Any Port in a Storm: Chapter 32

Ash's Story

Makea grabs my arm with a grip that a silverback gorilla would be proud of.  I instinctively pull against her with my full weight...and her arm does not budge, not even an inch!  I had felt Huali's impressive power when she tossed me into the pool like I was a child, but this was a whole different level.  Makea didn't have her older sister's height or grace but in raw brute strength the hulking Makea was clearly superior.

Her emerald eyes still sparkled with barely contained tears but I could also see an anger in her now after talking with her father.

“Ashley work!”  She snaps at me.

I pause then slowly nod.  “Sure Makea, I'll work.  I won't be any trouble.”  I then say in an attempt to comfort her.  “Marama's going to be okay.  You'll see.”

Unfortunately my words only upset her more.  “Move!”  Keeping me in front of her she guides me by the arm toward a series of tools that were leaned up against the front of her hut.  Cormac watches us with cold eyes before turning and entering his own cabin.  Not long after he emerges with a steel knife and a length of thick twine, and of course the pistol he always wore.  He glares at us once more then before heading off down the nearest trail.  Despite his size and age he moved with the ease of a man in top physical condition.

Leinani watched me with suspicious eyes as her daughter held me in place and readied things with her other hand.  How I wished Leinani understood English.  While I got the impression she wasn't much more sympathetic than her husband I still felt she was someone who might actually listen to reason.  I considered asking Makea to be my translator but this wasn't a good time.  I could plainly see the poor woman was barely holding herself together.

She slings on the net satchel I saw her wearing yesterday when we met and loops a well used wooden mallet along with a stone hatchet and knife into it.  “Ashley work!”  She says again, her anger the only thing keeping her from crying.  “Ashley work hard!”

I stay silent and wait.  Kea spins me with effortless strength and points toward a path I had never been down before.  “Go!  Don't run.”  

She lets go of my arm and I let out a sigh of relief.  Rubbing the spot she had held me I nod and begin to walk.  Makea follows close behind.  I am on my very best behavior as we silently make our way along the jungle path.  Unlike Huali I did not get the sense that violence came easy to Makea, but given her stressed state I wasn't about to put that to the test.  I keep my hands at my sides, in plain sight, and walk at a steady pace.

After about twenty minutes she startles me by suddenly barking.  “Stop!”

I freeze on the spot.

“There.”  I look back to see she was pointing out into the foliage to a graying half fallen dead tree with a split trunk.  She pulls the hatchet from her sack and presses hard against me arm.  “Take this.”

I turn toward her and take the tool, it was much heavier than it looked.  I wield the stone hatchet awkwardly in both hands.  Makea doesn't even take a backward step, even with this potential weapon in my hands she considered me no threat whatsoever.

“Cut down tree.  Make firewood.”  She commands.

I look from hatchet to her to the tree and back again.  “Uh...okay.  I'll do my best.”  Like the city dweller I was I clumsily crash through the leafy undergrowth toward the tree.  As I approach it I realize I didn't have a clue how to even begin to go about this.  Choosing a spot along the dried trunk where the bark had peeled off from I bring the heavy hatchet back and swing it down hard again.

Whack!

The tool glances straight off the wood, the  force of the blow numbs my forearms and sends the tool flipping from my grasp.  “Ah!”  I cry in surprise.  I grimace through the discomfort and am annoyed to see the trunk itself barely had a mark on it.  I turn toward Kea afraid of repercussions.  I try to shake the numbness from my arms.  “I'm sorry, I'm not used to this.”

In her green eyes I saw not anger but compassion.  “It's okay.”  She says in a low solemn voice.  “Ashley weak.”

“Yes, I am.  Compared to you.”  I watch the thick built woman wrestle with her conscience.  I knew she had orders to force me to work but my display of incompetence seemed to trigger something in her.  “Marama is weak too, isn't he?”

She nods.  “But he is loved.  I work for him.  I feed him.”  Looking up into my eyes she says in the tone of a scared child.  “I don't want Mara to die!”  Her clenched fists shake in impotent frustration.  “If...if Tony hurts him...I...I'll...”

I keep my voice low and soft and take a step toward her.  “Tony wouldn't hurt him.  You don't know him like I do.  Your father doesn't know him like I do.  Tony is a good man.”

