We were sitting around the living room one evening. There were footsteps on the gravel outside. "Go and have a look," Inana told me. I slipped on a pair of thongs and grabbed a torch and went outside.
"It's me, Mr. Robert," I heard. "I've brought you mangoes."
It was Jack all done up in his Melanesian gear.
I went back inside and told Inana that it was one of the guys I had met through the market gardener next door. She was not very interested in the locals. Her family never had much regard for black people. I couldn't convince her to meet any of them. But now when I came back to tell her that some guy brought us fresh mangoes, she told me to invite him in.
"Come in, Jack."
He came in and stood in the doorway. He was well-built with strong thighs and he tensed them as he rested on one foot. His skin was very black and so were his eyes.
"This is my wife, Inana," I told him.
"Good evening, Mrs. Inana," he said.
"The mangoes you brought last time were very tasty."
"Thank you, Mrs. Inana."
I went to the fridge and brought back three Tuskers. I poured Inana's into a glass, and handed Jack a can. He took it, opened the top and then crouched down on the ground to drink as was the island custom.
"I am just on my way back from the Chief's Nakamal," he said. "I thought I would stop by and give you some mangoes."
He went on to say he had just taken part in a big custom dance organized by his uncle. Jack spoke very nice English. He was muscular, not particularly great looking, and he looked as if he was straight out of a 1930's book on anthropology. He wore shorts, a floral garland around his forehead, some yellow lines of paint on his cheeks, twisted twine bracelets around his wrists and ankles, and a tattered green singlet with some writing that had faded long ago. I noticed Inana watching him as he crouched there, she seemed to be under some kind of strain but made an effort to be social.
"What things do you wear in your village?" asked Inana.
"I'm a Lenakel."
"What's a Lenakel?"
"It's a custom village."
"You mean you people wear those grass skirts?" my wife asked.
"We don't wear skirts. We don't wear any clothes at all over our cocks. We are naked." He actually said 'long cock belong yumi' which was the acceptable Melanesian way of saying 'penis.'
"What about the women?"
"They also wear nothing."
"Do you have a wife?"
"Not in Vila, only in Lenakel."
"Does she go around bare too?"
"Outside yes."
"What about at home?"
"I don't know. In Lenakel men and women sleep in different house."
Jack downed his Tusker and placed the empty can on the ground beside the first one. I gave him another beer. He kept drinking his beer, there were soon a few in a row beside the doorway. I felt sure I was looking at one of those anthropology text books. His shorts were far too tight for him and now then he tugged at the string holding them up. He was the kind National Geographic loved.
As we chatted, Inana crossed her legs.