museum. A few minutes later, Yani came running down the steps to get into the vehicle.

  It was a full ten minutes before the guide for the anthropological exhibit discovered that someone had thrown his chair through the glass of the island display. He was angry beyond words, but did not realize that in an act of bravery and heroism Yani had set free the imprisoned spirits of his ancestors.

  Chapter 21

  A month had passed since Yani and Percy came back from Australia. The other boys were quickly paired up with their white partners in the Coast Watchers Program within a few days of their return to Port Moresby. However, Dr. McDuff was still recovering from his malaria, and the doctors thought it best to wait until his condition was closer to normal before he left the hospital. Leslie Gale came to visit him as often as his brief shore leaves would allow.

  When he succumbed to the boredom, the minister pretended that he no longer had any symptoms, and he was given clearance to go to Chase Island. Whenever he was up to it, he sat in a white wicker chair in the Malaria Ward and studied his Morse code book, doing the exercises in the manual to sharpen his skills. Voice radio would not be used. It was felt that by varying the code, based on a different chapter of the Bible each day of the year, the Japanese could be kept confused. But, it precluded the native islanders from manning the equipment in an emergency if something happened to the white operator.

  As soon as he passed the transmission and receiving tests given by the Admiralty, the former missionary and his Churchboy were put aboard the Wombat with their necessary gear. With the Fenestra out of the picture, they had to limit the amount of baggage they could bring. They had to be more precise in their estimates of what they would need to survive beyond contact with Western Civilization. In the hospital, McDuff spent a lot of time with a couple “old hands” learning what could be eaten in the jungle once one overcame his initial squeamishness. The American surprised even himself in the mental turnabout he had accomplished. He was turning from priest to warrior and found that he warmed to the task. Now, actually looking forward to leaving his Boston existence behind, he began to think of himself as something like a South Seas version of Lawrence of Arabia.

  The course for Chase Island was charted, and everyone settled down to a few days of skimming the seas, sharing a rotating watch for Japanese Navy vessels, especially submarines.

  “I hear you caused some mischief while you were in Brisbane, Yani,” Mr. Gale said to him the first morning out.

  Yani looked to Percy. “Mischief?” he asked, seeking a translation. Although the last month had included intensive practice in speaking English, there were still quite a few words he had trouble with. Percy told him in their native language what the word meant.

  Ignoring the original question, he said, “Yani like Heaven.” He smiled. “I not expect to go there for long time. I be happy to go back again.”

  “Well, I have to agree. Brisbane is Heaven compared to Port Moresby. With luck, I’ll get assigned to the training command there myself. But if I were you, I wouldn’t plan on going there again for a long time. The Government is not likely to pay for another trip in your lifetime.”

  “No problem,” Yani said. “I go to Heaven with Big Man Duff when we die. He promise we visit God and sit on his hand.”

  The minister entered the cabin just as Yani was saying these mysterious words, so Gale deferred to him. “What have you promised your man, Moses? He seems to have some great expectations.”

  “I think he means that when he dies he will sit at the right hand of God, along with Jesus.”

  “Yani did not see God this time, only his Sheepy-sheep. Next time I go with Big Man Duff. He will in-tro-doot
s me to God,” he enunciated carefully.

  Wembly entered from the radio room, and said: “It looks like things are heating up, gentlemen. I just got this over the wireless:

  3 November 1941: The Japanese Government has announced that General Hideki Tojo, the Minister of War, has assumed the position of Premier.

  “Now there’s trouble looking for a place to happen. He already has Singapore and Shanghai. Last month he moved on Indo-China,” Wembly recounted. “Next is Hong Kong, and then, gentlemen, is us. Naval Intelligence is keeping an eye on a Jap Carrier force that is building up in the Sea of Japan. When it leaves its base and moves eastward we better have all our Coast Watchers in place.”

  “I, for one, am ready, sir,” McDuff assured him. “Yani and I will be in position, ready to report anything we see.” He gave in to an impulse to give a snappy British salute. Everyone laughed.

  Wembly found his enthusiasm amusing, but reminded himself that this was deadly serious. He may not have been too well prepared for his missionary job, but he felt this time the man was sufficiently trained and equal to the task he had agreed to undertake.

  “We’ve been out to sea and out of touch, island-hopping as usual, Moses, what do you hear from the grapevine? Sitting there in hospital all that time, you were in a prime spot for picking up all the gossip and rumors making the circuit,” Mr. Gale said.

  He thought for a moment, and said, “I hear my countryman — the infamous and elusive John Frum is at it again. He’s stirring up the natives on Tanna again.”

  “What’s he doing now?” Wembly asked, on a note of exasperation.

  “Reportedly, he is telling the Tannese to throw away their British money ... abandon their efforts at trying to emulate the white man. As I understand it, he wants them to stop going to the missionary churches and to stop working on the plantations.”

  “Well, that’s what he’s been doing all along,” Gale said. “I wonder if he isn’t an agent for the Japs. He’s trying to undo everything we’ve done to try to pull these people out of the Stone Age. He wants them to go back to worshipping rocks and carved palm trees.”

  McDuff was smiling. Ever since he had stopped wearing his clerical collar, and his intense friendship with Leslie Gale had developed, his manner was considerably more relaxed and informal. “The funny thing is the natives don’t understand his message. What they are doing is tearing up their gardens, killing all their pigs, and having food orgies. They think the reason he is telling them to throw their money away is that the millennium is at hand. They expect him to come to the island with a shipload of all the things the white man has. They expect to receive food, and knives and what-not from John Frum. The whole idea of going back to nature is lost on them.”

