The Birthmark by Beth Montgomery Read Free Book Online

fingers fumbling with the lid as he tried to replace it. ‘Where’s the sword now?’ he asked.
    â€˜Lil’s got it.’
    â€˜I’d like to see it,’ he whispered.
    Hector knew he would. He was always interested in things from the war, old photos, legends and stories of long ago. ‘I’ll tell her. She didn’t believe me when I said the Japs had swords.’
    â€˜Probably her family doesn’t know much about the past. So much is lost. The young parents don’t tell their children anything now. They don’t guide them.’ He looked steadily at Hector. The lines under his eyes made his expression sag. ‘You’re unlucky to have lost your parents, but you are blessed to have an ibu to teach you.’
    Hector rolled his eyes. Blessed! Sometimes he thought he was cursed. Like when his grandfather decided to lecture him. He went on and on, telling the same old stories Hector had heard a thousand times before.
    â€˜It is a sad island, Hector. Before, we were proud people. Now we’re just a land of drunks.’
    â€˜Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, “don’t come drinking beer round here”,’ Hector mimicked.
    The old man leant back on his chair and scratched his bald head with both hands. The muscles in his arms sagged the same way his face did. Hector reckoned he would have been a strong man in his youth—not muscular, but wiry. Now his belly had thickened and his wrinkled face had the suppleness of rubber.
    â€˜Ibu, why did they chop people’s heads off? You know, like you said they did to some men during the war.’
    â€˜Very cruel, the Japanese, Hector. Very cruel. They thought the men were spies for the Americans. They thought they told the Americans to bomb the runway. So, chop, chop.’ He made a cutting gesture at his throat.
    â€˜Did you see it?’
    â€˜No, but others did.’
    Hector swallowed hard. What if the sword they’d found had killed someone? The skin on his spine prickled. ‘But why did they kill people and not just keep prisoners?’
    The old man chewed on one of the charred sausages, taking his time to answer. ‘They didn’t kill everyone…I don’t know, Hector. They did everything for their god. They had to win the war for their god.’
    Hector knew of only one god. The one they’d been dragged along to church to worship every Thursday and Sunday. ‘Who’s their god?’
    â€˜The emperor.’
    â€˜What emperor?’
    â€˜He’s like their king. They were so stupid. They thought he was a god, like Jesus maybe.’ The old man turned the fish over to expose the uneaten side.
    Hector was puzzled. ‘But didn’t they go to church? Was it so long ago we didn’t have churches then?’
    â€˜ Suh! They were not Christians.’ The old man began to chuckle. ‘And anyway, it wasn’t long ago. How old do you think I am? One hundred?’ He laughed at his little joke, coughed roughly then leant over the balcony and spat again.
    â€˜Well, when was the war, Ibu?’
    â€˜About sixty years ago.’
    â€˜So how old were you when they came?
    â€˜About the same age as you…fifteen I suppose, I don’t know what year I was born.’
    â€˜I’m thirteen,’ Hector said, secretly pleased that his ibu thought he was older.
    â€˜Well then, something like that.’ The old man nodded. Hector knew what five years, or even ten were like, but when people said sixty or one hundred it didn’t mean much to him. ‘So when did the churches come?’
    â€˜Oh before that, when the Germans came, maybe a hundred years ago or more. They brought Christian stories, their Lutheran church. Some Tevuans married Germans. Lots of German names, German words, German customs mixed with island ways. They stayed a long time, till World War One, then the British came.’
    â€˜OK, so before that, didn’t we go to