The Birthmark (25 page)

Egirow pointed out to sea. Just off the reef a small boat rocked in the waves. Tepu knew at once what was about to happen. The Japs would send them all away, off in a small leaky boat that had no hope of floating much longer than a few days. They would reach nowhere. They would all die of starvation or exposure, or they'd drown and be the ready meal for dozens of sharks.

So this is our end, Tepu thought. Behind him was instant death: a line of Japanese with rifles pointed and bayonets fixed. Out to sea was slow death in the ocean.

Baringa Bay Channel
Saturday 3 July 2004

There was a lull between the crashing waves. For a moment Lily stared into her mother's eyes. Tears washed the brown pupils. Red spider webs of veins within the white were more vivid than she'd ever seen them. In those eyes she saw years of suffering, self-hatred and coldness. As the surf broke against the reef once more, Lily's sympathy vanished.

‘Who was it?' she rasped.

‘A white man, an Australian—like your friend,' she gestured towards the reef where Christina stood.

‘That's why you don't like her…and that's why you hate me,' she whispered. Then the enormity of it hit her.

‘Shit!' she screamed, shoving her mother aside. The blow knocked Lorelei over onto the road. She sprawled on the bitumen, her fat legs kicking in the air.

Lily plunged the sword into the bushes beside the Landrover. She wailed and bellowed, hacking at the greenery, sending clumps of vegetation flying. The momentum of her swings echoed the heaving of her chest. ‘
Ngaitirre!
Arseholes!' she screamed her anger into the dawn. Scream it, shout it, bash it, cut it—but don't cry girl, you mustn't cry girl, she told herself. But she couldn't stop the flow of tears.

Gradually her shouts became moans and the wild hacking slowed. Her shoulders ached from the spent tension. Her throat burnt. She looked around self-consciously.

Lorelei struggled to stand. She didn't seem so threatening now with her shirt all bunched up and her hair falling untidily from her bun. She waddled to the Landrover, sniffed and wiped at her face as she pulled herself in behind the wheel, staring at her daughter. ‘Come home when you're ready,' she said shakily.

Lily couldn't answer. Her throat was too dry and she didn't know the words to say. She turned to the reef where Hector, Christina and Riki waited. The sky beyond them was a soft grey and the tide was going out. She strode down the ramp towards them. She had done what the old man told her. ‘Don't run away,' he'd said to her. ‘Use the courage you have—not the sword. Don't let it poison you again.' Even though Lorelei's words left her feeling empty and cheated, as if some huge wedge of her life had been cut away, she now understood the brokenness of her mother. She no longer feared her.

‘Quick, Lil, the sun's nearly up,' Hector called from the shallows.

She waded through the puddles on the reef and felt the warm water wash over her feet.

‘You must hurry, girl. Take the sword to the edge of the reef before the sun clears the water. Then do what your heart tells you,' Riki said.

Lily didn't understand what he meant, but the old man was calm and his eyes reassured her.

‘We will follow behind,' he said.

She waded deeper into the water, careful not to stumble in the cracks and rockpools of the reef. When she reckoned she was only a metre or so from the edge she stopped and braced herself against the waves as they crashed through at knee height.

Out to sea the sun emerged and cast a white glow on the waves. The glare stung her eyes and she blinked, struggling to focus. Only twenty metres out, she saw an old wooden boat materialise on the water. It rocked and lolled on the black sea, rocking and lolling her memory back.

It was the same boat—the same boat she strove to swim to and never reached. The same boat she was desperate to escape to, away from Eldon, away from herself. Her memory told her to jump into the water, but she knew she would sink. Her heart told her to run, run away from her fear. She tried to shout but her voice was only a croak. She shuddered and a chill crept over her.

Terrified, she turned to her friends. They were only a few paces behind her, but as she looked at them their features blurred. Hector and Christina became indistinct like shimmers of sunlight on sea spray, but Riki stood straighter and his age fell away.

His skin was tight and gleamed with oil. He had transformed before her eyes into a tall Gilbertese youth. As she looked at him with both fear and recognition she realised he was not alone. About a dozen ghostly ragged men formed a line along the reef cutting off her retreat back to the beach. Beyond them were pairs of Japanese marines, advancing slowly with rifles pointed in her direction, and with them stood the
yani
in his black boots with his sword raised, shouting orders.

Horrified at the scene before her, Lily screamed. She tried to run to the side but she couldn't move. Her voice was drowned out by the crash of the waves.

A cold surge ran through her and she saw a figure stumble and run, as if out from her own soul. It was her own body that ran past the islanders into the line of marines beyond.

Tack, tack! A rifle sounded and the girl was shot. She lurched and fell to the reef. Riki ran to her and so did the
yani
and the two nearest marines. They pushed Riki aside and punched him, while the
yani
pointed his sword at the girl and shouted at her.

Lily screamed at him to stop but her words were taken by the ocean roar and he didn't even notice she was there.

The girl rolled to her side and wailed, a cry that Lily knew from her waking moments, a cry she had heard at Leper Beach just a few nights before.

Then the marines, each pointing their rifles at Riki, pushed him towards the girl. He held her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet. Her left arm, torn by a bullet, hung at her side and a patch of red stained the pale rags she wore. Together they staggered forward as the two marines and the
yani
followed.

As they came level with Lily, she sensed their fear and she was sure they were both about to die. She turned back to the sea to watch their fate and was startled at the scene before her. Dozens of ghostly figures slipped off the edge of the reef into the sea. A group of black heads bobbed up and down in the swell as they made for the leaky craft ahead of them. One had already reached the boat and was hauling himself over the side.

