by Bess McBride
Losa turned back to me.
“Grandmother fix feet. Then talk.”
Rimu, finding what she needed, approached me with a jar. She removed my bandages carefully and examined my feet, now inflamed and oozing. Rimu tsked at the sight of them, and I gasped in pain as she slathered some sort of purple ointment on the soles. She rewrapped them using the same material and pointed to my dress. I nodded, assuming she asked if I’d used the dress for bandaging.
Rimu sat back, and I turned to Losa with my previous question.
“What do you mean trade? What are they going to do with me?”
Losa and Rimu spoke for a moment before Losa turned to me.
“Brother trade you French.”
“What? To the French? Why would they want me?”
“Maybe French no want you. Kaihau want Vana back.”
“Vana? What’s Vana?”
“Vana his woman?”
“Girlfriend? Wife?”
Losa scrunched her face. “No wife.”
“Girlfriend?”
Losa shrugged her shoulders with a shake of her head, giving me the impression she didn’t understand the word. I dropped the relationship to focus on the main issue.
“So the French, whoever they are, have Kaihau’s girlfriend, for some reason, and he intends to trade me to them in exchange for her?”
I could tell from Losa’s expression that I had used far too many words for her to translate and follow, not to mention the high pitch in my anxious voice probably distorted my words.
“Yes?” she responded uncertainly.
I wanted to jump up and run, but my crippled feet continued to trap me. The pain had lessened thanks to whatever ointment Rimu had slathered on them, but I doubted I could walk, much less run.
“That’s barbaric!” I almost shouted. “No! He can’t. No!” I sputtered.
Losa’s face drooped, and she turned to Rimu. They spoke and both shook their heads, regarding me with obvious sympathy.
“I no like. Tell Kaihau. No one stop him.”
“Can’t Rimu or an elder tell him no? Won’t he listen?” My pulse raced as I pled.
“Kaihau chief. Father die one year before. No one say no to chief.”
I closed my eyes, trying to calm the rising hysteria that threatened to erupt into a scream. Kaihau had seemed so kind. I couldn’t believe he would simply turn me over to strangers. I didn’t even understand the implications of being turned over to the French.
“Do you mean missionaries? Like French priests?”
Losa shook her head. “No missionary. Sailor?”
“Sailors?” The implications terrified me. Kaihau planned to turn me over to French sailors. No, that sounded horrendous. I desperately wished that Daniel knew where I was, wished that he could save me from a fate that terrified me.
“What will the French do with me?” My voice shook.
Losa turned and spoke to Rimu again. Rimu’s response was brief, and she looked away.
“Rimu say French take you for wife. Sorry.” Losa’s lustrous eyes glistened with sympathy as she laid a warm hand on my cold arm. The interior of the hut darkened for a moment before I released the air I’d been holding. I recovered from faintness and dragged in a deep gulp of air.
“No,” I whispered, as if withholding my consent was a possibility.
Losa dropped her eyes.
“When does he plan on trading me?” If I could possibly return to the twenty-first century, now was the time. I willed it to be so.
“French come tomorrow. Kaihau trade you for Vana.”
“Tomorrow?” I squeaked. I didn’t have much time.
Chapter Nine
I don’t know who decided that I would stay in Rimu’s hut that night, but stay I did. Losa stayed there as well, and I guessed that she lived with her grandmother. And just to make sure I didn’t decide to wander away in the night, even if I could have walked any great length, Aikane had been posted at the door of the hut.
While I racked my brain trying to figure out how to escape from my captors, I noted that Aikane and Losa gazed at each other often. At any other time, I would have thought they would make a cute couple, but at that moment I didn’t care.
Rimu and Losa busied themselves with prepping food throughout the afternoon, which they delivered to Posoa and Kaihau, who had returned. Through the open door, I could see that the men cooked food in some sort of pit. I watched the smoke rise, wondering if there was any chance Daniel might see it and come for me. Then I reminded myself yet again that he would most likely think I had traveled back in time. He wouldn’t know to rescue me.
