Read Online A Dolphins Dream by Carlos Eyles - Free Book Online Page B

to stay dry. A hurricane is a terrible fright, eh? So full of nature.”  
    “After our boat ride, I’m surprised you’re afraid of hurricanes.” 
    Moses beamed. “The ocean is not the place to be afraid, eh.  That was jes’ a bit of wind and sea today. It get much worse than that.”
    “Does anything scare you, Moses, besides hurricanes?”
    Moses pondered the question. “Roads scare me.”
    “Roads?”
    “Roads bring the people with money who want to take from the island. If the roads come, our peaceful life in the bush is over. They have tried twice to build roads, but the jungle was too strong for their machines. The trees dulled their chainsaws and broke their backs and they ran out of money.“
    The room became silent and Compton felt uneasy without knowing why. He asked Mariah what she feared most. She too gave the question thought before answering. 
    “People,” she said finally.
    Compton’s uneasiness grew to discomfort when he realized that she didn’t mean just any people, she meant white people, as Moses as much said.
    Moses stood up from the table. “Let’s take our tea in the other room and let the woman have their meal.” He brought the lantern from the table and led the way into the matted room where he sat cross-legged with his back against the far wall. Compton followed suit and Mariah reclined against a pillow. The matting was immaculately clean and had the soft leathery texture of skin. Beneath it was another mat that cushioned their weight and further softened the floor. In the warmth of the lantern light, with a full belly, the discomfort of a few moments ago was forgotten and Compton wondered aloud, “Why didn’t the girls eat with us?”
    Moses, who was watching the smoke twist out of the lantern, lifted his head to the question. “They eat later. Fiji girls do all the cooking and the washing and the cleaning. They are very busy. No time to play. But they have their boyfriends and get pregnant anyhow.”  He giggled at the girl’s plight.
    “And the boys,” asked Compton. “What do they do?”
    “They fetch the wood for the stove and dig the crops. When they come to twelve they go with the men to fish or work in the garden. The boy learns to carry the weight of himself, eh. In the home the girls answer to the woman, and she answers to the man. In the village the man answers to the chief. Everyone respects the elders. If the father dies, as my father did, then the eldest of the family, who is Esther, rules the family.”
    “Lately,” continued Moses, “the traditions are being forgotten. The city steals the boys, as it stole me. They go to Suva, and don’t come back. That is why Sambuka take over the islands, so that Fiji keep its traditions and not lose them to the Indians and the Europeans who want our land.”
    Moss’ voice trembled with emotion and Compton shifted to another topic. “You know, this has been quite a day for me and I am exhausted. Moses, can you show me where I am to sleep?
    “We put the net up for you,” Moses announced in the midst of gathering himself up from the floor.
    Mariah had already gotten up and was pulling out a mosquito netting from under the bed. Compton helped her tie the corners of the net to nails driven into the thick-branched ceiling beams. When it was done, she gave him a blanket and a pillow and he climbed under the net and lay on his back fully clothed. The lantern light flicked across the ceiling in strange, vaguely demonic shapes, and he felt as if the passage across the Tasman Strait had deposited him with a family that was completely removed from any visible constructs of the century from which he had departed less than a week ago. It was at once as unsettling as it was invigorating. And the conflict it bred was not unlike his personal battles in which he, more often than not, had became just another casualty in the war against himself.
    Across the room, Mariah was already in bed and breathing heavily. In the far corner