Riki and the girl stood at the edge of the reef. He let go of her, assured her he would go first, and would catch her when she jumped in. Just as he flexed his legs to jump, one of the marines caught him by the arm and spun him around. The
yani
shouted at him. Riki flinched and cowered from the officer. Then Riki said to the girl, ‘You must go first, they say. I'll be next. I'll help you.'

Lily saw the girl's terror, felt it churn within her as she peered down into the blue-black gloom. ‘It's OK, I'll be with you,' Riki said, and he helped her down into the warm water. She let go of the edge and pushed herself off into the waves. Lily saw the stain of red from her arm in the sea beside her and wondered how long it would take for the sharks to come.

Lily and the girl both turned, waiting for Riki to dive in, but instead saw the
yani
punch him and push him to the ground. ‘No!' Lily screamed and this time a voice rang out but it wasn't hers—it was the girl's.

‘Tepu! Tepu! Tepuariki!' Her scream became a wail once more, shrill and pleading, and her head rose and sank above the rolling sea.

Riki struggled to his feet, but the y
ani
kept hitting him about the head until Lily could no longer see his features because of all the blood. Then the two marines dragged him away from the edge and the
yani
drew his gun. Bwack! The girl's wailing stopped and her head sunk from view.

Lily slumped forward as if all the energy had been thumped out of her. She turned and saw Riki grow older, heavier and more familiar, until he became Hector's
ibu
once more. His face was no longer smeared with blood; now it was covered with tears.

‘You saw it all. It was you, wasn't it?' she whispered.

The old man didn't answer. He merely pointed to the spot on the reef behind them. She turned to see the boat fade from view but the
yani
remained, shouting at Lily with furious hatred.

She looked down at the sword and hesitated. ‘I can't give it to him, not now I've seen what he's done.'

‘It's his spirit, Lily. You can't keep it. It's evil like him.'

She paused for a moment and felt the crash of the surf try to unbalance her. ‘I'll give it to the sea,' she said, ‘the sea will take our rubbish away.'

‘Yes, the sea cleans us all.'

Lily nodded. She heaved the sword as far as she could throw, out into the white sky of dawn over the dark curves of the ocean. The blade flickered as it spun in the morning sunlight and then made a slight splash on the surface. Then there was nothing—no
yani
, no shouting, no boat, no sword—just the crashing of the waves against her legs and the chatter of noddy birds overhead, flying out to sea.

‘And I will throw this,' said the old man and he tossed the bucket of bones and the tin out to sea with all the gracefulness of a fisherman casting a net.

thirty-two

The Witch Track
Saturday 3 July 2004

They started the walk home in silence, heads down and weary. Hector's mind spun with dozens of questions after watching the scene at the channel. Christina walked a little to the side, chewing her fingernails. She was obviously as confused as he was. Lily looked miserable. Her eyes were troubled and she stumbled a few times as she walked.

The silence began to bother Hector. He knew Lily and Ibu were somehow connected to the whole drama, and even though they were both drained and deserved some peace, Hector had to sort it out in his own mind.

‘You were there, weren't you, Ibu. That man was bashing you?' he asked.

The old man waited before replying. ‘Yes, it was my past you saw today.'

‘Why did we see it?' Christina asked.

‘Ghosts walk at night, but they walk more at sunrise and sunset.'

‘But I've never seen them before,' Hector said.

‘You never have. Some people, like Lily, can see. Some people cannot.'

‘So why did I see them today, heaps of them: lepers, marines, men on the reef? I saw them and I saw
you
with them.'

‘And I saw them too,' Christina said, shaking her head. ‘And shit, I don't know…it must have been real but…how could it be? How did it happen?'

‘There was powerful magic today. Two shamans and the black stone, it made a strong picture, for everyone to see.'

‘What do you mean, two shamans?'

‘The old magic, boy. It's your turn to use it next.'

‘Magic…like Gilbertese magic?'

Riki smiled. ‘Our magic and the magic of our ancestors,' he said.

They walked on while more questions brewed in Hector's mind. Something about the black stone bothered him. He felt for it in his pocket, its surface was smooth and warm. ‘But the stone was with the tin and the body,' he said. ‘How did it get there?'

Lily answered for him, looking at Riki as they walked, ‘You put it there, didn't you? Long ago.'

The old man chuckled at them. ‘Yes, I did it. The black stone sat on Egirow, his tin. It hid him. He worshipped there, with his little book. But the forest ate up the book. My magic, it hid Egirow.'

They came to a junction in the path, turned left and made their way down the hill towards Hector's hut.

‘I don't understand. It hid
egirow
—it hides anger?' Hector said.

‘That is what we called him, the Lieutenant, the one who bashed me.'

‘Yes, the
yani
, Hector. The skull you found, that was Egirow,' said Lily.

‘But he wasn't hidden, I found him.'

‘Yes, the young shaman found what I had hidden.'

‘How did he die?' Christina asked.

The old man stopped and paused before he spoke. ‘During the war…' he began.

But Lily couldn't wait for the long build up to the story. ‘You killed him, didn't you?' she said, clapping him on the back.

‘
Suh!
' Hector blurted out, furious that she'd said something so rude, but his grandfather smiled at them. ‘Yes, I did it. I was angry too. I was angry because they killed my brother and because he tricked me, he made me kill my love.'

‘Who was she, that girl?' Hector said.

‘Her name was Edouwe.'

Lily grabbed at the old man's hand. ‘It was Edouwe? It was my auntie?'

Riki nodded and began to walk on. His eyes watered at the mention of her name.

‘She called you Tepu,' Lily said.

‘Tepu is the start of my name, Tepuariki,' he said.