“Can I talk to Kaihau?” I asked Losa.
She nodded with a sympathetic expression and left the hut to go outside to speak to her brother. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I saw Kaihau’s expression as he looked toward the hut. I didn’t know him, but his expression looked determined. Nevertheless, he left the pit and followed Losa into the hut. He seated himself cross-legged across from me and waited.
“Please ask your brother to return me to where he found me, to my friends.”
Losa gave her head a quick shake and opened her mouth as if to argue with me, but I leaned forward and pleaded.
“Please, Losa, just ask him.”
She hesitated and then turned to her brother. I understood only one word of the exchange, and that was amis, the French word for friends, giving me some confidence that Losa was passing along my request.
Kaihau eyed me, smiled politely and gave a firm shake of his head. He began to rise, and I spoke quickly.
“Please, Kaihau, please don’t do this! Let me speak to the French when they come. Let me tell them how wrong it is to take women. Is it even legal? Maybe I can shame them into giving Vana back.”
Kaihau scrunched his dark eyebrows together and looked from me to Losa. I knew Losa didn’t understand half of what I said, and I bit my lips.
“Please don’t trade me,” I said slowly. “I will speak to the French. Ask for Vana.”
Losa translated for me, and Kaihau shook his head again and said something to his sister. She turned to me with a shrug.
“Kaihau say try. French say no, he trade you.”
I thought I understood her words. I would be allowed to talk to the French, if I could even communicate with them, but if they didn’t give Vana back voluntarily, then Kaihau would offer me in exchange.
“Okay,” I acquiesced, fervently hoping I could reason with the traders. “You speak some French, Losa, right? Will you translate tomorrow for me?”
I could see she didn’t understand.
“Will you speak to the French for me?”
A look of shock clouded her face, and she shook her head.
“No!” she said sharply.
“What?” I asked, my own voice strident. “Why not? What if they don’t speak English? How can I talk to them?”
Kaihau interrupted, no doubt asking what we were talking about. Losa turned to him and said something. At this, the previously silent Rimu spoke up. I couldn’t make out her words, but she seemed distressed, waving her hands. Kaihau shook his head firmly, spoke loudly and with a gesture urged his sister to translate his words.
“No,” she repeated. “French come—girls hide now.”
“Oh!” I said, easing out a tense breath. “Yes, of course. I understand. Maybe one of them speaks English.”
Losa nodded, though I wasn’t sure if she was validating my statement or just acknowledging it.
“Would the captain speak English?”
She shrugged her shoulders and turned to Kaihau with the question. He shrugged his shoulders as well.
“Speak French,” Losa said.
I hoped she didn’t mean me.
“The captain speaks French?” I clarified.
“Yes.” She nodded.
Kaihau, apparently not one for sitting very long, rose. I threw him one last beseeching look to abandon his idea altogether, but he pretended not to see me.
He left the hut. Suddenly claustrophobic and feeling trapped, I tried to rise to go outside and get some fresh air, but Rimu gently pushed me back down.
I settled back down on my woven mat and stared morosely out of the hut door, watching the men who knelt over the heavily smoking pit to peer into its contents. Escape was an impossibility, at least in the foreseeable future, especially crippled as I was.
The men soon joined Rimu, Losa and me for a dinner served in wooden bowls. The food smelled delicious, fragrant and enticing, but I ate nothing. My stomach felt as if it were gripped in a vice, and I couldn’t relax. Aikane and Posoa, probably aware of my pleas, diplomatically ignored me, as did Kaihau. The Polynesians generally spoke among themselves.
“Food good?” Losa asked.
I nodded.
“Yes, very good. Thank you!”
She nodded and returned her attention to the conversation with her family. Since I caught no sideways glances in my direction, I assumed I wasn’t a topic, and for that, I was glad.
Late afternoon darkened into evening, and the men rose to leave. I gathered then that Kaihau didn’t live with his sister and grandmother. I noted another exchange of glances between Aikane and Losa before Aikane returned to his post outside the door.
