Breadfruit by Célestine Vaite Read Free Book Online Page A

sit and you think and you get sad. That’s what happens when you think too much—you
     get all sad. It’s best to have something to do, to occupy the hands. I’ve wiped your bottoms a thousand times—don’t you lot
     take me to the Capa. I swear, if I die in that place, I’m not going to be happy. I want to die in my house. In my garden with
     my plants would be better, but I can’t demand too much of God. But I don’t want to die at the Capa.”
    Tears well in Materena’s eyes. Why is her mother talking about death? Is she sick and not telling? “Mamie, you’re not dying?”
    Loana laughs. “But
non!
” She straightens up her legs. “The old legs are a bit stiff when I get up in the morning, but apart from that I’m in good
     health. What is this question you’re asking me?”
    “We were talking about the sand, then we were talking about my brother, and now you’re talking about death.”
    Loana shrugs. “We’re at the cemetery, so why not talk about death?”
    “Ah.” Yes, Materena understands. You don’t talk about death at the beach, you don’t talk about death in the kitchen. You talk
     about death at the cemetery. It makes sense.
    “It’s not like we’re never going to die,” Loana says. “It’s good to talk about your death. Like, when I die, I want to be
     buried the next day. Don’t put me into the freezer, I don’t want to be in the freezer. It’s horrible to be in the freezer.”
    “What if Tinirau is still living in France when you die? Then you’ll have to go in the freezer.”
    “
Ah non,
don’t you lot put me in the freezer. Bury me, don’t wait.”
    It is very difficult for Materena to talk about her mother’s funeral, but this story about the freezer must be resolved. “You
     don’t want all your kids to be at your funeral?” she asks.
    “I don’t want to be in the freezer—full stop. When I die, give me a wake and then bury me. And don’t cry over my dead body.
     Leave my soul free to leave this world. Don’t you lot disturb my soul with your loud crying. Cry over me when I’m alive, not
     when I’m dead.”
    Loana holds her daughter’s hand. “Eh, girl, it’s sad, death. But it’s not the end. We get reunited. There’s that place. And
     you’re going to be buried here too, girl—next to your mamie and your grandmother.”
    Materena looks at the sky but says nothing.
    “Eh, girl? You’re going to be buried next to me?”
    Materena hesitates. “Okay.”
    “What, you don’t want to be buried next to me?”
    “Yes, yes, it’s fine.”
    Yes, it’s fine for Materena to be buried next to her mother and grandmother, but what about Pito?
    At the Day of the Dead celebration, Materena prays at the cemetery of Faa’a and Pito prays at the cemetery of Punaauia, where
     his family is buried. And the kids take turns: one year in Faa’a—one year in Punaauia. It’ll be much easier for the kids if
     Pito and Materena are in the same cemetery—and the same grave, if possible.
    So Materena asks Loana if it’s all right with her if Pito gets buried here.
    There’s a silence, and Materena immediately regrets the question. Pito is not part of the family, she realizes. He’s only
     part of her life. Materena wonders if her mother would be more willing to have Pito buried here if he were her husband.
    “You don’t think Pito wants to be buried with his family in Punaauia?” Loana asks.
    Materena confesses that they have never talked about their funeral arrangements.
    “People should talk about their funeral arrangements,” Loana explains. “There’s an old woman, she died without a burial arrangement.
     Well, there was a lot of arguing at her wake between the children she had from her first man and the children she had from
     her second man. Words flew above the dead body, with one clan believing their mother belonged there and one clan believing
     their mother belonged somewhere else. The poor woman, she had to go in the freezer and it was a whole