Cowrie by Cathie Dunsford

Author:Cathie Dunsford
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Literature, Pacific Studies, Lesbian fiction
Publisher: SPINIFEX
Published: 2007-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Cowrie opens one eye groggily to see Nele in the kitchen, perched on her stool, chopping fruit for breakfast with the huge machete grasped awk-wardly in her hand. Chomp, chomp. Cowrie swings out of her hammock and is by her side in an instant. Nele grins, proud of her efforts. Cowrie hesitates a moment. She must not grab the machete away as her instinct tells her to do. “Fine, Nele. I love fresh fruit salad for breakfast. But remember I said not to use the machete without me being here?”

“But you are here, Cowrie.”

“Ok, Nele, you know what I mean. I need to be beside you. Tell ya what, I’ll show you how to hold it properly. You never know, you may need it one day. But it’ll be difficult because your hands are still small. See. Watch this.” Cowrie demonstrates the safe way to use the instrument.

Peni smells the attraction of potential conflict and food at once and is beside them, hair standing up from his head as if he’s been plugged into Freddie Mercury tapes all night. Nele thinks he looks like the rock figures they’d seen carved into the lava at the beach, with their spiky headdress. Peni does not seem impressed. He’s more interested in the machete being wielded with skill in front of his still-bleary eyes.

After a while, the fascination of being able to use a once-forbidden tool wears off and is replaced by the dawning awareness that Koana arrives today. She is coming on the bus that circles the island and Cowrie promised Honu would be waiting at the junction of Route 19 and Puako Road, packed with smiling faces. The twins decide to make a lei to welcome her. Cowrie wonders where they will find flowers in this dusty landscape but they return from the bush with large glossy green leaves and make a head lei. Their excitement is infectious. Cowrie realises she is buzzing too.

The old bus grinds to a halt in dust which clears to reveal two people, Koana and a rather ragged-looking fellow with tobacco-stained fingers. Koana tells them he is going to visit his nephew at Puako Beach and can they give him a ride?

“No worries,” says Cowrie, indicating that he should jump up on to the tray if he wants a lift. She is slightly annoyed that he has taken the edge off seeing Koana, just with family present.

Koana greets the twins with love. Peni climbs up into the tray with the nicotine man and Nele joins Cowrie and Koana in the cab. Koana seems pleased to see her but not as pleased as Cowrie would’ve liked. She has been aching to touch her, to brush softly against her cheek in greeting. Instead, Koana smiles widely and says, “Mahalo, Cowrie,” to thank her for looking after the twins then edges into the cab, Nele tucking into her soft folds of charcoal belly. Cowrie glances sideways at them. She smiles. What she would give to be Nele right now, eh? She lets go of her expectations.

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