“Sleep now,” Losa said as she settled down on a woven mat across the hut. Rimu’s gentle snoring indicated she had already fallen asleep near Losa.
I lay awake listening to the sound of the waves on the beach, now audible as the village uniformly seemed to quiet down for the night. Even the birds had grown silent. I closed my eyes and wished myself back in the twenty-first century, repeating a mantra over and over in my head.
Send me back. I’ll miss Daniel so much. Send me back. I’ll never see Daniel again. Send me back. Send me back.
At some point, I drifted off.
“Maggie,” a voice said softly. Warm fingers caressed my cheek, and I opened my eyes. Moonlight shone through the open doorway of the hut and centered on the face of the man kneeling beside me.
“Daniel?” I whispered. My pulse pounded as I pushed myself upright. “Daniel?”
“Shhhh,” he said, putting a finger to his lips.
I looked around the hut and saw that Rimu and Losa still slept.
“How did you find me?”
“Foolish girl,” Daniel said. “You are as a beacon to me. I could find you anywhere.”
My heart leapt at his romantic words. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me in one fluid motion.
“They’re going to trade me to the French,” I whispered. “Please get me out of here.”
“Yes, of course. No one will take you from me.”
I melted in Daniel’s arms. Safe, secure and fearing nothing, I clung to him as he moved toward the door.
Aikane slept just outside the doorway. The moon, full, round and bright, glowed down on the seaside village. In the distance, I thought I saw a mass of white sails flutter in the bay, the sails of a large ship approaching.
“The French!” I whispered. “They’re here! Look!” I pointed out to sea.
Daniel paused to follow my hand.
“A ship!” he said. “Our way off the island! We cannot leave the village now. I must stay and see if they’ll give us passage!”
I jerked and looked up at Daniel’s face.
“What? No! Didn’t you hear me? They’re going to trade me to the French for a captive.”
“Do not worry, my love! I will not let that happen.”
My heart should have swelled at the endearment, but I could only focus on Daniel’s odd behavior.
“Daniel! These people are not going to let me go. I already asked. The chief wants his girlfriend back, and he thinks he can trade me for her.”
Daniel stood frozen, holding me, staring out to sea. I wasn’t a heavy carry, but he didn’t seem to be struggling with my weight.
“Daniel?”
He continued to stare out to sea, his eyes wide and fixed.
“Daniel?” I whispered again. I blinked and opened my eyes to the sight of moonlight filtering into the door of the hut. With a gasp, I pushed myself up and looked around.
“Daniel?” I whispered.
But Daniel wasn’t there. Rimu and Losa continued to sleep. I heard Aikane’s snores at the doorway.
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I realized that I’d been dreaming. Daniel wasn’t there. He didn’t know where I was. I rose to my knees and crawled toward the doorway.
Moonlight did indeed highlight the bay, but no tall ship approached. Thank goodness I had dreamed that too. Maybe the French wouldn’t come the next day. Maybe my feet would heal in time, and I could make a run for it.
I ignored the fact that I had no idea how to get back or how to prevent the Polynesians from taking me again.
I crawled back to my mat and tentatively pressed at the soles of my feet through the bandages. Pain shot up my legs, and I gritted my teeth. No, there would be no running in the morning and maybe not the next day either, no matter where fate took me.
I lay down again and closed my eyes to dream of Daniel. I’d had no luck wishing myself back into the twenty-first century, and I wondered briefly if that was something that had occurred only on the Vigilance. If so, I was well and truly stuck in the past because that ship lay at the bottom of the sea. And I had no way to get back to the Century Star.
A few fitful hours later, the first light of dawn made its way into the hut, and I opened my eyes. I sat up to see Rimu entering the hut, as if she’d gone somewhere, and Losa stretching on her mat. She too sat up, her long glossy hair hardly needing a brush, and she rose and beckoned to me.
“Come. Aikane carry you.”
