Alvita woke up with her eyes puffy and a pounding headache. She slid out of her bed and left her room to eat. Today Cajaya was the one cooking, so the house was rather quiet without the sounds of her playing with the twins. Not only were the sounds of playing gone, but she didn't hear Aba's singing and Bian crying either. She was too in a bad mood to focus on this though, and sat to wait for her meal. After a while, Cajaya came back from the kitchen and gave her a steamed sweet potato.
"I didn't know you woke up! You're early today!" Cajaya said while slicing the potato in half. "Let it cool. I don't want you to burn yourself." After saying this, Cajaya got up and went to wake up the other members. Alvita stared down at the potato, letting the steam heat up her face. The silence was finally broken by the cries of a toddler and good mornings. Everyone, except Aba, sat down to also receive their food and began their usual chit-chat.
The first to speak was Kabun, "Mama! We want to go and play outside!" He said poking his mother. Cajaya nodded quickly and began cutting open everyone's potatoes. Second was Weju voicing her concern, "Tiburon, Aba never comes to eat with us. I'm nervous…what if he hasn't been eating this whole time?" Third was Tiburon, "he said he'd rather eat outside. I assure you that he is fine." And last was Halhira, "Oh Weju, that boy is exactly like you when we were young! Just let him have time to himself!" The group was growing quiet as they finally started to eat until Biti interrupted the silence.
"Aba said that he doesn't want to stay on the island anymore." Everyone at the table stopped eating and looked in her direction with confused faces. Biti took a piece of her potato and popped it in her mouth as if to prevent herself from saying anything else. Seeing that she wasn't willing to elaborate, everyone at the table looked at Tiburon. Tiburon shook his head and said, "Tell him that we'll visit the family from the Bagua tribe soon but please wait." He took a short pause and mumbled, "This is why your marriage is important." After saying this, everyone slowly began eating in silence.
Alvita finished eating and quickly stood up to leave the house. No one paid her any attention and continued to eat their food. Once Alvita got outside, she noticed Aba sitting alone near the shore drawing in the sand. She went up to him and sat down, enjoying the sound of the waves and birds. Aba stopped his drawing of a butterfly and side-eyed Alvita.
"What?" He said grumbling. Alvita stared at him and tilted her head, "Huh??" Aba furrowed his brows and repeated her same gesture, "Don't 'huh' me! What do you want?!" Alvita didn't understand why Aba was so mad at her, she didn't even do anything so why was he acting like that? Aba waited for a response but all she did was stare with one brow raised. He huffed and continued his drawing in silence. After a while, he seemed to calm down and spoke in a soft voice.
"…you don't want to get married, right?" The question seemed stupid since everyone in the family knew how much Alvita had cried when she found out the news, so why would he ask that? "Why would I want to be married to a woman let alone that woman?" Aba shook his head and smiled, "So you don't like women?" He took a pause and then began speaking again, "I feel bad for you." He laid his head down on Alvita's lap and closed his eyes. Alvita smiled and started to rub his head. "Aba, you're older than me and yet I'm getting married off first…." Alvita stopped petting him and sighed, "It's so unfair."
Aba laughed, "It's extremely unfair, isn't it? But Alvita tell me, do you know why Papa is sending you off instead of me?" He stared up at her with a coy smile waiting for a response. Seeing that she was still thinking up an answer, Aba slowly got up and stared intently. "Maybe he's doing it because the women inherit the title before men?" Aba smiled and nodded, "I mean yeah that's one of the reasons, but you see, little Yari is different." Alvita tilted her head to the side wondering what her brother was getting at. Seeing that she was still confused, Aba continued to speak, "Vita, do you know how children are made?"
What?? What does this have to do with Yari?
Alvita shook her head and eyed Aba as he scooted closer toward her. "You seriously don't know? You're ten now and yet you don't understand what your own body is capable of?" Aba continued to explain, "Remember when Mama Weju was pregnant with Abatian? Your body can do that too! Isn't it amazing?" Alvita furrowed her brows and looked away from him, "Yari is also a girl, that's not possible." Aba shook his head and patted Alvita's shoulder, "you don't need those parts to be a woman. It's all in the spirit." Alvita slowly turned to look at Aba and squinted at him.
What the fuck is he talking about?!
Before she was able to ask what he meant, Aba quickly stood up and started walking towards the house. "I'm hungry…" Alvita shook her head and followed after him, "then you should've eaten breakfast!!"
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Now that Yari had turned eight, Ya had started dragging her along to teach her how to be a chief. She was originally excited to see how her father works in the village but was ultimately drained from the amount of boring conversations and collection of tax.