Her wide boulder shoulders slump.  “Tony was nice.  He was funny.  He had good stories.”

I smile kindly.  “You spoke to him?”

She nods.  “Last night, with Marama.  Tony told stories about...”  She waves out toward the nearest edge of the island.  “It was fun.”

I walk right up to her and carefully place a hand on her arm.  “Tony had an audience?  Well that must have made him happy.”

I see a small smile play at the corner of her mouth.  “He told good stories.  We were all happy.”

“He's a good man.  Kea, in your heart, do you think Tony would hurt Mara?”

“Father says...”

I shake my head.  “Not Father, you.  Do you think Tony could do that?”

She looks away, conflicted.  “I do not know.  You are strangers.  Sinners.”  

I sigh.  “We're not bad people Kea.  We're not perfect, but we try to be good people.  Does your family never sin?”

Her eyes fall and her tanned cheeks darken with a subtle blush.  She shakes her head no but she was a very poor liar.

“It's okay.  Nobody is perfect.”

I watch a tremble run through her big frame.  She says in a whisper.  “Marama sins.”

“He does?”

She nods.  “He...he has bad thoughts.  He does things...very bad things...when he is alone.”  She wrings her thick hands nervously.  “He touches...his body.  He has wicked thoughts that boys should not have.  He has been punished, many times, but he still does it.” She chokes back her scared worried tears again.  “Marama is a weak boy, a wicked boy, but he is loved.”

“I can see you love him very much Makea.  He's lucky to have a big sister like you.”

With a hard swallow she says.  “He is my brother.  I...need him to be safe.”

“If he is with Tony he is safe.  I promise you.”

Makea lets out a loud huff.  Stepping back from my touch she says.  “Sit down.”  She pushes past me and goes to retrieve the hatchet.  Wielding it expertly in one hand she brings it down with a heavy...THUNK...sinking the stone blade deeply into the wood.  Her big breasts shake beneath her dress at the powerful impact.

Taking a step toward her I say.  “You don't have to do that for me.”

She shakes her head.  “You are weak.  Bad worker.”

I couldn't argue with that.  “Uh, I could maybe...”  I look around.  “...gather some...”

She shakes her head again.  “You stay, I watch you and work at same time.”

“Oh, okay.”  First Huali promising me gifts and now Makea carrying my workload, I was getting a bit tired of being treated as an invalid.  But I was glad that the rage her father had stoked up in Kea had cooled.  Anger was an emotion that didn't suit the big woman, despite her size she was a sweetheart.  I find a place to sit on the ground and do my best to get comfortable as I watch Makea hew into the dead tree with earth shaking strokes.  “So...did anyone tell you about me yet?”  I motion toward my crotch.  “About...down there?”

She pauses a second and looks at my body with something of an uncomfortable cringe, then nods.  “Mother told me.  Strange.”

“Good.  I don't want anymore surprises.”  I then chuckle.  “Tony must have had quite a reaction when he found out about Marama.”

She tilts her head.  “Found out?”

“Yeah, when he found out Mara was a boy.”

She blinks.  “I do not understand.  Marama is a boy.”

“Ermm...nevermind.”

She keeps looking at me for a time then shakes her head and starts to chop once more.

Was it possible?  Did Tony still think Marama was a girl?  If so that might have explained a thing or two.  My husband had his flaws but he was an old fashioned gallant sort of man and he had an equally old fashioned weakness for a pretty girl's face.  Perhaps he took Marama with him in some gentlemanly but ill thought out attempt at helping the boy, or perhaps Mara's good looks simply got the better of him and he was sweet talked into taking the lad.  This all made me worry about him even more.  I prayed his reaction to Mara's true gender wasn't a violent one.  In a moment of surprise I could imagine my husband popping off and giving Marama a shiner, even though he would regret it afterward.  Watching Kea's muscular hatchet wielding arm cleave deep into the hard wood again and again with an easy yet awe inspiring power I pitied any poor soul who harmed her beloved brother.

I hug my arms to my body and look out into the jungle.  Where was he?  What was he doing?  What did he hope to accomplish?  Whatever he was up to I just prayed he stayed hidden from the two Kane sisters and their father who were hunting him.