“Where? I don’t want to go,” I said rather piteously.
“Make water,” she said with her brows drawn together. “No water here?” She pointed to her lower stomach, and I understood what she was saying. Yes, I had to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I nodded.
She stepped outside and called Aikane in. As easily as Daniel had lifted me in my dream, Aikane bent and picked me up, toting me outside into the purple haze of the dewy South Pacific morning. I couldn’t imagine how Aikane planned on handling me for the actual event, but I kept my mouth shut and watched as he followed Losa from her grandmother’s hut and into the jungle.
I could hear the sound of running water, and we soon emerged onto a small stream that ran through the back of the village. Losa signaled that Aikane was to follow her with me in tow as she crouched unashamedly in the water.
“No, wait!” I cried out.
Aikane paused on the bank and looked down at me. I wriggled in his arms, pointlessly. Apparently Aikane had been planning to hold me in the river while I did my business. I couldn’t even fathom such a thing.
Dismayed, I didn’t know what to do. Not only was I disconcerted about the ecological repercussions of using the river as a toilet, I worried about disease since it seemed obvious the river was a public latrine.
“Set me down. I can manage,” I said. Aikane looked over to Losa who, having seen to her needs, approached me. She spoke to him, and he set me down on the bank, following which he stepped to the edge of the river and relieved himself.
“Make water,” Losa said, gesturing to the river. Aikane had turned to watch us.
“Yes, maybe, I don’t know,” I said. “Can you tell Aikane to turn around?”
Losa scrunched her face and shook her head, as if she didn’t understand. I made a gesture for Aikane to turn away, and he didn’t understand either. Then I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands in monkey-no-see fashion, and Aikane smiled. Instead of turning away, he actually covered his eyes in a surprisingly childish gesture that I found endearing.
Quickly, before Aikane opened is eyes, I hobbled to my feet, pulled up my dress and squatted in a crevice in the rock, hoping this was just a temporary solution to an urgent biological need. My feet burned mightily, but I had no time to waste. I dropped my skirts, st
raightened and grabbed on to Losa’s arm for balance.
“Okay,” I said. The view of the beautiful river nestled among tropical ferns and trees had lost its magic, and I turned away.
“Aikane,” Losa called out. He dropped his hands and came to pick me up. We returned to the village just as the sun rose above the horizon. People milled about, some cooking, others visiting. Children played. I checked the bay. No large ship anchored off shore. Maybe the French wouldn’t come after all. I hoped I still had time.
Aikane dropped me off, not outside to enjoy the day but inside the hut. He took up his position outside the door again. Losa wandered off, and I felt bereft without my interpreter. Rimu, preparing some foodstuffs, came over and checked on my feet. On her knees, she removed the bandages and reapplied her salve before wrapping my feet again. I had to admit that her medicine seemed to be helping, as my feet hurt just a little less than they had the day before.
“French today?” I tried asking. I hated to ask, as if I willed them to come, but I had to know.
Rimu drew her sparse gray eyebrows together and shook her head. I suspected she didn’t understand my question rather than provided a negative response.
I chewed on my lip, trying to think of other ways of communicating with her. If anyone had the power to sway Kaihau, it would have been his grandmother.
“French?” I asked to see if she understood that single word.
Rimu, still on her knees, tied a final knot in my bandages and sat back. She nodded and repeated the word.
“French.”
Heartened, I tried another one.
“Come?”
No, too much. She shook her head in apparent confusion.
I pointed to my chest, again nervous that I was potentially miscommunicating I wanted the French to come.
She nodded, almost warily.
“Today?”
That was the word that stumped Rimu, but I couldn’t think of any other way to express the sentiment. I gave up and leaned forward to peer outside. I couldn’t see the entirety of the bay but still saw no large ships.
Losa returned with Kaihau and Posoa. She carried food, which she set in the middle of the hut. Aikane joined us. I watched Kaihau carefully while we ate, but other than a glance and nod in my direction, he generally ignored me.
