Unconventional changes continue.
Here's the second and longest installment. I strongly recommend you read part 1 before going any further. I'm submitting these two days apart so there isn't too long a wait. This is the longest chapter, FYI.
Relax; it's just a story, people.
At least I could smell coffee and... was that bacon? Never being one to let a hangover slow me down, I kicked my legs over the edge and went to stand. Immediately, I sat back down. The room was spinning. I wondered how I got to bed. Mel had to have helped me, I was in only my underwear.
I gave it another go, pushing myself to the bathroom. A little cold water would do the trick but, man, was I disoriented. The toilet, the sink, lean against the counter for a while, check.
Wandering into the kitchen area, in my boxers, and expecting to find Mel, I was shocked to see Moana busy at the stove. She turned toward me, finding an embarrassed half-naked man staring back.
"Rob, you're awake," she casually said. "Breakfast is almost ready."
"I'll... be right back," I stuttered. Walking back down the hall, I lost my balance again and bounced off the wall. Moana was there in a flash.
"Oh, Rob," she studied my face. "You don't look well. Why don't you lie back down? I'll bring you some coffee."
That sounded best. Laying back in the bed, I asked, "Where's Mel?"
"Oh, she's just gone out," Moana gave me a strange look but I thought nothing of it. As my head hit the pillow, my eyes closed, and the spinning stopped. I was back to sleep in seconds.
An hour later, I was awake again and still feeling like shit but I needed to get up and get moving. This time, I put on some pants before venturing out of the bedroom. Moana was still there which I found odd, sitting at the little dinette in the kitchen. I didn't see Mel either, and that seemed even odder. Aleki sat across from her mother and nodded at me passively.
"Good morning, number two," Moana smiled weakly. The hairs on the back of my neck were on end once again.
"Mel's not back yet?" I asked as I took a seat. Moana was already up and pouring my coffee.
"Have some coffee, Rob," she said seriously. "I'll reheat your eggs and ham and we'll talk."
Then I was really on edge. "Where is she, Moana?" I sternly asked.
"Patience," she replied. "You still don't look well." I was starting to feel sick.
Aleki put the plate in front of me and took her seat on my left still across from her mother. "Eat," she said. "We have much to discuss." I didn't want to play her game but I needed something in my stomach and she didn't wear the look of something catastrophic having occurred.
After a few bites and a few swigs, I set my fork down and looked her in the eye.
"She's gone, Rob," Moana stated without remorse. "Since last night as the celebration dictates." The woman paused, letting it sink in and my worst fears were realized.
"She left for the mountain-dwelling with Puko," she stated matter-of-factly.
I understood the implications. It was like my brain was protecting the rest of me, by not catching up.
"Following our customs, Mele and Puko will be together, alone for six days. No one is to disturb them. Their mana will be joined forever."
"Like hell, they will," I growled. "Tell me where the fuck my wife is, right now!"
Moana looked at Aleki. "Please return home." She ordered. When Aleki was out the door, Moana turned and stared at me. "I will explain this," she stated, sitting up taller in her chair.
"I will provide you with writings of your own culture so you can familiarize yourself with what Westerners observed when they arrived here," she took a breath. "I suggest you spend the time studying them."
"Fuck that, I don't care what others have done, only my wife!" I yelled at her. "If you think I'm going to sit here like a school kid and accept it, you're wrong. Last chance. Tell me where she is. The island isn't big enough that I won't find her and that bastard. Tell me now, so I can stop this... defiling."
"That would be unwise," she warned. "Some of our best-trained fighters are standing guard along the mountain path for all six days. They aren't there to keep you away, they are there to keep
everyone
away. It's imperative to the ritual."
"Great," was my well-thought-out response.
Moana looked at me for the first time with pity and she was off put. "If your cultural beliefs maintain that your wife has somehow become tainted, well, you are too late. Last night, Puko would have taken her, much strong; like animal, again according to our traditions. They consummated in such a manner as a gift to the gods, specifically Tane and the great first chief, Kane. Later, they may have laid together in a more friendly and sensual way to give praise and thanks for their mana."
I didn't even get to the end of her rant before running out the front door and vomiting.
Moana came out and handed me a cool wet cloth. As strong a woman as she was, she also looked afraid. It took me a minute to get myself under control.
"Why wouldn't she tell me? How could she?" I could barely speak as I wiped my face.
"Because of your cultural background," she answered without hesitation. "You would have interfered or tried to, as you have said. You feel ill today because we used a potion that the entire Polynesian island community has used for over a thousand years. Almost always, the women's mates take it willingly. They know what will happen and the drink ensures they will not offend the gods with their own weakness, their own jealousy."
It just kept getting worse. Here was Mel's mother, being burdened to evoke the worst day of my life, and doing it so calmly, so normally, as if we were talking about what a beautiful day it was.
"I can't believe you," I told her. "I won't believe or at least... accept it. Why are you here? Did you draw the short straw?" I could tell by her face she didn't comprehend my Western reference. This was hopeless.
I went back in and poured myself a glass of water, drank it, and poured another, then fell into my chair. Thinking about Mel fucking my childhood friend dredged up new emotions. That my gut reaction days ago was dead on and I'd suppressed them. Moana studied my face, patiently watching the emotions play across it.
"I know this must be hard for you," I wondered if she'd get my reference if I told her that was the understatement of a lifetime. "I always knew it would be and I told my daughter so."
"And yet she did it anyway," I interjected.
"Yes," she seemed perplexed. "I liken it to two people outside your Western culture falling in love, then being joined by your version of marriage, even though it goes against everything they were taught. Maybe, they even go through with the ceremony and try to hold true to it, all the while having no real comprehension of what they're doing.
"You see, Rob," she continued, "you aren't losing the love and caring - the mana - you share with Mele. What you're battling with is cultural differences. It's not your heart, but your head that hurts from the shock."
"That may be, Moana," I spoke up. "But we made promises in that culture. It seems to me she should have at least explained that it was in total conflict with her customs here. In fact, her greatest failure was concealing it from me. It's trickery and lying by omission. Those are her crimes. I mean why in hell did she marry me in the first place knowing this?"
For the first time, the strong woman before me looked down and... what was that? Guilt?
"She stole my ability to challenge her by conspiring with all of you to shut me out. To drug me to sleep so that I'm now the laughingstock of the village." Then I gave her time to reflect.
She was sharp, she didn't fully understand my Western references again, but she did grasp its implications.
"That's what I mean, Rob," she got on her soap box again. "Our customs are so very different as to appear an impassable chasm. Putting you to sleep, as one example, is a sign of love and great caring, not trickery as you put it. You have a strong mana with Mele, everyone in the village sees that and respects it. Putting you to sleep was the opposite of disrespect to us. We don't see this custom ritual as taking your wife away from you. We respect the strong mana between you, so the rest was meant to pause that mana - put any negative thoughts or mana to sleep, so the reconnection between Mele and Puko - their mana - could happen."