  They laughed uproariously at their own jokes about the native mentality, with no regard for two very intelligent, English-speaking black men sitting on the floor, taking it all in. After a while, the white men went onto the deck for a smoke before lunch, and left Percy and Yani alone.

  At first neither spoke. Finally, in the Chase Island dialect, the younger man said, “I think Negeb has thoughts to share with Yani.”

  Negeb’s face was serious. He had listened to the conversation, but found no reason to laugh. In English, he said earnestly, as a statement of obvious truth, “John Frum, he come.”

  Yani toyed with the phrase in his mind. He liked the sound of it. Then he, too, said, “John Frum, he come.

  “Is he a Witman or Blackfella?” Yani asked.

  “Some people say he is white. I speak to Blackfellas who say he is like us. Some say he is a spirit and has no skin color. Maybe he is even Japfella, and he come to drive the Witman out.”

  “You think he will?” Yani asked.

  Negeb nodded his head affirmatively. “John Frum, he come.”

  ***

  The next day Yani waited until McDuff was alone on deck, and approached him. “Big Man Duff, sir,” he said. The “sir” was something they taught him in Brisbane to be used as a mark of respect with all white men. McDuff was uncomfortable with it, but no amount of correction had any effect. “I wish to learn the Lord’s Prayer.”

  McDuff’s eyes brightened. “That’s wonderful, Yani, but you already know it. I’ve heard you say it a hundred times.”

  “No. Not half Pidgin. Yani want to say the Lord’s Prayer like Big Man Duff — in English.”

  “In English!” McDuff echoed. Well, he thought, he’s officially been given permission by the government to learn the language, so I guess it can’t hurt. It’s wonderful that his conversion has stirred such zeal in him. “Certainly, Yani. Come; let’s sit in the main cabin. I will help you learn.”

  They went inside and sat at a small round table. “I will teach you sentence by sentence. If you have any questions about what the words mean, you ask.”

  Yani leaned forward to hear every nuance of speech.

  Dr. McDuff ran through the whole prayer one time: “Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done ...” At the end he closed with an emphatic “Amen.”

  “Amen,” said Yani reflexively as the result of long training.

  “Why don’t you see how much you know, Yani?” the minister urged.

  Reciting from rote memory, Yani sounded out what he heard. “Our fadda huartin Heaven, Hallow-head be thy name. Thy kingham come ...” he stopped. “What means ‘Thy kingham come?’”

  “The words are ‘Thy king-dom come,” he corrected.

  To Yani the words had a familiar ring. He thought of the words Negeb had said the day before: “John Frum, he come.” Magic formulas were tricky. He wondered if there was any connection — Kingdom come ... John Frum, he come.

  Dr. McDuff misunderstood the question in his disciple’s eyes. The last thing he would have guessed was that Yani was thinking about John Frum. Instead, he said, “When Jesus comes back to earth; there will be a Day of Judgment. When we say ‘Thy Kingdom come’ we tell God we believe that there will be a terrible day when he will judge men for their sinful behavior.”

  “Terrible day?” Yani frowned. “I think you say day Jesus come back a wonderful day.”

  “It will be wonderful for the true believers who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. But for those who have rejected Jesus it will be a truly terrible day. The Bible tells us so.” McDuff opened the Bible that had been lying before him, and the clergyman searched the pages for a reference.

  Yani knew the book was powerful and full of magic chants, and stories about strange places. Reverend McDuff had read to him from it often, even though at the time he understood little English.

  “In our prayers we ask God to send us the blessings of Heaven. We pray that the goodness of Heaven will be known on Earth,” McDuff said.

  To Yani that meant tinkens, knives, cloth and all the other things he saw on his marvelous trip to Heaven.

  “Here it is in Isaiah. 13.6.” He read those passages he thought Yani would understand, and skipped those he didn’t feel he could explain.

  “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and everyman’s heart shall melt.

  “And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them ... For the stars of Heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; The sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

  “Therefore I will shake the Heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled...

  “And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses ... and the time is near to come.”

  Rather than be terrified at the prospect, Yani thought the whole thing sounded exciting. Leaning close to McDuff, he asked, “God make Sun and Moon go away? Make ground shake?”

  “Yes. It is going to be the greatest demonstration of God’s power man h
as seen. Here, let me read you what it says in Revelation 16. Verse 18.” He found his place and read: “And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

  “And there fell upon men a great hail out of Heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail...”

  To clarify the language McDuff said, “When the day of the Lord comes it will rain stones from the sky.”

  “No,” said Yani. “How this can happen?”

  “All things are possible in the Kingdom of God...” Dr. McDuff assured him.

  There was a pregnant pause, and Yani added, “And John Frum, he come?”

  The minister did a double take. The comment was totally unexpected. “Yani, that’s ridiculous!” he said.

  Chapter 22

  Much to McDuff’s initial satisfaction, Yani practiced reciting the Lord’s Prayer endlessly on deck, but by the end of the second day, even he was tired of hearing it. It occurred to him that he had traveled to the opposite side of the world to convert one man, and now his ministry was over. The ways of the Lord did, indeed, “passeth human understanding.”

  The other factor that forced Moses McDuff to acknowledge that he could no longer teach the Word of God was his intimate relationship with Leslie Gale. At first, he was worried that Mr. Wembly would be suspicious about the amount of time he spent in Gale’s cabin. But when he expressed his fears to his lover, the Australian said, “Don’t have any fear of Bob. He understands the pressures of long isolation from civilization. He’s equally at home with a Sheila or a John, but while we’re on Patrol, he virtually becomes a monk. Has nothing to do with either sex.”