"Papaaaa…" Yari said lying flat on the ground. Ya looked down and laughed at the sight, "Oh no! What happened to you?" Yari didn't answer and puffed up her cheeks. Ya smiled and shook his head, "you'll have to do this too. Once Papa is gone, you'll inherit the caique title…I want to teach you while you're still young." Yari groaned at the thought of doing this daily and sat up dusting sand out of her hair. "Papa…this is boring!" Ya sighed and turned from her to continue counting the taxes he collected. Yari continued to make noises and nag to get her father's attention which resulted in a quick glare that he gave her out of annoyance.
Ya sighed, "You said you don't want to be with your older sisters." Yari pouted and shook her head. "I want to go play! This work is boring!" Ya pinched his nose bridge, "Fine, go play but don't go far!" Yari happily stood up and ran away smiling, heading for a group of children playing catch.
"Yari!!!" A short and stout boy waved at her with a gleaming smile, showing a missing tooth. Yari picked up her pace and waved back, "Javel!! Hi!!" Stopping their game of catch, all the other children waved at Yari. Javel grabbed the ball from one of the balls and tossed it to Yari. "You wanna play?" Yari quickly nodded and resumed the game.
They played for a while until two identical children came up. "Can we join?" Said the boy smiling. The sight of these two seemed to make the other children uncomfortable and upset Javel deeply. One of the children hugged the ball and yelled, "Ew!! No way!!" Yari didn't understand what was happening and smiled, "Why not? Hand me the ball, I want to play before Papa tells me it's time to leave." This only caused the children to look at Yari angrily. Javel quickly stood in front of her and spoke, "She doesn't mean any harm! She just doesn't know who they are, right Yari?" Yari nodded her head and crossed her arms, "what's wrong with them? They just want to play!" Javel quickly looked back in shock and stammered, "They have Bagua blood in them!!! They're evil!" The other children chimed in agreement.
Yari looked at the two children, one with an unimpressed stare and the other with a face gradually growing worried. She shook her head and walked up to them, "What do you want to play?" One of the twins smiled and shouted, "Let's play tag!" Yari nodded and looked back, seeing the other children staring in disgust and walking away, she shrugged and smiled. Javel was the only one who stayed and decided to speak up louder, "Y-Yari! They're not trustworthy!!" He ran up to her pulling her arm to leave.
Yari finally started to yell and whipped her head to look at Javel, "I don't care about who they are! I just want to play!" Javel froze and let go of her arm, still sticking close to her. Yari relaxed her gaze and looked back at the twins, "now, what's your name?" The boy spoke first, "I am Kabun Niola." He waited for his sister to speak, but all she did was glare. He laughed nervously and patted her shoulder, "And this is my sister, Biti!!"
Niola? So she has siblings? Does that mean she's here?!
Yari blushed and quickly looked around to see if she could spot a familiar face. The sudden rush of adrenaline cooled down once she realized Alvita wasn't there and sighed.
A tug on her arm brought her back to reality. "You okay? Those twins aren't doing evil magic on you right?!" This assumption caused Biti to laugh, "Magic? We're only six and you think we know magic?" She continued to giggle and even slapped Kabun's shoulder during it. Kabun also smiled but held back a laugh before talking, "Why are you so scared of us? Who said the Niola's know magic?" This caused Javel to blush from embarrassment. "My mother said so!! You Bagua people killed my father!" Now both twins were cackling after hearing this. Biti spoke through her tears, "We didn't kill anyone!" She continued to die from laughter so Kabun continued instead, "Ah…you're funny Javel! I hope you stay to play!" Kabun stopped laughing and winked.
Yari frowned and interrupted the twins' joy, "That's not funny. I won't play with you if y'all keep being mean to Javel." Biti finally stopped laughing and sighed, "Whatever. Let's play tag!" Kabun didn't wait and instantly tagged Javel. "tag, you're it!!!" He said while running away with the other three. Javel huffed and ran after them.
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"Alvita put these in." Cajaya said, handing her some corn and oysters. Alvita nodded and quickly put them in the net bag. They both continued to buy food in the market, ignoring the glares from the other villagers. "Tiburon said he'll come to the market after paying tax so we need to wait for a while…" Alvita nodded and tightened the bag on her shoulder.
As they waited, Alvita started to think about what Aba said to her.
'It's all in the spirit' ….I still don't get it.
She thought about asking Cajaya but she seemed too focused on haggling the shop owners.
The day seemed rather dry until a child's scream could be heard. Everyone in the market stopped and looked at the source of the noise.
From the shore?
Alvita didn't pay it any mind til she saw Biti's tiny figure running up over to her and Cajaya.
"Mama!!! Kabun is getting bullied!!" Cajaya's eyes widened as she rushed over to a ruffled Biti. "Where is he?! What happened?! Are you hurt?!" Biti didn't respond and quickly tugged her mother over to the shore. Alvita followed after them as well, ignoring the shopkeeper telling her to pay.